After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1) (14 page)

She knows if she tells
Liam what happened last night he will undoubtedly take the keys from her and
not let them drive anywhere and they
have
to meet the Silvans today. She decides to wait until later to tell him, so
when she finally hears him moving around she stays in bed rather
than going downstairs. She knows as scared and worried as she is, she will
blurt out everything as soon as she sees him.

She thinks about Cian
and wonders if he was in the car last night, but no matter how hard she tries,
she just can’t picture it. Instead she suspects it was Selene, or Xavier, but
mostly she thinks it was Selene acting alone. She can’t say why exactly, but
gut instinct tells her that although Xavier is strange, he doesn’t seem like the
type to try to scare someone. He seems more like an all or nothing kind of guy
and if he really wanted to scare them, he wouldn’t stop at tailgating.

Chloe drifts back to
sleep and is startled awake when Rowan and Kaiden burst into the room. “C’mon,
Chloe! It’s already 10:00 and we need to start planning for this afternoon,”
Rowan says as she climbs onto the bed with her.

Kaiden has a cup of
something in his hand that he holds out to her. “Cream with just a little bit
of coffee, just the way you like it.” He hands her the mug and sits in the window seat
opposite his sisters.

“Thanks, Kaiden,” Chloe
replies as she sits up and stretches. “I woke up early this morning and couldn’t
stop thinking about what happened last night. I really don’t think it was
Xavier, Cian, or Brianna driving, and I’d bet they weren’t even in the car. What
do you guys think?” she asks as she takes a sip of the hot, creamy coffee.

“I totally agree,”
Rowan replies. “I know that Xavier is the most likely of the three, but from what
I can tell about him… I just can’t picture him doing it. He’d probably want
attention for it so he’d make sure we knew it was
him
driving. And, he’d totally want to see the scared looks on our faces.”

“I agree with both of
you,” Kaiden says, adding, “But it doesn’t mean they don’t know what their aunt
did, so we need to be cautious about how we bring it up.”

“We also need to find
out if she followed us or if she was already at GG Peter’s,” Chloe says.

Both Rowan and Kaiden
look at Chloe as if they hadn’t considered how Selene Silvan happened to come
upon them on that stretch of road.

Rowan is the first to respond. “I don’t know which
would be worse, if she followed us she had to have
been sitting out at GG Peter’s the whole time we were there, otherwise she
wouldn’t have known we were driving the Forester. On the other hand, if she
didn’t follow us, then she was watching GG Peter. And, now that I say it out
loud, that is definitely worse.”

“Maybe she knows that
GG is looking into her history,” Kaiden adds, remembering what their dad said
last night.

“We need to tell dad,
Grandpa Marcus, and GG Peter what’s going on for their own safety,” Chloe insists,
adding, “I wanted to tell dad this morning… but I knew if I told him about what
happened last night, he would take away the car that fast,” she says snapping
her fingers. “And I really think we need to talk to the Silvans one-on-one
today. I put sprigs of rosemary inside GG’s house when we were there last night,
and I put some in the jeep. It’s not 100% protection like a spell, but at least
it’s something.”

Kaiden and Rowan nod
their heads in agreement. “Alright, we’ll talk to dad tonight when we get home and
maybe we’ll have more answers after talking to the Silvans today,” Kaiden adds.

Rowan gets up and says,
“He’s not going to like it that we met them without telling him.”

Kaiden knows she's right. “No, he won’t. But at least we’re meeting them together and
that
will count for something.” He jumps
up from his seat, grabs Chloe’s empty mug and walks out the door.

“I call the shower
first!” Rowan yells after him and walks out the door. “I call second!” Chloe adds
quickly.

“Damn!” Kaiden says and
pleading his case adds, “
But,
I can be done in less
time than it will take you to decide which shampoo to use.”

“Sorry, Kaiden,” Rowan
replies as she heads straight into the bathroom before he steals her turn.

Feeling bad for Kaiden
who always ends up last, Chloe gives in and says, “You can go second, Kaiden.
But only because you brought me coffee this morning — but you better be fast,
and you
better
not use all the hot
water.”

“Thanks, sis! I’ll be
fast, I promise!”

