Spirit Ascendancy by E. E. Holmes

during our argument that he might have been turned to stone.
    “Have you ever stopped to think,” I said slowly, “what would happen to that ghost if that candle went out?”
    Hannah continued to glare, angry tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “I wouldn’t let that happen.”
    “Good,” I said. “I just… let’s not lose sight of why we’re putting ourselves through all of this in the first place. We have a job to do. It’s not fair, and I know it completely sucks, but we have to do it.”
    “I know that. If you think I don’t know that, then you don’t know me at all.”
    What could I say? Wasn’t she right? She was my own sister; we’d shared a womb together, and I barely knew her at all—not in the way I should have. I should have been able to predict the ends of her sentences, to know the meanings of the slightest shift in her facial expression. I should have known the sounds she made when she was asleep, and the feel of her hand when she held mine. But I didn’t. I’d barely been able to scratch the surface of this fragile, damaged, enigmatic person who should have been my other half and my best friend. I was almost too afraid to get below the surface, too afraid she might shatter if I dug too deep. And now we had no choice but to cling to each other, two virtual strangers cast from the same mold.
    I was saved the pain of agreeing with her. The candle flame began to spark and leap unnaturally as the ghost of the woman returned. Her tea towel was dangling loosely from her slackened grip as she opened her mouth and spoke in a voice that was half her own, and half Lucida’s.
    “Don’t leave the building, whatever you do. They might be lying in wait for you. No Necromancers have shown up here, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t watching and waiting for their opportunity. Tell Finn I got his photos, but I’ll need to do a little more research before I can make heads or tails of all the different castings and what they might mean. I will make arrangements to have you moved. Wait for me if you can, but send a message if you need to vacate before I get there. Keep each other safe.”
    The voice echoed briefly before dying away, leaving the woman’s ghost floating, vacant and unseeing, in the air before us. We all looked at her for a moment, like we were waiting for something to happen, though of course it couldn’t.
    Hannah caught my eye, for a brief moment. Her face was defiant as she turned to the candle and, with the murmured words of her casting, released the essence back into the waiting ghost’s body.
    “I… where am… I really ought to get back. He’ll be so angry. Can you please let me go back?” she pleaded.
    Hannah looked at her a moment, mouth open as though to say something to her, but instead she blew out the candle and the woman vanished, tea towel still clutched between her worrying hands.

6
Disappearing Act
    TAP, TAP, TAP.
    I looked over at the window and saw her floating beyond the glass, her tiny fist poised to knock again.
    “Mary? Is that you?”
    She nodded vigorously and smiled. Despite my confusion at seeing her, I smiled back. I untangled myself from a nest of blankets on the sofa and ran to the window. I yanked and pulled on the battered old lock until it reluctantly squeaked open.
    “Come on in. Oh, wait.” I pointed to the runes we’d drawn below the sills. “I forgot. We warded all of the windows.”
    “Come out here with me,” Mary said with a laugh, and floated in a playful little circle, like an ivory leaf in the wind. The breeze caught at her long white nightgown, buffeting her back and forth.
    “Sorry, I’m fresh out of pixie dust,” I said.
    She stared at me curiously, so I clarified. “I can’t fly, Mary. I’ve got this body that gets in the way of things like that.”
    She laughed again. “You can just shed it. Shed it and soar!”
    I shook my head. “It’s not quite that easy.”
    “Oh, but for you it is. Go on, then.”
    I