“This way,” Hilda said, opening the door.
“It’s the only way,” I said blankly. But I followed her.
“Unless we want to go back the way we came, you are correct, though I have no interest in returning to the store. Do you?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Good. Then we must press onwards until the end.”
The door led to a craggy stairwell, just like I had seen before when Frank led us down to his altar. However, the rocks somehow felt closer than they had before, and as we moved down the steps, they seemed to close in on us.
“That is just an illusion, dear,” Hilda said. “All of this is very clever, but it is nothing but smoke and mirrors.”
At the bottom of the stairs we came to the rock door with no lever or handle. Hilda pressed her hand against it. When she couldn’t open it with her hands, she turned to me.
“How did he get in here?”
“He pressed his hand on the wall and said something. I don’t remember the spell.”
“I very much doubt that. If you want to become a witch, you must remember. A witch never forgets a spell. Well, think. Think, think.”
“This is the kind of thing Katie would remember.”
“We don’t have Katie. We have you.”
“I think it was Emegtu…Ligotiu…Reanta.”
Hilda sighed loudly to convey her disappointment. “You think, or you know?”
“I think,” I said, my voice trembling.
“Well, I suppose it will have to do.” She placed her hand on the door. “Just like this?”
“Yes.”
“Emegtu Ligotiu Reanta,” she said.
The green light shone on Hilda, and when it was done scanning her up and down, it turned red.
“That’s not good,” Hilda said.
There was a thundering crack on the stairwell, and the rocks fell onto the ground. As they did, they cracked and broke open, revealing rock monsters underneath. Their eyes glowed red and they moved toward Hilda, their legs smashing into the ground with each laborious step.
“Perhaps I was wrong about the illusions. But we don’t have time for this,” Hilda said. “Evapori.”
A great wave of energy crashed out from Hilda, and the rock monsters cracked in half and fell down, dead. As the rock figures crumbled, so did the door. It split down the middle and fell open, revealing the green light oozing out from inside.
“That was easier than I thought,” Hilda said. “But harder than I hoped.”
Hilda disappeared inside the room, and I followed, worried about what we would find but happy to have somebody as strong as Hilda on my side.
Chapter 55
Green light emanated from every crevice inside the room. The shelves along the walls that once held different body parts were all empty, and Frank stood behind the altar, chanting and screaming.
“Hades, great god of the underworld! I call to you!”
Surrounding him on the altar were the dozens of jars missing from the shelves around the room. In the center of the altar was the dragon fire, still burning brightly. Frank began to unscrew its lid, but Hilda ran forward.
“No!” she shouted.
Frank swung his hand, and Hilda rose into the air with his motion. “Ah, so nice of you to come, Mrs. Feffernoose. It’s not a party without you.”
“I know what you are doing, Frank, and you can’t bring her back.”
“Of course I can!” Frank shouted. “You told me how, all those years ago.”
“I told you nothing. My lessons were meant for Gina’s ears only.”
“Yes,” he said, beckoning her to come closer, and she hovered ever closer at his command. “Everything you said was for Gina, and yet, I heard it too. You thought I was too stupid to put it all together, but I wasn’t. Now, I have it all, without your help.”
“No!” I shouted. “With mine.”
Frank smiled. “Ah, my little protégé. Yes, with your help, too. Together, we have the means to bring back my dear wife, and once we’ve done that, we can bring back your friend as well.”
“That’s crazy!” I said, stepping forward. “You’re going to destroy the world!”
“A small price to pay to be reunited with my beloved. I’ve waited years for a rift to open close by so that I could use it, and now it has come! I will not be denied!”
I shook my head. “But they’re not the same when they come back, not after so long. Katie told me—”
“What does she know?” Frank shouted. “I have studied this my whole life, and she has been dead for days.”
“It’s true,” Hilda said. “My lessons to Gina were a theoretical construct designed around a ghost who was still on Earth, unable to move on. You can’t bring back somebody from the rift. Not when they’ve been dead as long as Gina has been.”
“Liar!” Frank bellowed. He hurled his arm through the air, and sent Hilda crashing into the empty shelves. Then he turned his attention to me. “Don’t listen to them. Don’t listen to anyone. We can do it.”
“I don’t want to do it. Katie wouldn’t want this. Gina wouldn’t want this.”
“How do you know?” Frank shouted. “You never knew her.” He bowed his head. “We would have been married for twenty years this month. It’s been so hard without her.”
“It’s supposed to be hard!” I screamed, moving closer. “That’s what this whole thing is about, this life! It’s hard.”
“You know nothing, little girl!” Frank said, raising his arm. With it, my body rose into the air. With the flick of his wrist he sent me flying into the same shelf as Hilda, and when I hit the ground those shelves came crashing down on both of us.
“Hades! God of the underworld!” Frank said, tilting his head back. “I summon you!”
A bolt of lightning crashed through the room. I closed my eyes to avoid the flash, and when I looked again there was a charred spot where the lightning had struck. In front of it, a tall, bearded, dark-skinned man, almost as tall as room itself, ambled forward. He was dressed in a toga and carried a golden sword in
