I took a deep inhale as the truth set in.
He was real.
He’d been here.
At some point.
I wondered what the carved dates on his stone might be, and leaned in again to dig a little more.
"It doesn't look like there's anything else engraved on it," Shane said as I cleared more dirt away.
He was right. I'd exposed enough of the deeper slate to realize there were no other carvings.
I resisted the signal to stop digging, still hopeful that I'd find more information about his existence. Poking around with Shane's stick, I scraped at the stone in hopes of revealing something more.
With only smooth, dark slate driving deeper into the earth, I realized there was no more information about him.
I jabbed the stick into the hole I'd created in front of his grave marker, and it snapped.
The crack sent a strong vibration up my arm, and I pulled back.
The stick had struck something solid.
My eyebrows shot up as I stared at Shane.
"There's something down there," I gasped.
Taking the larger half of the stick in two hands, I dug with powerful swipes along the surface of the hard object. As I carved away at the dirt, the edges of a stone square emerged.
"Holy shit," Shane gushed. "What is that?"
I threw the stick and dug in with my hands. Dirt jammed under my nails as I clawed at the edges of the slab. Exposing the sides, I ran my fingers along the edge, finding a lip around the top.
"It's a box." My voice caught in my throat from the mounting excitement.
"Pry it out," Shane said, passing me the stick again.
Wiggling it down all four sides, I loosened the stone container from its tight grave.
"It's too small to be a coffin," I whispered. "Right?"
Shane huffed and shook his head. "Yeah. It's not a coffin. No worries."
I swallowed hard and pressed my fingers in around it. Shimmying it back and forth, I released it from its deep spot within the earth and pulled it up to the surface.
About the size of a shoebox, it weighed a ton. The stone was porous and held moisture within its structure, making it heavier than it appeared.
"Should we open it?" I spoke my thoughts aloud.
"Yup."
Shane's voice matched my inner monologue, and without hesitation, I banged the corner of the box on the ground.
The lid remained fixed, and I hit it again. Something rattled within, causing my curiosity to soar.
"Something's in there," I gasped.
I stood and lifted the box onto my knees, then into my arms. Lumbering over to the perimeter of the cemetery, I positioned the box over one of the border stones and smacked it.
The sound of rock hitting rock reverberated through the woods, causing some nearby birds to take flight. The excitement of the lid shifting and the wildlife fluttering caused my nerves to quake. Nearly dropping the box, I stepped back and lowered it to the ground.
Shane knelt next to me, and we stared at it for a moment in silence.
The box held a secret.
Its secret had been kept safe for hundreds of years.
And now it was about to be revealed to us.
The twist in my gut reminded me of the uneasy feeling I'd had all morning.
"I know it's not right to open it," I murmured. "But he would have wanted me to. It's like he intended me to."
With a nod, Shane said, "Do it."
I took a deep breath and pushed the lid to the side. It crunched along the top of the box with a gravelly sound as some of the stone broke away.
Peering into the darkness, I searched for whatever hid within the confines. A glint of light reflected off an object at the far corner, and I reached for it.
My fingers wrapped around a cold metal item, and I pulled it out.
Holding it in the palm of my hand, Shane and I studied it with dropped jaws.
The weight of it pulled my hand down as I felt its intricate designs with my thumb. In the shape of an elongated diamond, the silver object held tribal markings and had a circle in the center, at its widest point. The carved-out circle had a thick piece of glass in it, appearing almost like a magnifying glass.
"It's a talisman of some sort," Shane mumbled, scratching his head. "Really old, judging from those carvings. And it looks like real silver."
His words morphed into sounds that meant nothing to me. All I noticed was that I was holding something of my father's—something he wanted me to have.
"I wonder what it's for?" I murmured.
Lifting it to my eye, I gazed through the glass center. The scratches and imperfections made it appear more like a clear crystal. I strained to focus and see through it, then moved it in and out of my line of vision.
As I aimed it more specifically toward my father's gravestone, my vision came into focus through the crystal.
With a gasp, I dropped it into the moss and jumped back.
Panting, I struggled to catch my breath.
"What?" Shane blurted, reaching to the ground for the talisman.
I shook my head, denying what I'd just seen, but couldn't clear it.
"His stone," I stuttered. "I just saw it as if it had been freshly engraved. His plot was newly filled." My voice shook with nervous energy. "I saw the past... clearly."
Shane stared at the talisman as if it could burn us. His air whooshed out of him as he gawked at it.
"Are you serious?" he choked. "Can I look?"
I moved my trembling hand toward him, holding the piece open in my palm. He reached a finger toward it and touched on the crystal. Then he tried to pick it up.
Just as his fingers wrapped around it, he jolted and jumped back in shock as if he'd been electrocuted.
I closed my fingers around the talisman and pulled it into my chest.
"What was that?" I stared at him wide-eyed.
He blinked a few times and shook his head to clear it.
"I don't know. It... it flooded me. Like, overwhelmed my senses."
What was strange was, I knew exactly what he meant.
It had flooded me too.
All of my senses.
I pulled it closer to my heart.
