After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1) (13 page)

“First, we wanted to
thank you for giving us the space we need to figure all this out,” Chloe says
smiling at her dad. “And tomorrow, we want to look some stuff up at the library,
if you wouldn’t mind dropping us off in the afternoon.”

“You’re all going?”
Liam asks, more than a little surprised.

Rowan, who has been
attempting to control her bitchiness, says, “Yes, all of us. It’s hard to
believe, isn’t it?” She flashes Liam a smile in the hopes of appearing more
laid back than usual.

“I’ll be happy to drop
you off. I have to be at the station by 9:00 though, so I’ll come home for
lunch and then drop you off in town afterward, around 1:00ish? Unless you want me
to drop you off in the morning?”

Chloe, Rowan, and Kaiden
look at each other. They are meeting the Silvans at the library at 1:00 and
wanted to be there early enough to get situated in their specific meeting
places before the Silvans arrived, but they didn’t actually want to spend the
whole
day there.

“Dad, I think it’s time
we revisit taking GG Peter up on the offer to take his old car,” Kaiden says,
seeing a perfect opportunity.

Liam looks at the three
of them. It’s obvious that they have already discussed this with each other and
have been waiting for the right time to ask. They got their driver’s licenses last
summer and have been mostly content letting Liam chauffer them around, but
about a month ago his grandfather suggested that they would start needing some
independence and offered his 2008 Subaru Forester to them. At the time Liam
passed on the offer, but now he can see that they need it.

“Alright, we will go
over on Sunday to pick it up,” Liam says, surprising everyone with how quickly
he agreed.

Pushing his luck, Kaiden
says, “Dad, I called GG Peter earlier and asked if we could pick it up tonight
and he said as long as you are okay with it, then we can go get it now. He already
added us to his insurance so we’re covered, and it’s not like we haven’t driven
it already.”

Chloe adds, “We don’t
want to spend the whole day at the library, just the afternoon and we are
actually supposed to meet up with some friends earlier than 1:00, so it would
be so much more convenient if we could just drive ourselves.”

Liam sits for a minute
and thinks back to the voice in his head telling him to let them go and give
them some independence. At least they’ll all be together, he thinks to himself.

“Alright, let’s go,” he
says resignedly. “But I want Chloe to do the driving until I spend more time
riding with you and Rowan,” Liam says looking pointedly at Kaiden.

Liam has been letting
Chloe drive them to town when she needs something for the garden or from the
fabric store. Liam knows she’s a safe and cautious driver, but he hasn’t spent
enough time riding with Kaiden and Rowan to know how they will be behind the
wheel. He imagines Kaiden will drive fast and Rowan will be easily distracted,
especially when other people are in the car with her.

“And if I catch any of
you talking, texting, or even looking at your phone while driving, the car is
gone. No second chances, no discussion. Understood?”

They all nod their
heads in agreement, knowing that their dad has seen some bad accidents caused
by distracted driving. Since they got their driver’s licenses he has been
telling them that nothing is so important that you have to take your eyes off
the road and look at your phone, absolutely nothing.

Chloe jumps up from the
table and wraps her arms around her dad. “Thanks, Dad!” she says, before
running off to get her shoes and jacket. Kaiden and Rowan give Liam a hug and
thank him before excitedly taking off after their sister.

“Nice one, Kaiden,”
Rowan whispers as she slips her feet into her flip-flops. Kaiden smiles and
says,
“Now we just need to find a way to bring up the
Silvans on the way over to GG Peter’s house.”

“I’ll handle it,” Rowan
says confidently, walking out to the jeep.

Chloe is sitting in the
driver’s seat with their dad in the passenger seat when Rowan and Kaiden make
their way outside.

“Now we are at Chloe’s
mercy,” Rowan says teasingly, smiling as she says it. Had this happened a week
ago there would have been a bitter argument about why Chloe gets to drive, but
now Rowan is just happy they will be able to get around without their dad
driving them everywhere.

“Buckle up, kids,” Chloe
teases as Kaiden and Rowan roll their eyes at the same time.

