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“Verity,” Carter said, narrowing his eyes at his sister. “This is all your fault.”
Verity crossed her arms. “You’re just as stubborn as ever, you know that? You’d rather blame the world than admit that any bit of this could be your fault.”
“My fault? How could this be my fault? You’re the witch!”
“I never did anything to hurt you. I protected you!”
Jack swallowed, stepping forward. “Stop! You have to stop this! Carter, your sister isn’t your enemy, and she didn’t bind you to the land.” Jack stabbed a finger in the direction of the witch. “She’s the one who’s done all this! She tied you here, Verity, to punish you. To keep you from moving on. And to trick Carter for ratting them out! It was all for revenge! Penelope and Lucy are still here, but you can’t see them.”
“Penelope?” the farmer said, voice soft. “Lucy? You tied them here too?”
Verity hung in the air, frozen. “They’re all bound here?” She turned toward the witch. “What did you do to them? I was the one you wanted!”
The witch laughed lightly. “I did what I had to. Hurting you was just a happy coincidence.”
“You’re not a spirit,” Carter breathed.
The witch smiled at him, a cold, evil thing. “No. Not like you. And I have you to thank.” She turned to frown at Jack and Lucy. “But you two. Don’t think you’ve escaped your fate.”
“Their fate?” Verity spat. “What have you done, Prudence?”
“What you were too afraid to!” Prudence glared. “I’m as good as alive. And I have more power than you ever could have imagined.”
“Do you?” Jack said, taking a step forward with more courage than she felt.
Prudence turned her glare back to Jack, freezing as if sensing something. Slowly, the woman’s face turned to pure rage. “What have you done? It took me years to build that anchor!”
“Carter, Verity!” Jack started again. “You have to stop her! We’ve done what we could. Penelope said the rest is up to you!”
The two ghosts were practically humming with anger. Jack didn’t know if it was Verity’s witch abilities, but every plant in the vicinity seemed to be listening to the ghost, waiting for a command. The air prickled and buzzed with something.
She leaned toward Lucy. “We have to go.”
“But what about them?” Lucy said.
“Penelope said to run. We have to go!”
Jack scooped Taffy into her arms, and Sammi darted out into the open. They wasted no time following.
As soon as their feet touched the field, the cottage erupted in flames, a fire so hot Jack could feel her skin prickle and tingle painfully.
“Don’t stop!” she yelled.
They ran as fast as they could, back toward the woods, toward the pumpkin patch, toward home. As far away from the cottage as they possibly could.
But as they reached the edge of the forest, an explosion rocked the ground. They were thrown forward, and the world went dark.
***
JACK GROANED AND SAT up slowly, a hand to her head. “Lucy?”
Lucy moaned in response, but the leaves on the pumpkin vines rustled as her friend sat up. “Yeah.”
Taffy suddenly appeared at Jack’s side, pushing her head into her hand. Jack picked her up, clutching the miraculously-unhurt cat. She snuggled her face into the warm fur, grateful, as Sammi appeared next to them, leaving trails of cold across her body.
“Is it over?” Lucy said.
Jack looked up. They were back in the pumpkin patch. The sky was still dark, the moon gone. But the farmhouse stood cold and dark nearby.
They were home. They were safe.
“It’s over.”
They both turned toward the voice to see little Lucy smiling brightly in front of both her parents and Verity.
“The witch?” Lucy said, voice trembling.
“Gone,” Carter said. “Finally. Forever. She won’t be coming back.”
“And the cottage?” Jack said.
“Also gone. It had to go. Fire purifies.”
Jack nodded, though she didn’t really understand.
“Thank you,” Verity said. “For freeing us. We’re no longer bound.”
“But we can come and go as we please,” Lucy said. “And with the patch here now, the land will always be open to us. And other spirits.”
Her voice was warm, happy. But having haunted land on the farm? What if another witch showed up?
“Don’t worry,” Verity said, as if sensing her thoughts. “I have enough power to keep it safe here. And the spirits can only appear at night.”
It wouldn’t really matter, though. Someone else would live here soon enough. It wouldn’t be Jack’s problem anymore.
Jack couldn’t say anything, only nodded again. She may have freed some spirits of a hundred-year-old curse, but that didn’t do anything to fix the other problems. The mistakes she’d made that led to this.
“We’re still going to lose the farm.” Jack leaned down, burying her face in Taffy’s fur again, trying to hide her tears.
No one responded, but Lucy slid across the cold ground to put an arm around her and the ghosts all moved closer, settling in with her. For several long moments, they all sat in a sad silence.
Suddenly, Lucy dropped her arm and sat up straight. “Wait. Lucy, did you say the spirits would come back every night?”
Little Lucy nodded at the older, more alive version of herself. “Not the same ones every night, but the patch is like a waypoint. But the spirits are free to come and go as they please, at least until they feel their work here is finished.”
Alive Lucy, Jack’s best friend, slowly began smiling. “I think I have an idea.”
