Eve grinned wide and proud. 

“Not bad kid, bit of a nervous ramble but not bad. No basement so, attic first then.” 

Eve walked further down the corridor before grabbing a pole off to one side and hooking it into an almost unidentifiable hole in the ceiling causing a ladder to clunk down.  

“Hang on how do you know how to do that?” 

“I talked with Grim. He told me the worst area he could sense was up here, and it makes sense, you tend to get leftovers from previous tenants hidden away in attics. I made sure he told me how to get in so I wouldn’t have to worry our client about the details.” 

“You know the exorcist?” 

“Remember that listening thing. You ask so many pointless questions if you don’t listen. He did recommend my company to Mrs Stratton why wouldn’t I know him?” 

Aiden shrugged not having enough of a snappy answer to throw back at her. 

The attic was luckily quite spacious for a property this size, the ceiling was tall enough that Aiden did not hit his head or have to crouch his back down and Eve could stand easily. Someone had laid down planks over the insulation, a long time ago judging by how the wood had warped letting it creak beneath their feet. There was no lighting though, so Aiden jumped a little as Eve suddenly lit up with a bright light. Managing to bury a snort of laughter she passed him a little handheld torch. 

“Best advice I can give you kid is if you want to stick at this job always carry a torch. Conjuring lights is great but even Sorcerer’s have a limit to the number of spells they can cast in a day, don’t waste magic unless you really need it.” 

“Hmm.” Aiden chewed on the advice for a second as he took the torch. It was sensible but in that boring way that made him want to throw the idea out of a window. 

“Feel up to turning your sight on again in a sec? You need to look for a glow similar to the charms earlier, but it’ll look sharper or nastier somehow to you.” 

“Er, Yeah I can do that.” 

“Don’t tire yourself out for a full three minutes, turn it on and off as soon as it starts to even begin to properly hurt. You’ll slowly get more used to it.” 

She paused with a muffled swear word as he heard the thunk of a box connecting with flesh. 

“Ah dammit. I think we both need to look where we are going too.” 

Aiden half covered up a snigger as he moved towards the opposite end of the roof space than Eve. 

It was the usual mixture of belongings that tended to accumulate in attic spaces, a Christmas tree packed up with handmade decorations, a broken-down old toaster that they hoped one day to repair and old photographs of family outings, even one big wardrobe was on its side at the end Eve was working her way through. 

She managed to work open the lock on the door with a stiff old key as she kept half an eye on Aiden working his way through a box of old comic almanacs a slight glow to his eyes every so often as he tried his best to find a trace of magic. It was peaceful just working away with no sign of the ghosts. It was likely they were assessing their presence after attacking them earlier and probably coming up against the wards downstairs. Ghosts weren’t as intelligent as people. They weren’t the afterimage of a deceased person as some believed, but they were ferally intelligent beings who mimicked them. They would wait until they were sure they could cause some trouble again. 

Eve was even happier to have Aiden be quiet, she could pretend that he wasn’t there or that he was helping. Maybe this teaching thing wasn’t bad for a day. He hadn’t caused any disasters yet so maybe just maybe the day would be a success. Her hand hovered for a second over another box in the wardrobe. There had been a brief flicker under her torch that floated in the air like coloured dust motes caught in a sunbeam. She put her torch down on the shelf pointed at the box she now held in her hands. 

It opened to reveal an old tin soldier, the paint a faded red and the face a smeared mess no features left visible under the grime. To Eve’s glowing green eyes, she could see twisted around it a rather nasty prank or trick left for a non-magical family. The curse fed off worry and fear something that would be easily created by a family plagued by the ghosts it attracted. She could see the frayed edges of how it had been constructed. It would just take a little while to pull it apart once she found the right end. 

“Hey Aiden.” She called across to him, her eyes never leaving the figure as she tried to trace the lines of power. “I’ve found it. Shouldn’t be a problem to sort only take five minutes really if you want to come have a look.” 

Eve’s lips curved up in an almost smile. Yes, this day was going well. Get this done and they could probably pick up another curse to work on that afternoon, which meant more money in Eve’s pocket. Everything was good. 

That was the moment when the ghost appeared between Eve and Aiden, in all its screaming glory.