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Miss Veda shook her head before taking in the guests in the room. “We can do introductions after I clean up the rest of this mess.”

She raised one hand, and the chandeliers flickered.

Around us, the guests who had been standing in that strange trance slowly came back to themselves.

Conversations resumed in pieces, drinks were lifted again, and the room filled with movement as though nothing had interrupted the party at all. Nobody screamed about bodies or gunshots. Nobody demanded to know why Chalis and his friends had disappeared.

Whatever Miss Veda had placed over them had kept them safely outside the part of the night they weren’t meant to remember.

“Let them finish up and get home,” she said.

Over the next several minutes, the party naturally began winding down. Guests hugged Lakelyn, thanked Willow for the night, and made their way toward the exits. A few even asked when she planned on doing it again.

Willow smiled. “We’ll see.”

I almost laughed.

The hell we will.

Once the last car disappeared through the gates, the mansion finally became quiet, leaving only Lakelyn, Willow, Miss Veda, and me inside.

Lakelyn turned toward me with more questions written across her face than I could count.

“Caspian.”

I walked over and took her hand. “Yeah, baby?”

“I need somebody to explain what the hell just happened.”

Miss Veda folded her arms. “Then we might as well sit down, because this might take a while.”

Lakelyn nodded.

We all moved into the living room.

Lakelyn sat beside me on the sectional and kept my hand locked inside hers while Willow took the chair across from us. Miss Veda remained near the fireplace, appearing entirely too comfortable for somebody who had just helped orchestrate the strangest Halloween party Hallowridge had ever seen.

Lakelyn started with the obvious. “Who exactly are you?”

“My name is Veda. I’ve been helping Caspian for a while.”

“Helping him do what exactly?”

Miss Veda smiled faintly. “Navigate being dead, mostly.”

Willow slowly leaned forward, her eyebrows pulling together. “Okay… in layman’s terms, because you already lost me.”

Miss Veda chuckled. “I work with spirits who haven’t crossed over yet. I help them understand what they are, what’s keeping them here, and, when necessary, how to handle whatever unfinished business they left behind.”

Willow eased back into her chair. “See? Now that I understand. You could’ve led with that instead of giving me the paranormal job description.”

Lakelyn tightened her fingers around mine.

Hearing another person confirm what I was still wasn’t easy for her, so I pulled her a little closer.

“I already know he’s dead,” Lakelyn said. “What I don’t understand is how I’m sitting here holding his hand.”

“That part is more complicated,” Miss Veda explained. “Caspian’s spirit became tied to this mansion when he died. He had unfinished business, but revenge wasn’t the only thing keeping him here. His attachment to you and his son was just as strong.”