Eilonwy continued. “My bracelet is made of a silver that will disperse you if you try to enter me.”
The hand moved toward Taran, but he raised his arm to show he also wore a silver bracelet.
The mist stopped, threw the broom down, and disappeared. As it did, the tables and chairs all slammed into each other like they were magnetically attracted.
“Well, that was interesting,” Eilonwy said.
“What do you want to do?” Taran asked.
“I want to get my ghost kit from home. You get this place’s blueprints from the Realtor. Then we’re going to camp here until we figure out what this is.”
Two hours later, Eilonwy came back with an overnight suitcase and a large canvas bag with a pillow and blanket inside. She had changed into a long-sleeved T-shirt and switched her jacket for a longer, dark blue canvas coat with a curious amount of outside pockets. She also wore boots and considerably more jewelry. Around her neck was a charm pendant of dawn silver that matched her bracelet. Dawn silver was enchanted with morning light tospecifically dispel ghosts—not forever, but until the next sunset. She also wore a shorter, regular silver chain with a protective pentacle that warded her against malicious spell casting. She still had the charm bracelet around her wrist, but it was now joined by a thick silver ring with a shadow sigil on her right pointer finger and a matching ring with a moon sigil on the left index finger, both excellent for spell casting without a wand. She practically buzzed with energy.
As soon as Eilonwy walked through the unlocked front door, she called out, “Taran!”
“Up here! Lock the door behind you.”
She closed and locked the door and left the suitcase on the last table before heading upstairs. Hammering accompanied her steps as she climbed the stairs.
She found Taran in the hallway supply closet. He was taking down the shelving to expose the back wall. Three of the four shelves were stacked on the floor, but he seemed to be having trouble with the bottom one.
Rolls of toilet tissue littered the floor, as though children had thrown them around trying to decorate for homecoming. A lamp was attached to the bathroom door handle by a bungee cord.
“I see you’ve been having a rough time. How long have you been at it?”
“About an hour, but she keeps throwing toilet paper rolls at me. I’ve been telling her we don’t mean her any harm. She calmed down when I told her about where we live, and how you and Mom used to help ghosts.”
“How do you know the ghost is a she?”
“When she reached out to you, I could see she had a curvy female form and long hair.”
“Interesting. Did you get the blueprints?”
“There aren’t any, but Penny says this building only shares the back wall. There shouldn’t be any overlap. I walked around outside, and I can’t account for a trapezoid shape of about ten feet by seven.”
“It seems odd that no one else has figured this out.”
“I asked about that, and she agreed with me, sort of.”
Eilonwy cocked an eyebrow. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“I told her we wanted to spend the night to see if we felt a ghost. She said yes, but she didn’t say I could tear into the wall.”
“Did you ask if you could tear into the wall?”
Taran grinned. “I did not.”
“Are you planning on tearing open a wall with nothing but a mallet and a chisel?”
“No.” He laughed and pulled out the last shelf. “I checked for wards, however, and there are old ones right here.”
“What kind?”
“A doorway ward. I suspect I just need to unravel it at the corners. I’m moving the shelves first, so I can get in without triggering anything nefarious. I’m not feeling a trap as much as a seal, but sometimes they feel similar, and this one seems to have two layers.”
“I’m impressed.”
“Thank you.”
