“All say,” commented Dolores, “the child won’t speak. She’s terrified. After what happened to her parents… and now this? What was she doing there anyway?”
I’d been wondering that too.
“Sadie is always hiding and pulling disappearing acts on Martha since she came to live in Hollow Cove,” said Ronin. “She can’t sit still. She’s a runner. It’s her instinct to flee from danger. Guess she never recovered from that. She was probably in the library hiding when this happened. Saw everything too.”
“And that SOB wanted to kill her.” A bell sounded from my phone, telling me that Marcus, because no one else would be texting me now, had answered. I ignored it.
“Aren’t you going to see what he wrote, darling?” asked Beverly, leaning forward in her chair.
“No.”
Beverly cocked a brow and reached over the table to snatch up my phone. Her lips quirked into a smile that I didn’t like.
My eyes narrowed. “What? What is it?”
Beverly’s eyes met mine. “I’m not sure I should tell you but… he’s declaring his amour for you.”
“What?” I leaned over the table and grabbed my phone from her, making Ronin burst out in laughter, my face flaming. I was going to smack him.
I looked down at the phone.
Marcus: Thanks. Sorry about the Unseen at your house earlier. It won’t happen again.
I stared at the text, my stomach doing some spins and somersaults I was not happy about. Why did he care? He was probably embarrassed. No, he didn’t want Ruth to stop making whatever tonics she was brewing for him. He wanted me to “share” what he’d written. I wouldn’t have, but Beverly had seen it.
The damn witch was still smiling at me.
I dropped my phone again and sat down. “I want you guys to be straight with me. You want me on your team, so you need to start talking.”
“Is that so?” Dolores stared at me. “Are we your subjects now, oh master?”
Okay. It came out a little harder than I had intended. “That ward in the library was destroyed tonight.” I cast my gaze to each aunt. “It wasn’t the only one. Am I right?” When no one spoke, I kept going. “That first night I was here, when the body of Avi was discovered, you all went somewhere. You went to check on the wards. And you never said you actually fixed them. You just said everything was fine, but it wasn’t. Was it?” I took a breath and asked the question I’d been dying to ask. “How many wards have been destroyed?”
Dolores sighed through her nose. “Three.”
“That’s three wards destroyed by that same sonofabitch,” I said, my heart pounding as I connected the dots. “The pixies were drugged on purpose. They were a distraction while they worked on the ward. Yes, it’s all making sense now. And demons were summoned for added protection. At first, I thought it was just a random someone with a grudge. I know that’s not it.”
“You do?” said Beverly.
“Can’t be random. It’s too planned out. It has purpose.”
“Yeah,” said Ronin. “To kill us all.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m not buying that. Who would benefit from removing everyone from this town? Like you said, we’re just a bunch of has-beens and losers and the old.”
“Watch where you’re going with that,” snapped Beverly, staring at me like I’d told her that her lipstick didn’t match her skin tone.
“Maybe it’s humans.” Ruth turned around. “It wouldn’t be the first time the human population discovered us and wished us dead. Look what they did in Salem. Someone says you’re possessed by the devil—and the next thing you know you’re hanging by a noose.”
“It’s not them.” I wasn’t sure, of course, but humans didn’t fit in this equation. “To destroy these wards you need serious magic. Right?”
“That’s right,” Dolores answered, bobbing her head.
“How many of these wards are around town?”
Dolores came to stand next to me. “Five. With three gone, that leaves two.”
“Two is not enough to protect a town of this size. Right?” I took their silence as a yes. “Can you put them back?”
The three sisters were silent again, and I knew they were hiding something. “What is it?”
Eyes worried, Dolores looked at me. “Whoever destroyed them put a spell on them too. The spell keeps us from reaching the wards, like a layer of magic is holding us back. So, until we can figure out what spell they put and break it, I’m afraid we can’t.”
Dread was a tight ball in my gut as something occurred to me. I looked over to my right to the framed picture of the aerial view of Hollow Cove hanging on the kitchen wall.
