“What do you sense?” Henner asked.

  “It’s getting stronger.” She halted in front of the fold-down ironing board. “The magic is strongest here.”

  I walked up behind her and holding out my hands, I could feel she was right. Energy was blaring from the ironing board.

  “There’s a current that’s actually coming from behind there,” Wanda continued as she pointed at the ironing board and studied it for a few seconds. The board was mounted in a rectangular depression in the wall so it wouldn’t stick too far into the room.

  “What is this?” Wanda asked as she studied it.

  The guys looked at each other.

  “It looks like an ironing board to me,” Marty remarked, frowning at Henner as if to silently ask, ‘what is she talking about?’

  Wanda hesitated a moment before she took hold of the ironing board and pulled it down. It locked into place at waist height. Inside the depression, there was a doorknob set into the wall. No one would have known it was there unless they knew to pull down the ironing board.

  Now that we could see the doorknob, the seam of the door frame molding around it was suddenly obvious. There was definitely a door there.

  “Where does this door go?” Wanda asked as she turned to face Henner, who didn’t appear as excited as she was by the prospect of the hidden room.

  “It’s just a broom closet,” Henner replied, “but it hasn’t been used in years. I’d almost forgotten it was there and I’m pretty sure Mrs. Nicholson never even knew about it. Or, if she did know about it, she didn’t store anything in it.”

  “The magic is strongest behind this door.” Wanda extended her hand and rotating it so her palm was facing down, placed the top of her hand against the door. She paused for a few seconds before facing me with a nod.

  “I can feel something thrumming away. Whatever is beyond that door—it’s powerful.”

  I nodded. “I can feel it from here.”

  “So can I,” Finn said.

  “Then you can’t open it,” Marty announced, shaking his head. “Who knows what could happen? It could explode, monsters could come pouring out… the list goes on.”

  Wanda frowned at him. “We have to open it if we want to find out where the power is coming from.”

  “I agree with Marty,” Finn said, and looked up at me with concern in his eyes.

  Henner looked at me then and sighed. “Wanda’s right.”

  “Someone put a powerful charm on this door,” Wanda continued as she took hold of the knob.

  “I’m not sure I want Finn here for this,” I said as my little guy took my arm and shook his head.

  “I’m not leaving without you.”

  Wanda turned to look at us both. “I can control whatever energy might come out,” she said. “It doesn’t feel… threatening.”

  Either way, I didn’t want to subject my son to whatever this mysterious energetic force was, so I walked him to the far corner of the room where Marty took his hand and tried to console him. But, Finn only had eyes for me.

  “I don’t want you to go near that door, Mom,” he whispered. “I want you to stay right here with me.”

  I started to ask Wanda if she needed me but, instead, she rotated the handle and the door pulled open easily—as though someone had kept it well-oiled and used it on a regular basis. The door swung open into the laundry room and we all stared at it, shocked expressions arising on each person’s face.

  Instead of a broom closet full of cleaning supplies, we found ourselves staring into a black void of nothing. No walls appeared where the closet ended—it was just pitch black.

  A void.

  Nothing.

  Chapter Seven

  Marty gasped. “What is… that?”

  I looked over at him, then at Henner, but shook my head because I couldn’t give them an answer.

  “It’s a veil.” A glowing deep red line shone at the void’s margins all around the perimeter of the door.

  “A veil?” Henner repeated.

  Wanda nodded. “It’s been enchanted using powerful magic.”

  “Betanya’s?” I asked as she turned to face me and nodded.

  “But what’s it doing here?” Henner asked.

  “You think this… whatever it is, reached out and grabbed the housekeeper?” Marty asked, looking at Henner, who shrugged.

  Wanda shook her head. “That’s not how a veil works. Look.” She ran her hand over the black surface in front of her. When she did, a bright red seam appeared down the middle of the otherwise pitch blackness. The seam glimmered for a few minutes, but then vanished as soon as she pulled her hand back.

  “What was that red line thing that just appeared?” Finn asked, frowning.

  Wanda didn’t turn to look at him. “That’s the breach.”

  “The breach?” I repeated.

  She nodded. “It means the barrier has been broken… and recently, I’d say.”

  “The barrier,” Henner started, and Wanda nodded again.

  “Then someone has recently gone into that… thing?” Marty asked.

  “Or come out of it,” Wanda responded with a shrug.

  As far as I was concerned, I’d never seen a veil before, so this was all new to me. Good thing Wanda was familiar with it.

  “Yes, someone has recently gone into it or come out,” she continued, turning to face me. “Do you have any potions that could help us open a veil and, more specifically, this one?”

  I took a deep breath. “Astral travel potions are dangerous, Wanda—.”

  “They’re only dangerous if you don’t know how to use them.” She crossed her arms against her chest, her lips tight.

  “Do you know how to use them?”

  “Of course,” she scoffed. “I’m a witch. And veils are the first thing you learn—it’s like Magic 101.”

  “Well, that’s good… I guess.”

