Page 44 of The Sisters of Crimson House

“How is this possible?” Charley asked, crouching so she could see it better. How many times had she stood in this exact spot, delivering meals, making jokes that never landed? The lines of the Star were rough and crudely drawn, likely done with a pocketknife and in a rush. She knew that the pentagram itself represented the harmony of the elements, but these others were a mystery to her. An open hand crowned the top of the Star; she could guess that symbolized her family. Moving clockwise, there was a vertical line wrapped inside a spiral, then a snake eating its tail, what looked like two brackets facing away from each other while connected by a vertical line, and finally, a bird, its beak a crude triangle. A memory stirred inside her. “Snake eating its tail. Ouroboros.” A lifetime of burying her head in mythological tomes was paying off. “But what do the symbols mean?” she asked, unable to take her eyes off the carvings.

Miranda moved around the Star in a clockwise pattern, studying it.

“No clue,” Miranda admitted. “My job was to look pretty and perform for the customers. But if I had to guess,” she said, peering closer, “they’re for protection.”

Charley looked at the V on her hand. I can’t save you, child. Sadie’s heart breaking as she said it. Her ghost was already here, even though she couldn’t see her.

“That’s why she refused to leave,” said Charley, stunned by this revelation. “Sadie sat in the middle of the circle, right here,” she said, pointing at the space where her chair had been. For years, she’d walked over an innocuous brown-and-red floral rug while delivering meals to Sadie, oblivious to the magical portal under her feet.

“The symbol of the Star alone would not have been powerful enough to keep passengers at bay,” said Miranda, studying the circle. “As you’ve now experienced, it can work the opposite magic; it almost functions as a spiritual magnet. But with Sadie positioned in the middle, these symbols working with her energy?” She pointed to its center. “It had to have worked like a supercharged battery.” The Star on the floor was jagged, elongated on one side and shorter on the other, but unlike the Stars on the palms of the Bryde women, additional symbols were carved next to the points. Charley ran her finger across the rudimentary bird.

“The whispers,” said Charley, realizing. “I would hear sounds on the stairs, Sadie talking to herself. She was protecting the house this entire time.” It was that simple. Why hadn’t Sadie just told her? Why had trusting her with this secret never been an option?

“This whole time, Sadie was up here casting spells like Gandalf facing down Saruman,” said Zavier, stunned at the thought. “I thought she’d lost her mind,” he added, saying what they all felt.

“She was protecting everyone in this house,” said Charley, the truth of it settling over her with startling clarity. “From Caroline.” None of them looked at the attached bathroom, but Charley could feel how hard they worked not to. Not to think about the message taunting them on the wall.

“Now that you’re developing the Star, my guess is that Sadie’s original protection wards for Crimson House no longer hold,” said Miranda.

Charley looked at her palm. A cold sweat along her temples as she thought of the colonel leering at her from the entry. A woman with no face trying to swallow her whole inside the Luciann Theater.

“If you’re going to invite Sadie back into this space,” Miranda continued, “then we have to work to make sure you’re locked up tight from anyone that would try to stop you,” she added. “Caroline has already tried and likely will again.”

“I’m inviting Sadie?” asked Charley, surprised. Miranda was the vessel. This was her superpower, her job. A feat she’d performed hundreds of times. It was one thing to dream of the opportunity to peek through the veil. Now she was plunging right through it.

“It was your idea to reach out to her. And I’m not the only one with the means to do it,” she said, nodding at Charley’s palm. “But there’s something you should know first.” She hesitated.

“What is it?” she asked. What could possibly make a difference now?

“Out there, on the other side, it’s a different set of rules. You will hear things, see things,” she said carefully. “It doesn’t always make sense.”

Charley smiled at her. “Well, if it makes any difference,” she said, shrugging and smiling at Astrid, “none of the things happening to me do, so what do I have to lose?”

“Bottoms up then,” said Miranda with a grim smile. Taking the salt, Miranda turned the canister upside down and slowly walked in a wide circle around the Star, whispering under her breath as she did.

“What is that, a spell?” Charley asked, watching her work.

“It’s my apologies to Sadie for getting salt in the cracks of these already trashed hundred-and-fifty-year-old floors.” Miranda crouched, smoothing the salt around the floor in a clockwork motion. “It’s been said that my gift was inviting the spirits in,” said Miranda, wiping her hands on her jeans she’d changed into for the occasion. Satisfied with her work, she stood and looked at Charley. “A more useful talent is making sure they stay out. The salt creates a barrier for protection.”

“Or a switchblade,” countered Charley with a smirk.

“Can’t take that where you are going,” Miranda replied. She sat on the floor by one the points of the Star, motioning for Charley to do the same. Zavier and Astrid joined so that they formed a loose circle.

“I was taught by Mom, who was in turn taught by Sadie, who always maintained that boundaries equaled strength.” Miranda held up a lit candle. “We are a circle of protection around you. But you in turn must create a circle of protection around yourself. Visualize this light as the light of spirit surrounding you.”

A memory rose unbidden. The night she’d tried so hard to forget: the rage at her sister, the simple sacrilegious act of extinguishing a candle that had been put into place to protect her sister. To protect them all.

Zavier piped up from his corner: “Any spirit in particular?”

“You try opening yourself up to entities who wouldn’t mind taking your body out for a joyride,” said Miranda. “I’m grateful to any angel, spirit, or god who would watch my back.”

“Duly noted,” he said, settling back to watch.

Charley studied her hand, the V shape on her palm a pale pink like she’d doodled it with a Sharpie. “Will this even work with an incomplete Star?”

“Don’t look at it as incomplete,” explained Miranda, watching the flame from the candle dance. “It’s more like a door that’s been cracked open. It’s not open all the way, but like we saw, the spirits can and will try to get through.” Charley thought about the way Caroline had engulfed her at the theater, flooding her system. Miranda set down the candle in the center of the Star, looking faraway. “They miss being alive. Sometimes the chance to squeeze inside a nice warm body is too much temptation to resist.”

“And what if you’re not strong enough to kick them out?” Charley said carefully.