“What are you doing with my frog?” Virginia asked with a dry laugh. “And why are you waving it at me like a weapon?”
I braced myself with feet shoulder width apart.“I hereby bind you, ghost!”
“Silence.” Virginia’s bellow echoed, reverberating through the entire house.
I pushed the frog at her again, but it flew from my hands and crashed into the wall. When I tried to speak, I found my mouth was sealed shut.
“That’s better,” Virginia said with an approving nod. “Now enough with the theatrics. I’m here to kill you. Nothing more, nothing less. You’ll pay for what you and your witch did. I have more magic in death than I ever had in life, and now I will use it to avenge my untimely death. So, any last words?”
She rotated her head on her stump of a torso and released her magical hold on me.
I gasped, then shouted at her the second I was able to move my mouth.“Where are my cats?”
Her green dulled with apparent disappointment.“Well, that’s a waste of words. If you must know, I’ve magically sealed this house. They can’t get in, and you can’t get out. You’re entirely at my mercy. First I’ll take care of you, and then I’ll finish them off as well. It’s almost too easy.”
“You don’t have magic. H-h-how is this possible?” I sputtered. If I could keep her talking, I could keep me breathing.
Virginia had such a large ego she not only wanted to murder me, but she also wanted me to bask in her brilliance before she did it. The quintessential villain divulging her master plan instead of actually implementing it.
“Oh, anything is possible if you have the right friends. Luna was an amateur, a fool! But my new master appreciates what I am, what I can do.” She was so textbook bad guy, I almost felt sorry for her. Unfortunately, I felt much sorrier for me in this moment, though. Virginia had no morals that I had seen, and she wouldn’t hesitate to deliver on her promise of my demise.
Even though I was still shaking in my boots, I forced myself to roll my eyes.“Dash, you mean? You’re still working for that witch after the last time literally got you killed?”
“I know what you’re doing, and I’m not stupid enough to fall for it,” a glowing, green Virginia hissed.
“Funny choice of words. Fall for it? Isn’t that how you died the first time? Maybe it’s how you’ll die this time, too?” I would have crossed my arms over my chest, but I needed to have them ready in case Virginia flew at me again.
“I am immortal in my new form!” she boomed triumphantly. “The only one dying tonight will be you. And your little kitty friends.” She hurled herself at me with her ghostly mouth wide open and clamped down on my shoulder.
Ouch, ouch, ouch. It hurt so bad! Much more than any bite should have stung. Somehow I knew she had infected me with magic.
But what kind?
And what would it do?
I swooned on my feet. No, I couldn’t let her win.
Especially not so easily.
But then I swooned again.
“What did you do to me?” I croaked.
22
“I created a drain. Soon the magic within you will begin flowing to me,” Virginia revealed, circling me with glee. “And once I have enough of it, I will use it to end you. How’s that for poetic justice?”
Virginia sure was full of herself. But even I had to admit that her plan was a good one. Killing me with my own well of magic.
Just wow.
I hadn’t even made it a full month as a familiar, and already my ties to the magical world had led to my imminent death.
Sorry, but no.
I was not going down without a fight.
My cats couldn’t get inside to help me, but I could still hear them at the window. I could still talk to them, let them guide me in this battle. I hurled myself down the hall, passing straight through the enemy ghost, and raced to the living room window.
Merlin sat waiting as I unlatched the window and pried it open.“Gracie, behind you!” he shouted.
I dodged to the side to avoid another painful bite from my spectral opponent.
Virginia passed through the window, screamed in rage, and then hurled herself back the other way.
“She used most of her magic to create her barrier spell,” Luna called from out of sight. “It’s why half her body’s missing. Even with the drain she placed on you, she is regenerating very slowly.”
Yes, Luna was right! By silencing me, she’d lost her stumpy little arms. Her figure now ended at the collarbone. If she cast another big spell, she might blink herself out of existence.
The ghost drove at me again, and I leapt out of the way. Were all these physical attacks meant to distract me while she recharged her magic? And what was the worst she could do to me without magic? Bite me again? That would hurt, but I already knew I could survive it.
Well, two could play at her little game of wait and see.
I ran to the closet and grabbed my broom.
Virginia laughed at me, mocking my choice of weapon. But then I slammed it into her face, grody bristles first, and sent her flying backward.
“You’ll pay for that!” she promised, her green transforming into a blazing emerald as she spat curses at me. “Freeze!”
My feet fused to the floor. I could still move my upper body, but the lower part was now stuck like a fly in honey.
As soon as she muttered this magical command, the rest of her ghostly shoulders disappeared from view. Now she was just a bobbing head and a neck.
“You can’t kill me without killing yourself,” I said as if this were fact and not just my current theory. She’d told me she was now immortal as a ghost, but that didn’t mean she could stay on our earthly plane for long.
“I’m already dead, thanks to you!” she bandied back. As her frustration grew, her words came out faster, more slurred together.
“Gracie!” Merlin shouted from the window. I glanced through Virginia and saw both he and Luna sitting on the sill now.
“We can bind her, but I’ll need ingredients from my garden,” the she-cat yelled.
“No, the frog didn’t work.” If it had, this whole thing would have stopped almost as soon as it started. If only.
Luna didn’t give up, however. “It was too old and lost its potency, but a new batch will work.”
“I can’t leave.”
“Try the door,” Merlin shouted. Thank you, captain obvious.
“I can’t. I’m stuck.” I motioned toward my legs and let out a groan.
This whole time Virginia was shouting insults at us but not actually casting any more spells. It seemed I was right about her not having the requisite power to finish the deed she’d come to commit. She probably hadn’t realized how much the barrier spell would take out of her. It’s not like she was a real witch, anyway. She’d never had magic in life and was inexperienced with it in death.
I scanned the room, all the while searching for some kind of solution that would unstick me from the floor. I spotted my phone lying on the coffee table a good six feet away. I couldn’t reach out and grab it, but I did have a broom in my hands. If I could distract Virginia long enough to get ahold of it, I could send an SOS text to Drake.
Luckily he’d insisted on programming my number into his phone after our failed date. He’d also offered to help with my ghost, should I need it. And I definitely needed it right now.
“Hey, loser!” I shouted loud enough for Virginia to hear me over her deranged ranting. “Think fast!”
23
I pretended to cast a spell. Yes, I couldn’t use the magic within me, and, yes, Virginia knew that. But thankfully my ruse still worked.
I raised the hand that wasn’t holding my broom and made an elaborate twisty gesture. “Merlin, lightning!” I cried.
Sure enough, Virginia spun around just in time to see Merlin summon a bolt of lightning right outside the window. His magic couldn’t cross the barrier she’d erected, but the ghostess couldn’t help but watch transfixed as Merlin’s attempt to come to my aid “failed.”