Keeper of the Shadows

chapter 17



Barrie ran straight through the main house to Merlin’s room and skidded to a stop on the polished hardwood floor of the back hall, then reached out to pound on the door. It wasn’t very polite, but things had progressed far beyond polite. She was sure Merlin would understand.

Sailor and Rhiannon were at her heels almost instantly, mystified.

Merlin opened the door, and his kind face lit up when he saw the cousins gathered in the hall.

“My, my, all three of you! To what do I owe this happy...” Then he frowned, looking more closely at them. “But you don’t look happy. Is something wrong?”

Barrie could barely speak; her words were tripping over each other. “Merlin, I know you weren’t able to find Johnny Love in the afterworld. But is there any chance of reaching him if we tried to call him? Call him to come here?”

“You mean a séance?” Sailor asked, startled.

“A summoning,” Merlin corrected her gently.

Barrie had never done either before, and she didn’t care what it was called as long as there was a chance it might work. “Either. Both. Whatever might get us in touch with Johnny. I think it’s the only way we’re ever going to get to the truth.”

Merlin’s sky-blue eyes clouded as he considered. “Of course, my dear. It may not be the only way, but it is almost certainly the most direct way.” He paced, thinking. “For this, I think we need the library. But bring the oval mirror from your hallway, Barrie. I find that a particularly easy passageway myself.”

* * *

Barrie and Rhiannon ran and got the mirror, and Merlin directed them to set up the library of Castle House in a configuration that was remarkably like the kind of séance they’d all seen a hundred times in movies and on TV: a round table placed in the center with a cloth over it, candles lit in every corner of the room, the standing mirror set up near the table, a bell, a Bible and a candle placed on top of it.

Merlin directed them, “Now, we all sit at the table and join hands.”

The cousins looked at him.

“I feel like I’m in sixth grade again,” Sailor admitted, as they extended and clasped their hands.

“You can’t argue with a thousand years of results, my dear,” Merlin told her.

But once he began to speak, that grade school feeling disappeared entirely. It was partly his gravitas, the utter commitment he had to the mission and the ritual.

Well, if anyone would know how ghosts like to be summoned... Barrie thought.

“Now, you three must visualize this young man, as you most clearly remember him. Close your eyes....”

They obeyed him, letting his voice guide them.

“And now concentrate on his essence, the thing that made his soul most uniquely himself.” He let them sit for a while in the cool silence of the room.

Barrie could see the flickering of the candles on her eyelids as she pictured Johnny, that beautiful, golden, mesmerizing star.

And then Merlin’s voice spoke out, rich and strong. “We are gathered together in the name of the Unknowable Unknown, to request a communion with the departed. We seek the immortal soul of Johnny Love.”

The candles wavered in the darkness.

The antique clock began to strike, and Barrie nearly screamed aloud with the shock of it. She could feel her cousins jump in the chairs next to hers. The clock struck three times, and she shivered. The dead hour, it was called. 3:00 a.m. They had started just in time to catch that powerfully psychic time. From Rhiannon’s worried look Barrie knew that her cousin remembered the significance of the hour, as well.

Suddenly all the candles except for one at the far end of the room were snuffed out. All three cousins gasped at the sudden blackness.

Merlin said gently, “We welcome you. You are safe here. We welcome you.”

They all sat in suspended silence, their anticipation vibrating in the darkness. Barrie stared toward the mirror. It was hard to make out, but she thought—thought—she could see something moving in the mirror, the outlines of a human form, lit by the reflection of the faraway candle.

And then there was no question as a ghostly shape began to materialize in the mirror.

“Oh...my...God,” Sailor said so softly Barrie wasn’t even sure she’d spoken aloud.

In a backwash of light, they could now see a luminous figure: the unmistakable pale skin, blond hair and blue eyes of an Elven, silky blond strands falling in his face, the long golden smoothness of teenage muscles. The figure was hazy, but he didn’t seem to be wearing any clothes at all, and he was as beautiful as an angel. And so familiar...

“Johnny,” Barrie breathed. Her heart was beating a mile a minute.

“You called,” he said. His voice was faraway, not quite on this plane, but that mocking, teasing inflection was unmistakable. The image in the mirror rippled.

“We did. We wanted to talk to you....” Barrie suddenly found she was crying. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Ah, that’s sweet of you, love,” Johnny said in that rich and ever-so-slightly Irish voice. “It’s not so bad, really. Might even be getting used to it.”

“We—” Barrie started, and then she realized she had no idea at all how she was supposed to address a ghost. “Johnny, we miss you here. We want you to be happy. We want you to be at peace. But your—” she groped for the right word “—your passing was so hard, for so many people. We want to make it right, on this side.”

“I don’t understand,” the beautiful image in the mirror said dreamily, then wavered. For a moment Barrie was afraid he would disappear. But the image shimmered and clarified, and his blue eyes looked out from the mirror again.

“Johnny, were you murdered? Did someone kill you?”

The image in the mirror shook his golden hair in confusion. “Did someone kill me?” he repeated.

“You don’t know?” Barrie asked, equally confused. She could feel her cousins stir uneasily on either side of her; it was all so puzzling.

“How I got here?” He shimmered again, liquid gorgeousness, and his exquisite face turned haunted. “It’s so hard...so long ago...so dark...so much chaos...”

Barrie could barely see through her tears, but she could feel Sailor trembling by her side and saw tears running down her cousin’s face. And when she looked to Rhiannon, it was to see that she was fighting sobs, as well. The feeling she and her cousins shared galvanized her. She blinked through the water in her eyes, and she made her voice soft and strong.

“Johnny, I don’t know if you can see us. But we loved you. We love you. So many, many people loved you. We want you to be at peace.”

Barrie could feel Sailor and Rhiannon on both sides of her, their hands tightly squeezing hers. They were nodding, aligned with her.

“We do, Johnny.”

“We want to make it right.”

“We all do,” Barrie said. “Please, if you can, tell us...tell us what you know of your passing so we can make it right.”

Merlin said softly, “He may not know. He may not be able to say. That’s often the way in death by trauma.”

Maybe it was wrong, but Barrie had to know. She had to push. She leaned forward, looking into the mirror. “Johnny, did someone hurt you? Did someone kill you?”

“How very many ways there are to kill....” the golden reflection mused. “I can’t tell you, love. I would if I could.” And the beautiful, ethereal being stared out of the mirror, his presence so intense, so real, that Barrie froze and forgot that she was looking at a ghost, just a reflection of a ghost.

And he was looking back at her just as intensely, and suddenly a strange and knowing look crossed his face.

“But someone can. Oh, someone so close to you. Someone who was there. Ask Robbie,” the beautiful specter whispered.

“Robbie?” Barrie stammered.

Sailor and Rhiannon were frozen at her sides, their hands clenching hers.

“How can I ask Robbie?” Barrie asked, bewildered. “Robbie is dead.”

Across the table from her, Merlin said softly, “I think perhaps not, my dear.”

“Oh, you know Robbie. You know Robbie,” the beautiful ghost said. And the second repetition carried an inflection so carnal that Barrie understood what Johnny was saying.

Robbie.

Mick.

Mick was Robbie.

She felt herself losing her grip, even losing consciousness. The room around her no longer felt substantial.

“Ask Robbie,” said the ghost of Johnny Love. “Ask Robbie what happened.”

And everything went black.