The next morning, Frankie and Levi sat in the living room of Anna’s house and flipped through The Art of Magic on the counter. Anna walked in from the kitchen with a large wooden tray. Levi jumped to his feet to assist her.
“Here, let me take that for you.” He took the tray from her and stepped aside to allow her room to reach her chair.
“Thank you.” She held her large belly as she sank down into the chair.
Levi set the tray with the full assortment of tea preparation on the coffee table next to the magic book.
“Are you sure you should be up on your feet?” Frankie asked.
She sighed. “The doctor told me to take it easy for the rest of my pregnancy. Luckily, that’s only a few more weeks.”
“How are you feeling?” Levi asked.
“Tired,” she said pointedly. “But I’ll survive. You said you two were looking for a god?”
Frankie nodded and turned his attention back to The Art of Magic. “Technically, she’s the Goddess of the Underworld. But lately she’s been doing crossroads deals in an effort to maintain her power. After the Greeks and Romans stopped worshipping her, she lost a lot of her power.”
Anna nodded. “Hecate?”
Frankie turned to her. “You know her?”
“Only a little,” she said. “I think there’s a section on her somewhere in there.”
“Found it,” he said.
Anna smiled. “Just as I thought.”
“Looks like she uses phantoms to terrify the living to the point where they feel that trading in their souls is a better option to reality.” Levi looked up at Frankie.
“Okay, so I guess you were right,” Frankie conceded. “But what do we do about it?”
“You’re seeing phantoms?” Anna’s eyes darted between the two men, concern evident in her voice.
“Yeah,” Levi said. “His late wife.”
Frankie rolled his eyes. “Only sometimes. And today I’ve only seen her twice.”
“You were a sobbing mess yesterday, ready to trade in your soul if I hadn’t stopped you,” Levi said.
“I wasn’t going to go through with it.”
Levi raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “That’s not the impression I got.”
“Regardless,” Anna cut in. “I don’t believe that Hecate’s intention is to get you to trade in your soul. She would, of course, accept that. However, I think her main objective with your phantom is simply to create a distraction.”
“A distraction from what?” Levi asked.
“Whatever else she’s doing,” Anna said.
“Like what?” Frankie asked.
“She must have another victim in mind.”
“Well,” Levi started, “we still never figured out where Evelyn went.”
“Just because we haven’t seen her, doesn’t mean she’s missing,” Frankie said.
“I’d rather overreact than not do anything and lose her forever.”
Frankie nodded. He agreed, but his pride was standing in his way of conceding to that. If he hadn’t been influenced by the phantom, then they wouldn’t have lost a day in their search to find Evelyn.
“She’s never missed a day of work,” Levi went on. “And she was trying to look into Hecate while we were digging up the ritual box at the crossroads. That can’t be a coincidence.”
“And you still haven’t heard from her?” Anna asked.
Frankie shook his head. “No.”
“Surely, she would’ve reported her findings to you, whether she was successful or not.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying!” Levi said.
“So what do we do?” Frankie asked.
Anna thought for a moment. “You stop Hecate, and then you find Evelyn.”
“And what if Hecate is the one who has her?” Levi asked.
“Then you’ll discover that when you stop the evil goddess.”