Raven Ridge (Witches of Sanctuary Book 2) Page 4

  “One that would better be discussed in the safety of Frog Hollow,” he says, glancing over his shoulder.

  Sera follows his gaze around the room. We don’t know who might be watching, or worse, listening. “All right. I’m going to inform Carolyn. Jade and Sadie will accompany you back to the house.”

  Jade takes a long look at me. “Actually, I’m going to stop by my shop for another dose of cider for Wilhelmina. I’m afraid she might need it if we expect her to get any sleep tonight.”

  There would be no sleep for me. Ever.

  How can I close my eyes when I know I will be met with the coal black depths of Julien’s hatred staring back me?

  I stay close to Reid and Sadie as we make our way down Main Street to Reid’s truck. Every eye on the street watches us. They might not turn and stare, but their gazes follow us. Conversations abruptly halt. Crying babies suddenly calm. They give us a wide berth on the sidewalk.

  Maybe Abby is right. Someone might have noticed Julien. People go quiet when an Innocent walks into a room. When one of the Haunted enters…the room clears out. They respect our power, but they fear the Haunteds’ wrath. If Julien was there, somebody would have noticed.

  I slide into the middle and Sadie sits up front with me. I want to keep them close. Sadie is right. The Haunted have taken too much from us. We have to find the Book of the Moon and put an end to it. It’s the only way we will find any peace in this life.

  I link one arm with Reid and interlock my fingers in Sadie’s hand. I will end this. I will protect these people who risk their lives so willingly for me.

  Are you okay?

  I jump, startled by the sudden sound of Reid’s voice in my head. I’d forgotten the spell didn’t end until dawn. His perfect green eyes glance at me briefly before turning back to the road.

  Yes. For now.

  Right now I have my family. My Sun. I have the life I always yearned to find. Maybe it’s not the cookie cutter scenario I’d always pictured in my head, but it’s real. The love tangible and strong. I want a happily ever after for all of us. Even Julien.

  I just have to keep him from killing me first.

  Chapter 4

  The Raven’s Tale

  Even for a Russian Blue, my cat Romeo is exceptionally large. If large is an acceptable word to replace fat. Romeo is so incredibly fat. It’s partially my fault for spoiling him. Bologna isn’t exactly the healthiest of treats. Romeo purrs and stretches into my back as I lean over to zip up my tall brown boots over my leggings. Romeo pushes harder against my spine. He isn’t going to let me ignore him. That, and my sweet friend always knows when I need a little added cheer in my life. The night was long.

  I tried to sleep. I even drank the cider Jade brought me. I lay in my bed, Sadie and Romeo curled into my side, listening to the rest of my family talk outside the door. Reid told them about what happened in the circle. Or, at least, a very altered version of it that took him out of the story entirely. He told them the Book of the Moon is out there somewhere, trapped in the hands of the Bessette family. Finding that book is the key to saving me.

  It’s the key to saving us all.

  Reid stomps onto the porch behind me. I know it’s him. His stomping is recognizable. It’s always extra stompy. He sits down beside me on the step, and its only then I realize he’s shirtless.

  He must want something.

  He runs his hand through his wet hair, causing the long part in the front to spray to the side. “You’re up early.”

  Romeo squeezes himself in the tight space between us, and Reid reflexively scoots over to let him in. He runs a hand down Romeo’s back, eliciting an appreciative purr. Reid won over Romeo’s affection rather easily after he moved in. That, and Reid bribed him with belly rubs. I sigh and rub my neck. It’s stiff and sore this morning. The effect of Sadie’s pain relieving cocktail has worn off. “I’d tell you how I couldn’t sleep, but I’d rather not sound like a broken record.”

  Reid checked in on me all night. Sadie left sometime in the early hours after Reid finished his meeting with the others, leaving me alone in bed with Romeo. I lay there staring at the ceiling, watching the blades of my fan turn in slow circles until the sun came up. Reid leans his elbows down on his knees, looking past Romeo to see my face. “You know I want you to stay here with Sera and Jade today.”

  “You mean stay home while you’re off interrogating this mystery person you know who might have some clue as to who the Bessette family curse transferred to?”

  “You’ll be safer here.”