I shot to my feet, grabbed the picture, and moved to the small desk stacked with bills to get a black marker. Then I settled back in at the kitchen table.
“What are we looking for?” asked Ronin, his head practically on my shoulder as he peered down at the picture, the scent of his cologne filling my nostrils.
I stared at the picture, feeling I was onto something. “Where was the first ward destroyed?”
Dolores moved to my other side and placed her finger on the picture. “Here, carved into that big oak tree on Potions Avenue.”
I drew a small black dot where she’d showed with her finger. “Was the other one in the town square somewhere?”
“At the base of the water fountain,” answered Dolores.
I made another small dot above the picture of the fountain. Then I made another dot when I spotted the library. I looked up at my aunts, twirling the marker between my fingers. “Where are the other two?”
Dolores tapped her finger on the frame again. “Here, on the corner of Jack O’Lantern Avenue and the last one on Hollow Cove Bridge.”
I put two additional dots where she’d pointed. My pulse quickened as I stared at the five dots. Next, I grabbed a small ruler from the same desk and connected the dots. Don’t ask me how I knew how to connect them. I just knew, like my inner witch had taken control of the ruler and marker.
I took a breath and leaned back, staring at the picture.
Ronin shifted next to me. “Holy shit—ow,” he said, after Beverly smacked his head.
“Watch your language, boy,” she admonished, looking a little too pleased to have done it.
Ronin was right. Holy shit with a capital S.
“It’s a star. The wards make a star?” I stared at my aunts. “This isn’t a coincidence. You put those wards there for a reason. And that star… a five-pointed star… it’s a pentagram.” We all knew pentagrams were used for protection.
Dolores nodded, a proud smile on her face. “We did. The pentagram is for another layer of protection within the wards.”
I looked back down at the star, all the wards placed strategically, all with a purpose to protect the town, but also to protect something else. “So, what’s in the middle?” I asked and tapped my finger on the picture. “What’s here?”
Dolores’s brow etched in worry, and her dark eyes seemed to darken even more. The three witches stiffened, sending my instincts flaming. I’d figured out something important.
I wasn’t sure she would answer. “That’s Mad Cat Park,” said Dolores after a long moment. Her eyes met mine, and she added, “It’s the convergence of the ley lines. Where they intersect. Where their power is abundant and everlasting.”
“Ley lines. Right.” I wasn’t an expert in ley line magic, but I knew they were used as conduits of magical power.
Dolores took a deep breath. “Hollow Cove was built over a grid of ley lines, a web of some of the most powerful ley lines in this country. It feeds the town with magic. It’s in the very soil, in the trees, and the surrounding buildings. Everywhere.”
“How many of them?” asked Ronin, reading my mind.
“Five,” answered Dolores.
“Five?” I knew one was powerful, but five? Five was like a nuclear plant of ley lines.
“That’s right.” Dolores took a breath. “One runs right
here, under this very house.”
I looked down at the floor. Don’t laugh. “Explains a lot.”
“That’s why Hollow Cove is so special,” continued Dolores as though I hadn’t interrupted her. “Why it’s the only place like this in the world and why it’s so attractive to others. Those who would take control of this town hold the power. Take the town, gain immeasurable power.”
I was willing to bet the ley lines were the reason my magic felt so uber-powerful in this town, as though it was magnified a hundred times. Having had a taste, I could see why others would want a piece.
My heart started to pound faster. Here came the big question, and somehow I knew they already had the answer. “So, who would benefit from all this power? Who’s behind the destruction of the wards?”
“The Church of Midnight,” blurted Ruth, a wooden spoon in her shaking hand, looking like she was about to hit something.
Ronin gave a small laugh. “Sounds like a group of little ol’ ladies playing bingo in some church’s basement.”
I stared at Ruth. “The Church of Midnight? Never heard of it. Who are they?”
Ruth looked at her sisters before she answered me. “A circle of powerful sorcerers and sorceresses.”