Once they are on the
main road in town, Rowan asks, “So Dad, have you learned anything about the
Silvans?”

Kaiden nudges Rowan,
giving her a look and mouths, “Real subtle, Ro.”

Liam looks back at
Rowan and says, “Probably a lot of the same stuff you guys already know. Selene
Silvan is the kids’ aunt, recently relocated here from California. After being
sick for a while, the kids’ mother died around five years ago and their father
died about a year ago. No other living relatives so far, but we have just
started looking. Their father made quite
a bit of money in the 90’s dot
com
boom and invested
well. Selene inherited a substantial amount of money when he died and the kids
will also inherit a lot of money dispersed to each of them through a trust fund
when they turn 18.”

“We know everything
about the kids including birth dates, where they went to school, their old friends,
sports they played, their grades, etcetera, but we can’t find anything about Selene
prior to her moving in with her brother and his family. We’ve
learned that the family is originally from the area of Salem, Massachusetts,
and can find a birth certificate and information about Michael Silvan, but
nothing about Selene until she arrived in California a little over five years
ago. She may have been married and went by a different name, but still, we
should have found something about her from her maiden name or at least a birth
certificate. Anyway, we’re still looking into it…”

“Have you found any
ties to witchcraft?” Rowan asks.

“Well, right now her
connection to Salem is enough to make us think that she has ties to the craft.
We know it’s a very weak connection, but since they arrived in town, there have
been a few strange… occurrences. Until
we can dig up more information about her past, we can’t ignore that the Silvans
come from a place so historically entrenched in witchcraft, and with the
strange things that are happening here I won’t just chalk it up to mere
coincidence.”

“So you think they could
be witches?” Chloe asks bluntly, looking in her rearview mirror at her sister
and brother.

“Keep your eyes on the
road, Chloe,” Liam admonishes. “To answer your question honestly, yes, I am
fairly certain that Selene, if not all of them, are witches. And right now I
don’t know how strong their power is or why they are here, but one thing is
certain, their gifts are only going to get stronger the closer they are to our
land.”

“Your GG Peter is doing
more in-depth research and will let me know as he discovers it, but in the
meantime just be cautious around them. Of course, I have only ever seen the
kids when I pick you up so I don’t know much about them, but you know how I
feel about Selene… I suspect her interest in raising the kids after their
parents died was not based on pure intentions. With what you know about
yourselves now, I’m sure you will be able to sense any “otherness” about them
and act accordingly.”

“What kind of strange
things have been happening since they’ve gotten here, Dad?” Rowan asks.

“Well, a few people in
town have told me that they find themselves having a conversation with Selene,
telling her things that they normally would not say to someone new in town, including
things about our family. Afterward they feel either nauseated or fuzzy and
can’t remember things clearly. When I picked you up the day I met Selene, I
experienced the nausea and fuzziness myself. I saw you walking out of school
with a visible gap between you and the Silvans, but when Selene suggested that
the six of you were walking out of school together, I saw it, but only for a
moment until I shook my head. When I looked back I clearly saw a space between
you and it was obvious by how you were walking that you were not together. It
was like she made me see something that wasn’t there.”

“We didn’t walk out
with them on the first day we met them, Dad, and when we saw you talking with
her, you had a weird look on your face,” Rowan says. “So it seems she is
practicing some kind of magic in town, but what is it she wants from us? Do you
think she knows about the land? You guys told us that other witches would want
it.”

“I don’t know, Rowan. I
just don’t know how she would know about you guys or the land since she just got
here. People in town don’t even know the extent of the power, since the spell
the Scott sisters put on the land never broke when they died.”

With that, they each
retreat into their own thoughts until they get to GG Peter’s house. After a
short visit with GG Peter, they can’t wait to climb into their “new” car to
discuss what they learned from their dad on the way over.

“So now we know,” Kaiden
says.

“I think we knew before,”
Chloe responds. “And I also think we should just ask them outright tomorrow at the
library.”

“Are you serious?”
Rowan asks, shocked at her sister’s suggestion.

