Accession
Page 21
The queen turned away from her stunned daughter and walked back toward the house.
Katherine fell to her knees on the ground and wondered exactly when her life had gone to hell in a hand basket. With slumped shoulders, she realized that the responsibilities of the town were slowly closing around her throat like a noose and she would never be able to leave Sandersville again...not as long as she lived.
Katherine felt silent tears roll down her face but she didn’t wipe them away. She let them dry on her cheeks as she stared at the meadow around her. It was winter, which meant the grass was stiff and dry with brown hues. There was chill in the air and the barest bite of cold in the wind. Yet still she didn’t move.
She breathed in and out slowly and she thought of all the times Cecily had come to her rescue when she was all alone in the forest, or dragged out of her room when she was consumed with a new spell. Bright, happy Cecily who always had a smile on her face and a comforting shoulder to lean on.
As one final tear rolled down her cheek Katherine stood. She had made her decision. She wasn’t going to wait for her mother to come around. She would find her cousin herself. Quietly she hurried into the house and grabbed a burner cell phone she had hidden in her underwear drawer. Texting Ethan to meet her on the far side of the forest with his car, she packed an overnight bag with jeans, two t-shirts and some sweats to sleep in and went right back out the door.
Not bothering to stop. Even to say goodbye to Gestap, she hurried the through the meadow and into the darkness of the forest while the light of day still guided her way. With it being late November, the sun was going down sooner earlier in the day, so she didn’t have much time before she lost even the small rays of light that pierced the gloominess of the pine trees all around her.
When she got to the road that bisected the forest behind her home and on the opposite of Gestap’s swamp, she breathed a sigh of relief to see Ethan standing by his driver’s side door and watching her descend down the slippery bank
Unlocking the doors with a click, he slipped into the car without a word and she quickly threw her bag into the back seat and hopped into the front.
“So what’s the plan?” Ethan asked Katherine slowly.
“Find Cecily. That’s as far as I got.”
A bitter smile crossed Ethan’s face as Katherine began to think aloud, “We know Cecily’s outside of the town boundaries. But we don’t know where. If we could find that out—”
“Already done,” Ethan said flatly.
“How?” Katherine asked in shock.
“When your mother kicked me out,” Ethan said, “I called in some favors.”
Katherine turned in her seat to look at him fully. “What kind of favors?”
Ethan smiled. “I know some trackers a few counties over. They’ll find anything for the right price. I figured it was a good second-option if Cecily didn’t turn up and your aunt was no help.”
Breatheless Katherine asked, “So where is she?”
Ethan said, “They saw her heading west on Interstate 20.”
Katherine nodded and the said, “Then I guess we’re heading the same direction.”
Ethan put his hand on the keys in the ignition but didn’t turn it on. “There’s something else.”
“What?” Katherine asked.
“The first vision saw her heading west,” Ethan said with his firmly focused straight ahead, “The second vision saw where she ended up.”
“Where?” said Katherine—mystified as to why they were moving yet. “Cecily could be in any of the small towns bordering the interstate. Which one did she go to? Monticello? Athens?”
Ethan shook his head and said softly, “Atlanta. She’s in Atlanta.”
Katherine sat back in her seat with a deep breath. “Atlanta?”
“Atlanta,” he repeated a third time while his key still dangled in the switch.
“That’s high queen territory,” she said.
“Yes,” Ethan confirmed. “I can understand if you want to stay here.”
Katherine shook her head firmly. “If Atlanta’s where Cecily is now, that’s where we’re going.”
A small smile appeared on Ethan’s face, then he cranked the engine.
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