“That’s a lie, Uncle Willis, and you know it.” Cooper crossed his arms, his face rock solid. “Keep it up, smartasses, and I’ll use you all for target practice instead of therapy when this debacle of Parker’s is over.”
Which particular debacle was he talking about? I was stacking them up like planes on the runway at LAX.
I turned back to Doc. “Okay, let’s do this. But don’t let her leave anything behind when she’s done in here.” I tapped his temple. I leaned in and gave him one last peck on the lips. “That’s a good luck kiss from Cooper.”
Cooper cursed. “Just get your ass on the damned couch, Nyce, and let’s get this freak show started.”
Without further ado, Doc took his place on the couch. He was a little too long for it, so his feet hung over the armrest.
“Now what?” I asked Zelda.
“You are to sit on the table facing him and hold the mirror so you can look into it. But whatever happens, you cannot turn the mirror toward him.”
I picked up the mirror, pulled the table a few inches closer to the couch, and then took my place at Doc’s side while facing him. My chest felt tight, my breathing shallow, and we hadn’t even started yet.
In spite of what Doc said, I still didn’t trust Prudence. She’d proven in the past that her sense of humor was warped. I wouldn’t put it past her to do something to Doc, or any one of the other guys, that would knock me on my ass again—literally or not.
“Ready,” I said, peeking into the mirror. The face looking back was my plain old black-and-blue mug again, thankfully. No dripping blood or hanging flesh to be seen.
When I looked over at Zelda, she’d opened her eyes, only they were no longer green. Two white orbs stared in my direction. Zelda’s forehead seemed taut, too. Her mouth and cheeks were pulled tight, and the cords in her neck were showing.
It appeared that Prudence had joined our parlor show after all. Did whatever she was planning to do to Doc require her to have a physical presence? Or did she just want to be here to see this in person—or rather inside a person?
“Now, Scharfrichter,” Prudence said, opening and closing Zelda’s mouth a couple of times as if oiling her jaw. “Let us see if you can manage not to bungle this as you do everything else.”
“Your confidence in my abilities is inspiring, Prudence.” I would have liked to whack the uppity Executioner upside the head with my family mirror if only Doc weren’t about to let her into his head and Zelda wasn’t the one who’d take the brunt of my blow.
Instead, I took a calming breath and stared into those empty white eyes. “Let’s get this shitshow over with.”
Chapter Twenty
Once upon a time not so very long ago in a small mountain town known for several bigger than life historical figures like Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Seth Bullock, there lived a single mom who believed ghosts weren’t real, enchanted mirrors were only found in fairy tales, and love was for suckers.
Boy howdy, life had sure taken a torpedo and blown those beliefs to smithereens.
Now, here I sat in a haunted house with a bossy ghost who liked to take her frustrations out on me, a magic mirror possibly full of incredible terrors, and a sexy medium who held my heart in his hands.
What was next? Little green men in flying saucers? Unicorns with wings? A cyclops named Burt?
“Constable,” Prudence called to Cooper, bringing me back to the situation at hand—Doc lying on the couch and me cuddling an alchemist’s looking glass. “Move behind Violet so that you can see into the mirror as well.”
Cooper joined Doc and my floor show, staring at me in the mirror. “I’d better not end up with another black eye from this, Parker.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
He tugged on my hair.
Some things never changed, whether there were ghosts and imps or not.
“We’re ready,” I told Prudence while peering at Doc around the side of the mirror. His eyes were closed, his breathing slow and steady. I’d seen him slip into this state several times before the start of a séance. As for me, my chest felt tight and my eyes were on the verge of bugging out, so I tried to mimic Doc and take long, steady breaths. The smell of honeybuns still lingered this close to the couch, as well as Doc’s cologne. Together, they made my mouth water and remember happier times filled with all kinds of sugar.
“Medium, listen to my words carefully as I lead you along,” Prudence said to Doc. “If you veer from my instructions even slightly during this process, we might not be able to rein you back in after we are finished here.”
“What do you mean, ‘might not’?” I said to her while frowning at Cooper in the mirror. “This is too dangerous.” To the tall medium with his feet hanging off the end of the couch, I said, “Forget it, Doc. We’ll find another way.”
I reached toward him.
Zelda’s hand clamped onto my forearm, her fingernails biting into my skin, her grip bruising.
I looked over. Her white eyes were inches from my face, her lips pulled back in a fierce snarl. “Do not touch him until he is ready, Scharfrichter, or you might lose him for good. Do you understand?”
“Yes. Okay.” I pulled back. When she released her hold on me, there were half-moon fingernail marks dug deep into my skin. Two were bleeding a little.
Jesus, Prudence was intense.
“Are you ready, Medium?”
I waited for Doc to nod or reply, but he did neither.
“Then we shall begin,” she continued, settling back into the chair.
“He didn’t answer you,” I pointed out.
“Yes, he did, only he spoke on a level above your abilities.”
I sighed, keeping my fists to myself. But one
