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  “What else did you find with Charge Briarson? In the other trunk?”

  She paused, then said, “I’m at my desk. Give me a moment to find the list. I’ll call you back in just a few.”

  I waited, frowning as Charge’s spirit appeared through the floorboards. “Listen, are you here because you’re stuck here? You were stuck in that room until the renovations jogged things loose, weren’t you?”

  He stared at me, a startled look on his face.

  “We can free you and release you. You don’t really have anything to stick around here for—it’s not productive for you to hang out here and fuck around with me.” I shook my head, watching him. “Wouldn’t you rather go off and do whatever it is you’re supposed to do next?”

  At that, he settled down, sitting on one of the chairs opposite me. He stared at the ground, then gave me a half shrug, half nod.

  “Then let us free you. My mother’s dead, and so is my father. Neither are here for you to bother or haunt or whatever it is you seem intent on doing. So let me free you and send you on your merry way, please? I just want my house back.”

  At that moment, Millie called me back. “January, we found lockpicks, a small bottle, empty, with a label on it that reads ‘Disruption Water,’ a knife, a backpack—these things were all in the pack, by the way, keys—”

  “We found a motorcycle. Does his key ring have a Nakama key on it? One that might look like it’s for a motorbike?”

  “Now that you mention it, yes. There’s one here. I’ll bring it over and we’ll check to see if it fits the bike. If so, then we know…”

  Another thought hit me. “Hold on,” I said, darting into the library.

  I opened the cabinet I had bought to keep my spell supplies in, and sure enough, there was a small bottle I had found among my mother’s magical supplies. It had the label “Disruption Water” on it. Ten to one, she had poured the water out of the bottle that Charge had been carrying into one of her own.

  You’re doing well, Esmara said. She was standing in back of me.

  I spun around. You were my mother’s guardian. You had to know about this.

  Yes, came the impassive answer.

  Then why didn’t you just tell me all this up front? Do you know if she killed Charge? If my father did?

  Esmara sighed—I could hear it loud and clear. Listen, once again I’ll try to explain. There are things we’re not allowed to tell. Not only the other Ladies and me, but all guardian spirits. There’s a line we cannot cross. No one tells us what it is but there’s a light around certain information that prevents us from talking about it. Whether it’s the gods stopping us, or the universe, or just the clockwork function within which we operate, I don’t know. But there’s always going to be knowledge that you must discover on your own. I believe it has to do with your destiny and personal growth, but the truth is, none of us know why. So don’t yell at me.

  I could see her now, quite clearly, and she was staring at me as though I were a spoiled brat crying for a cookie.

  I’m sorry, I just…it’s so frustrating.

  I know, but life is filled with frustration as well as joy, and you have to learn to cope with it. So, what do you think your next step should be?

  I thought about it for a moment. To find out who owned this house before my parents. Hank was going to look it up but then we got the call about Danielle and all hell broke loose.

  Then I suggest you have him continue along that path. Find the root, and you’ll find the answer.

  Druantia said something like that to me in a trance this morning.

  I know, came the saucy reply.

  I looked at Esmara, who was standing there beside me, all misty and cloaked in a faded glamour. She was wearing a knee-length plaid skirt, a wraparound soft coat that also seemed to serve as a top, a pair of kitten heel pumps, and what looked like a matador hat.

  You’re looking different today.

  We do get to form whatever clothing we want, you know. She winked at me. Don’t rush things. We have quite a few years in which to work together—more than you think. It will take time to learn all the ins and outs of having a guardian. And we Ladies come to the women of the family later, usually. We’re always watching over you, but it takes awhile to decide when you’re ready for the rose.

  And with that, she vanished.

  As soon as Esmara disappeared, I looked at the Disruption water again. What the hell was Charge doing with it? Feeling the need to pick it up, I followed my instinct and returned to the basement.