  I lean back and push my palms against the porch with my teeth clenched together. “I thought we were a team now.”

  “We are.”

  I stand up. “Then I’m going. Sera agreed to watch the store for me.”

  Reid stands up too. “He’s out there, Willa. Julien is in Sanctuary. You said it yourself.” He comes up the steps toward me. “He’s waiting for us to make a mistake. To take our eyes off you for one second.”

  I shake my head. “You don’t understand. I have to go with you.”

  Reid covers his face with his hands. “Willa…please.”

  “No, Reid. You weren’t there. You weren’t on that rooftop with me.” I turn around. Even thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach. I pace back and forth along the porch. “Julien could have killed me. There was a reason he stuck that blade in my gut instead of my heart. He wanted to torture me first. I don’t mean let me die slowly. I mean he was going to find you. He was going to bring you back there and kill you in front of me. He wanted me to watch you die first, because he knew that’s what would hurt me the most.”

  Reid’s eyes soften. My own lashes dampen when I blink. “Julien wants to kill me,” I say, barely managing to get the words out. “I have no doubt about that. He wants to kill you first, though. He wants me to feel the pain of losing you, because he knows I loved you more.”

  Reid’s lips part. It takes a moment for him to even register it. “You’ve never told me that.”

  “It’s true.” My voice breaks now. I should have told him. I couldn’t, though. I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t make myself think of the possibility of it. That Julien might one day succeed with his evil plan. “The way I feel about you…the way I love you…is the only reason I’m alive.”

  Reid closes the small space between us. His hands grab my hips, jerking me forward, his stare greedy in a way I’ve never witnessed. “Willa, I—”

  A truck door slams behind us. “Good morning! Guess what. I brought Willa the last of the—” Abby’s voice cuts off behind us and Reid’s lips pause only an inch from mine. “Crap. I’m interrupting again, aren’t I?”

  Reid’s eyes close. His teeth tug harshly at his bottom lip as he turns around to face his twin. “Would it ever hurt you to be late for something?”

  Abby glances at her boyfriend Grady. He’s almost a foot taller than Abby, his chest broad as he crosses his arms over it. He is way too amused by the entire situation. Grady is Reid’s non-magical best friend, so it doesn’t surprise me that he finds Abby’s constant intrusion funny. An Innocent usually has better timing. “We can leave,” Grady says, laughing between words.

  Reid glances back at me. A look that simply implies he wished it was that simple. Then he sighs. “No, don’t leave. We need to go soon. I want to make sure we’re down from the Ridge before dark.”

  I take a step back, unsure if I heard him right. “Ridge?”

  Grady raises his eyebrow. “You didn’t tell her where we’re going?”

  Reid shakes some of the water from his hair. “I had high hopes that I could convince her to stay behind.”

  “Ridge,” I say again. “By that, do you mean Raven Ridge? The same Raven Ridge where Julien lived?”

  “Yes. He’s not the only person who lives there,” Abby says. “There are others. Members of his family in one way or another.”

  “You think one of them will know about the Bessette family?”

  Re
id gives me an offhand look as if he’s surprised I doubt him. “I don’t think. I know so.”

  I take in a breath and hold it. I’d only been to Raven Ridge on two occasions. The first with Julien as he gave me a history lesson about how the land in Sanctuary is divided into sections by families. Frog Hollow, Raven Ridge, and Shadow Bend all divided. The second time I’d gone to his grandparents’ house to meet his grandmother because Julien promised me that he’d tell her about our friendship.

  “What are we waiting for?”

  Grady shrugs. “I don’t know about you, but I’m waiting for lover boy here to put on a shirt.”

  Reid scowls at his friend before walking toward the door. “I’ll be ready in a minute.”

  Reid touches my elbow on his way by me, his gaze locking directly on mine. It’s serious and completely different than any other look he’s ever given me. Then he mouths the words, “To be continued,” to me before disappearing inside the door.

  When I finally manage to get control of the hormones that scream at me to follow him, I turn back to Abby. She holds a very large clear bag of blackberries out to me in a very apologetic fashion. “I brought you your favorite snack.”

  I step down and snatch the bag out of her hand. “You owe me.”

  She finally smiles. “So, I did interrupt something.”

