Yes. It’s a sort of witchy talent. Some witches are good at knowing when people are telling the truth, or what the weather will be like, that kind of thing. I can sense intent, and whoever did this was feeling some pretty intense hatred.
Her words sent a shiver of fear from the top of my head down through my body. Though it was the last thing I wanted to do, I knew I had to get down to the basement to see if the intruder was still there.
“Jade…will you come with me?”
My voice sounded so small, so scared, that I wondered if Jade would make fun of me. She didn’t, turning silently to walk back around the house to the front porch.
Chapter Eighteen
We crept slowly down to the basement, every one of my senses on high alert. I twitched at every tiny noise, every bug flying past, every dust mote. My fingers trembled as I pulled the cord for the lightbulb.
No one was there.
I felt equal parts terror and relief. Had they even come into the house? My invisible wall should have prevented that.
Then again, were they inside the secret room even now? A slender person could have climbed in through the window. The thought made me shudder.
“I don’t know what to do, Jade. That person could have gotten inside the window. They could be in there now.”
We met eyes and I could have sworn she arched her brow. You need to get into that room if that’s the case.
“But how?”
You’ve just got to try.
Taking my wand from my purse, I took a shaky breath. It was hard to concentrate with all the “what-ifs” running through my mind. Gritting my teeth, I gripped my wand so tightly that my knuckles turned white.
I tried to calm myself as I opened my mind’s eye, to no avail. I could see the barrier over the door more clearly now, almost like a transparent sheet of thick plexiglass sealing off the door completely. A series of spells ran through my mind, including one for dissolving physical material, one for blasting things apart, and one for splitting things open.
Because I didn’t know what would happen to the barrier if it were blasted or split, I opted for the first choice. After several tries, all I’d managed to do was to shave off an inch or so at the top. Cursing under my breath, I plopped down on the basement floor.
“This is taking too long.”
I was coated in sweat, and my breathing was labored. Jade examined me closely.
You need to rest. Take a break from it, try another day.
“Try the dissolving spell? At the rate I’m going, it will take fifty years to get rid of that barrier!”
You’ll just have to come back to it. Don’t try to overdo it. Read your books, maybe you’ll find something more effective.
I wanted to scream that I had been reading my books, and nothing had come of it, but my body was starting to ache.
I managed to get up the stairs and push a chair under the knob of the basement door. I fell into bed and nearly missed my alarm in the morning. Instead of getting straight out of bed as I normally did, I laid there for a while, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong with that barrier on the door.
I realized with a jolt that I’d never fixed the hole in my barrier spell. When I finally got up, I had to rush through my morning routine to have time to fix the hole and get to the shop in time. The fix ended up being simpler than I’d imagined. It was a matter of just mentally filling in the hole while I held my wand.
During breaks between customers, I studied all the books Faith had given me, including the household spells, to no avail.
My mind turned to whoever was messing with the barrier at my house. I was still a rookie witch, but I knew that my barrier was sound. It was much stronger than the initial protections I’d used, so it would take someone seriously powerful to break through it.
Chandra.
I’d never met the woman, but she fit all the criteria perfectly. Powerful, vindictive, persistent. It took a person like that to keep trying to get inside.
But why? That was the other question that plagued me non-stop. What were they after? Whoever it was knew about whatever Grandma had kept in her basement and seemed like they would stop at nothing to get it.
Chandra had been Grandma’s enemy, so she had to be the one trying to break in.
Jade’s frantic yowling broke through my thoughts. I looked up from my spell book, startled. She stood under a window, looking up through the panes. I followed her gaze to see a person standing outside the window. I didn’t see anything except a flurry of dark hair as the person turned and fled.
“Jade, who was that? Did you see them?”
Don’t shout! My cat ears are sensitive.
“Sorry,” I replied in a low murmur.
Go after them!
I could have slapped myself for being so stupid. Rushing to the door, I yanked it open and hurried out, only to see a fancy red Porche screeching out of the parking lot and into the road. My heart pounded in my throat as I watched the car disappear.
Any luck?
I took in a shuddering breath and shook my head. “They got away before I could even get a plate number.”
It took all my willpower not to curl up in a ball and sob. Everything was crashing in around me, making me feel boxed in and terrified. I was the top suspect in a kidnapping, I had an unknown intruder forcing their way into my home, and now someone was spying on me at the shop.
“Did…did you notice anything, Jade? About that person?”
