Spirits and Spells Read Online Free PDF

breeches and leather armor, and each carried a long sword. They were looking straight at Matt. One of them opened his mouth and said something.
    Matt blinked in surprise. He couldn’t hear a thing.
    The man moved his mouth again. He seemed to be getting angry.
    The second man, small but very muscular, began to walk down the steps. He was gesturing toward the stave, which was lying where Matt had dropped it.
    Wathek! cried a voice in his mind. Don’t let them have it!
    Without thinking, Matt snatched up the stave, then cried out in pain. It was still hot.
    Suddenly the heat didn’t matter. The man who had been heading for the stave lunged at Matt with his sword. Matt bellowed and held up the stave to protect himself. The sword struck it with a jolt that sent a shock through Matt’s whole body.
    â€œDenise!” he cried. “Denise, help!”
    The stave grew hotter in his hands.
    Wathek! whispered the voice in his mind. Resist them!
    Where was the voice coming from? He had no time to think about it now. The other man was on the attack as well, and it was all Matt could do to fend off their swords with the stave, which was glowing brighter by the second.

6
    IN THE ATTIC
    Tansy stood at the top of the stairs and took a deep breath. Her mind had begun to conjure up visions of all kinds of horrors waiting on the other side.
    She shook herself. This was ridiculous. Despite what Lydia had said, Spirits and Spells was only a game.
    Then why was she so frightened?
    â€œWell, it only makes sense,” she said out loud, to bolster her courage. “Big old house, stormy October night …”
    As if to reinforce her words, a crack of thunder shook the walls. Tansy gasped. It was so loud! Taking another deep breath, she put her hand on the latch.
    â€œIt’s now or never,” she said grimly, and swung the door open.
    The attic was enormous. It covered the entire house, so it had as much, floor space as all the rooms on the top floor put together. Tansy stepped in, closing the door behind her. She could hear rain pounding on the roof. It seemed oddly close.
    She played her flashlight around the attic. Its beam was too weak to reach the far end, but she could see that the place was a jumble of boxes, crates, and trunks. Furniture was piled here and there. On the wall to her right were two bookcases crammed with moldering volumes, the overflow stacked all around. A book lover at heart, Tansy could never pass a pile of books without at least a quick glance at the titles. She went over to look.
    A brief scan of the first shelf convinced her there was nothing here that would appeal to her tastes. Magic and Ritual in New Guinea , read the spine on the first volume; The Forbidden Spells , the second; Witchcraft in the Middle Ages , the third.
    Tansy grimaced. “Give me a good romance any day,” she muttered.
    What was that ?
    She would have sworn she had heard a faint sound, almost like a whisper.
    She spun about and swung her flashlight slowly from right to left. “Who’s there?” she asked in a shaky voice.
    No answer, save the rain pounding on the roof.
    She held her breath for a moment, then let it out slowly. Her imagination had been playing tricks on her.
    Remembering what had brought her here in the first place, she took out her notepad and reread the clue. Nothing about it seemed to indicate any specific place in the attic. But Travis had said he had tried to leave some extra clues. She figured she might as well take a moment to look before going back to ask the Master Mage for more information.
    She turned back toward the center of the attic. A clear path led from the door where she had entered all the way to the far side of the house. “Sort of like the Red Sea when Moses and the gang went through,” she said, surveying the aisle that stretched between piles of relics and discards. The clutter formed two walls that looked likely to collapse and engulf her at any