Page 46 of Big Witch Energy

“Um, what do I do?” Ben asked.

“You can stay back here with me,” Edison offered from his position down the hill. Ben supposed it was easier not to see the water back there. The two of them watched the women stand in a circle, breathe, and work through some hand motions Ben didn’t entirely understand.

“It can be sort of emasculating, not having magic, when you’re in love with a witch,” Edison observed. “The ladies put themselves at risk to protect the living, and we’re sort of relegated to a sidekick position. But, it’s still rewarding. And Riley is so happy. It makes it worth it.”

“Well, Caroline and I aren’t…it’s complicated,” Ben said, much to Edison’s amusement, apparently, given the way the man was smirking at him.

Suddenly, Ben heard Caroline gasp and turned his attention to her. She was standing stiffly, with Riley and Alice gripping her wrists. Ben supposed that made him feel better, considering her proximity to a fifty-foot drop.

“What is happening to her?” Ben asked.

Edison didn’t seem particularly upset, which Ben found some comfort in. “Um, she’s probably having a vision. Or maybe a ghost is possessing her. Either or, really.”

Ben looked to Edison, aghast.

“It’s probably fine,” Edison assured him.

Ben inched closer. “I’m just gonna…yeah.”

He raced up to Caroline’s side, feeling only a little insulted when Alice and Riley moved protectively around her. Caroline’s eyes were rolled back, so only the whites were visible. Her breathing was steady, but Alice and Riley wouldn’t let him get close enough to take a pulse.

“Let’s get her a little farther away from the edge,” Riley murmured. Alice nodded and finally moved away so Ben could curl his hand around Caroline’s wrist. The touch of her skin seared, a wretched sizzle against the palm of his hand. She gasped and turned her hand so she was holding his arm. He didn’t know if this was magic or nerves or guilt, but it burned. Riley and Alice pulled their hands away, and Caroline threw her arms around Ben. He wasn’t prepared for it, and their weight shifted back, falling to the ground in front of the Crown rocks.

“Ow,” Caroline grunted into his chest. She was on top of him, glaring down at him with one eye while the other was clamped shut in pain. “I thought we were worried about my ribs.”

“Are you OK?” he demanded, propping her against the center rock of the Crown.

She nodded slowly, but said, “No. Another Technicolor reenactment of the mystery lady’s death. I still don’t know if it was the purple-dress ghost, but given the whole youthful hope thing the victim had going… I doubt it?”

“Did you hit your head?” Ben asked, eyeing the rock behind them.

“It’s a long story,” Alice told him as they helped Caroline up. Immediately, Ben missed the warm weight of her, but it seemed inappropriate to bring that up now. They maneuvered her back to the wheelbarrow.

“Anything new?” Riley asked.

Caroline shook her head. “I kind of thought if the purple-dress ghost was gonna, I don’t know, reach out, now that she’s talked to me, it would be here. But it was just more of the same. And even though I concentrated really hard on trying to see the face of whoever was pushing me off the cliff—that still really sucks, even when you know you’re not going to die, by the way—they were wearing some dark-colored cloak with a hood over their face. It’s kind of impressive, being able to commit murder with obscured line of sight.”

As they began trundling Caroline home, Ben quietly asked Edison, “Eventually, this is all going to feel less weird, right?”

Edison pursed his lips. “No.”

***

To his credit, Edison tried to explain as much as he could to Ben on the walk back, the history between the Wellings and the Dentons, Riley discovering her magic, the locks.

As they approached Shaddow House, Ben noticed a large, fluffy, gray hound staring up at the house with its head cocked to the side. Caroline asked, “Do you think Mimi can see the ghosts? She seems to spend a lot of time staring at your house. Should we call Iggy?”

“Probably,” Riley said, scratching behind Mimi’s ears. “She’s just angry my house is the one building on the island she hasn’t been able to get into.”

“Mimi will not be contained,” Caroline said, nodding sagely. “Um, also…there seem to be a lot of lights on in the house.”

“And there are people moving around inside,” Alice said.

Riley groaned. “Aw, man, not again! How many times can my house get broken into?”

The whole group paused as a pop song suddenly blared out of Shaddow House. It was muffled, but Ben recognized the cheerful bubblegum tune from the many, many, many rotations on the cross-country road trip playlist. “Oh…no.”

Ben raced up the steps to Shaddow House, and through the front door’s glass, he saw his children standing inside, unsupervised. And Plover was standing there looking very proud of himself.

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