A Book of Spirits and Thieves

A slave he could use to make enough coin to pay back the moneylenders to whom Livius owed a small fortune. Livius had once been a gambler, one with very bad luck. The last time Livius hadn’t been able to make a payment, one of the moneylenders had taken his left eye as punishment.

“No gratitude necessary,” Livius replied. “Except, of course, the second half of the fee that we agreed upon.”

“Yes, of course. Of course! Please, follow me.”

Maddox turned toward the entrance to see that a girl now stood by the golden archway leading into the huge room. She gazed around, her eyes wide.

“Don’t worry,” he told her. “The spirit is gone.”

She stared at him. “What?”

Likely, she was Gillis’s daughter. Though, Maddox thought, she really was far too lovely to be the daughter of such an ugly man. Perhaps her mother was a rare beauty. The girl’s clothing was unusual, to say the least. The top half of her ensemble was made from wool, but was dyed an incredibly unnatural, bright shade of rose. And he’d never seen a girl wearing trousers before. These trousers were not the baggy style that Mytican men wore; they were close-fitting and made from some sort of finely woven blue material. He forced himself to stop gawking at her long, lean legs.

“Who are you talking to?” Livius growled at him.

He nodded toward the entryway. “The girl.”

“What girl?”

Maddox blinked. “Lord Gillis, your daughter. . . .”

Gillis shook his head. “No daughter. I have only sons, and they’re out for the day at the festival. Now, come with me, both of you. I will pay you and we will part ways as good friends.”

The girl still stood by the entrance, looking around at the large room as if seeing it for the first time and finding it horribly confusing.

“Where am I?” she asked Maddox. “I—I found myself out in the garden a few minutes ago. How did I get here?”

Lord Gillis approached the girl, but as he got closer, he didn’t slow down, nor did he acknowledge her presence. Maddox opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the lord walked right into her.

No, he didn’t walk into her. He walked straight through her.

As if she wasn’t even there.

Livius shot Maddox a glare sharp enough to cut. “Get that stupefied look off your face, you fool. Let’s finish this and leave.”

The girl watched them as they passed. Maddox couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“You can see me,” she said. “They can’t, but you can!”

Maddox forced his attention away from her, focusing instead on his footsteps. His heart began to pound harder.

“Please, look at me.” The girl kept pace with him. She had long, honey-golden hair worn in a braid and blue eyes the color of the sea at dusk. She looked afraid and confused . . . but incredibly determined.

He would not be fooled by her beauty. It seemed as if Lord Gillis was correct after all. His villa was haunted.

Be gone, dark spirit, he thought fiercely. Leave me in peace.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but something bad happened to me.” She tried to touch him, but her hand passed right through him like a wisp of smoke. He tensed up but felt nothing, which surprised him. The spirits he typically encountered left him chilled to the bone, shivering.

She stared down at her hand with horror. “Oh my God, what’s going on?”

Maddox kept his lips pressed together, tempted to give her another glance, but stopping himself just in time.

“I know you can see me,” she said, her voice quavering a little but remaining strong otherwise. “Don’t try to pretend you can’t!”

He blinked rapidly, dismayed that Livius and Gillis had stopped and were now blocking the entryway, preventing his escape from the spirit girl. They now stood face-to-face as Livius took a pouch of coins from the lord. The two clasped hands.

“Look at me, will you?” the girl cried. “Please!”

Her fearful tone pulled at him, and he finally met her gaze.

A whisper of relief moved through her eyes. “My name is Becca Hatcher. I don’t know what’s happened to me, where I am, or how I got here, but I know one thing. You’re going to help me get back home.”





Chapter 4


CRYSTAL



It was all a blur.

She called 9-1-1. The ambulance arrived quickly, its lights flashing and siren blaring. She forced herself to hit the right buttons to call her mother and left a hysterical, rambling message. Then there was the ride to the hospital and the doctor asking her what happened. . . .

It was a question Crys wasn’t sure she knew how to properly answer.

“A b-book,” she stammered. “She was looking at a book at the store. It—it did this to her.”

“Are you saying that something she read upset her?” the doctor asked. “What book was it?”

“I don’t know. She—she just . . . I don’t know what it was! You have to help her!”

“We’ll do everything we can,” the doctor assured her. “She’s stable at the moment. It’s possible she’ll snap out of this catatonic state all on her own.”

Catatonic state. It sounded so clinical.