“Betanya,” Henner nodded. “When she was a very young girl and worked for my grandmother up until Betanya’s disappearance years ago. They were close.”

  “Then Mrs. Nicholson must have been pretty old?” Finn asked.

  “Yes, she was elderly.”

  “Well, maybe she isn’t missing, maybe she just simply died,” Wanda said with little interest.

  “Wanda!” I admonished as Finn snickered.

  She looked at me. “I hate to break it to you, Poppy, but old people die—it’s just what happens.” Then she faced Henner. “Maybe Mrs. Nicholson just kicked the bucket while she was making the rounds and you haven’t found her yet because this house is so big?”

  “Wow,” Finn said, and gave Wanda an expression of admiration. “She just says whatever’s on her mind.”

  “Right and some people see shrinks for that,” I added with a frown at Wanda, who just shrugged.

  Henner looked a bit perplexed. “No, I don’t think that’s what happened. I checked every room and if she’d died in the house somewhere, I think I would have smelled her by now?”

  “Gross,” Finn muttered.

  “What makes you think something bad happened to her?” Wanda asked, sounding impatient again. “Maybe she just decided to retire and didn’t feel the need to explain because she didn’t feel the same loyalty to you that she felt toward your grandmother?”

  “She decided to retire halfway through cleaning the house?” Henner asked, his eyebrows meeting in the center of his forehead.

  “Yeah, that doesn’t sound right,” Marty agreed.

  “I don’t think she would have just left without saying anything,” I added.

  Henner nodded. “The police checked her apartment after she was missing a good few days and they said she wasn’t home and as far as they could tell, hadn’t been.”

  “Did they give you any clues as to where she could be?” I asked.

  He shook his head again. “They weren’t much help.”

  Henner crossed the corridor to another room, and we dutifully followed him. As soon as I walked into the next room, I gasped because it looked like a gallon of red paint had exploded in the center of the room.

  “This is what makes me think something bad happened to Mrs. Nicholson,” Henner explained.

  Not only did bloody handprints dot the walls, but long smears of blood connected them, covering most of the room at hand level. Large dark patches of what looked like blood stained the carpet and the bedding. Blood even smeared the windows. I immediately grabbed Finn and covering his eyes with the palm of my hand, started to escort him out of the room, but he pulled away from me.

  “Mom, I already saw it.”

  “Well, that doesn’t mean you should keep on seeing it.”

  “Otherwise I have to wait in the hall by myself?”

  “I will wait with you,” I started, but Finn shook his head.

  “I’m okay, Mom.”

  Marty walked up to Finn and wrapped an arm around him.

  “Your mom is right, buddy, you shouldn’t be in here to witness this.”

  “Sorry, Finn,” Henner apologized again. “I should have thought to tell you to wait outside. My head is just a big mess lately.”

  “Your head isn’t the only mess,” Wanda said as she frowned at him. “Why haven’t you cleaned this up?”

  “Because… well, Biohazard cleanup was set to come in after the police did their own investigation, but I asked them to… to leave it.”

  “Why in the world would you ask them to leave it?” I asked as I walked Finn into the hall and waited there with him. He sat down, back against the wall, and faced the opposite direction of the room. I leaned against the doorjamb facing the others, so I wouldn’t miss any of the details.

  “Because I thought it would be important for you… both to see this,” Henner answered, motioning to Wanda and me.

  I heard Marty ask, “Is it blood?”

  “I’m pretty sure,” Henner answered as Marty turned to face him with wide eyes. “Now do you see why I’m worried?”

  Wanda nodded, but didn’t appear to be processing the information. Instead, she held her arms out in front of her and closed her eyes, circling a few times. When she opened her eyes again, she shook her head.

  “Even if something happened to Mrs. Nicholson in this room, I still don’t feel any magic here,” she said as she turned to me and shook her head. “There’s no supernatural element in this space and no spirit entity, either. Are you picking up anything, Poppy?”

  I shook my head. She was right. There was nothing. The blood sure looked ominous, but whatever had caused it wasn’t magical. And it was no longer here.

  Everyone left the room, thank goodness, and then Henner proceeded to lead us through the rest of the rooms in the house, so we could check them to make sure nothing else was amiss magically. Some of the rooms were luxuriously furnished while others were dead empty. No magical forces were at work in any of them, though.