  “Regardless,” Wanda continued as she speared me with her narrowed gaze. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “I was sort of, um, brewing something that would part a veil, yes, but it’s highly experimental,” I responded and the more I thought about it, the worse the idea sounded. Yet, Wanda was clinging to my words. “I don’t have a lot of experience with these types of potions, I should add. I couldn’t guarantee it would even work.”

  “What potion are you thinking of in particular?” Marty asked.

  “It’s called Mystic Veil, and it’s used in psychic endeavors to break through the astral plane.”

  “If it’s so dangerous, why did you make it, Mom?” Finn asked, giving me a worried expression.

  “Once I perfected the recipe, I was going to give it to the mediums at Spook Society,” I answered on a shrug. “I thought they could use it for calling spirits, but this is…” I hesitated as I looked at the swirling blackness beyond the small doorway in front of us. “This is a whole different class of dangerous.”

  “Dangerous spangerous,” Wanda said, making a face. “I say phooey.” Then she smiled broadly at each of us.

  “What’s that smile for?” I asked with regret.

  “It’s a smile that’s supposed to reveal the obvious.”

  “Which is?”

  “That we need that potion, Poppy.”

  “Wanda,” I started, but she immediately shook her head.

  “There’s no way we can’t investigate this,” she insisted. “It’s not every day the veil to another dimension just crops up in someone’s house and… who knows… maybe whatever’s behind that veil can… help me.”

  “Help you?”

  She nodded. “I’m just about out of ideas regarding how to sever this blood bond and I hope I don’t have to remind you that it’s only a matter of time before Rupert comes after me.”

  I frowned at her. “You don’t have to remind me.”

  “But, what does this veil have to do with any of that?” Henner asked.

  Wanda faced him. “I don’t know that it has anything to do with it, but if there’s a chance there are answers behind that blackness, I want to find them.”

  “Answers in the broom closet?” Henner asked.

  “You and I both know that’s anything but a broom closet,” Wanda responded as she looked at him. “And, I’m fairly sure this little mystery we’ve just discovered might also answer some of the questions you’ve had,” she paused as she breathed in deeply, her eyes still glued to Henner. “Questions about Betanya and her disappearance.”

  Henner nodded, but didn’t say anything. Wanda continued.

  “I vote we break for the next however long it takes Poppy to retrieve the Mystic Veil and then we meet here again once she has it in hand.”

  Henner nodded, Marty appeared thoughtful, and Finn just appeared… nervous. As to me, I was searching my mind for any reasonable explanation as to why we shouldn’t go messing around with things we didn’t understand, like black vortexes that existed behind ordinary ironing boards. But, unfortunately, I couldn’t think of a single reason that might dissuade Wanda.

  ***

  Two hours later, we were all back at the Tayir Mansion, assembled in the wash room around the mysterious black vortex in the wall. This time, I’d left Finn at Wanda’s, under the care of Astrid, Darla and Libby, much though I’d had to fight him the entire time. But there was no way I was going to let him come back to Henner’s when there was no saying what was going to happen when we used the Mystic Veil to part the veil, itself.

  “The potion, Poppy,” Wanda said as she held out her palm. With misgiving, I reached into my handbag and pulled out a small, glass bottle. I held it out to her and Wanda accepted the bottle of dark purple, inky liquid. She uncorked the top, filled the dropper, and dribbled the potion down either side of the door frame. Then she ran a bead across the top.

  “What are you doing that for?” Marty asked.

  She didn’t bother turning around, just continued anointing the doorframe and finished by dropping some of the mixture on herself. “I’m opening the door between the realms.”

  “Why?” Marty continued.

  “Because I’m going in,” she answered matter-of-factly, as if she’d just said she was hungry and wanted a sandwich. She turned around and handed the bottle of Mystic Veil back to me.

  Even though I’d assumed such was her plan, because there was no reason to part the veil unless you wanted to enter said veil, I was far from convinced it was a good idea.

  “This is a really bad idea,” Marty said. “You know that, right?”

  “I don’t know that,” she answered in that hifalutin way of hers that sometimes got on my nerves. At the moment, though, I was too worried for her to be annoyed.

  I kept my eyes trained on Wanda, who was wearing the expression of someone determined, someone who wouldn’t be dissuaded.

  “You have no idea what’s on the other side, Wanda,” I said. “You could get trapped inside or you could bring back something we really… don’t want you to bring back.” I took a deep breath. “Not to mention the fact that you haven’t told Lorcan about any of this.”

  She turned on me. “And why should I tell Lorcan?”

  “Because… you both are—”

  “Nothing,” she finished for me.

  “I doubt he’d agree with that.”

  “Regardless,” she continued, chin in the air. “If I’m able to find answers in that veil as to how we can sever this bond, Lorcan would be all for it.”

  “You don’t know that,” I insisted. “And I’m willing to bet that if you asked Lorcan if this was a good idea, he’d reply in the negative… emphatically.”

  “Well, it’s a moot point because the sun is up and Lorcan isn’t.”

  “What exactly did you mean when you said she could bring something back?” Marty asked, looking between both of us. “Like a monster or something?”

  I cocked my head to the side. “Or something.”

  Wanda glared at both of us. “This veil was woven using powerful blood magic,” she said as she turned to face it again and held up her hands on either side of her. “I can feel it.”