There was a sudden smash of glass hitting the floor.
I looked over to see Ronin’s face—pale, wide-eyed and frightened.
“Ronin?”
The vampire stilled, a turmoil of emotions playing over his face. He looked… he looked scared to death.
I reached out with my hand to touch his shoulder. “Ronin? What’s the matter?”
And then just like that, he shot to his feet, spun around and ran out the kitchen’s back door with that supernatural speed, without a second glance or even a goodbye.
“Looks like Ronin’s heard of your Church of Midnight.” And just the name terrified him.
“What’s gotten into him?” asked Ruth, looking puzzled.
“He didn’t like the beer,” snapped Dolores.
I stared at the back door as it pulled itself shut with a click. “Don’t worry. I’ll find him later.” Ronin was my only friend in this town. He’d stuck out his neck for me and that meant a great deal. I would help him, any way I could.
“I’ll pick this up.” Ruth came around me with a duster and broom in her hand that weren’t there a moment ago.
I felt the tension in the kitchen shift from anger to fear. Whatever this Church of Midnight was could only be bad news. Dread twisted in my gut at my next question.
My gaze rolled over the three witches. “What happens if these sorcerers destroy all the wards and get ahold of the ley lines?”
Dolores’s expression darkened, anger bubbling until her face twisted into an ugly mask. “Then they will take Hollow Cove and kill everyone in it.”
Yeah. Of course, they would.
18
Sleep was becoming more of a luxury since I came to Hollow Cove. Forget my usual wonderful eight hours of sleep. I’d be lucky if I got four.
I stood in front of the mirror on the dresser, looking at my thinning and haggard face. This was not the youthful face of a twenty-nine-year-old. Right now, I looked like I’d aged ten years. Damn.
“I look like the walking dead,” I told the mirror. The bags under my eyes were beginning to look like someone had punched me in the face.
After a quick shower, I applied some concealer under my eyes to brighten them up a bit, pinched my cheeks, because I didn’t have time to apply any blush, and headed downstairs.
The scent of carrot muffins wafted to my nose as I hit the bottom of the stairs. My stomach roared—literally roared—when I entered the kitchen. So, I obliged it and grabbed a freshly baked carrot muffin to settle the beast.
The kitchen was empty. I leaned over and peeked out the window that looked out into the side driveway, seeing the old Volvo station wagon. If the car was here, my aunts were here somewhere. Davenport House was a sprawling farmhouse, so they could be anywhere.
“I’m going out to look for Ronin,” I called out as I headed down the hallway.
I’d gone out to look for him late last night, but after an hour of not finding him, I’d gone back home. I figured he was probably in the arms of some hot babe, pouring out his vampire feelings.
Still, there was a reason he’d left like that, at the mere mention of that circle of sorcerers. And I would find out.
When I’d returned, my aunts and I had stayed up for hours, discussing what measures to put into place to best protect the town from this foreign attack. For now, we’d decided that protecting the last two wards was our best option.
I was to protect one while Dolores protected the other. Beverly and Ruth were charged with removing whatever spell or curse the sorcerers had put on the other three wards. If they could break them, the wards would be active again.
It was a solid plan, and I’d gone to bed feeling marginally better. But then I couldn’t sleep so I’d gone up two floors to the library and read everything I could on sorcerers.
Most of it was the same. Sorcerers and sorceresses were led by a Hight priestess or High priest. They worshipped Nyx, the goddess of night. And, like witches, they practiced magic and could draw their power from the elements and ley lines.
It was obvious they were powerful enough to break my aunts’ wards.
I pulled on my boots, grabbed my bag with my ever-faithful The Witch’s Handbook, slid the strap over my shoulder, and opened the front door—
And crashed into Marcus.
If there was an emotion worse than awkward, I was feeling it.
“You?” I managed to get out. Not quite as articulate as I had envisioned myself to be when I’d pictured myself standing before Marcus again. I blamed the carrot muffin and lack of sleep.
