"Ow, what did you do that for?"

"You're creeping me out!"

An old ceramic tile pulls up from the floor and aims straight for our heads. "Stop!" I yell, and hold my palm toward it. The tile shatters before it gets to us, but then the broken pieces swirl up together and come at us like a swarm of bees.

We turn and hold our capes up to protect our faces. I wince as the pieces rocket into my back and then clatter to the ground. "Let's do this before we get hurt!" I yell.

Dani nods. She takes out the witch ball from her pocket, and we stand back-to-back. The brewery is oddly still and I wonder if the ghosts have all stopped their fun to see what we're up to.

"Reveal!" we both yell.

I gasp as at least a dozen shadowy bodies appear around us in a circle. Their smoky faces-charred and blistered, some down to their spectral cheekbones-stare at us with wide empty eyes. They hover around us for another second and then the witch ball in my hand vibrates.

As if sensing a change, they all start to zip off in different directions, but I see one ghost being drawn toward the ball. The ghost stretches out longer and longer as it tries to get away, but a piece of it makes contact with the ball. In a flash of blinding light, it disappears, and then I see a faint green light pulsing around inside-winding its way around the gla.s.s threads.

"I got one!" I say turning to Dani.

"Me, too," she says, holding out her ball.

We watch the lights pulse and wane, and then a burnt mouth presses itself against the inside of Dani's ball. Its blistered tongue probes the gla.s.s for a second before dissolving back into an eerie green light. "Ew!" she says. "I've changed my mind about having a pet ghost!"

A loud crash bangs in the next room and I jerk my head toward the door. "Let's get out of here!"

I grab Dani's hand, and we run through the room. I hear a tinkle of falling gla.s.s behind us as we cross the threshold into the woods. More crashes and strange noises echo out after us as we stumble through the leaves and undergrowth until we find our brooms. We run toward the river and then sit at the edge of the bank.

"You know-after all that," I pant, "I don't feel so bad about trapping one of these things!"

I pick up a rock and toss it into the dark water.

Dani frowns and then pockets her witch ball in her cape. She looks over to me and sighs.

"Evan and I are never going to be together, are we?"

"What? Of course you are. You're together now."

Dani shakes her head. "No, not really." She sniffs and brushes a tear away. "You said I should talk to him about what it means to be a witch, right? Well, if I told him what just went down he'd probably throw up." She waves an arm back at the brewery. "And this is freaking tame compared to most of the things we do."

"Give him a chance, Dani. Talk to him when you go out to lunch."

"We slaughtered two people this week, do I fit that into the conversation before or after dessert?"

We stare at each other, our breath frosting in the air. I know she's right, but I don't want to admit it out loud.

"I don't know, but don't give up on Evan without at least trying. Here," I say, holding my hand out. "I'll take both b.a.l.l.s back. Go home, put on that skirt you like, and get ready to meet him at the library. When the time is right, you can tell him everything and give him a chance to accept you-the real you.

Dani's shoulders slump and then she picks up her broom. "I wish the real me didn't have anything to tell."

Several bricks come flying out of a broken window of the brewery, and thud in the dead leaves a few feet behind us. Dani shakes her head sadly. "I think I want to fly home alone. Do you mind?"

"No, go ahead."

I take the witch ball from her and she mounts her broom. She gives me a half smile and heads up. A loud moan emits from the ball in my hand. I grimace and stuff it into my other pocket.

The b.a.l.l.s rattle and jump in my cape, and one ghost lets out a long plaintive howl.

Yeah, catching ghosts was a stupid idea.

So is dating people outside the coven.

I wish it weren't true, but I know Dani was right. Evan isn't the kind of guy who would be okay with all of this.

I mount my stick and head home, thanking G.o.d that Connor is.

12.

I double around Connors house to check, if his mom's car is gone. With no sign of her black Mercedes, I head down to the backyard.

My body warms, imagining myself in his arms with no worries about our moms.

I land by the back door and knock. Footsteps get louder, and Connor pulls back the lace curtain covering the window in the door. I rush past him into his kitchen and uncloak.

"I almost thought you weren't going to come," he says as he shuts the door.

