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.“Even after all this time, I never did find out.”“West,” Tim said.“He moved to what’s now the Millvale section of Pittsburgh and took all of his papers, including those personal documents.Had I not found that one mention of his move in the local museum files, I wouldn’t have even known to look there.”Ben turned to his granddaughter, a sorrowful look on his face.“But I still failed you, Rosie.Whatever I did, it was wrong.”“I don’t think that’s true,” Mia cut in.“Maybe things didn’t work quite as you had hoped, but I don’t think you completely failed, either.I think another obstacle got in the way of everything, something that no one saw coming.It’s time to correct that.”“How do we do that?” Josh asked, his frown now so deep that Rose wondered if he would ever smile again.“None of us can do magic and we don’t have anyone on staff who even dabbles right now.”Mia gave a small smile.“Maybe not, but we can give Rose a body again, a human body.” When nobody said anything, she rushed on.“You all died but were reborn again.Theoretically, to put the universe right, Rose should have died and been reborn too.In the next life, you would have met, fallen in love and the balance of the universe would have been restored.”“So why did he get to be reborn but I became a ghost?” Rose asked, fighting the need to sit down.There were shadowy images at the edge of her memory now too, but she couldn’t pin them down.If she could see them, she might be of more help.She should be able to do this; her spectral energy was strong.However, the harder she tried, the more they slipped away.Mia returned to look out the window.“I think your killer used his own brand of magic or he had help from someone else, a dark witch, perhaps.Whatever the reason, when it came to you, Rose, multiple spells collided and your soul splintered into two parts.”“Every soul has two halves,” Mia explained, “one dark and one light.For some reason, the light side of you was trapped here, enhanced somehow by a counter spell.That’s why you’re not a typical ghost.”At that, everyone fell silent.Finally, Elliott, who had been quiet the entire time, gathered the courage to ask what everyone wanted to know.“So if essentially the good half of Rose is here, where is the other half?”Mia sighed and rubbed her temples.“I can’t be sure, but I think Rose’s dark half was, in fact, reborn.Partial souls can be reborn, though it’s rare.I’ve seen it before.”“Where?” Rose demanded as she reached out to Mia, wanting to touch her.“Where is the other part of me? And more importantly, how do I put myself back together? If I have that body, I can live.I’ll get my second chance.”Mia held up her hand and again Rose was struck by the impression that the other woman was on the verge of exhaustion.“I did some research last night and I believe that your other half was reborn as the woman who now owns this house – Sophia Hamlin.From what I’ve learned, Sophia is a miserable shrew who doesn’t have a friend in the world.Everyone I talked to told me she’s mean, nasty and without a trace of goodness or kindness.”“So why didn’t Rose join with her when she walked in the door?” Justin demanded, obviously having decided that, at least for now, he was willing to believe Mia’s theory.“Shouldn’t it just happen or something?”“Reunification of a soul isn’t that easy,” Mia replied, shaking her head.“It takes a specially trained person to put a soul back together, usually a shaman or someone else trained in spiritual magic.It doesn’t just happen without help, just as it didn’t just get splintered without some interference, either.”Tim, ever practical, got to the heart of the matter.“So where do we find someone that can do this? Where do we start looking? Should I make some phone calls?”“You don’t need to.” Mia’s voice was quiet, yet strong and Rose could see Tim’s eyes, now filled with fear, leap to Mia’s.She was certain that Tim knew Mia’s secret, otherwise he wouldn’t have pushed her the way he just had.“A highly trained telepath, combined with the natural abilities of a Mimic can do it.We just need a few moments alone with Rose to get her ready.”Chapter Twenty- FiveFrom their positions in the kitchen, Rose, Callie and Mia could hear Tim and Justin engaged in a rather tense discussion just beyond the door.Somewhere farther away, they could also hear Reed and Ben arguing over Callie’s mere presence in the house.Ben was infuriated that Callie was now more or less alone with Rose and that Reed wasn’t physically present to “control” his charge.Elliott stood beside the women, watching over them with calm eyes and not speaking, as usual, simply waiting to see whether or not the plan would proceed.Though no one in the kitchen voiced their thoughts aloud, it was clear they were all thinking the same thing.At least one of the men beyond the door would try to stop Mia’s plan, leaving all of them, including Rose, stuck right where they had been before.At first, Justin had done nothing more than stare at Mia in disbelief, refusing to believe she was a telepath and a highly skilled one at that.After all, he said, he’d never seen any proof of her talents.When Tim had defended Mia, confessing that he had known about Mia’s abilities for years, Justin had snapped.He had accused Tim of betraying their friendship, while Tim had countered that it wasn’t his secret to share.Rose had eventually calmed both men down long enough for Mia to explain her plan [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]