  “I talked to Millie. She’s bringing over the keys they found in the trunk to see if one of them fits the motorcycle.” I stared at the wall. “What would happen if we poured Disruption water on that mural?”

  Rowan stiffened. “Where did you get Disruption water? Or are you talking theoretically?”

  “I have a bottle here. I think it belonged to Charge Briarson. I found it among my mother’s things, but I suspect she took it from him, because an empty bottle with that label was found among his stuff in the other trunk.”

  “I’m not sure about the water, but I think I found out how he died,” Hank said. He was kneeling by the stairs. “Look.” He shone a high-powered light on the fourth stair from the bottom. The steps weren’t carpeted, and they were made of hardwood. As I peered over his shoulder, a smear of what had to be dried blood appeared along the edge of the step. There were what looked like a few hairs stuck to it. “Call Millie and ask her to bring the ME over.”

  “How tall do you think he was?” I asked, glancing in the opposite direction of the steps. I found myself looking directly at the mural. “He was probably tall—probably near your height.”

  “Right. So…” Hank sat down on the bottom steps and, trying to keep himself from touching the dried blood, stretched out. I went to stand by his feet.

  “If he fell back on the steps, he was probably standing here,” I said.

  “Unless he was hit and staggered back,” Caitlin said. “I agree with Hank. Call Millie.”

  As I headed back upstairs, carefully skipping the fourth step, Rowan started to examine the mural.

  “What’s up?” Millie asked.

  “When you bring over the keys, bring the ME with you. We think we may have found what killed Charge. There’s dried blood and hair on one of the steps. It looks like he might have fallen back on it.”

  “Steps? What steps?”

  “In the hidden basement.”

  She paused, then said, “We’re on our way. I’ll call the ME to meet me there.”

  As I returned to the basement, for a fraction of a second I thought I saw the mural shift. It was almost impossible to tell since the painting was a kaleidoscope of color and imagery, but it still made me nervous. I walked over to Rowan, who was standing in front of it, her arms folded.

  “What do you think?”

  “Chaos magicians. Hank, did you find out who owned this house before January’s parents?” she asked.

  Hank started. “Oh, yes, actually I did. A couple named Lilith and Gaynor Watkins owned the house. They vanished about two years before the bank foreclosed on the property and your mother and father bought it.”

  “They vanished?” I found myself keeping a close eye on the mural. My nerves were knotted up and every second we stayed near the mural, the anxiety grew. “Rowan, what the hell is going on with this mural? Do you see it too? I swear I’ve seen figures in it move.”

  “You’re not imagining things. I’ve seen it too. I think it’s waking up. As I said, this isn’t a portal in the sense that you think of them, but it’s more than just a painting. I’m not sure what it’s for, but whatever it does, it’s starting to activate again. I think your mother warded the storage room so strongly that—because they hid the basement from any interaction—the mural became dormant.” She tilted her head, examining the painting. “Hank, does it say who built the house?”

  Hank shook his head. “I think the Watkinses funded construction. They vanis
hed in the late 1970s, and then January’s parents bought it after the bank foreclosed on it.”

  “If the workmen installed the basement, why wouldn’t they put it on the blueprints?” Caitlin asked.

  Teran, who was sitting on a chair she had brought down from the storage room, had a pained expression on her face. “Because the Watkinses paid them off. I remember them. They were actively involved in the Covenant of Chaos.” She glanced at Rowan. “I think the Covenant is growing more active again.”

  Rowan regarded her for a moment, then nodded. “I think you’re right, and that worries me. I think you need to just bite the bullet and do as I asked you five years ago.”

  “Prue told me to say no last time, but I’ll ask her again.” Teran didn’t look overly excited, but the glint in her eyes told me she was all business about whatever they were talking about.

  “Rowan, you know more about the Covenant of Chaos than any of us. Can you explain when they got their start and why?” Tad asked. “We have minimal information on them at the office, and I’ve never been able to get anyone to talk about them.”