I slip into his arms and let him kiss me hard. "Mmmmm." I kiss him again. I dance out away from him and take off my cape.

Connor looks me up and down. "But it was worth the wait."

I smile and blush. "My mom ambushed me before I could leave. I had to test out a new witch ball for her."

"Did you catch a ghost?" he asks, eyes wide.

"Yeah," I say surprised. "How did you know?"

"It's part of my plan." Connor grins and then he bites his lip like he's trying really hard to decide something. "I have to tell you-I can't hold it in any longer." He grabs my hand and leads me up the stairs.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"To that room I was telling you about."

My heart revs up a bit. I wasn't sure if he would show me the room. At the very least, I imagined I was going to have to do some begging!

He leads me up the dark stairwell. I've never been upstairs before and I shake my head at the rust-colored paint. I'm about to roll my eyes, thinking it was just like Helena to pick such a morbid color, but maybe it's left over from the previous coven leader. Connors house is one of the original coven houses from after our third move, and the narrow halls and low ceilings start to make me feel claustrophobic.

When we get to the top I look down the long skinny hall, wondering which room is his and if the secret room might be hidden behind a bookcase or something.

"It's down at the end," he says. "I shouldn't be showing you, but I have to share this with someone, and ..." He squeezes my hand. "You're the someone."

I follow him into a large room with bare walls. A single bed and desk sit under the eaves. A small silver bell sits on the desk, but otherwise the room is empty. Connor turns to me and the excitement in his eyes makes me smile despite the fact I'm not seeing anything all that interesting.

I look around, trying to figure out what's got him all jacked up. "I thought there would be some stuff in here," I say, my eyes darting around for something to get excited about, too.

Connor laughs. "Use the reveal spell."

"Oh," I say, finally understanding what he means. "The room isn't hidden, the stuff is."

He nods and I hold my palms out and then slowly walk in a circle. "Reveal!"

The room shimmers and sparkles and then I see everything-walls covered with shelves and cabinets and boxes. Several tables are br.i.m.m.i.n.g with all sorts of statuary and articles of clothing. Two long desks with thick, carved legs- one with a computer and scanner on it, now sit where the bed and small desk were. I notice the silver bell is now next to the mouse pad.

"There must be hundreds of things in here," I say, walking around, "maybe thousands. And what are these?" I say, pointing to a pair of long, twisted horns mounted on a piece of highly polished wood. "They don't belong on top of any animal head I've ever seen."

"I haven't identified them yet," Connor says. "But it's a safe bet they're demon. I e-mailed a photo to a demonologist to see if she can place what cla.s.s of demon and what realm of h.e.l.l they might be from." Connor holds out his hands to his side. "So what do you think?"

I see a pair of fuzzy fur mittens and resist the urge to pick them up. After what happened with the Ouroboros, I know it's not safe to randomly examine anything in here. "Honestly, I don't know what to think. Is this all stuff we've collected from hunts?"

"Yeah, three hundred or so odd years worth of stuff. Some of which are the only remnants of the coven after the big fire in the 1800s. Everything in here is covered by a series of protective spells to keep it safe.

"But here's the deal-I'm in the middle of cataloging everything, and then we're going to start auctioning things off. My mom cast a spell on the bell. I just have to ring it, and the room reveals for me so I can work when she's not here."

"Your big plan is to sell all of this?" I ask, wondering how selling a few things is going to bring on any great change in the coven.

"Not all of it-some of it we have to save, but once I have a picture and description for everything, the inner circle- which will include you very soon . . ." He smiles at me like I should be totally stoked about this, and I'm wondering if he's forgotten what Margo and Sascha said last night. ". . . will go through and decide what to keep and what to sell. But Jules, we could possibly make millions with the things in here."

I shake my head. "Do you really think the typical eBay shopper is gonna be looking for things like demon horns or, or-vests with enchanted eyes?"

"Oh, the Maiden's Vest! There are actually some people very interested in it. It's a great story. It's uh, very old- Northern European in origin. A group of young seers were brought to a temple in the Carpathian Mountains, faced out in different directions, and then bound in place.

