Page 57 of My Blind Date is a Ghost

“We can’t let the old witch know what happened.”

Beverly is clearly incensed at this. She starts to rush forward, but I hold up my hand and tell her to wait. I need to gather as much information as possible.

“She won’t,” someone says. I see the glint of a knife and hear Cora scream.

“Now!” I say, rushing into the room myself. “Freeze!” I yell, but of course, no one freezes. The hooded figures try to run away, but Jacob is able to lock most of them in place with a spell.

The person who was standing over Cora with the knife turns toward us. Sophia rushes forward. “Stop!” she says.

The hood falls back, revealing a woman about Sophia’s age.

“Hailey Clarke,” Sophia says.

“Sophia Barnes,” Hailey says. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

Hailey lunges toward Sophia with the knife. I can’t get a clear shot with Sophia in the way. Jacob is busy trying to hold five or six other people in place.

“Stop!” Cora yells. She is able to grab Hailey from behind, making her drop the knife. “Keep your hands off my great-great-great-great-something-granddaughter!”

Sophia punches Hailey in the face.

“Ouch!” Hailey says. “What did you do that for?”

“Because I always wanted to,” Sophia says.

“Alright,” I say. “That’s enough. Break it up.”

Cora lets Hailey go, and Hailey grunts in annoyance. Beverly waves her arms and says something, and even I can practically feel the shields around the property drop. I look at my phone and see that cell service is back. I send a quick text to the sheriff, telling him to send backup.

“Tell them not to resist,” I tell Hailey about her cohorts.

“Fine,” she says, holding her hand to her bleeding nose. “Let them go.”

Jacob lets out a grunt as he releases his hold on the people.

“You’re going to pay for this,” Hailey tells Sophia.

“I wouldn’t be making threats if I were you,” I tell Hailey.

“No,” she says. “I mean, she’s literally going to have to pay to fix my nose. It was expensive.”

“Oh, right,” I say. I suppose the Clarke clan knows that they are out-powered, so they don’t resist as we wait for the sheriff to arrive. “Are you all right?” I ask Cora.

Cora touches her arms and legs to make sure she’s real. “Yes. I suppose so.” She goes to Hailey. “What did you do to me?”

Hailey shakes her head. “I have no idea. I mean, yes, we were trying to summon your essence back, but not…” She waves her hand up and down at Cora. “Not this.”

“It’s probably the curse,” someone else says.

“What curse, Jerome?” Sophia asks.

“In Elizabeth Crowley’s Book of Shadows,” he says. “She wrote about the murder. That’s how we knew your soul would be charged with the energy we needed. But she also mentioned a curse. A curse to walk to the world alone. We didn’t know what she meant. We thought maybe she meant it figuratively.”

“You idiot,” Beverly says, thumping the back of Jerome’s head.

“It wasn’t enough for Elizabeth to kill me?” Cora says, her eyes watering. “She had to curse me too?”

I put my arms around her shoulders and kiss the top of her head. “I’m so sorry.”

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