Page 47 of Big Witch Energy

Oh, no.

The front door swung open…by itself. Ben would take time to process that later.

“Kids, what are you doing in here?” Ben asked.

He took the “parent minute” to count all of their limbs, fingers, and toes—and then checked their surroundings for broken valuables. Nope, all the extremities were there, and no antiquities appeared to have been damaged. There was, however, a slightly creepy little girl ghost in an old-fashioned nightgown staring at him from the stairs. A male ghost in a dark-blue cutaway Regency-era coat seemed to be pacing in front of the fireplace. And a ghost woman in a modern sweater set peered at them from the kitchen, ducking her head back in the door as soon as she realized Ben could see her.

His children were fine. In fact, they were smiling, but looking a little sheepish. And Plover appeared to be very pleased with himself.

Riley asked, “How did you get in?”

“Well, we thought we saw someone walking around in your house,” Josh said. “And that didn’t make sense, and we were worried. But then we thought, maybe it was that Clark guy—”

“Who I still don’t like that much,” Mina added. “Because Dad warned us about him being an enormous douchebag.”

Josh added, “So we went into your backyard to see if we could get a closer look.”

“Not to confront a burglar, Dad, we know better than that. We just wanted to see who it was before we called the cops, so we could give them a description,” Mina said. “But when we got to the back door, it sort of unlocked itself and swung open.”

“Which we found to be weird,” Josh said. “Considering there was no one standing in the kitchen.”

“They could have been hiding behind the door,” Caroline noted. “Waiting to smack you over the head with something heavy.”

The rest of the room’s occupants turned to her, ghosts included, grimaces on display. Caroline added, “You try being a woman who comes home to an empty house at night and see what thoughts regularly occur to you.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s a good point,” Mina said, frowning. “Before you get too mad, Dad, I would remind you that the parts of our brain that assess risk and consequences have not finished developing yet.”

Ben groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. That part of the lecture, they heard…of course.

“So we walked in—” Mina said.

“Because we just wanted to make sure everything was OK,” Josh assured Riley.

“And Plover was there,” Mina said.

“I disagreed with his decision to let himself be seen or allow them inside,” the man in the blue coat clarified. “I’m sure they’re lovely children, once you become acquainted with them. But they’re so loud and a little excitable. But ultimately, the house seems to approve.”

“Really, Charles?” Mina scoffed. “We’re excitable?”

“I like them!” the lady ghost yelled from the kitchen.

“Thank you, Natalie!” Josh called over his shoulder. “You’re pretty cool, too!”

“I wanted to simplify Miss Caroline’s life, wherever possible,” Plover said, smiling fondly at her.

“Not really sure that’s what this accomplished…” Caroline said, shaking her head.

Plover continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “As the staff, that is my job. Not having to hide her nature from the children would accomplish that, since Dr. Hoult is obviously going to be part of Miss Caroline’s life. I knew neither Miss Riley nor Miss Caroline would violate their promise to protect Shaddow House’s secrets, so I decided to take a more proactive approach.”

“By letting strangers into the house?” Riley asked. “No offense, kids.”

“None taken,” Josh replied.

“Did I know that the young lady would also be a practitioner of the Denton magic? I had some inkling, but not entirely, no. However, it seems like a welcome and very convenient side effect,” Plover said.

“Is it normal, that magic just shows up all of the sudden for a kid who has never even expressed interest in it?” Ben asked, his voice squeaking.

“As normal as it was for Caroline and me,” Alice said. “It’s one of those ‘magic chooses the user’ things that we probably won’t ever fully understand. Riley needed helpers and so we received magic. Maybe the magic has decided she needs more help. Or maybe there’s a family connection between the Hoults and the Dentons a couple of generations back that sort of smoothed the way, genetically speaking.”

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