Page 8 of Christmas Spirits

“Honestly? I’m right there with you. That was too much excitement for me.”

I smiled at him, thankful to have found someone who knew me so well.

“I think we should go to Divine Magic,” he suggested. “We have a better chance of finding out what that dementor thing is by asking Arianna. She may even have something in her shop to repel it, something stronger than my protection spells.”

He frowned as he threw the car in drive, obviously upset his magic hadn’t been strong enough to shield me from danger. Again. I could almost hear his destructive thoughts in his head. I knew him and the way his brain worked.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” I told him. “You know spirits are trickier. They don’t react to magic the same way the living does.”

He nodded, but his sadness lingered on his face as he drove. I don’t know where his self-doubt came from. My guess was from his childhood, but that was a part of Laurence he didn’t like talking about. Even to me. After dating for so long, he still refused to tell me anything about his parents or where he used to live. And when I pressed, all I got was a brushed off statement of, “It doesn’t matter.”

“You did a really good job with that blocking spell thing you did back there,” I said. “I’ve never seen you do that before.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “A shielding spell,” he corrected. “It’s an upper level one spell Arianna just taught me. She’ll be happy to hear I got it to work.”

He turned onto Divine Magic’s street. Since it was located in downtown Fairport, like my store, it was a short drive to it. We could have walked if it wasn’t mid-December and we didn’t have a baby to worry about, but since both those things were true, walking this time was out of the question.

Laurence pulled over in front of the magic shop and parked by a meter. Because of the upcoming holidays, the town had covered all the pay meters to allow shoppers free parking to get their last-minute Christmas gifts.

We hurried getting the baby out of the car. In the short drive over, he had fallen asleep, so we settled for keeping him in the carrier this time and walked into Divine Magic. At the sound of the bell, twenty-one-year-old Arianna—accomplished level three witch, magical artifact hunter, Laurence’s mentor, and our new babysitter—strolled through the beaded curtain. When she saw us, she paused, brows pinched in confusion.

“Wait, I’m not supposed to watch Zach today, am I?” she asked. Sporting her usual dark, gothic aesthetic, with heavy eyeliner, tight ripped jeans, and a band t-shirt, she came around the counter to greet us.

Maybe it wasn’t gothic. Punk? I wasn’t sure what the kids were calling it nowadays.

“No, we’re here because there was an incident at the shop…” Laurence began. He placed Zach’s carrier on the ground.

Arianna’s gaze roamed over me. “Yeah, I was going to say you look a little shell-shocked, Kay. What happened?”

“She was attacked by a spirit,” Laurence answered for me.

“At least, I assumed it was a spirit,” I added before he could continue. “I got the same feeling I normally get when it appeared, but it could touch me and Laurence could see it, too, so now, I’m not so sure.”

Arianna leaned against the counter as she took my words in. “A spirit that can manipulate things in the living world?”

I nodded. “Dragged me across the room by my hair and turned over Zach’s crib.”

“And sliced the flowers I got you in half with its little tentacle things. Don’t forget that,” Laurence said.

“Tentacles?” She rubbed her bottom lip with a black polished nail.

“It reminded me of the dementors in the Harry Potter books. Have you read them? Black, fabric billowing…but no distinct features to it.”

“Who hasn’t read them?” she barked a laugh. Laurence looked at me, and I recoiled, knowing exactly what he was getting at. I was one of those people who hadn’t.

“I’ll get to it,” I grumbled under my breath. I really didn’t want to talk about my nonexistent leisure time right now. I was barely sleeping as it was. “But that’s not why we’re here. Remember?”

“Yeah, I’m just trying to give Arianna a visual. Think…a floating, violent black handkerchief.”

Arianna stared at him blankly.

When she didn’t offer any suggestions right away, Laurence turned to me. “We could always ask Sean over in Smithfield. He’s got to know.”

“Woah, woah, woah,” she said, glaring his way. “What makes you think I don’t know?”

Laurence snapped his mouth shut, suddenly looking sickly. He was regretting his words.

“Doyou know?” I pressed to try and get some of the pressure off of him. “It’d really help us out if you did. I’ve experienced many spirits in my life, and I’ve never seen anything like this one. I’m not even sure it is a spirit.”

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