Shadows in Ravenwood (Daughters of the Circle)

by Lenore Wolfe

  EIGHTEEN

  SOPHIA

  Sophia had been the only one who didn’t go flying out of the mansion to see if the gargoyle statue still stood there. She stayed at the window—watching. She didn’t have to go running out there to find out what she already knew.

  She already she knew—it wouldn’t be there.

  That rotten Gargoyle had been the reason she’d left Red Bluff when everyone else had gone. Plus, he’d been the reason she’d been so quick to get into a bad marriage. He’d been the reason she’d almost decided not to come back here. Then, when she managed to come home—she’d almost been forced to leave again—and all because she’d refused help from her mother’s people.

  She’d been through with magick. She’d wanted a normal life for her daughter.

  She still did. Didn’t she? Thanks to that confounded Gargoyle, now she felt torn. Meddling creature. He’d never managed to stay out of her business—always trying to remind her of her place with her mother’s people.

  Sophia walked to the window, which sat on the landing of the second floor, watching her friends as they gathered in the yard, discussing the missing statue.

  She never again wanted to give up the friends, who were more of a family to her than her own family—but she didn’t know what to do about the fact this had thrown her back into the magickal world she’d fought so hard to avoid.

  She’d known exactly who visited them when they’d been children—when that large beast appeared, then shape-shifted into a man with large, black wings. She’d been the only one who hadn’t been terrified.

  When her friends left—she’d stayed behind to have a long chat with Thorick—angry at him for scaring her friends. He’d told her then, about the warlock. Thereby, handing Sophia a second dilemma.

  She’d already been the only one of them who’d known Claire and Morgan were witches from the Donnally clan—and the only one of them who knew Tara was a witch from the McDaniel Clan.

  Now, she knew another truth. A truth their family had spent their lives keeping from them.

  Sophia had been left alone when they’d all disappeared from Red Bluff over the next few years—well all but the twins. But they had quickly become absorbed in growing up and going off to date girls.

  She’d felt abandoned. Her father had been a drunk. Her step-mother ran off with some guy who’d come to town. Her aunt, well her step-aunt, had thought Sophia uppity—likely because the boys all liked her over her own kids.

  But there’d been Thorick. Except, Thorick kept getting on her about accepting the truth about her true identity—not something she wanted to share with Claire or Morgan—or even Tara for that matter. Even with their knowledge about magick—she’d been too afraid to tell them.

  They would think her a freak.

  Sophia half expected him to show himself to her again now, but then she’d been so angry the last time she’d spoken to him, perhaps he thought he better not.

  She didn’t feel angry, just afraid. She actually wouldn’t have minded if he’d come to see her. She’d been so lonely for someone she knew, and loved, but there hadn’t been anything romantic between them—ever. He’d been the friend she so desperately needed. But, then, he’d started pressuring her to return to her people. She hadn’t wanted to enter the Land of the Fae again. She never wanted to go back. She didn’t want anything to do with any of them—except him.

  Until Kira had been born.

  The older her daughter grew, the more she wondered if she’d made a mistake.

  Sophia walked to the door and shut off the light. Closing the door behind her, she headed for the stairs, then jumped as he appeared through the window on the landing.

  “Thorick,” she hissed. “You scared the daylights out of me. I thought you were him!” She looked around him. “You shouldn’t be here. What if someone sees you?”

  “You should consider going home to your mother’s people he said, ignoring her concerns. “It isn’t safe for you. They weren’t taught how to deal with him. They’re in a lot of danger. You call are—and you’re only making it worse by being with them.”

  She recoiled at his last statement. It sounded too much like he’d insinuated she was somehow putting her friends in more danger. That wasn’t true.

  She shook her head, and he stepped forward before she could blink, and since she hadn’t been around him much, she flinched.

  “You’re like a bright light to him,” Thorick snarled. “You make it easy for him.”

