Page 2 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

“Can you tell us more about what happened?” I asked, the armchair letting out a wheeze and a puff of dust as I sat.

Both ghosts started to talk at the same time, gesturing wildly.

“One at a time, please,” I interrupted. “Marigold?”

“Thank you,” Marigold said, shooting a venomous glance at her sister. “We’d been throwing such wonderful parties after Papa died, and absolutely everyone who was anyone was there. It was simply the most marvelous time. We had this game, you see… a competition to see who could come up with the best charm or potion to fortify our drinks, or give them the drollest effects. It was all an absolute gas, you know.”

“But?” I prompted gently. Ghosts could get a little stuck when reliving memories, and it helped to give them a bit of a nudge in the right direction if you were trying to get useful intel.

“But then…” Marigold practically snarled. “I start to come over all ill, and dear little Prim starts to act suspiciously. Shifty. Like she was hiding something.”

“I never—” Prim protested, but Marigold cut her off.

“You did so!”

“You’re just sour that I was better at the game than you!”

“Why, how dare you?”

Marcus winked at me, blew out a cloud of cotton-candy-scented smoke, and twisted his fingers through the air. The room fell silent, although the ghosts’ mouths were still moving.

“I believe my associate here asked you to speak one at a time, ladies,” he said calmly. “Now, I’m going to drop the silencing spell, and I’d appreciate it if you chose to listen to her this time.”

Both ghosts crossed their arms and grimaced but nodded reluctantly.

“As I was saying,” Marigold said icily. “My beloved sister started acting odd, and I started to become ill: aches and pains, shakes, malaise, a downright dreadful case of the morbs. So, there, you see? She poisoned me, practically drove me mad, and then when I was too weak to resist, she must have struck the final blow!”

“Odd, isn’t it, that that’s exactly what happened to me as well?” Primrose said sourly. “Mary was jealous that I was prettier and better liked, not to mention miles more talented, so she poisoned me! Her own sister! Of course, with me out of the way, she would finally be able to get her grubby little claws into every bit of Papa’s money.”

“More talented,” Marigold huffed. “I’ve heard your singing voice, darling, and it could be used as a weapon.”

The ghosts descended into bickering again. Marcus sent me a questioning look, raising a hand in case he needed to cast the silencing charm again, but I shook my head and tuned the two women out.

I looked at the charmed decanters on the sideboard, and chewed the inside of my cheek. I stood, went over, picked one up, and blew the thick layer of dust off until the bottle gleamed. When I held it up to the light, it reflected tiny rainbow prisms. Tapping the decanter with one of the long-handled silver spoons that lay on the sideboard elicited a clear, resonating sound that hung in the air.

Marcus watched me curiously, his pipe back in his mouth.

“This might sound odd,” I said, standing between the two ghosts, “but I’d like to look at your gums, if you don’t mind.”

“Why?” Marigold asked, but Primrose was already baring her teeth, pulling her lower lip out of the way with her fingertips. Her sister scoffed.

There were dark blue-gray lines on Prim’s gums, right at the base of her teeth. It was a good thing she’d had a strong enough personality to hold onto her coloring for so long, or they might not have been visible.

“I thought so,” I murmured. “Marigold, if you would…?”

“I don’t see why you need to inspect my teeth like I’m a horse you’re trying to buy,” she said haughtily. “But if you absolutely insist.”

She had the same markings.

“Okay,” I said, clapping my hands together. “Great news, ladies. Neither of you murdered the other.”

There were two squawks of outrage, but I didn’t give them time to start arguing with each other again. “You were drinking from these decanters every night for weeks, right? And all of them were magically imbued, either with an enchantment of some kind, or with a potion. Those decanters are all made out of lead crystal. You wouldn’t have known at the time, but it’s dangerous to drink from, and alcohol picks up the dangerous elements pretty quickly—much quicker if it’s been infused with magic, too.” I spread my hands, meeting the eyes of each ghost in turn. “You both had lead poisoning. It would have caused all those physical symptoms and also made you paranoid, as well as potentially making you hallucinate. It was a horrible accident, but it was an accident.”

The sisters looked at each other without anger for the first time that night. They seemed smaller somehow, like they’d both been puffing up their spectral energy like the tails of angry cats.

“Oh,” Primrose said quietly. “I thought…”

“All these years,” Marigold said. “And it was just our silly game.”

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