Cooper didn’t want to consider anything of the sort, even if it was meant as an offhand comment. “She won’t touch you. I’ll kill her if she tries.”
“Let’s not go there right now.” Hannah rested her hand on his chest, smiling when his hand landed on top of hers. “If we’re lucky, Astra will have had her fill with Stormy and she’ll run her out of town herself.”
“What are the odds we’re that lucky?”
Hannah shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s nice to dream about, though.”
“Then dream.” He kissed her forehead. “Try to stay away from those witches tonight. You need a good night’s sleep.”
Hannah couldn’t agree more.
SHE WOKE IN THE CLOUDY DREAMSCAPE again and knew the tranquility she was looking for wasn’t going to be found after all. This time she was on top of the mountain. She could tell by the trees, although all the present-day landmarks she would’ve recognized from Casper Creek were missing.
“Why can’t you just leave me alone?” a petulant voice asked from somewhere to her left. “I don’t ask for much. Just that.”
Hannah moved in that direction, curious despite herself. As wretched as she found the dreams, there was also something fascinating about them.
“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” another voice taunted. “I’m not doing anything.”
“If you weren’t doing anything, I wouldn’t care that you were here.”
“Oh, yeah? Tell me what I’m doing.”
“Annoying me.”
Hannah stopped at the edge of a small clearing. Even though there was nothing to differentiate the spot from the rest of the wilderness, there was something familiar about the location. A hint of movement under the full moon caught her attention in the middle of the field and there, standing a good twenty feet apart, were the witches.
The dark one stood with her arms outstretched, gazing adoringly at the moon. The other, the one Hannah was convinced lacked pigmentation, boasted an aggressive stance as she glared at her sister.
“Why don’t you just leave?” the first voice asked. It belonged to the dark witch Hannah realized. Bettina. She was the one with the dark hair, at least that’s what the book said.
“Why don’t you just leave?” Amelia shot back.
“Because I’m not doing anything.”
“Oh, we’re not having this conversation again.” Amelia made a disgusted face. “I know you get off on playing the victim, but it doesn’t work on me. I know what you are.”
“And what’s that?” Bettina asked on a sneer.
“Standing in my way. This property was supposed to be mine when Father passed. He told me himself.”
“That’s funny, because he told me the same thing.”
“He was lying to you.”
“Or perhaps he was lying to you.”
“No.” Amelia vehemently shook her head. “Father wouldn’t lie to me. We had a special relationship.”
“Yes, the entire village knows about your special relationship with him.”
“Don’t be crass.”
“I’ll be whatever I want to be.”
The words weren’t dated, Hannah realized. The conversation was more modern than she would’ve envisioned, which threw her for a loop when recognition bloomed. Shouldn’t the language of the time have been different? Why was it the same?
“Only one of us can rule this land,” Amelia volunteered. “You know that as well as me. As long as the other is here to serve as a dampener, neither one of us will ever get what we truly want.”
“Then leave and I’ll take over the land.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Father left it to me.”
“He left it to both of us. There was a reason he did that. You might not be able to see it right now, but I do. The world needs balance. Actually, both worlds need balance. This is the veil between them, though, and if it’s not balanced, both sides will fail.”
If Hannah thought she was confused before, it was nothing compared to how she felt now. Both sides? Veil? What were they talking about?
“I’ve been doing some thinking,” Bettina said, her voice softer than it had been before. “There’s a reason neither of us can leave.”
“Yeah, because we both want power.”
“I can only see that reality half the time.”
“You always did struggle with the obvious,” Amelia said dryly.
Bettina ignored the dig. “Maybe the master of this domain is the one who can give it up.”
“That’s an interesting theory. Let’s test it. Give the land to me and we’ll see what happens.”
Bettina’s chuckle was hollow. “Such a gracious offer. I’ll have to pass, though.”
Amelia shrugged. “Your loss.” Her eyes moved to the sky. “The witching hour is almost here.”
“Yes.” Bettina nodded. “The shift will come again.”
“And again ... and again ... and again.” Amelia scowled. “Nothing will change if we don’t come to an agreement.”
“There is no agreement that will satisfy us both.”
“That’s one reason why one of us has to be willing to move on.”
“It will not be me.”
“And it won’t be me.”
They sighed in unison, resigned.
“So, we shall continue like this,” Bettina said in a soft voice.
“Until the end of days.”
They both stared at the moon, quiet, as a dark cloud passed over the surface. After a few minutes, talk resumed.
“It’s my day to shine,” Bettina noted. Her voice was decidedly darker, Hannah realized. It was almost as if she’d become a different person. “You should leave. I don’t want to be depressed on my day in the sun.”
Amelia’s expression had lightened considerably, although she hardly looked amused. “I’ll go, but not because I care what you think. It’s a new day. The birds will start singing a new song. I have much to do. My garden needs tending.”
“My garden,” Bettina countered bitterly. “I started it.”
“We started it together.”
