I glance at Reid. “I hear she had a certain fondness for him?”
Sadie’s expression falls flat. “Fondness isn’t the correct term. There is something about the Innocent that attracts the Haunted to us. Zeke to me. Julien to you. Erika…”
Wait a second. Did Sadie think Reid is one of the Innocent? Does she know? She couldn’t know about Reid’s powers. He never told anyone. The only other person who knew was my mother, and she was killed before she could convince Reid to tell anyone else. I keep my face blank.
“Reid was never interested in her,” Sadie says, not finishing her previous thought. “In fact, he was his usual broody Reidish self about it. I don’t know if it was because he knew Erika was one of the Haunted, or if it was because she was Zeke’s little sister, but he wouldn’t even give her the time of day.”
“The Haunted don’t take rejection well,” I say, recalling how Julien’s alter ego instantly took over him one night when I chose Reid over him.
“Especially Erika. She started causing trouble to get Reid’s attention, but nothing worked.”
I smile. I don’t know why. Such a story shouldn’t make me happy, but it does. Reveling in the downfall of a young girl is cruel, but denying the hint of satisfaction at the thought of Reid’s rejection of her would be denying a part of myself that still needs work. The Haunted aren’t the only ones with flaws.
“I have a theory,” Sadie says, her voice barely a whisper.
“A theory about what?”
“Your roommate.”
She does know that Reid is one of the Innocent. That he is my Sun.
I almost trip over the pointy toe of my own boot. I wait for her to continue and she slows down, allowing the distance between our small group to spread. “We were young when it started, barely in middle school. Even then I knew Reid was different. He separated himself from everyone. He didn’t just distance himself from Erika. He didn’t notice any of the girls who took interest in him. It’s like he knew, Willa. Like he knew he was waiting for you.”
I shake my head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Reid looks over his shoulder, that same smile from earlier on his face as he laughs at whatever he and Grady argue about now. Sadie leans in toward me. “I never knew he could smile like that until he smiled at you.”
We reach Rooster’s Diner and Reid holds the door open for us. I wait for him, bringing up the end of the line. I quickly grab his arm and pull him back a step. “Sadie knows,” I say in a quick whisper.
“Knows what?”
I poke his chest. “About you. About us.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. I mentioned Erika, and she started talking about how she has this theory about you and how the Haunted are attracted to the Innocent.”
“Wait. Why were you talking about Erika?”
My mouth suddenly snaps shut. “No reason. I just mentioned her.”
His eyes narrow at me. “Wilhelmina.”
I’m such a horrible liar. “Sadie knows,” I say trying to distract him.
Reid takes a breath and we stand there and watch as everyone takes a seat at the table. “Maybe she does, but as long as she keeps her mouth shut about it for now, it’ll be fine.”
“Why can’t we just tell them?”
“Because I have my own theories, Willa. Trust me. I’ll tell them all when the time is right.”
I glance down, more frustrated than ever. Reid tilts my chin back up. “You trust me, right?”
“Y—”
He kisses me and my heart stops. It’s quick. Too quick. I want more. He places his lips next to my ear and I can feel him smiling. “You’re cute when you’re jealous.”
He starts to walk away, but I catch his arm. “I’m not jealous.”
His grin is contagious. “I’ve felt the emotion enough in the last six months to know what it looks like.”
I purse my lips to keep from smiling back at him. I am jealous. It’s ridiculous and immature. I’ve never even met Erika, and Sadie just told me that Reid never once displayed any kind of interest in her. It’s there, though, twinging inside of me. Maybe it’s because we can’t seem to find the time or the right words to turn what we feel about each other into a label.
Throughout the entire dinner, I’m distracted by the thought. Too many thoughts and what-ifs bubbling inside my head. I want nothing more than to relieve Reid’s doubt about us. I know it’s there, just like my jealousy. His hesitation is the confirmation. He still isn’t sure what will happen if we succeed in this plan to release the Haunted from their fate. His foot scoots up against mine underneath the table, and I glance up.