And in that moment, I vowed never to let it go.
"I'll keep it safe," I said. "We need to clean up here, so no one ever knows we found it."
I surveyed the mess we'd left, like modern-day grave robbers.
Without hesitation, we got to work, returning the soil to the base of my father's gravestone, and then replacing the moss and ivy to make it look undisturbed.
"Good enough," I said. "Let's get out of here. Something tells me we don't want to be found anywhere near this place. There's always someone looking for items like this one... which kind of sucks."
I could only imagine this talisman falling into the wrong hands. It would be a disaster.
"We need to bring it to Ms. Kelly and Ms. Reed," Shane said. "They'll know what to do with it, I bet."
I nodded while considering all the implications.
I wasn't sure if this should remain a secret or not.
I mean, we had a new agenda now. Graduation was one thing, but ending the death curse of the Dark Witch was quite another, and it was paramount.
If this talisman could be used against the death curse, I needed to keep my hands safely on it at all times.
It meant my father.
And it meant Shane.
It could be the link to getting them back fully into my life.
"Shane," I started. "What if this can help you somehow?" My voice trailed off into a whisper in fear of raising any false hopes.
"Mhmm," he murmured. "Can't say I haven't been wondering the same thing." He glanced away, exposing his insecurity. "It has to be connected somehow, right?" He took a huge inhale and blew it out.
I reached for his hand and smiled. "Let's go find Ms. Kelly."
Leaving the cemetery left me feeling empty, and I rubbe
d my ribs with a grimace.
I'd had a pit in my stomach all morning—it's what led me to the graveyard in the first place.
And it was responsible for my insomnia as well.
Put a seizure on top of it all, and voila, exhaustion.
But finding a hidden treasure buried within my father's gravesite was the turning point that kept me moving forward.
Which direction to move in was the question of the moment.
I needed a new home-base—one that supported my new goals.
I really just wanted to stay at Shane's place now. He'd made his desire for me to do so very clear, but I felt an ethical obligation to my mother to stay at our own home.
It was dumb, feeling such a strong tie to her.
I'd moved beyond the typical 'family situation' long ago, but I still worried about Mom. All of my anger toward her had dissipated once I understood the predicament she'd been placed in.
She'd only wanted to protect me—however incompetent she was.
Her incompetence stemmed from fear of the unknown—fear that she would lose me, the same way she lost my father.
I understood her breakdown now, moving every year to avoid discovery—the alcohol to calm her nerves.
I shrugged it off now, knowing that a higher purpose remained in place, waiting for me to uncover it.
I didn't want to let my mother down, though.
It was a strange force of nature, really. No matter how a child's been treated, or mistreated, they would always lay their lives down for their mother.
And the weird thing was, I felt the same loyalty to my father, having never even met him.
My heart nearly burst from the love I felt from my parents at this moment. It was something I never thought I would ever know.
I blew out a long breath, causing Shane to turn his attention to me.
"You good?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm good."
And I was.
Shockingly.
I just had a lot to accomplish still.
But with Shane, I knew I could do this.
And with my father waiting for me, I knew I was ready to fight.
"I texted Ms. Kelly," he added. "She said for us to come to Ms. Reed's for breakfast. Sound good?"
My smile took over my face.
First of all, I was starving.
And second, I needed to see those women more than anything.
They were my ballast.
They grounded me and helped me focus my gifts in ways I never knew possible.
I needed them now, more than ever.
A twang of sadness shot through me as I thought of Ms. Harrison. She was the third member of the Witch Trifecta, and now they were down to two. She'd gone through the portal with Dom and Courtney as they took Millicent back to her realm.
Ms. Harrison had felt an obligation to all of them, to make things right. And I knew she would make good on her promise to them.
My eyes narrowed in that moment.
I wondered if the Trifecta had a way of staying in touch with her.
With the portal smashed to smithereens, we had no way of communicating with our friends, but maybe...
"Do you think they have a way of reaching Ms. Harrison in the past?" I blurted.
Shane took his foot off the gas and slowed the RAV. He turned to me with eyes wide open.
"Holy shit."
I huffed. "I know!"
He pressed his foot heavier on the gas and accelerated toward Ms. Reed's house.
"I have to admit, it feels a little like we're messing with fate at this point," he said. "I mean, we've been so lucky to stop the Dark Witch and get our friends back to where they were meant to be. I just don't want to jinx it."
His words curled my toenails.
But he wasn't wrong.
The more we pushed, the deeper the consequences would become.
"I agree," I reluctantly added. "But, literally, I don't think we can stop now. We have too much information at this point. We need answers."
"Yup."
His simple reply assured me we were doing the right thing.
We'd talk with the remaining two of The Trifecta.
We'd learn more about the talisman.
And then we'd figure out our next moves.
And it was clear to me; they involved risk, sacrifice, and pain.
Chapter 3
Shane drove over the bridge where we had once listened to our echoes from underneath. My stomach flipped as I remembered my feelings for him at that time, uncertain of how he felt about me. The butterflies returned in an instant, and I glanced at him with a smile.
"What?" He shot his eyes to mine.