“And yet I’ve done the bulk of the work.” Bettina’s eyes were dark. “The gate opens every day at the same time. The worlds overlap. We cannot keep up like this forever.”
“No, but since neither one of us will voluntarily leave, we are where we are for the foreseeable future.”
“The veil will lift one day and the two worlds will be one.”
“Not as long as I have breath in my body.”
“And how long will that be?”
“As long as it takes. If I die, I’ll make sure to take you with me.”
“What an intriguing thought.”
HANNAH DRIFTED INTO A BETTER DREAM, leaving the witches to continue their endless squabble. Somehow, from a pretty field with the sun overhead and a picnic basket full of good food, Cooper had called her into a different part of her mind. There, she sat down to enjoy a picnic with him and Jinx. Despite the vastly superior surroundings and beautiful day, though, she kept looking over her shoulder. It was as if the other witches were now watching her, although she couldn’t see them.
When she woke, she found Jinx was still on the bed. He snored in her ear, his body partially on her back. Since she rested on top of Cooper, he was essentially pinned to the mattress thanks to the added weight provided by Jinx and herself.
“Whoops.” She laughed when she saw he was awake and staring. “I hope you don’t have to go to the bathroom or anything.”
He grinned, legitimately amused. “Actually, I’m okay. I’ve only been awake a few minutes.”
“Did you sleep okay?”
“I did. Once I fell asleep, I didn’t wake up at all. How about you?”
Hannah was ready to tell him she had a great night’s sleep and then she thought better of it and hesitated.
“It wasn’t meant to be a trick question,” he prodded.
“I know,” she replied hastily. “That’s not what I was
thinking. I had another dream last night.”
“I’m sorry.” His frown was pronounced. “I wanted you to get some peace.”
“I did,” she reassured him. “I had a better dream after the first dream.”
“And what was the first dream about?” He gently brushed her hair out of her face. “Was it the witches again?”
“Yes.”
“The same?”
“Kind of, but different.” She told him about the dream, about the roundabout conversation. When she was finished, he seemed perplexed. “It’s weird, right?”
He nodded. “It’s definitely weird. You say the voices sounded different, huh?”
“Really different. It was as if they became different people.”
“Abigail said each one was bad half the time.”
“Yeah, and I still don’t know how that’s possible.”
“Me either. I don’t get the stuff about the veil. What sort of veil could they be talking about?”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about that. Oomph. Move over, Jinx.” Hannah pushed against the dog as hard as she could. “I can’t breathe.”
Jinx shot her a one-eyed defiant look and then turned to face the other way ... and immediately began snoring again.
“We need a bigger bed,” Cooper lamented.
“It’s not going to stop him from sleeping on top of us. That’s not important right now, though,” she insisted. “I think the veil they’re talking about is the shadow world.”
He stared at her for a beat, unblinking, and then shrugged. “I have no idea what that means.”
“There’s more than one plane of existence. There are some magical beings who can move between planes. What if this mountain is one of the spots where the planes overlap?”
“I’m not sure how that works.”
“I’m not either, but I’ve done a bit of reading since I found out I was a witch. I think we’re dealing with a collision of two worlds ... and maybe people from different planes, too.”
“Yeah, you’ve definitely lost me now.”
“Bettina and Amelia. They’re twins but one lacks pigmentation. What if it’s because one of the twins was from the other plane?”
“What, like we all have counterparts living on a different plane and somehow Josette managed to get her daughter’s counterpart?”
Hannah eagerly nodded. “You got what I was going for right away. I’m amazed.”
Cooper made a face. “That was my joke answer.”
“Well, it’s what I’m thinking. I have no proof of course, but I think it’s an avenue to follow.”
“Twins from two different planes starting a war and turning Casper Creek into a magical nexus. That’s the avenue you want to follow, huh?”
“Pretty much.”
“Sure. Why not?” He threw up his hands. “It sounds perfectly reasonable.”
“I know you’re being sarcastic, but I’m fine with it because I figure you’ll come around eventually. In fact—” Before she could finish her sentence, she heard pounding on the front door of the apartment.
Jinx jerked up his head and started barking.
“It’s too late to warn us now,” Cooper groused, hopping out of bed. “We need to talk about your protection skills, buddy. You’re sleeping on the job this morning.”
Jinx’s only response was to cut him off and hit the hallway first, forcing Cooper to sidestep him at an odd angle and accidentally make contact with the wall. He was still cursing under his breath when he opened the door to Boone.
“You’re here early,” Cooper noted. “We didn’t expect you for at least another hour.”
Boone was disheveled, his hair sticking up in odd places. His skin was pale and his expression was riddled with unhappiness. “Lindsey is gone.”
Cooper blinked several times in rapid succession. “I don’t understand.”
“She’s gone,” Boone barked. “She left in the middle of the night, determined to find Angel and keep her away from the evil witches, and only left me a note.”
“What?” Bewildered, Cooper glanced at Hannah as she joined the men. “Why would she do that?”
“Because she wants to drive me crazy. It doesn’t matter now. All I know is that she’s out here and we have to find her.”
