Page 70 of Haunting the Deep

Elijah and I look at each other.

Myra places the candle on the floor next to her. The tension leaves her face. “I have not seen one of Helen’s letters in many—” Myra’s fingers touch the envelope, and she jumps backward, examining her hand like she just got a bad shock.

“Mrs. Harper?” Elijah says, moving toward her. I step forward, too.

Myra looks shaken. “What on earth?” She stumbles and loses her balance. Elijah steadies her.

“Are you okay?” I ask. The girls stiffen at hearing the anxiety in my voice.

“Sam?” Alice says.

Myra begins to flicker, the same way Elijah flickered when Vivian summoned him from Mrs. Meriwether’s kitchen.

“What’s happening to her?” I ask.

Elijah holds Myra’s arm. “There must have been a spell on the letter.”

Myra tries to grab on to my hand, but her fingers go right through mine. Her eyes widen in fear. She speaks, but I can’t hear her. She reaches for me desperately with both arms like someone is dragging her backward against her will, and then she flickers out completely.

Elijah and I are silent, staring at the spot where Myra disappeared.

“Sam, I need you to tell us what happened,” Alice says with force, jolting me out of my shock.

“Myra vanished. Not because she wanted to. A spell,” I say. “It happened right after she touched the letter.”

Susannah stares at the letter. “Another spell in an object.”

“But I touched that letter multiple times, and nothing happened to me,” I say.

“Spells can be targeted to a person,” Alice says. “And I’m guessing to a spirit as well.”

I frown. “So then what? All of these things—the dress, the collar, the paintings—were actually sent forher,not us?”

“I believe someone hoped you would find her and potentially helped you to do so by putting all these objects in front of you,” Elijah says. “It is possible it would have happened if she had touched any of the other items as well.”

I repeat his words to the Descendants.

“And there we were happily doing the research and figuring out how to find her,” Susannah says.

“And all along we were being used to trap her,” Alice says in disbelief.

Mary drops the spell ingredients on the floor of the spare bedroom, and Elijah blinks out.

“Whoever messed with that painting probably knows their spell worked,” Alice says.

“Whoever messed with that painting is alive,” I say. “Spirits can’t do spells. But I also think they might have needed a spirit to help. It’s too risky otherwise and too easy to get caught.”

“Also, a spirit most likely delivered those packages and left that key on my nightstand,” Alice says.

Mary frowns. “Did you ever find out if it was your dad who moved the painting to the attic?”

I shake my head. “So then we agree it’s possible a person is doing spells and somehow using a spirit to help?”

“Agreed,” Susannah says. “Which makes figuring out who it is a million times harder.”

Alice rubs her eye. “Redd was right to warn us. What did we get ourselves into, you guys?”

We’re all quiet for a second.