To save her ghost-hunting career, psychic Kayde Foster must confront an evil and darkly attractive entity that has taken up residence in her uncle's business.
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Kayde prides herself on being fearless. Ghosts? Crumbling buildings? Scary legends? No...
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The feeling of gravely screwing up was strong like black coffee. I'd been having nightmares about a shadow-man for weeks, and now I was investigating a spirit named the "Shadow". How convenient and utterly terrifying.
What makes you so certain you can even catch the Shadow on camera? He might hurt you before that!
I sighed.
By the time I had loaded up the truck, sweat snaked down the sides of my neck. Even in the heat, I always wore a baggy t-shirt. It wasn't that I was ashamed of my body per se; it's just that I wasn't confident. At five-foot-one and on the thick and curvy side, it was just... easier to swatch myself in layers like a protective cocoon.
There was no protecting myself from what I was about to do.
The Kansas sun was lower in the sky, resembling an orange fireball that baked the landscape as I loaded stuff into the truck. Infrared cameras. Spirit boxes. Cat balls that light up if they are touched. Dousing rods...
The icky feeling of impending doom was still deep within my guts, twisting into knots, but I persisted. To make sure it worked, I flicked on the spirit box, hearing the crashing radio stations flip through fast. Amongst the noise, words eventually plastered together, "The Prince will" -—"Kill you"—
I turned it off. It works. But it makes no sense.
Darby was already seated in the passenger seat, updating our social media profiles on the news of our switch-up. I had no doubt she was also mulling over what spells and trinkets to make last minute to keep me safe.
For my sake, I hope she found a good combo.
"Don't... don't do this, Kayde." Chris came up behind me, snatching an EMF detector out of my hand. As if that will stop me. When I spun around and reached for it, he shook his head, giving me a pointed look. "If something were to happen to you, I don't know what I'd do. You've got a real gift, kid. You're talented. But some things are just better left untouched."
"I'll be fine," I said. I wasn't entirely sure if that was true, given the nature of his haunting. But I had a secret weapon: a witchy friend named Darby who could, at the very least, figure out how to get rid of it. "I will not let people think you are hurting guests for clout, Chris. I'll get the Shadow on tape. I'll get proof. I'll learn more about it, too, once I get my hands on that item."
"They might think you doctored something. You know how people are. They bury their heads in the sand about things they don't understand."
His tone had gotten severe at the end, and a tiny voice at the back of mind asked, isn't that what you did when you brought the item containing the Shadow to Tales Untold?