“Of course we’ll find her,” Hannah soothed. “We won’t let anything happen to her. You have to tell us everything, though. We need to know what we’re dealing with. After that, we’ll start searching. She can’t have gone far.”
At least Hannah hoped that was true. If Lindsey had somehow stumbled into the same trouble as Angel, though, all bets were off.
17
Seventeen
Tyler met everybody in the saloon thanks to a terse text from Cooper. He’d obviously just woken up because his hair was a mess and the lines from his pillow remained on his face.
“What’s going on?”
“Lindsey,” Hannah replied as she moved behind the bar and filled a glass with water. She hadn’t even bothered to brush her teeth, only going so far as to pull her hair back in a ponytail and throw on jeans, a shirt, and tennis shoes.
“What about her?”
“She took off,” Cooper replied. “Apparently she’s decided to look for Angel herself.”
“What?” Tyler’s face was awash with confusion. “Why would she do that?”
“Because she wants to kill me,” Boone muttered. He looked stricken, as if he’d aged ten years over the course of several hours. “She snuck out in the middle of the night and left a note that she was coming here to look for Angel. She didn’t want the bad witches to get her.”
“What bad witches?”
“Probably Stormy and Astra,” Cooper said. “She heard us talking when we got back last night. I’m guessing she assumes that they’re the ones responsible for taking Angel.”
“Maybe they are,” Boone argued. “Maybe they’ve been able to get on the property this whole time.”
“I don’t know that I believe that,” Hannah hedged. “I’ve run into Astra hanging by the creek numerous times. That’s the boundary. If she could cross, why stay over there?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t want you to know she had access to the property.”
“Maybe.” Hannah chewed on her bottom lip and shifted her attention to Cooper. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know.” Cooper’s mind was a minefield, hard to pick through and prone to dangerous explosions. “If she could cross over before this, I have to believe somebody would’ve seen her. The barrier is what makes sense to me. It somehow messed with the wards. I’m guessing Astra has been testing the wards for weeks. It was only yesterday that she got the result she was looking for.”
“Why come out here, though?” Boone challenged. “What did she hope to accomplish by coming out here in the middle of a storm?”
“That I can’t answer.” Cooper refused to panic. “If we find her, we can ask her. Lindsey has to be our priority, though.”
“Speaking of that, shouldn’t you have men out here?” Tyler queried. “I mean ... the more bodies the better, right?”
“I considered it, but I’m afraid,” Boone admitted. “What if Stormy or Astra have her and to get her back Hannah has to use her magic? My men can’t be around for that.
“If I thought she was really up here just wandering around and looking, I would totally call them,” he continued. “What if she’s not, though? What if we need magic? What if ....?” He didn’t finish the question. He couldn’t.
“We’ll find her,” Hannah promised, crossing over to him. “We’ll find her and make sure she’s okay. I promise.”
Cooper watched them embrace, his heart pinching. Promising Boone they would find Lindsey was risky business. For all they knew, Lindsey was already gone. Still, Boone was like an older brother to him. He adored the man, relied on him for emotional support. He would do whatever it took to make sure Hannah’s promise came true.
“We’ll definite
ly find her,” he said. “We need to come up with a plan, though.” He inclined his head toward the map on the wall. “There are four of us. We need to split up and cover as much ground as possible.” He hesitated and then focused on Hannah. “Can you search on your own? I don’t particularly want to be separated from you, but we need to be quick.”
“I’ll be absolutely fine,” Hannah promised him. “Did you call Jackie and Danielle?”
“I did and they’re on their way. I think we should start searching right away, though. They can join in when they get here.” He held her gaze for an extended beat and then pushed forward. “I think you need to keep Jinx locked inside the saloon.”
As if understanding every word, Jinx jerked up his head and made a low growling sound.
“So much for the truce,” Cooper muttered. “It’s best if you stay here, buddy. If you go out there, you can be used as a weapon against Hannah. You don’t want that, do you?”
Baffled, Boone furrowed his brow. “Why are you reasoning with a dog?”
“Because we have a new understanding,” Cooper replied simply. “It’s safer for everyone if Jinx is here. I know he might be able to sniff her out, but he also might be hurt in the process. He might become a distraction. Does everybody agree?”
Tyler nodded. “I’ll take him upstairs. That way he’ll blame me instead of you if he gets angry.”
“Shut the bedroom closet,” Hannah suggested. “He might try to crap on Cooper’s shoes as punishment and nobody wants to clean up that mess.”
Tyler’s chuckle was hollow. “I’ll take care of it. Pick a spot for me to start searching. I’ll be right back.”
Once he was gone, Hannah focused on the map. “I’m heading toward the creek.”
Cooper groaned. “Why? What good will that do?”
“It’s just a feeling. I don’t know if she’s going to be there. I don’t know if Astra or Stormy is going to be there. Heck, I don’t know if Abigail is going to be there. I feel as if I need to be there, though.”
Dances With Witches (A Hannah Hickok Witchy Mystery Book 5) Page 17
