“I need salt. I need to get a look at these two with my third eye.”
“You shouldn’t open your third eye here,” Peasblossom argued. “You don’t know what happened to them. There could be something here, feeding off them.”
Neither girl responded to Peasblossom’s voice.
I wasn’t sure if they were asleep or just that oblivious.
“That’s what the circle is for.”
I rooted around for the bag of salt, but it remained firmly hidden. I sighed and knelt on the floor again.
Peasblossom watched me remove a pair of socks, an extension cord, and a packet of tissues before letting out a sound of disgust and flying down to land on the zippered edge. “Letmefind it.”
I moved my hands as Peasblossom dug through the enchanted depths of the fanny pack, throwing out a handful of playing cards, a roll of duct tape, and a rain of Q-tips before finally emerging victorious with the bag of salt.
I shoved the detritus back into the pouch and laid out a salt circle, confident neither girl was aware enough to realize I was doing anything strange. I touched the circle and imbued it with a flash of my magic, waiting for the tight hum of energy to tell me it was active before standing.
Opening one’s third eye was dangerous business. While it did let you see echoes of the astral plane—very handy if you needed to see spells, or someone’s true form—it also required you to rise partially out of your physical body. Which meant two things. One, something on the astral plane with no physical body of its own could take advantage of the opportunity to beat you back into your own flesh and blood, leaving you with no body to return to, and two, anything on the astral plane that happened tobe nearby would be in a perfect position to attack your psychic form.
And death on the astral plane was as bad as death on the physical plane.
Safe in the circle, I took a deep breath and opened my third eye, careful to focus only on Gabrielle at first.
I saw the problem immediately.
“Peasblossom, someone took a portion of their life force.”
“What?!”
I studied the colors around Gabrielle’s body. The shimmering lights of her aura were missing in one large, noticeable chunk. As if something had taken a bite out of the energy field given off by living things.
A quick look at Lauren confirmed she’d suffered the same fate.
I closed my third eye, shifting from one foot to another as my energy settled. “Lauren,” I said, raising my voice, “I need the contact information for the witch who helped you.”
“I’m not supposed to give it out,” Lauren mumbled.
“But I’m going to ask her when you can expect that video,” I prompted. “You want to see the video, don’t you?”
“I want to see it,” Gabrielle said. “I wrote it down. There’s…the paper is on the fridge.”
I broke the salt circle and walked into the kitchen. Sure enough, there was a scrap of paper with a phone number on it.
And a little pentagram drawn next to it in purple ink.
“I’ll make sure to have her send the video as soon as possible,” I said, taking the scrap of paper and walking toward the door. “Thank you for your help.”
Neither girl said anything else as I left.
I paused before leaving the apartment building, givingPeasblossom time to squirm back into my collar so the freezing February wind wouldn’t suck the warmth from her tiny body.
As soon as I got into the car, I slammed the door shut and twisted to look at Poppy. Quickly I explained what I’d learned.
“She probably used some of the life force she stole from them to raise the zombie.” Poppy groaned and leaned back in her seat. “Fantastic. Another trial. I’m never going to get back to work.”
I pulled out my cell phone. “I’m going to call this witch and see if I can arrange a meeting.”
“Try to control the meeting place,” Poppy warned. “Whoever this is, she left without laying the zombie to rest, so she clearly doesn’t care about collateral damage.”
