I shake my head. Louis grins. “You agreed to marry me one day,” he says. “Best dashed demonstration of wisdom I ever saw.”

This time my smile is warmer. “I will need a friend, Louis.”

“You have one, right here at your side. Always.”

I am about to say something more on the matter when I am distracted by the sound of whispering, which grows to shouting. The noise is so unexpected and so forceful it shocks me, blotting out all other sounds. I put my hands over my ears as the voice grows louder, more insistent. I recognize the echoey, distant, reedy quality of the speech of the dead. I am accustomed to listening to them, of course, but this is different. This is not one of the familiar spirits who have become friends to me over the years. Nor is it a spirit I have called or summoned. This voice belongs to another, a soul who is somehow more disturbed, and who is shouting, demanding my attention in a disturbing manner. As the volume increases and the words become clearer I recognize the speaker as the same one who came uncalled into my thoughts at Father’s funeral. The spirit is saying, no, shouting my name, over and over, the sound booming in my mind so that with a gasp I throw my hands over my ears in a futile attempt to shut it out.

“Lilith?” Louis is becoming concerned. “What is it? Tell me what is wrong.”

I shake my head, as much to try to clear it as to indicate to him that I cannot speak. My mind is filled with the ever-increasing bellowing of my own name. I have never been so assailed by the voice of a spirit.

Stop! Stop! “Stop!” I cry aloud.

Louis kneels before me, putting his hands on mine, at a loss as to how to help, anxious to ease my distress.

There is nothing he can do. Abruptly, the shouting ceases. All that remains is a buzzing echo in my mind. I meet Louis’s troubled eyes as he searches my face for answers.

“It’s all right,” I tell him, though in truth I am still shaking. “There was a voice, a spirit, very loud, very … strong.”

“But you didn’t call anyone?”

“No. I did not.” I am unable to clearly understand what has just taken place, but the message delivered in such a startling way by the unwelcome spirit is clear. I am a witch who calls herself skilled in necromancy, a person who summons the dead to help me when I wish. Only this time, the dead are summoning me.

Chapter 5

5.