He’s watching me. I know that look. If I could still hear his thoughts, he’d ask me what’s wrong. Always so concerned about me. Always so focused on what makes me happy and what I need. He can’t see it.
I waited for him too. Even before I knew he existed. I waited for him. Sitting alone on those front porches, letting each foster family leave me behind, and not just on Halloween. I stayed behind every time. Family movie night. Ballet recitals. Company picnics.
All that time I spent searching for my mother, or the father who abandoned me, and all I really needed was him. My Sun.
This time he leans over the table, his arms crossed on the top. The group continues to talk around us. Their voices and words are nothing but background noise when he looks at me like that. “What’s wrong, Willa?”
“Nothing.” I smile, wishing only that I could kiss him again. Make him feel the utter completeness that has taken hold inside of me since finding him. “Absolutely nothing.”
Our waitress shows up at our table to take our orders, but his eyes don’t leave mine. Our dinner concludes early in the evening, and we start our Main Street bar hop as the trick or treating festivities start up at dusk. Reid takes my hand as we walk out onto the street and twirls me around. “Ah. There it is…”
I don’t have to ask what he means, because I see it. The moon is out. The potion has taken effect and I glow a perfectly wicked witch green. If only I could have sneaked a couple drops of the witchy whiskey in his drink, he would be green too, and then Sadie’s suspicions would be confirmed.
Someone bumps into my shoulder and I instantly flinch away. I turn around to see a young boy. His eyes are as round as double sized saucers. People would talk about this for months. Years, maybe. An Innocent glowed green on Main Street. The only things missing are a broom, a bicycle, and a tornado. The boy tries to speak, but words fail him. He wears a red jacket like Michael Jackson in Thriller, but the horrified look on his face definitely resembles that of the dead. He darts down the street away from me like a bat out of hell.
I slump down. “Well, that ought to do it. The rumor mill will be rolling within minutes.”
“Minutes?” Reid’s smile is bright. “Look around you, Willa.”
Every single soul on the street is frozen in place. Little Batmen, doctors, and ghouls hold their treat bags out in mid-air while the shopkeepers hold the candy and gape. Doors hang open, and music plays but no one dances. I smile weakly and give them all a wave. “Hi.”
Reid laughs behind me then gives a slight tug on my hand. “Come on, we still have an hour or so before it’s dark enough to leave.”
I follow him down the street, and everyone slowly starts to move again as if waking up out of a trance. I curl into Reid’s side. He reaches over and taps my giant hat. “Green has always been my favorite color. Now I know why.”
I hide my face in his shoulder. I wish I could stay there like that. Tucked away from the stares and the horrors of the outside world, safe in the sanctuary of his arms. We spend the next several hours moving from bar to bar, talking with everyone, working the rooms. My green glow disappears when I go inside out of the moonlight, but it doesn’t stop the eyes from following my every step. I stand at the bar at our last stop, unable to make myself sit down on the open stool. The last time I was here was with Zeke, and we downed bourbon like
two misguided idiots. I can’t make myself sit there without him. It doesn’t feel right.
Reid returns from the bathroom and throws me a bag. He turns his favorite braves hat around backward before pulling on his jacket. He’s changed out of his James Bond tux. “I packed something for you.”
“Thanks.” I look at the bathroom and then back to him. I actually think I like him better like this. The bright-eyed boy with his backward hat and muffed hair peeking out underneath. This is my Reid. I touch the button on his shirt, recalling that teasingly painful kiss he gave me earlier. “You sure you don’t want to come with me?”
His eyes widen, but then they narrow back at me. He knows I’m testing him. “That isn’t funny, Willa.”
“I beg to disagree.” I throw him a cheesy grin. “We both know you’ll say no, but I can’t pass up watching you blush.”
“I’m not blushing.”
He’s totally blushing. We both know it.
He takes a slow and steady step toward me. “And what would you do if I actually called your bluff?”
I smirk back at him. “You want details? I can give you details.”
The blush deepens.
He scoots in closer to me, staring down at my lips. “You’re going to regret teasing me.”