Some sort of ceremony took place, and their eyes were plucked out and sewn onto the vest.

Whoever is wearing the vest can see what they see."

My eyes widen, wondering just what's so great about this story.

"I tried it on, and it's not just the surrounding mountains you can see." He shakes his head and gives me a "kid in the candy store" look. "You can cast the sight out as far as you want in any direction and see anything around the world. I actually was able to get a glimpse of you!"

Connor's face is flushed with excitement, but a creeping sense of dread fills me. "You actually put that thing on and spied on me?"

"Jules! I wasn't spying on you, but I had to try the vest on to see if it still worked, and you were the first person that came to mind! But the woman who helped me dig up the info contacted some people who are willing to pay big bucks for that baby. And none of this is going on eBay- we have several auction companies that deal with supernatural items interested in representing the coven."

I look around the room some more and focus on some of the items. A shield propped up against the wall on a table that emits a bluish light sits next to a small replica of the Statue of Liberty. I lean in for a closer look, and see fangs on Lady Liberty. I notice the fur mittens have small mouths with tiny, razor-sharp teeth sticking out. Next to the mittens is a purple-and-blue wool hat, and I immediately think how warm it would be to wear it flying home later tonight.

"That's not anything weird, is it?" I ask, pointing to the hat. It looks so soft and I'm overwhelmed with the desire to pick it up and put it on.

"Make it reveal," he says.

I put my palm above it. "Reveal." The wool hat morphs into a plain brown derby.

"It's an ugly, old-man's hat." I look at Connor. "I'll bet you get top dollar for that one!"

"The hat a.s.sumes the shape of something the viewer would want to put on. To me it always looks like a Yankees cap. But if you put it on it'll clamp down on your head . . ." Connor pauses.

"Until your skull is crushed," he says quietly.

"Lovely." I close my eyes for a few seconds and try to get the horrific image I've just conjured out of my mind.

I walk over to the desk and I'm about to pull out the chair to sit but turn to Connor. "Will the chair arms reach up and strangle me if I try to sit on it?"

Connor frowns. He's obviously picked up on the fact that I'm more disturbed than excited about his new venture. No.

I pull the chair out and swivel to face him. "Do you really think it's a good idea sending some of these things back out into the world?"

"It's not all evil stuff-there's a ring that. . ."

"Bites its own tail. I've experienced that one firsthand, remember?"

Connor squeezes his eyes shut and sighs. "There's a ring," he starts again, "that makes the wearer feel more confident, and there's a small metal statue of a nightingale that sings beautiful songs. There's a lot of stuff in here that isn't bad."

"But you were planning on selling the very charming Maiden's Vest though, right?"

"Only if you all okay it," Connor says, all traces of excitement gone from his voice. "You're in charge. I was just trying to find a way to contribute-to stop being dead weight around here."

How did we cross over into this territory again? "You're not dead weight! Look, I know you're excited about this new auction thing, but I'm just afraid selling some of these things would put the people we're trying to protect at risk."

"Well, there are a few kinks to work out before we're sure what we can try to sell, anyway, but it's the ghost b.a.l.l.s we'll start out with."

"Was that your idea?" I ask, hoping the answer is no.

He nods and furrows his brows. He's probably worried I'm going to jump down his throat about them. I guess I can't really blame him-I seem to be doing that a lot lately.

"I uh, heard my mom talking with your mom. They were trying to figure out some, you know, stuff and they got to talking about the witch b.a.l.l.s. I wondered aloud if they could trap a spell in it, then why not a ghost? They did some research and as you saw today-you can."

"How much would someone pay for a ghost, do you suppose?" I ask.

The corners of his mouth turn up ever so slightly. "Thousands of dollars. We already have a waiting list of people who've expressed an interest."

I imagine some rich, old crackpot showing off one of the charred spirits I'd trapped today.

Even though the ghosts were on the nasty side, I get a sick feeling about treating them like some sort of commodity to be sold off to the highest bidder.

"Besides the fact that there's something kind of twisted about selling someone's ghost," I say, "do we really need the extra money?"

Connor turns away from me and opens a small drawer in a cabinet. "Don't you ever want more?" he asks quietly.