  We left the third floor and worked our way down the second floor before finally retiring to the first. For a house that had belonged to a Blood Witch, the place was surprisingly devoid of any enchantments, charms, or other magical trickery. Every time we turned a corner, I expected to feel or at least detect some semblance of magical energy—just something that might hint at the Blood Witch who used to live here, but there was nothing. It was bizarre and then some. And it also meant there was no way to scry anything because there was nothing to go on.

  By the time we finished walking through each room on the ground floor, I was convinced this house was completely devoid of magic—there wasn’t even so much as a ghostly presence.

  Marty appeared relieved. Wanda appeared bored. Henner appeared defeated. And I understood why—for all our trouble, he was no closer to figuring out what had caused the disturbances, nor what had become of Mrs. Nicholson.

  We left the massive dining room with the frescoed walls and the largest table I’d ever seen in my life—the thing must have seated at least thirty people.—and started down another long corridor.

  “There’s just the kitchen left now,” Henner said. “Then I guess you guys can go on with the rest of your day.”

  “Sorry, Henner,” I replied. “I wish we could be more help.”

  “Oh, you helped,” he answered with a little smile. “At least now I know that whatever is going on here—it’s not something magical. That’s a step in the right direction—process of elimination.”

  I breathed out a frustrated sigh. “I guess so.”

  Henner shrugged. “It beats the pants off wondering if something is going to leap out of the beyond and attack me in the middle of the night.”

  “Well, I guess that’s true,” I said on a laugh.

  We walked into the kitchen and I was struck by how commonplace it appeared. Pots and pans hung from a wrought-iron rack suspended from the ceiling and, as with the other rooms, there was no sign of magic—no old potion bottles, no cauldrons, no implements of magic you’d expect to find in the home of a Blood Witch. A big wooden workbench took up most of the room with a gigantic cast-iron range sitting against one wall.

  We wouldn’t find anything here.

  “There’s nothing,” Wanda told Henner as she shook her head. “There’s no magical signature, not even the essence of a magical signature here—same with the rest of the house. In fact, I’d be surprised if Betanya ever set foot in this kitchen.”

  Henner nodded. “My grandmother hated cooking. Instead, she hired a full-time chef—well, when she was alive, anyway.”

  “So that’s all the rooms in the house?” I asked, as Henner nodded. “Are you sure we didn’t miss anything?”

  “There’s just the laundry room, but Betanya never set foot in there, either,” Henner responded. “If there’s no magical hanky-panky in the rest of the house, there won’t be any in there, either.”

  “You’re probably right,” I conceded, but then shrugged. “But, we should probably check just to make sure. I mean, it wouldn’t hurt, right?”

  “Some of us want to get on with our day,” Wanda grumbled, but followed Henner as he walked into a laundry area behind the kitchen. The room didn’t offer much—just a few giant sinks, an industrial washing machine and dryer, a second fridge, and a fold-down ironing board.

  I stepped across the threshold and, once I did, I froze in place. My scalp prickled and my hair started to stand on end as my heartrate began steadily increasing.

  “This is it!” I whispered as I turned to face Henner and then Wanda. “This is the place.”

  “I feel something in here too, Mom,” Finn said as he reached out and took my hand again, standing as close to me as he possibly could. Wanda stood on his other side and glanced around the room, nodding all the while.

  “It’s here!” she said, continuing to nod as an expression of shock overtook her face. “It’s right here!”

  “What is?” Henner asked, frowning at the three of us. “What’s here? I don’t see or feel anything.”

  I shivered. Energy radiated out of the walls. It felt a thousand times more menacing than the blood-smeared room upstairs. The power pummeled my face and body as though it was trying to stop me from entering the room.

  “What is it, Pops?” Marty asked. “What do you sense?”

  “I’m… I’m not sure, but there’s something here. Whatever it is we’re looking for, it’s in this room.”

  Wanda stepped forward and raised her hand, tracing the door jamb and then the wall nearest us with her fingers. Inching into the room, I could see the energy charging her hair—making a few of the strands stand on end. She walked the perimeter of the room, checking every inch of the walls as she passed the washing machine and the sinks, headed for the fridge.

  “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.”