“I really hope so.”
He bites his lip. I’m still winning. “Go change clothes, Willa.”
I let out a breath and throw the bag over my shoulder. I glance back as I round the corner, and he’s still smiling, his cheeks still blazing red.
I hurry into the restroom and change out of my dress into the jeans and sweatshirt Reid brought. I shove the wig in last, pulling my hair up into a quick ponytail. The door to the bathroom outside the stall squeaks open. At first I think it’s Reid. A change of heart, or maybe I finally bypassed that gentleman streak in him. Then the faucet turns on. I peek through the slit in the door and I can see a figure standing at the sink. It’s a guy. He has half his face in the sink, splashing water onto his face.
I pull the door open slowly and he jerks around. It’s the young boy from the street, the one I scared to death by my green glow. His nose is bleeding. I step out so he can see me. “Are you okay?”
The boy stumbles backward. “You. It’s you.”
He’s scared. “It’s okay. I promise I’m not actually—” I start to say witch, but technically that would be a lie, “evil.”
The boy grabs a napkin from the sink, sticks it to his nose, and scrambles out of the bathroom as fast as he can. I grab my bag and go back outside to find Reid. I look up and down the small hallway, but the frightened boy is nowhere to be found.
Reid waits for me at the end of the hallway. “Ready?
“Yeah. Did you see a young guy run through here? Brownish hair. He had on a red Thriller jacket.”
“No. Why?”
I shrug. “He came in the bathroom. He looked hurt. I think I scared him again.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, he isn’t the only one scared tonight. Look at our Cowardly Lion over there.”
Abby, Sadie, and Grady wait for us at the door. Grady has changed out of his costume too, but you can still see the fear on his face. “He still says he isn’t going,” Abby announces as we walk up.
“Because I’m not.” Grady crosses his arms over his chest. “And neither should you. I’m telling you…Rickamore Road is the last place you need to go. Especially tonight.”
Reid clasps a hand over his shoulder. “We need a lead, Grady. We have to figure out if the guy we’re looking for is this Talbot Bessette or someone else.”
“You realize you’re not one of them, right? You’re human like me. We don’t have magical powers to save us when something black and soulless pops out of nowhere ready to suck the life out of you.”
Maybe that’s it. Reid does have those abilities, and that is why his bravery is greater than his friends. Reid pats him reassuringly on the shoulder. “I’ll be fine.”
Sadie glances at me. Yep. She definitely knows.
Abby gives Grady a hug. “It’s okay to stay behind, Grady. We understand.”
Grady stares down at the ground, ashamed, but he doesn’t change his mind. “C’mon,” Sadie says, motioning us out the door. “It’s time to go.”
We slip out the back door and Grady stays behind to stand guard. Sadie grabs all our hands, clicking her heels together. The smoke engulfs us, and the next thing I remember is Frog Hollow.
Chapter 7
The Old Cabin
Rickamore Road isn’t a road at all. It might have been at one point in time, but now it’s more of a briar-infested sanctuary for cobwebs. It’s barely past dusk when we start our trek through the border line of Frog Hollow onto the small slice of land. Sadie and I hold a ball-sized orb of glowing light to allow Reid and Abby sight to thrash away at the vines of briars that block our path up the hill toward the last known whereabouts of the Bessette house.
Reid pulls back a string of vines and motions us to go forward. I nick myself on a stray thistle as I try to move under his arm. I glare at it, the glowing orb in my hand turning to fire, but Reid grabs my wrists. “No fire,” he says, whispering. “We want to make as little damage to the land as possible to get through. We don’t want anyone to know we’ve been here.”
I allow the flame to turn back to my miniature moon. I wasn’t happy about it, though. We make our way up the hill until finally the brush starts to thin out. I spot what is left of the small cabin in a clearing. Half of the roof has caved in on one side and a giant oak tree grows out one of the windows on the back side.
Leaves crunch behind me.
