Raven Ridge (Witches of Sanctuary Book 2) (7 page)

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.”

“Why 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.

Reid lets me go, stalking toward Lyric, who continues to hold his hands in the air. Reid grabs him, throwing him mercilessly on the ground. His hands clench around Lyric’s throat. “Tell me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now, Cote.”

Lyric tries to say something, but Reid cuts the air off from his lungs. Lyric claws and pulls at Reid’s hands, but it’s no use. Reid is bigger and stronger even without the use of his magic. “At least now we know who’s been following us. Delivering notes for his good-for-nothing brother.”

Lyric manages to roll over, releasing the hold of Reid’s death grip just long enough to gasp a breath of air. “What? No.” Then he sees us all circled around him. “Well…yes I followed you here tonight, but that’s it.”

“Liar.” Reid grabs his shoulders, shoving him back to the ground. “You’ve been helping your brother try to get to Wilhelmina.”

“Me? Help Julien? No. That’s why I came here. I had to get away from him.” It’s obvious Reid doesn’t believe him, so Lyric tries again. “It’s true. Julien is dangerous.”

“No shit.”

“You don’t understand.” Lyric tries to scoot away from Reid, digging his palms into the dirt. “I lived with my father in Charleston for three years. He was an evil man. The curse and his desire to kill Julien consumed his every thought. He made patient, calculated moves, though. If you met him on the street you’d never know he carried the curse. He waited years for the right opportunity to bring Julien back.”

Reid reaches forward and grabs the front of Lyric’s shirt. “What’s your point?”

“The curse is different with my brother. I don’t know if it’s because he came so close to killing Wilhelmina that night after he changed, but he’s losing it a little more every day. My father was evil, but Julien…he is madness unleashed. He killed three of his own guards last week. He would have killed me.”

Reid pulls Lyric to his feet, wrapping his shirt into his fist as he looks him straight in the eye. “How do I know Julien didn’t send you here?”

“Because I’m next in line,” Lyric says, his words coming out breathy and jagged, “and I’m scared.”

I recognize the fear in his eyes. It’s the same fear I saw in Julien when he talked about the curse. The fear that kept him from telling me about his inevitable fate. It haunted him every day. The thought of knowing what awaited him.

Lyric tries to pull away from Reid, looking directly at me. “My mother remarried when I was just a kid, after she figured out my father really didn’t love her and her young son would grow up to be a psychopath just like him one day. She’s out there somewhere hiding from me.”

Reid finally loosens his grip, giving Lyric just enough slack to turn toward me. “She’s hiding because she knows if Julien is killed and the curse takes me, I will come for them.” Lyric’s eyes are pleading now. “I have a little sister. I don’t even know her name. I’ve only ever seen her once. Tucked away in the arms of my mother as she abandoned me on my father’s doorstep. I know, though, if the curse passes to me, it’s that little girl’s life I’ll want to take. I feel it every time I let this monster inside of me come out.”

“What do you want us to do, Lyric? Let Julien live so he can continue to stalk Wilhelmina until he finally kills her?”

“No,” I say, reading the look on Lyric’s face. “He knows. He knows there is another way.”

Lyric nods. “When Roux Bessette enlisted my father’s help to find your mother, I weaseled my way into every room. I eavesdropped on every conversation. Roux thought I had some kind of hero complex toward him, but I was only looking out for myself.”

Reid finally lets his grip on Lyric go. “What did you hear?”

“That Roux’s family has something you want. Something that could change all our fates. A book of spells.”

Reid eyes him warily. “We already know this. So why do we need you?”

Lyric’s smile is small. “Like I said. I made sure I heard
every
conversation. I know what you’re looking for isn’t going to be found in this old shed.”

Reid shakes his head. “I find it hard to believe that one of the Haunted wants to help us out of the goodness of his heart.”

Lyric shakes his head. “No goodness. I want your protection from my brother. I’ll help you find the Book of the Moon. Then you save us all. You save that little girl from me.”

Reid wanted to say no, and honestly, so did I. Lyric’s eyes are too familiar. They evoke too many memories I want to forget. We have no other choice, though. The book isn’t here, and there is nothing that will lead us to it. If there was anything significant in the Besettes’ old house, it had already been taken a long time ago. The information Lyric possesses is our only lead to finding the Book of the Moon.

Reid snatches Lyric by his shirt and starts dragging him through the clearing. “If I find out you’re lying to me…that you’re using this as a way to get closer to Willa to help your brother…I’ll kill him. I’ll rip Julien’s throat out with my own bare hands, and then I’ll watch while you take on his curse.”

Lyric grits his teeth while he stumbles trying to stay on his feet. “I’m not lying.”

Reid smirks before giving Lyric a hefty shove forward. He rolls halfway down the hill toward the valley leading back to Frog Hollow. “We’ll see about that.”

Reid follows him down and jerks Lyric up by the neck of his shirt and leads him not so gently all the way back to Frog Hollow and onto the porch of our house. He glances over his shoulder at us. “Willa, come with me. The rest of you stay outside until we’re finished with him.”

Abby looks around him at Lyric. “What are you going to do?”

Reid shoves Lyric up the steps. “Just a little lie detector test.”

“No,” Abby says, jumping forward. “There are easier ways. Let me call Mom.”

“No.” Reid’s voice is stern. “Not tonight. Lyric here is not going to have a choice but to tell me what I want to know.”

I run up the steps after him and into the house. I stop at the entryway and turn around. “What is he going to do?”

Abby shrugs at me. “It won’t kill him.”

I hurry into the house to see Reid dragging Lyric into the kitchen. He shoves him into a chair. “Don’t move.”

Reid goes over to the giant wooden cabinet in the corner. I inherited the old family heirloom from my mother. The deep cherry stained wood has a green tint to it. Reid jerks the double doors open, running his fingers down the long rows of tiny drawers. Inside one of the drawers at the top Reid retrieves a vial of black sludge. I cringe at it. “What’s that?”

“It will break down the barrier that keeps Lyric’s memories secret.” Reid shakes the vial and then throws it at Lyric’s chest. He catches it, turning the container back and forth, watching the slow ooze slide across the glass.

“And then what?”

Reid smiles at him. “Then Willa here will be able to see them, to make sure you’re not lying for Julien.”

Lyric hesitates, but then pops the top off the vial. “I told you I’m telling the truth.”

Reid crosses his arms over his chest. “Then drink it.”

Lyric downs the black sludge, almost choking half of it back up. “Ugh. That tastes worse than it looks.”

Reid motions me over. “C’mon, I’ll walk you through it.”