Chloe can’t help but feel grateful for this new
camaraderie she has with her siblings. She loves the amount of time they have
been spending together and hopes that it will continue.

Once they’ve all
showered and are ready to go, they meet in the kitchen and go over the plan one
last time. Rowan will sit at the
far back table in the café at the library and wait for Xavier. This way she can
watch for him without him seeing her first. Also, if for some reason Brianna
and Cian don’t know that Xavier is meeting her, they won’t be able to see her
when they come in to meet Kaiden and Chloe.

Kaiden will wait for
Brianna at the entrance to the study hall. The study rooms are enclosed glass
rooms that range in size from a single desk to a 4-person table. On Friday
afternoon, Kaiden called and reserved a 2-person study room near the back for him
and Brianna. Rather than texting her to let her know where to meet, he decided
to meet her in the hallway. He’s bringing his backpack so it looks like he will
be studying, but the books inside are all about witchcraft. He’s hoping that
when Brianna sees the books, she’ll react in some way that confirms their
suspicions and will open up and start talking.

Chloe will meet Cian
near the history center as they planned. Since she normally spends Saturday
afternoons at the library she won’t be out of her element, but she will keep an
eye on her sister and brother until Cian arrives. She already knows that she
and Cian are going to talk about being witches since they have both been
hinting about it all week. It will be good to get it out in the open. Even if
Rowan and Kaiden don’t get anything from Xavier or Brianna, at least they can
count on Cian. She is bringing one of the grimoires with her, but won’t pull it
out unless she feels like she can trust him. Chloe will bring up what happened
in the car last night, mostly because she was the one driving, but also because
she and Cian have already connected and he seems the
most trustworthy
of the three.

Before they leave the
house, Chloe insists on leaving a note in her room for their
dad
,
just in case something goes wrong. “You never know what can happen when a group
of witches gets together,” she says, only half joking.

They all wear the
amulets that Chloe found in the garden; Rowan and Chloe wear theirs around
their necks, and Kaiden wears his wrapped around his wrist, tucked under the sleeve
of his hoodie. Finally, for protection, they each carry in their pockets a
sprig of rosemary cut from the garden. Even though both Rowan and Kaiden
complained when they smelled how pungent the herb is, Chloe insisted they carry
it.

“Really?” Chloe asked.
“You are going to complain about the smell even though it will protect you?”

They both gave in, but
Kaiden told her that there were limits to what he’d carry in his pockets and reminded
her not to push him too far. “Next, you’ll have me rubbing scented oils behind
my ears.” When she raised her eyebrows at him, he said, “Absolutely not… I
don’t care what it does! I won’t do it. I’m a man!” and he pounded on his
chest. They all laughed and whether it was because it was actually funny or
from nerves, no one dared ask or admitted how they were feeling.

“We also need
to find out about a protection spell for GG Peter, Grandpa Marcus, and Dad. Do
you think they would let us put rosemary in their pockets?” Chloe asks,
genuinely concerned for their safety.

Kaiden replies, “Let’s
just get through the day today and then we’ll tell them what we know and work
out some kind of protection spell later.”

They arrive at noon, an
hour earlier than their meeting time just to make sure Selene isn’t on the
premises. They don’t want her anywhere nearby and know the only way to be sure is
to be at the library when the Silvans arrived.

Even though they planned
everything carefully, they are surprised when they walk through the front doors
and find Xavier, Cian, and Brianna Silvan sitting on a bench waiting for them
at the entrance to the library. Their smiles and confidence fades the moment they make
eye contact with them. “Ah, hell,” Kaiden says as he watches big smiles
spread across the Silvans’ faces.

“So much for our
plans,” Rowan mutters.

Cian stands up first
and approaches Chloe with a genuine smile, unlike the more deliberate ones that
Xavier and Brianna are wearing.

“Hi, Chloe,” he says sweetly,
grabbing her hand with a familiarity that seems strange to everyone except
them. He nods at Kaiden, “What’s up, Kaiden?” He walks over to Rowan, holds out
his hand, and says, “We haven’t actually met yet,
I’m
Cian Silvan.”

“I know who you are and
you know who I am,” Rowan says, ignoring his outstretched hand. “So let’s cut
the bullshit, shall we?”