I turn, but nothing is there. Not even Sadie, who I expect to find. She’s already ahead of me, shaking another cobweb off her shoe. I turn back around only to glance suspiciously over my shoulder again. It’s probably a squirrel frolicking along the hillside. Or a giant Shelob spider with gaping claws and razor-like fangs.
Or worse. Julien.
I hurry and catch up to the others. Reid stands at the door of the old shack, his hand sifting through his hair. Abby gallops up behind him. “What’s wrong?”
“Someone has been here recently.”
Reid points at the door to the shack that lays off its hinges on the splintering floorboards of the porch. Muddy footprints are clearly visible streaked across the top like someone paced back and forth on it. I carefully jump onto the porch, shooting the glow of the light into the open door. The inside of the house is a wreck. The few things left inside—a table, chairs, an old wooden chest and shelf—are turned upside down or completely broken in two. It’s a manmade disaster, not one brought on by years of neglect.
Reid eases in the door beside me, testing each board to make sure it will support his weight. Abby and Sadie follow, but there isn’t much to see. Someone has definitely been here, and they were in a fit of rage, from the look of it. I pick up one of the shattered legs from the table. The splinters along the cracks are fresh. Reid’s right. Someone had a temper tantrum here, and it has been recently.
“I told you,” Reid says, shoving the table aside with his foot. “Shine the light this way.”
There are more shelves overturned in the corner. Reid heaves them over to the other side of the room. “Someone ripped the floorboards up over here.”
I climb over the table to take a look. Half the floor is missing. Reid jumps down inside the hole, pushing back a table that covers the edge. “Be careful,” Abby says, working her way around the pile of broken furniture. “Anything could be sleeping down there.”
“Doubt it,” Reid says. “This section of the under-flooring has been blocked in. They probably used it as storage at some point.” He sticks his hand further back under the house, his fist tapping on something. “Yep. You hear that? More wood.”
“You think the book was here and someone beat us to it?”
“I don’t think so. If the book was here, it’s been gone for quite some time.”
“W
hy the mess?” I ask, helping Reid back out of the giant hole.
“Whoever was here wasn’t looking for the book.”
A floorboard bends outside the door. Reid immediately jumps in front of me. I really don’t think it’s a squirrel this time.
“Help!” The voice is outside in the distance.
Abby glances back at me and Sadie whips the light back out the front door.
“Help me.” The voice is more urgent now. Desperate.
Abby springs toward the door. “That’s Grady.”
We all follow her, sprinting out of the house and through the clearing. Coming up the hill, scrambling with a backpack and flashlight, is Grady. His face is ghost pale as he practically flings himself at us. “He’s here.” He grabs Abby, shaking her. “I saw him in the darkness. The red eyes. Julien is here.”
Reid’s embrace returns around my arm. “How do you know?”
Grady bends over, barely able to breathe. “I knew you guys thought I was some kind of coward for not coming with you tonight, so I tried to catch you before you left, but I missed you. Then I saw them, the eyes in the woods. Red and glowing, moving through the trees. I knew it was him. I knew he was following you, and I saw them again. Just right then.”
Reid’s grip tightens around my arms as he turns around, studying the darkness around us. “Come out,” he yells, his voice rough. “Show yourself. Stop hiding in the dark like a coward. Come out here and face me.”
I’m shaking. Chill bumps sprinkle my arms, a shot of ice sinking to my toes. I’m not sure if I’m ready to see him yet. Not ready to remind myself of everything I lost.
“Julien isn’t here. It’s just me,” a voice calls out behind us.
I twirl to face the old house. Standing on the front porch with his hands held high in the air as if in surrender is not Julien, but rather Julien’s little brother Lyric. Lyric takes a slow step down. “I didn’t mean to scare your friend.”
Lyric could be Julien’s twin. He has the same black hair, though Lyric’s is longer and jagged around his face. It’s only been a couple months since I’ve seen him, but Lyric looks older now. The youth and innocence in his face is gone. The jeans and t-shirt he wears are dirty. He looks thinner than before, the lines of his sharp cheekbones a little more prominent.
Raven Ridge (Witches of Sanctuary Book 2) Page 7