  Rowan sighed, then jerked her head toward the stairs. “Upstairs and away from this room.”

  Without another word, she headed up the steps. We scrambled to follow her into the living room, where we gathered around. I noticed that the kitchen drawers and doors were ajar again, but as I was watching them, they all slammed shut.

  “Lovely. Charge, if you’re the one doing that, then knock it off,” I said in a loud voice.

  “I don’t think he’s to blame,” Rowan said. “I think it’s the mural downstairs.”

  “But how…and why?”

  She nodded. “My guess that when they broke through the wall up here, the workmen disturbed a powerful set of wards that your mother had created. I think she painted them onto the drywall before the men painted over them.”

  “What about before that? Why didn’t they seal the room up when they first discovered it? It’s been locked since I can remember.”

  Rowan thought for a moment. “I suspect that when they first found the chamber, they thought they could handle it by just sealing wards onto the door frame and leaving the room alone. At first I thought Charge might have tried to wake up the mural, but given that he was carrying Disruption water, I’m thinking now that he was trying to short-circuit it, probably to protect your mother.”

  “Protect her? But I thought—” I stopped. “He still loved her, didn’t he?”

  Teran glanced at Rowan. “I think you’re both right. I don’t think he ever stopped loving her, in his clumsy way. And he knew about the mural because he was active in the Covenant. But his love won out.”

  Rowan nodded. “Well meaning, but it cost him his life. I’ll wager that when he went down there with that water, the mural was still active enough to protect itself, and it knocked him back onto the stairs and killed him. Then, when your parents found him, they made a mistake. By hiding his body in the storage room, the energy of the mural got tied to his spirit. I think his spirit is trapped here, and that the mural uses it to cause havoc.”

  I thought about it for a moment. Most often when I encountered a spirit, I could usually cadge some information out of it, but Charge’s ghost had barely communicated with me at all. And he had been chaotic, almost random in his actions. Which would fit.

  “You may be right,” I said. “This is not a typical haunting.”

  “So he died because he was trying to deactivate the mural?” Caitlin asked.

  Hank sat down at one of the laptops. “Let me run a few things through.” His fingers flew over the keys. A few minutes later he said, “Just as I suspected. Charge was related to one of the founders of the Stellarview Institute for the Criminally Insane. He was the nephew of Tobias Perry, who was also a long-term member of the Covenant of Chaos.”

  “So he was connected to the group?” I asked.

  Hank did a little more searching. “He’s on their rolls. And don’t ask how I found the information. You wouldn’t like it. So Charge Briarson was also part of the Covenant of Chaos.”

  “What’s so special about the mural? Who painted it?” I asked. “And what do we do about it?”

  “To answer the last part of your question, I’ll bring the inner court of the Crystal Cauldron over,” Rowan said. She glanced at Teran again. “I need your answer now. It’s time you returned to us. And I believe we need to bring January and Ari in, as well. I’ve been thinking and meditating on this for the past few months, and always, always the answer points to yes.”

  “Wait a moment,” I said. “What are you talking about?”

  “You know I belong to the Crystal Cauldron? That we help protect Moonshadow Bay?” Rowan asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah, you told me.”

  “I really wish you’d give me an interview someday on the coven,” Tad said.

  Rowan glanced at him. “Not going to happen,” she said. Turning back to me, she added, “I’m the high priestess. And I have already decided that you’re going to join. You will enter the membership of the Cauldron, and Teran’s returning to the fold. There’s an energy embedded in the land here, and it’s growing and it’s dangerous.”

  “What Johnny Salmon-Diver told Colleen and Brian,” I said.

  “What?” Teran asked.

  “In Colleen’s journal,” I said. “I found it some months back. She said that one of the Nooksack Tribe members—Johnny Salmon-Diver, he was called—warned them that this area of the bay was off limits to tribal members because it belongs to what they called ‘the others.’ That the ‘old ones’ have lived here so long they embedded their energy into the land. That’s about it. When I first read the entry, I thought it referred to the Woodlings, but now I’m not so sure.”

