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Ghost is— Virginia reeled back around and tore the phone from my hands with her magic before I could finish. It flew and smashed against the wall, much the same as the frog had. So much for that heavy-duty case.

RIP, my iPhone.

Drake would come. I knew he would. What he’d be able to do to help, now there was a question I hadn’t quite thought out.

I studied Virginia to see if any more of her had faded from view, thanks to her most recent use of magic, but it seemed she had lost no ground. Which meant the drain she’d placed on me was beginning to work.

No, no, no.What else could I do to stall her?

“Merlin, I’m scared!” I shouted, making Virginia positively glow withschadenfreude.

“I won’t leave you,” he promised from his spot at the window. “Even through the barrier spell, my presence is keeping you strong. And yours is also protecting me.”

“But the drain…” My words fell away as if my energy was also being sucked from me along with the magic.

Merlin stood and pressed his paws against the barrier, giving me a full view of his furry tummy.“It’s my magic you carry. A small part of it is going to Virginia, but most of it is able to escape to the barrier and come back to me. I can’t leave or the magic will have no place else to go.”

“Stop helping her!” Virginia raged, but she was also unable to cast through the barrier. To land an attack on Merlin, she’d need to go outside. And we all knew he was a much more powerful magic user than she was, especially with my additional energy flowing into him now.

“You’re stuck until you’ve generated enough magic to enact whatever death spell you have planned.” Merlin addressed the ghost directly, his voice cold and haughty.

To me, he said,“Ignore her. She can’t hurt you yet.”

“Oh, yes, I can!” Virginia screamed and then lunged and bit me again. She came at me so fast, I hadn’t been ready with my broom. Darn it!

This new wound throbbed with pain, but I could survive it. She couldn’t bite me to death, and right now my primary objective was to not die. Honestly, it was kind of my only objective.

“Memorize this list of ingredients,” Luna called to me from beside Merlin. “When your boyfriend gets here, send him straight to my garden. If he brings back what we need, Merlin and I can make a new binding potion.”

“But he’ll see you practicing magic and hear you talking!” I objected. Merlin had drilled it into my head from the start that I could not reveal magic to non-magical people. What was the point of surviving my ghostly encounter only to wind up in a dingy prison for the rest of my life?

Luna’s voice came to me strong and confident. “We have not revealed ourselves to him, so he will only hear meows. And his eyes will invent other scenarios to explain away our actions. Everything will be fine. Just be careful. Now memorize this list. Hawthorn, celandine…”

Luna shouted out at least ten ingredients, and we went over them again and again until she was sure I had them all right.

Virginia continued to spit and howl, but at worst she only made us repeat ourselves a few times to be heard over the din.

Why did it feel like my epic magical encounters always dragged out? Life-or-death confrontations in movies always happened so fast. There was no waiting for a ghost’s magic to recharge or biding time until the correct potion could be brewed.

Real magic was both more exciting and much more boring than the magic in the movies. At least the movies couldn’t kill me.

Virginia, on the other hand…

She swept toward me again, and I hit her away with the broom. I was getting kind of good at this. She rounded back to attack again, but a pair of bright white lights burst through the window, interrupting her efforts.

Drake had arrived.

24

Everything seemed to stop as Virginia and I waited mid-battle for Drake to turn off his engine, exit the car, and come inside.

He pounded on the front door.“Gracie! Is everything okay? Let me in!”

The barrier spell! Would he even be able to enter? And if he did, would he be able to get out again?

“Drake,” I cried out, my voice hoarse from all the screaming I’d been doing that night. “Don’t come in!”

“What’s going on?” he demanded, rattling the doorknob, but it remained shut tight.

“Don’t come in!” I begged, hoping he wouldn’t waste time arguing. I needed him to act and act fast. “Please, I need your help. I need you to go to a garden and get me a list of ingredients.”

Drake pounded on the door with all he had.“What? Gracie, why? What’s going on? Is the ghost back? Are you okay?”

“It’s here, and it’s very angry. I need to bind it before—”

“I’m not an it! Show some respect, you weak mortal!” Virginia hissed and swooped around the room.

“Whoa,” Drake cried, and his pounding stopped. “Was that the ghost? You’re right, it does sound angry!”