“Rowan!” Chloe says, shocked
to hear her sister’s old attitude return. “At least give him a chance…”

Even Kaiden is appalled
by his sister’s bitchiness. Talking low enough so Brianna and Xavier can’t
overhear he says, “Ro, Cian is actually okay. We’re partners in biology and
have talked a lot this week and I’m telling you it’s okay to trust him. We both
do,” he says, referring to himself and Chloe.

“Whatever,” Rowan replies.
“You two can trust him, but don’t mind me if I’m not so eager to befriend him,
especially since they one upped us today by getting here early.”

“Sorry, I don’t mean to
interrupt,” Cian says, “but, I can obviously hear you and I just want you to know
that we didn’t get here early to ‘one-up’ you. We actually got here early
because our Aunt Selene had an appointment this afternoon and this was the only
time she could drop us off before she left.”

“She thinks we’re here
to do homework,” he says, grinning at Chloe.

Xavier and Brianna
approach the group and Xavier says, “You don’t owe them an explanation, Cian.”

“Oh, here we go…”
Rowan replies, rolling her eyes at Xavier’s tone.

“Easy, Red. I’m not
trying to cause any trouble, but I’m also not going to stand here and let you
bully my brother.”

“My name is Rowan,
asshole. I’ve already told you twice this week to stop calling me Red. Don’t
make me tell you again!”

“Watch your tone with
my brothers, bitch,” Brianna starts before Cian jumps in between Rowan and
Brianna.

“Enough, enough,
enough!” he says. “It’s obvious we are all on edge here, but just remember that we are all
here because we have something in common. So before this escalates any more
than it has, let’s find somewhere where we can talk without everyone in town
observing us, all right? Chloe, do you have a good place in mind where we can all
talk, more privately?”

“Upstairs,” she
responds, “There’s a conference room that Mrs. Kelley lets me use on the
weekends. Follow me.” Cian grabs his bag and falls in step with Chloe.

“Let’s do this,” Xavier
says, and waves his arm to let Rowan pass first, “After you, Re-Re-Re-
Rrr
— Rowan,” he adds with a grin. Rowan rolls her eyes at him as she passes him and can feel her smoldering temper flare again.

Kaiden and Brianna pair
up and follow behind them. “Those two have some crazy chemistry, huh?” Kaiden
says referring to Xavier and Rowan.

Brianna smiles and shakes her head, “Right?! No really, your sister can be a real bitch.”

“
Naw
,
she’s alright. Once you get to know her, you’ll see… her bark is much,
much worse than her bite,” Kaiden says smirking. “Oh, and by the way… you
always
want to be on her side of an
argument.”

“The same could be said
for me,” Brianna responds with a smile.

Once everyone is
settled into the conference room, they look around at each other and wait for
someone to start. Chloe, the peacemaker, decides to step up to the plate.
“Brianna, Xavier, I’m Chloe. I’ve heard so much about both of you from Cian,
but I’m glad to finally meet you in person.”

Brianna smiles at
Chloe, “I’ve heard a lot about you, too and I’m also glad to finally meet you.”

Xavier nods at Chloe
and then flashing a huge grin at her says, “It’s great that we are all being
all
nicey
-nice to each other, but c’mon, let’s get
down to what we really want to talk about. Why the hell did you all ask us to
meet you here today?”

Cian shakes his head at Xavier. “Come on
Xav
, she’s just trying to be nice. I think we all need to
try to be a little nicer to each other,” he looks pointedly at Xavier and Rowan
as he says it.

“Don’t look at me like
that, Cian,” Rowan replies. “You don’t know me well enough to talk to me like
that.”

“OK, Rowan and Xavier,
you both need to stop with the attitude,” Chloe says raising her voice, getting
everyone’s attention. “We will never get anything accomplished if you two don’t
give in a little. You don’t have to like anyone in this room, but you do have
to get along enough so that we can sit here and have a GD conversation.”

“Now, Cian, where were
you guys last night?” Chloe asks, taking everyone by surprise.

“What?” Cian
responds, surprised by the aggressiveness in Chloe’s tone.

“What did you guys do
last night? Where did you go? Where were you?” Chloe asks again.