“It was a joke.” She sighed and handed me the EMF. “If that needle starts moving, there’s a good chance a spirit is nearby. Consider yourself trained.”
Priest leaned back, examining the upper stories. “This place is a lot bigger than it looked in the picture. You really think we can find the Shift?”
“It might not even be in there,” Jared said.
Lukas stood in front of the house. “It’s here. We just have to find it.”
“Then let’s start looking.” Jared waved Priest down from the porch and glanced in my direction. “Kennedy, you can check out the tower with me and Priest.”
“She’s coming with us,” Lukas said forcefully.
Jared started to say something, then stopped. “I was trying to do you a favor, Luk. You’re gonna have to babysit her in there.”
My cheeks burned, and I stared at the scratches on the boots my mom had given me the night she died. How long before they were completely ruined?
Lukas nudged me with his shoulder. Something inside me relaxed, and a smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. “Ignore him. Jared always leaves behind a pretty high body count.”
Is he talking about girls?
My smile vanished. “It’s no big deal.”
He touched my arm lightly when we reached the door. “Stay close, and if I tell you to get out of the house, you go. No arguments and no looking back. Understand?”
I nodded, every nerve in my body on edge.
Lukas cracked the lock with the butt of his crossbow.
The door swung open. Light poured into the entryway, dust glittering in the stagnant air. I stepped into the hallway, heart pounding. My eyes followed the worn crimson carpet up the staircase.
The front door slammed behind us, and I spun around.
A shadow blackened the marble floor.
Lukas and Alara inched toward it slowly. I waited for a battered vengeance spirit like the girl from my room to lunge at them.
The shadow didn’t move.
Alara edged closer and looked up, her eyes resting on a huge crystal chandelier. “I think we’re okay.”
“Sorry.” I felt like an idiot.
Lukas walked into the living room, where half-packed boxes were scattered around a velvet sofa. “Better safe than sorry, right?”
Alara rolled her eyes and ran a finger along the dusty banister. “Reminds me of my house. Minus the dirt.” She zeroed in on the stained rose-colored sofa. “And the pink.”
I navigated between the boxes, watching the needle on my EMF. A mirror in a gilded frame caught my reflection, the warped glass making the room appear off kilter.
The needle didn’t move as I followed them into the musty library on the other side of the staircase. Lukas stopped in the doorway.
“If I needed to hide something, this is where I’d put it.”
We searched the shelves crammed with books and stranger things—beetles and butterflies in shadow boxes, dozens of clocks stopped at exactly the same time, and brass bookends depicting characters from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Cheshire Cat smiled down from a tall shelf.
Alara lifted the Mad Hatter clutching a broken teapot. “This isn’t creepy or anything.”
I didn’t know what unsettled me more—the perfect replica of Lilburn Mansion drowning in the thickened glitter of an old snow globe, or the image of a terrified Mad Hatter holding a broken piece of Wonderland.
“Maybe it’s somewhere less obvious,” I offered.
Alara kicked an empty box. “We should check upstairs. That’s where all the activity was reported.”
Lukas not so subtly stepped in front of me. “I’m right behind you.”
The staircase rose sharply. I imagined someone reaching the last step and being pushed backward by an invisible hand. I gripped the railing tighter. When Lukas made it to the top, he grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the landing.
Six doors flanked each side of the narrow hallway. Oil portraits of women bound in layers of fabric, and girls in pressed dresses, lined the walls between them. They all wore the same hopeless expression.
The EMF detector pinged.
“You got something?” The red light on Lucas’ EMF blinked erratically, as the needle jerked back and forth.
“Where is it?” I looked around, but didn’t see anything.
“It might not be a paranormal entity,” he said. “Other things can set them off—appliances, electrical wires, even water pipes in the walls. And these readings are all over the place.”
Alara stopped, and we almost plowed into her. “I don’t think it’s an electrical wire.”
I followed her eyes to the end of the hall.
A little girl in a yellow chiffon dress sat on the carpet playing with a porcelain doll. Its tangled blond hair spilled onto the floor.
As the girl rose, her body flickered like static on an old television set. She walked toward us, dragging the doll behind her by one arm. With her smooth flushed skin, she looked nothing like the corpse floating in my bedroom.
“Did you come to play?” The child’s eyes lit up, bright and curious.
Lukas tried to push me behind him again, but my feet were rooted to the floor.