Marcus stood in the doorway, a strange expression on his face. His brows lifted in surprise at my comment or me, I couldn’t tell. A loose black T-shirt that did nothing to hide the ripples of muscle underneath was tucked in nicely to a pair of dark jeans. Was his chest larger than I’d remembered? I pulled my eyes away from his chest before I broke the “three-second rule” of allowed staring time—before it became stalkerish. I just made up that rule.
He didn’t even move out of the way. He just stood there, watching me.
I raised the strap of my bag over my shoulder. “You should apologize to my aunts after what you pulled with the Unseen,” I said, thinking that was why he was here.
Marcus lowered his eyes looking uncomfortable. “That was a mistake, them coming here. But I stand by my decision for bringing them in. The town needs them.”
“Like we need ticks and mosquitoes.” I scowled at him because punching him in the face seemed a little too reckless for so early in the morning. “Well, isn’t that dandy? Out of my way, Marky.”
I made to move forward, but the damn chief didn’t budge.
I gave him a quick mirthless smile. “Are you going to move out of my way, or do I have to grab a broom and fly over you?” Not that I could. I’d never seen a witch fly on a broom. I thought that was mostly on TV.
Marcus’s gray eye bore into mine, and I didn’t like how they were making heat rush from the tips of my toes to my head. His jaw clenched, and his lips opened and closed like he was fighting for what he wanted to say. He was uncomfortable. Interesting. And I liked it.
“Thank you for… taking care of that demon in the library,” he said finally, those damn fine eyes meeting mine again.
Crap. I might have been drooling. “If that’s your way of apologizing for being such a dick, you suck at it.”
Marcus hesitated, anger thick in his pinched brows. “I’m trying to do the right thing here. Why are you being so difficult?”
“Me? I’m being difficult?” I was practically shouting. “You’re the one who’s been biting my head off since I got here—for no apparent reason, other than your hatred for my mother. News flash, Marky. I’m. Not. Her.”
The chief’s eyes widened e
ven farther. His lips parted, seemingly unable to even blink.
“Nothing to say?” I snarked. “Really?”
Marcus said nothing, the glint in his eyes going right to my core.
Fuming, I stepped around Marcus and down the porch steps. I’d gone down the path to the sidewalk before realizing I had no idea where Ronin lived. I could have asked Marcus. I shot a glance over my shoulder to see him still on the porch, watching me walk away. Creep. I could not figure this guy out. But right now, he wasn’t important. What was important was to find Ronin. I wasn’t about to lose my only friend.
I’d barely walked down the block when Martha came bustling up the sidewalk, her eyes wide and on me, all happiness and light on her feet for such a large woman.
“Oh, my darling, Tessa,” squealed the woman as she came in for a hug. I stepped out of her way, but the woman was fast. She grabbed my arms and pulled me into her extraordinary large chest. “Thank you! Thank you for saving my Sadie.”
“No problem,” I wheezed and yanked myself back out of the woman’s iron grip.
Martha’s eyes brimmed with tears. “I know I’m not the child’s mother, but I’ve grown so attached to her. We’ve bonded. I don’t know what I’d do now if I lost her.”
The witch wasn’t my favorite person, but she had a big heart to take in an orphan half-breed. That said a lot about a person.
“How is she doing?”
Martha never stopped smile. “Better. She ate a little this morning. Now she’s disappeared again. She’s like a werewolf cub that one. Always running.”
I smiled. “She’ll be back. I wouldn’t worry.”
“Oh, I know that, dear.” Martha’s eyes flashed, and she clapped her hands together, making me jump. “Well, I gotta run, hon. I have Mrs. Van Nutt coming in for a perm and there’s Sophie Stark—she’s a werewolf, not blessed in the looks department, if you know what I mean—so she’ll need the makeover of the century for her hot date tonight. Ta-ta!”
I watched as Martha crossed the street. I felt a little relief that her business hadn’t been spoiled by the pixie invasion.
Shadow Witch (The Witches of Hollow Cove Book 1) Page 13