  She stared at him. “I have my powers,” she said. “I help protect the sisters.”

  He sneered at her. “You haven’t used your powers in a long time, though, have you….”

  Sophia felt tears spring to her eyes, and she turned away, jerking her arm out of his grasp.

  “Have it your way,” he said, turning. In a flash, he disappeared.

  She hadn’t wanted to tell her friends she’d known Thorick. She especially didn't want to tell them that she’d known him for years. He’d been the one she talked to about the one thing she couldn’t share with anyone else. She’d come to visit him often over the years—when the loneliness had become too much to face after her friends had gone.

  She’d become friends with them because they had an open mind about things—and also because her mother’s people had encouraged their friendship. But there were some things even her friends weren’t ready to understand.

  They’d proven that with how they’d reacted to Thorick that day.

  Sophia stopped to look out the front door. Her friends stood around the patch of grass where the missing statue had stood. When they went in the house, he’d come back and then they’d wonder how that had happened too.

  Sophia almost smiled—almost.

  Some time later, after their guests had gone home, and after she’d taken Kira out to the front porch when she’d finished her nap, she went back into the house to get her a light blanket while Tara watched her daughter. She leaned over and happened to glance out the window as a movement caught her eye.

  She shivered, straightening up from the crib, and walked closer to the glass so she could see more clearly. She held to one side of the frame, so she didn’t catch the attention of the dark figure who hugged the edge of the woods as he watched the gray house.

  Now, what on earth could he possibly be doing?

  Sticking to the shadows, Sophia slipped out of her daughter’s room and down the stairs. She slipped out the back door. Still holding to the shadows, she found her way to the edge of the woods, well out of the sight of the hooded figure she’d spotted in the woods.

  For the next twenty minutes, she carefully maneuvered herself closer, and closer still, to where she’d last spotted him hiding, as he watched the house.

  Who’d sent him, she wondered?

  Whoever had sent him, it didn’t bode well for him that he’d been caught spying on them. She wouldn’t rest until she found out who’d hired him—and why.

  Being careful not to blow her position, Sophia continued to stalk her prey, staying upwind of him and making sure she didn’t snap any twigs beneath her feet, giving her position away, and tell her quarry he no longer remained the hunter—but the prey.

  Sophia slinked through the shadows till she could see his dark, gray hood, once more, as he peeked up over the log he’d hunkered behind, to hide his presence from those living at and guarding the house.

  When he finally sensed her, he turned quickly—only to find a knife tip pricking his throat.

  “Ahhh, Sophia,” he soothed, “you don’t want to do that.”

  “What are you doing out here? Spying on us?” she demanded.

  He laughed that sexy laugh she’d seen him use on women since she could remember.

  “You still haven’t answered my question,” Sophia said, letting the tip draw a single drop of blood.

  He went still so she didn’t accidently draw more blood than she’d intended.

  “What did you expect?” he asked. “As soo
n as I heard you all were back together—well I could hardly resist, now could I?” He started to shrug and seemed to think better of it, given the knife she still held at his throat.

  “Can you blame me?” he asked her.

  She took the knife from his throat and put it back in its hidden sheath, under her leg pant.

  “Okay,” he said. “So—are you going to let me come in?”

  “No,” she said, giving him a dark look. “I know you found a way to get in close with Claire. When Claire finds out the truth about you, she’s going to want to stake you out over a bed of ants.” She eyed him. “So, I’d suggest you find a way to get yourself lost again.”

  He chuckled, but only followed her out of the woods and across the yard.

  She couldn’t believe his nerve.

  When she reached the porch, and he still followed her, she leaned over and poked him in the chest with her finger. “Just what do you think you’re doing? I’m not taking you in there,” she said. “You lied to Claire.” She sneered at him. “You’re the last person she’s going to want to see.”

  He gave her the same lazy, sexy smile. “Be that as it may,” he said, and his smile disappeared. “You’re going to need me—to help take down your warlock.”