The twins reluctantly agreed to that and the rest of the night was spent talking, munching on biscuits and dried meat, and trying to doze. Eventually, Pryor’s ghost gave up and quieted down. About an hour before dawn they mounted their horses and headed back to Nadai. All three were quiet, each thinking about how they were going to explain their nighttime absence to their parents.

The teenagers arrived at the gate just as it was opening and hurried inside. They made their way to the palace, slipping in through the same servants’ entrances they had used to get out. Without a word to each other, they quickly stabled their horses and headed up to the floor where the family suite of rooms stood waiting for them. As they climbed the last stair, AJ looked up and bit off a curse.

“Where have you been?”

Jasmine did not raise her voice. She didn’t need to. As she stood there in her silken bathrobe, arms crossed over her chest and her hair still braided for bed, her eyes flashed amethyst. This eye color change along with the cool, calm tone of voice clued them in for just how much trouble they were in.

“Aiden, Zevernus, I’m waiting for an answer.”

The boys looked at each other, then their mother and hung their heads. “Pryor’s Hill…”

Jasmine’s eyes widened as she struggled to keep her jaw from dropping. “And you, Siela?”

“I went to fetch them.”

Zerith, hearing the talking in the hall came out from his and Jasmine’s bedroom, yawning, “Are the little hooligans back, yet?”

“They are. They say they went to Pryor’s Hill.”

Zerith came more fully awake at that. He looked at his children, all three of whom had their heads bowed, waiting for yelling to begin. He couldn’t honestly say he was surprised that the boys had gone, but Siela?

“Explain…”

Surprised at their parents’ calm, the boys began their story of the bet with their friend, how they snuck out, and Siela’s timely rescue. The reasoning sounded fairly lame now that they had to recount it to their parents.

“As disappointed as I am in you boys, I’m not really surprised. But, Siela? What possessed you to chase after them instead of coming to us?” Zerith asked.

The boys spoke up then, their words tumbling over each other as they came to her defense.

“She didn’t have time!”

“We’d be goners if not for her!”

“Yeah, she saved our butts. We couldn’t even see the ghost, but she must have shot it!”

“How did you manage that anyway, Sis?”

Siela bit her lower lip, she hadn’t really thought about what she was doing last night, simply reacting. “I-I could see him. Maybe it has to do with my spirit magic, I dunno. But I saw the wife, Melody, and she told me to run. And I could see Pryor. He carried an ax. When he was behind the boys with his ax raised, I simply reacted. I’d filled an arrow with energy and shot him. I.. didn’t expect it to actually work, but it worked well enough to let us get away.”

Her family stared at her in awestruck silence. AJ was the first to recover.

“You can shoot ghosts!? AWESOME!!”