Book Eight: Chapter 71

The residents were also the reason they couldn’t open a portal directly there. With every attempt, the spirits either chased the rats off or destroyed the portal afterward. The island wasn’t much bigger than the castle, which meant there was nowhere safe nearby. When Mike did leave for Machnaimh, he would portal in as close as he could. Most of the land around the lake had been bought up decades ago and was now protected by the government as a natural area. The rest was generational farmland, and none of the families involved had been interested in letting Mike buy or rent a small parcel of land to establish a dock.

To Mike, Machnaimh was a place where anything that could go wrong simply did. He couldn’t casually visit. The ghosts didn’t like him. Renting a boat was out of the question because the locals would tell everyone. The last thing he needed was for the Order to show up, or gods forbid, the government. They weren’t super happy with his ownership, either, since he wasn’