  “That doesn’t make it safe,” I argued.

  “It’s obvious Betanya created it,” Wanda continued. “And that makes it safe enough for me.”

  “But why did she create it?” I asked.

  She turned to look at me and shrugged. “She must have meant to store something important behind it—maybe to hide something.”

  “Hmm,” I started, but she continued.

  “I’ve been studying every detail of Betanya’s life for months and whatever is behind this… this void… it could be important—for me and for Henner.” She paused for a moment or two and then nodded again. “And if there’s even the slightest chance that there’s something behind the void that could help me break the blood bond, I have to go after it.”

  Before anyone could so much as say another word, Wanda stepped into the darkness of the veil. The red seam immediately appeared and glimmered as it stretched around her. A second later, once most of her body was encapsulated by the red glimmer, a brilliant white light flashed through the breach. I blinked against the ferocity of the light and when I could focus again, Wanda had disappeared.

  “She’s gone,” Marty said, sounding completely flummoxed.

  My heart was pounding, and I didn’t know what to think—other than the fact that I was scared to death for Wanda and whatever she was about to meet on the other side of the darkness.

  The three of us stared into the vacuous hole, but there was nothing to see.

  “What do we do?” Henner asked in a tiny voice as he looked at me.

  I gripped the bottle of Mystic Veil even more tightly and a split second later, I felt a sudden force pulling me towards the opening in the wall. It felt like the almightiest of vacuums sucking me forward.

  “It’s pulling me in!” I yelled as I tried to brace myself against the force, but my sneakers started skidding against the tile floor as the void continued to pull me towards it. Marty and Henner responded immediately by reaching out and gripping my arms, trying to force me backwards, but their shoes also started to skid. Pretty soon, all three of us were being forcibly yanked towards the veil.

  “Let go!” I yelled, realizing they’d be sucked into the void if they continued to hold onto me. And I was fairly sure the void wouldn’t release me, owing to the fact that I’d been the one to brew the Mystic Veil which had unlocked the boundary.

  There was a sudden wind that blasted out of the darkness in front of me, and I dropped my face to shield my eyes. Still, their hands around my arms were tight. I tried to look at Marty but found it difficult against the onslaught of wind that pummeled me.

  “If we all go in, we don’t know if we’ll be able to get back out again!” I yelled over the moaning of the wind.

  I felt Henner release my arm as he yelled to Marty, “She’s right!”

  But, Marty shook his head and dutifully clung to me, even though the two of us were nearing the breach in the blackness.

  “Let go, Marty!” I yelled to him, but his grip only tightened.

  “I’m not letting you go in!” he yelled over the deluge of sound coming from the void.

  Almost in response, the force from the veil increased tenfold, and I felt myself slammed forward as Marty tried to pull me back, but lost his footing.

  “It’s sucking me in because it recognizes my magic!” I yelled at him. “Let go, Marty!”

  The suction from the blackness just before me increased until neither of us could fight it and, with a scream of defeat, Marty finally released my arm and fell against the floor. I looked at him in shock while the red seam of the veil stretched around me. A second later, a blinding white light overcame my vision, just as it had when Wanda stepped through earlier.

  Chapter Eight

  At first, I couldn’t see anything.

  The incredible light hurt my eyes, but either the light faded or my vision adjusted after a few seconds. I blinked a couple of times and then squinted as I took in my surroundings.

  Everything was bright—lit in such a way that I felt like I was in the center of a spotlight. As I stared, I began to make out the outline of a shape in the distance. The more I studied it, the more it delineated itself into that of a person and after another few seconds, I recognized that person to be Wanda.

  “Wanda!” I called out.

  She stood at the other end of what looked like a corridor. It was a little difficult to tell because the walls were such a bright white and the ceiling and floor were exactly the same shade, that I could barely even see where the walls started and the floor and ceiling ended.

  Wanda turned around and her eyes widened in obvious surprise. “Poppy?”

  “The veil sucked me in,” I explained as I tried to catch my breath. My heart was racing, and I felt sick to my stomach.

  She nodded as if my appearance here made sense. “It was your magical imprint on the Mystic Veil.”

  “That’s what… I figured.”

  She strode down the corridor, towards me, and ran her hand along the wall as she went. When I turned back in the direction in which I imagined the guys and the washroom existed, I couldn’t see the seam, nor anything beyond it. Instead, the whiteness of my surroundings was unbroken—as if there was no seam to begin with.

  “The door is gone,” I said as I turned to face Wanda again, panic in my tone.

  She shook her head. “Don’t worry. I can still feel the threshold, which means it’s still there.”

  “What about getting back through?”

  “You have the Mystic Veil, right?” I nodded and looked down at my hand where I still clutched the potion. And good thing too because without it, I wasn’t sure how we’d get back out.

  “What is this place, anyway?”

  She peered around her. “We appear to be in some sort of maze.”

  “A maze?”

  We started forward and at the end of the corridor, we met another wall leading to the right. This hallway led into a different corridor and that corridor led to the next and so on and so on, apparently without end. Suddenly, it made sense as to why Wanda had described the place as a maze.