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My cats couldn’t get inside to help me, but I could still hear them at the window. I could still talk to them, let them guide me in this battle. I hurled myself down the hall, passing straight through the enemy ghost, and raced to the living room window.

Merlin sat waiting as I unlatched the window and pried it open.“Gracie, behind you!” he shouted.

I dodged to the side to avoid another painful bite from my spectral opponent.

Virginia passed through the window, screamed in rage, and then hurled herself back the other way.

“She used most of her magic to create her barrier spell,” Luna called from out of sight. “It’s why half her body’s missing. Even with the drain she placed on you, she is regenerating very slowly.”

Yes, Luna was right! By silencing me, she’d lost her stumpy little arms. Her figure now ended at the collarbone. If she cast another big spell, she might blink herself out of existence.

The ghost drove at me again, and I leapt out of the way. Were all these physical attacks meant to distract me while she recharged her magic? And what was the worst she could do to me without magic? Bite me again? That would hurt, but I already knew I could survive it.

Well, two could play at her little game of wait and see.

I ran to the closet and grabbed my broom.

Virginia laughed at me, mocking my choice of weapon. But then I slammed it into her face, grody bristles first, and sent her flying backward.

“You’ll pay for that!” she promised, her green transforming into a blazing emerald as she spat curses at me. “Freeze!”

My feet fused to the floor. I could still move my upper body, but the lower part was now stuck like a fly in honey.

As soon as she muttered this magical command, the rest of her ghostly shoulders disappeared from view. Now she was just a bobbing head and a neck.

“You can’t kill me without killing yourself,” I said as if this were fact and not just my current theory. She’d told me she was now immortal as a ghost, but that didn’t mean she could stay on our earthly plane for long.

“I’m already dead, thanks to you!” she bandied back. As her frustration grew, her words came out faster, more slurred together.

“Gracie!” Merlin shouted from the window. I glanced through Virginia and saw both he and Luna sitting on the sill now.

“We can bind her, but I’ll need ingredients from my garden,” the she-cat yelled.

“No, the frog didn’t work.” If it had, this whole thing would have stopped almost as soon as it started. If only.

Luna didn’t give up, however. “It was too old and lost its potency, but a new batch will work.”

“I can’t leave.”

“Try the door,” Merlin shouted. Thank you, captain obvious.

“I can’t. I’m stuck.” I motioned toward my legs and let out a groan.

This whole time Virginia was shouting insults at us but not actually casting any more spells. It seemed I was right about her not having the requisite power to finish the deed she’d come to commit. She probably hadn’t realized how much the barrier spell would take out of her. It’s not like she was a real witch, anyway. She’d never had magic in life and was inexperienced with it in death.

I scanned the room, all the while searching for some kind of solution that would unstick me from the floor. I spotted my phone lying on the coffee table a good six feet away. I couldn’t reach out and grab it, but I did have a broom in my hands. If I could distract Virginia long enough to get ahold of it, I could send an SOS text to Drake.

Luckily he’d insisted on programming my number into his phone after our failed date. He’d also offered to help with my ghost, should I need it. And I definitely needed it right now.

“Hey, loser!” I shouted loud enough for Virginia to hear me over her deranged ranting. “Think fast!”

23

I pretended to cast a spell. Yes, I couldn’t use the magic within me, and, yes, Virginia knew that. But thankfully my ruse still worked.

I raised the hand that wasn’t holding my broom and made an elaborate twisty gesture. “Merlin, lightning!” I cried.

Sure enough, Virginia spun around just in time to see Merlin summon a bolt of lightning right outside the window. His magic couldn’t cross the barrier she’d erected, but the ghostess couldn’t help but watch transfixed as Merlin’s attempt to come to my aid “failed.”

Quick as a shot, I swept my broom to the side, then pulled it back to me like an oar. This sent my phone skittering across the floor and straight toward me. Thank goodness I’d invested in a good phone case, or this plan would not have worked.

I stooped down still rooted to the spot and grasped the phone in my hands. With a quick swipe to unlock it, I opened my contacts and typed a quick message, both of my thumbs flying impossibly fast over the screen.

Drake, SOS!

Come help me!

I sent each text separately, not knowing when Virginia would manage to wrest the phone from my hands and silence my cries for help.