Page 112 of Castings & Curses

A tickling to her right alerted her to a presence. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw the air shimmer. A figure took form. Priya blinked.

Her gaze lowered.

She blinked again.

Where she expected a six-foot-tall, gray-haired man to be, she found a dark-haired boy barely three and a half feet tall. Baby fat rounded his cheeks. Long black eyelashes framed his dark brown eyes. A dimple marked the center of his chin.

“Why are you doing that?” Using his entire arm, he mimicked her infinity loops.

“I’m trying to contact a spirit with my magic.”

“A spirit?”

“Yes.”

“Who are you talking to?” Belinda demanded.

The child’s elfin-like face scrunched up. Either in concentration or a full-faced frown, Priya couldn’t decide. “Why?”

How had he died? Cancer? An accident? When? He was so small. So young. Tears pricked Priya’s eyes. She wanted to reach out and cuddle him. She knew better than to touch a ghost. The last thing in the world she wanted right now was to frighten him away.

“Because his wife wants to talk to him.”

“Why?”

“Who are you—”

Priya held up a hand and shushed her client. “Because she wants to say goodbye.”

The scrunched-up expression remained as the boy studied Belinda. “She can talk to dead people?” He glanced at the coffin.

“She can’t, but I can. Sometimes.”

“Do ghosts step inside you? Like in that movie my mommy likes?”

“No.” She suppressed a shudder. The idea chilled her to the bone. “That’s only in the movies. They talk to me like you’re doing and I relay their messages.”

His dark eyes widened. A shy smile curved his lips. “Can you talk to my mommy?”

* * *

“You’re tellingme you called the wrong ghost?!” A spidery blue vein pulsed at Belinda’s temple.

“I didn’t call him. I don’t even know his name.”

The boy touched his chest and proudly said, “I’m Levi Ellery Teasdon.”

Biting back a smile, Priya kept her eyes steady on her client. “Sometimes ghosts just show up.”

“Well, I’m the one paying you. Get Zeke here. Right now.”

Levi touched the coffin. “I don’t think he’s here.”

“Not here?” Priya jerked in surprise.

“Nuh uh.”

Abandoning Belinda, she turned and crouched down. A swarm of questions buzzed through her head, all begging to spill out. At ten years old she saw her first ghost. They resorted to playing charades to communicate. In the intervening thirteen years, her conversations with ghosts had been limited to resolving unfinished business so they could move on. She would love to know more about their realm. However, distracting them with questions sometimes enraged them, frightened them into disappearing, or left them confused. She clamped her lips tight. The silent questions gathered speed, whipping around with the violence of a tornado.

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