  “Well, the land wight at Stellarview is certainly tied into the land. In a sense, this town is under a curse, but it’s not one imposed from the outside,” Rowan said. “No, I think we’d have to go far back in time to figure out what went into weaving the tapestry of this town. But whatever it was, it attracted the chaos magicians, and so they formed the Covenant of Chaos, and we—the Crystal Cauldron—rose to push back against them.”

  The doorbell rang. Millie was on the doorstep, the ME standing behind her. We led them back to the storage room and down into the secret basement.

  Millie looked around, then walked over to the mural. “This thing is still active, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Rowan said, “and unless we can seal it shut, I’m afraid the spiritual activity in Moonshadow Bay’s going to pick up.”

  I wandered over to the ME, who was taking pictures of the steps and samples of the dried blood and hair. “Do you think that belongs to Charge?”

  “I can’t say for certain, but I’m betting the answer is yes.”

  And with that, I decided to go back upstairs. The energy was giving me a headache, and I needed a breath of fresh air.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I sat on the porch, watching the rain sheet down. The gloom and sound of the downpour were comforting, and I zipped up my jacket and leaned back on the porch swing, trying to piece together the puzzle.

  Charge Briarson had a crush on my mother in high school, and he had pursued her. She wasn’t interested, preferring my father. My mother and father had bought the house that a couple of chaos magicians had originally had built. My parents discovered the hidden room and tried to seal it off magically. I left for college and then got married. Then, a few years ago, Chance returned and he broke into the basement to throw a monkey wrench in the mural, so to speak. The mural was aware enough to fight back and somehow, Charge tripped and fell on the steps, hitting his head so hard it killed him. So my parents dragged his body up into the storage room and locked him in a trunk, then brought his motorcycle in and locked that up in the basement.

  “Why wouldn’t they have hidden Charge’s body down in the secret room, too?” I mused.

  Because they foresaw that the mural might absorb Charg
e’s spirit. But they miscalculated and that happened anyway. His spirit was just locked away behind wards until they were broken.

  I started, then thanked Esmara for the summation. I wish you could have just told me in the first place.

  We already went over why I couldn’t, so drop it.

  I was about to start up the argument again when I saw Ari’s car ease into the driveway. She hopped out and dashed up the stairs.

  “Hey, have you figured out what’s going on yet?”

  “More or less, and it’s crazy convoluted.” I paused, suddenly seeing the dried trail of tears on her face. “What’s going on?”

  Ari stared at the house, ignoring my question. “I want to hear all about the ghost.”

  “You will, but only after you tell me what’s going on. I know you too well, Ari. I know that you are skilled in avoiding topics you don’t want to discuss.”

  She sat there a moment, watching the rain sleet down from the skies. I kept quiet, giving her the space to gather her thoughts. After a few moments, she finally let out a shaky breath.

  “Meagan’s mother came to see me again today.”

  “Oh no,” I said. Last time, it had been a disaster.

  “Yeah. She told me that she’ll stop trying to interfere with our relationship, but that she and Meagan’s father are disowning her if she goes through with the wedding. That the entire family will cut her off. If she marries me, they’re basically treating her as though she was never born. And how can I let that happen?” She shook her hands, wincing.

  I grabbed one of her hands in mine, holding tight. I wasn’t sure what to say as she quietly began to cry again. Finally, I asked, “What did Meagan say?”

  “Meagan said she doesn’t care—that she’ll walk away from the lot of them. But it’s basically come down to a choice between them and me. Do I have the right to ask that of her? How can I guarantee that I can make her as happy as her family would? I sure as hell can’t guarantee an inheritance, which she’ll lose if she marries me. I’m stuck, January, and I don’t know what to do.” She burst into tears, leaning her head on my shoulder.