His hair fell across his forehead, tempting me to reach for it and run my fingers through. The temptation to draw my finger along his stubbled jawline and touch his full bottom lip was enough to make me forget everything else that was going on.
"Nothing," I lied. "Just remembering the time when we went under the bridge for the echoes."
"I was just thinking the same thing." He grinned. "It seems like a long time ago."
"I know. But it really wasn't."
He shrugged. "I guess so much has happened in such a short time, it makes it seem forever ago." He pulled his bottom lip in. "I already knew how much I liked you then. And I thought you were into Dom." He shook his head. "That sucked."
I reached for his hand, and he squeezed mine. His energy raced through me, filling me with his angst and his loyalty, his love and his commitment. I hoped I'd sent him the same feelings through our touch. His gentle smile proved whatever I'd sent was good.
A moment later, Shane turned onto a dirt road hidden by shadows and dense branches.
"Ms. Reed lives down here?" I asked, imagining a rustic log cabin or maybe even a tent.
"Yeah. I've never been inside, but I've been fishing around here a million times and just kinda always knew she lived here." He slowed the RAV to navigate the bumps and puddles. "It's private, so I guess it's perfect for her."
As we reached the end of the dirt road, the river came into view, and a small cottage nestled near its edge.
"Oh, wow. It's pretty," I gushed. "Such a nice view of the water, and it's so secluded."
I recognized Ms. Kelly's car parked along the side, and a wave of emotion struck me hard. I'd come to rely on her support more than I'd realized. The powerful feelings made it clear to me how important she was in my life—like a mother-figure who'd coached me through my most vulnerable time, guiding me through the maze of self-discovery. Her loyalty to me, to all of the UMAs, was beyond comprehension.
"I can't believe everything Ms. Kelly has done for us," I murmured. "She's sacrificed so much."
I pictured the burning church, like a huge part of her life going up in flames, and all she cared about was our safety.
Shane nodded. "She has a higher purpose, for sure. Protecting Tommy is her ultimate focus, but, you're right, her allegiance to the coven is unbreakable."
It was true. Something about Ms. Kelly always gave me the confidence to move forward, knowing she had my back.
As Shane pulled in beside her car, the front door of the cottage opened. I couldn't see past the hanging wind chimes, but then Ms. Reed's colorful dress and bright smile filled the entryway with welcome.
Her hair had been twisted into long strands, like tiny dreadlocks, and some had gold jewels and beads on them. Her dark skin glowed in the sun, sending a rich beauty out into the morning light.
"Welcome," she called to us, waving us in. "Come in for the finest coffee in the land."
I couldn't have heard more wonderful words than those. My entire insides lit up, not only for the coffee but also to her warm greeting.
As we approached her door, I took in the beauty of her small cottage. The gray clapboard gave it the look of a quaint, weathered beach house, but as I peeked inside, the interior was filled with dark, natural wood walls, covered in trinkets and herbs bundles.
Ms. Reed embrac
ed me with a warm hug and then reached for Shane. As my eyes scanned the open space, I saw Ms. Kelly at the far side of the kitchen area. She held out a steaming cup for me.
"Ah, you're a sight for sore eyes," she called to us.
I moved to her, and as I took the cup, she wrapped her arm around me with a warm squeeze. But then, with a strange twitch, she pulled away in uncertainty.
I looked at her in confusion as she glanced at Ms. Reed.
Then she turned her attention back to me.
"Something's different," she said.
"Is it bad?" I worried.
She shook her head. "No, just different. I can't put my finger on it."
I shot a glance at Shane, and he lifted his brows at me with a smirk.
"You don't miss much," Shane said to her.
Ms. Kelly rubbed her forehead. "True. I imagine we have much to discuss."
She sat at the table, and the rest of us joined her. Ms. Reed poured coffee for Shane, and I studied the rings on her every finger—each one appearing regal with different colored gems and intricate designs. I fiddled with the cream for my coffee as I absorbed the mystical surroundings of her home. The smell of something sweet baking in the oven sent me over the moon, making it even more challenging to focus on what we'd come for.
My eyes scanned the cottage’s open space, absorbing the array of spell books on the shelves and the mortar and pestles lined up along the sides. Candles, crystals, and pendulums filled every other available nook. It was like being inside a shop of sorcery and witchcraft with any item you'd ever want for conjuring spells of every type.
Ms. Kelly took a sip of her coffee and placed her cup down on the table. "We've much to talk about," she started. "There's never much time for resting on our laurels before the next hurdle presents."
I studied her eyes, wondering what she knew.
She glanced at Ms. Reed and then continued. "We have sensed Elizabeth in the great expanse." She paused. "Ms. Harrison," she clarified. "We didn't know if it was possible, but now we have hope."
I shot my eyes to Shane's.
They've had contact with Ms. Harrison. Even if it was just a feeling, it was something. This meant there might be a chance to reach the others as well.
My heart raced as I considered the idea of knowing how Dom and Courtney were doing. I'd thought we'd never have the chance.
Urban Mystic Academy: Graduation (A Supernatural Academy Series Book 6) Page 2