“Really, what do we
have to lose? If we get it out in the open, maybe we can find out what they’re
doing here,” Chloe says.

“What makes you think
they’ll tell us the truth?” Kaiden asks.

“Well, since we’re all
spending time with them one-on-one tomorrow, we will at least have the opportunity
to ask each of them individually. At worst, we get three different stories, and
maybe, just maybe one of them will be the truth,” Chloe replies, looking nervously
in her rearview mirror at the headlights coming up behind her.

“Didn’t Dad say he was going
to stay at GG Peter’s for a little while?” Chloe asks, getting increasingly nervous
about how fast the car is approaching.

“Yeah, why? Chloe, what
is it?” Kaiden asks, picking up on her anxious tone.

“This car coming up behind
us came out of nowhere and is catching up fast,” she replies while looking
again in the rearview mirror.

Both Kaiden and Rowan
turn around in their seats and watch, as the car gets closer. “That can’t be
Dad,” Rowan says adamantly, “the headlights are way too low for the jeep.”

“Just stay calm, Chloe. Maybe it’s just
someone in a hurry to get somewhere and it has nothing to do with us,” Kaiden
says unconvincingly as the
car’s
bright lights flash
once and then remain lit, momentarily blinding everyone.

When Chloe looks back in the rearview mirror,
she realizes that the car is now tailgating so close that the headlights are no
longer visible.

“Guys, what should I
do?” Chloe asks, panicking.

“Maybe just pull off to
the side and let them pass,” Rowan suggests.

“NO, Chloe! Absolutely
do not pull off the road!” Kaiden warns. “Just slow down a little bit and
hopefully they will just pass us.”

As Chloe slows down,
she repeats the protection spell and holds the amulet around her neck. When
she looks again in the rearview mirror she sees the now familiar white Mercedes
pull up close behind one more time before abruptly turning away just as they
approach the old bridge right before the main road into town.

Chloe takes a deep
breath in and unclenches her hands from the steering wheel. Exhaling, she holds
her hand up to show Rowan and Kaiden how frightened she was. Her hand trembles
and even though she hates to admit it, she’s extremely frightened by the whole
thing. Chloe stops at the intersection for a second longer than necessary
before turning onto the main road.

“Could either of you
see who was driving?” Rowan asks as she turns back toward the front.

“No,” Chloe and Kaiden respond
at the same time.

“Well then, I guess we
have another question to ask tomorrow when we meet up with them,” Rowan says as
Kaiden and Chloe nod silently in agreement.

It’s still dark out
when Chloe wakes up in the morning. She can tell by how quiet the house is that
her dad has not gotten up yet to leave for work. Instead of getting up herself,
she snuggles deeper under the covers, unable to shake the chilled feeling she got
last night in the car. For the umpteenth time she wonders who was driving the
Mercedes and why they were on the back road to her great grandfather’s house.
In all the times she had been to GG Peter’s, she had only seen a few cars on
that back road since there wasn’t much out that way. So why would the Silvans
be back there late on a Friday night? Either the Silvans followed them from
town to GG Peter’s or they were already at GG’s when they showed up. Either
way, the Silvans had no business being on that back road.

Chloe shudders,
thinking about how things could have gone differently. She imagines the
Mercedes crashing into them, or worse, running them off the road at the old
bridge. If someone wanted to kill them and make it look like a car accident,
that would be the place to do it. Even buckled in, there would be no way to
survive a car crash into the rocky ravine. She thinks of her GG Peter in his
house all by himself. If the Silvans were watching him, they would see that it
wouldn’t be too hard to break in and hurt him. Someone could walk right up to
the door, knock, and he would trustingly open it, only to be attacked. They
could even push him down the stairs making it look like an accident and get
away with murder.

Even though they all
agreed not to tell Liam what happened, Chloe wants to and really thinks that
she should. She fears that whatever is going on with the Silvans is escalating
and everyone close to them may be in danger. She lays in bed thinking about it
until the light from the sun slips through the gap in her window shade.