Forever and Beyond by Jayde Scott Page B

gone? “Julie,” I whispered, frowning. “Julie, where are you?”
    “Over here,” she said.
    I followed her voice around a few cabinets filled to the brim with yet more clutter. She was hovering near a stand with paintings in silver frames. I inched closer and trailed her line of vision to an image depicting a tall wall rising against the black night. Countless arms and hands, buried beneath the ground, seemed to erupt out of the earth and reach for the wall, their pale skin catching the soft glow of the moon and stars above. It was a creepy image that sent shivers down my spine.
    “What’s that?” I whispered.
    “The wall that keeps the darkness out,” Julie said. “The Night Guard patrols it to make sure nothing enters the gate or climbs inside the city.”
    I thought back to Aidan’s words. After centuries of being hunted by mortals, the witches and warlocks of Morganefaire had become distrustful of the outside world, and who could blame them? Had I seen friends or family being burned alive during witch-hunts, or tortured into admitting the most sordid accusations, I might’ve started to dislike the world outside of my city as well.
    “Being chosen to serve the Night Guard is an honor,” Julie said with a sigh.
    “Is that why you disappeared last night? To watch the wall?” The question made it past my lips before I could contain myself, but she didn’t seem to mind my prying.
    “Yeah.” She turned to face me, her expression grave. “It was very quiet.” A flicker appeared in her eyes, and I knew she kept something to herself.
    “What did you see?”
    She shook her head. “I’m just a ghost so I don’t see. I sense. But it’s nothing.”
    “What was it, Julie?”
    She grimaced. “I don’t know. The night was darker than ever before, that’s all.” She laughed softly. “You’ll think me nuts.”
    “No, I won’t. You need to tell me because it might be important.”
    “Okay.” She took a deep breath, gathering her words. “I was marching up and down the wall when one of the torches illuminating the street below went out. Everything was black. It was really creepy.”
    “Maybe someone blew out the fire,” I suggested.
    She shook her head again. “I don’t think so. Have you ever seen one of the night torches lining the streets? It’s a huge thing. The flames don’t even flicker. You’d need a lot of breath to blow that fire out.”
    “It could’ve been the wind.”
    “Maybe,” Julie said flatly, “except that—” She hesitated, then nodded. “No, you’re right. It must’ve been the wind.”
    Her expression told me she wasn’t convinced but I didn’t insist. She had been scared so, naturally, she paid importance to something that was just a coincidence. What bothered me more were Elyssa’s words. Part of me wanted to ask Julie if Elyssa’s magic was real. Could she help me? Or was she just a gypsy selling a bunch of nonsense to make a quick buck? The other part of me couldn’t tell Julie about my problems. I didn’t want her to pity me the way Aidan and Kieran did. Things were complicated enough.
    “I’d like to talk to Elyssa , maybe ask her a few questions,” I said, changing the subject. “Do you know where I can find her?”
    “Probably in her office down the hall.” Julie pointed to a narrow door obscured by a curtain I didn’t notice before. “She likes to give her customers privacy.”
    That surprised me. “Where I come from people would rob her blind.”
    “No one would ever dare steal anything from her,” Julie said.
    “Why’s that?”
    Julie shrugged and turned away, as though she had already lost interest in our conversation, which didn’t surprise me. In addition to unpredictable mood swings, ghosts also had a notoriously short attention span.
    Leaving Julie to her thoughts, I stepped through the curtain hesitantly and found myself in a narrow hallway with white walls. On the other end were several closed doors. I tried the first—a closet