  “Yes. And it wasn’t nothing.”

  Grady rolls his eyes and pretends to cup his hands over his ears. “Ugh. I don’t want to hear this.”

  “Oh, please,” Abby says, laughing. “Like Reid won’t give you a play by play later.”

  “Yeah, but it will be the guy version. The girl version is so…” He makes a face that reminds me of twitterpated animals in Bambi that walk around on clouds with hearts in their eyes.

  Abby slugs him. Hard.

  “Ow.” Grady immediately moves away from her. “That punch definitely had magic added. Not fair.”

  “I’m sorry. Would you prefer the softer, guy version of a shut-your-mouth punch?”

  Grady rubs his arm, eyeing his girlfriend. “No kisses for you later.”

  Abby’s smile covers her entire face. “Yeah. I’ll believe that when I see it.”

  I look between the odd couple, shaking my head. “Have I ever told you that you two are weird?”

  Reid barrels out the door behind me. His hair is halfway dry, and he’s added a dark gray hoodie to his favorite holey jeans. He throws a set of keys at Grady’s chest. “You’re driving. Let’s go.”

  Grady starts to turn around, and Abby stops him. She places her hand over the spot on his shoulder she hit. Grady grins down at her. “It didn’t hurt that bad.”

  “Either way,” she says, “I don’t want it to bruise. Sometimes I forget my own strength.”

  “And sometimes I’m a jerk. I’m sorry.”

  Reid walks with me past them as Abby reaches up on her tiptoes to kiss Grady. Reid wrinkles his nose at me. “Why are they always so weird?”

  ***

  Raven Ridge isn’t as much a ridge as it is a gigantic mountain. We pass Julien’s grandparents’ house on our way up the steep incline. I try not to look at it. The red tulips from the summer are all gone. Dead. Rebekah and his grandfather Haynes still live there, but there is no visible sign of life in the house anymore. Rebekah hasn’t spoken to anyone since she learned of her grandson’s fate. I force my eyes back on the road, biting the inside of my cheek to keep myself from crying. Reid’s hand takes mine. He doesn’t say anything. He just holds it.

  We make our way all the way to the top of the mountain, just like Julien and I had done the night of my history lesson. We pull into the same parking spot and get out. “What are we doing? There aren’t any houses here. There’s nothing but a cliff just up that path.”

  “You remember wondering how Julien disappeared over the edge that night I picked you up here?”

  I click my tongue. “So there is a path down the mountain.”

  Reid nods. “Deeper into the woods. Julien’s grandparents’ house is a front. A glossy exterior they want all the gossip queens of Sanctuary to see.”

  “What’s in the woods?”

  “The Haunted. Or rather what’s left of their broken family that manages to escape the torturing wrath of their loved ones.”

  “Let’s go,” Grady says, pulling a couple backpacks out of the bed of the truck. “We don’t want to waste any daylight.”

  Reid throws me a pack and I put it around my shoulders. This isn’t what I expected at all. I follow him through the trees until we get to the cliff. I stop at the edge where the dirt meets stone. I can practically see Julien there, his toes tucked over the edge of the disappearing rock. Julien’s hair matched the raven tattooed on his arm. His crooked smile charmed me so easily. It was the loneliness I couldn’t deny. I knew that pain too well to sit back and watch it eat him alive.

  That night was the beginning. It was the night I found out about the Haunted. It was the first of many nights that I’d spend in Julien’s company. Time that caused simple curiosity to bloom into something more. That something more burns inside of Julien now in the form of hatred.

  Reid holds out his hand for me. “Are you sure you’re up for this? You can still go back. Abby will take you home.”

  I shake my head and take his hand. “No. I need to do this.”

  If you’re brave enough to peek over the cliff’s edge, there is a drop off point. If you position yourself just right, you can hit a clear spot of dirt just five feet below the ledge. If you miss, you hit nothing but air. A lot of air. Things will get broken. It will be a bloody mess, for sure.

  Grady jumps down first, followed by Abby and Reid. I’m a little slower than the others, probably because of the crippling fear of missing the ground. But Reid is able to effectively guide me down safely into his arms. From that point, we hike downward, deeper into the thickening trees. The path is worn, but still difficult. The hillside is steep and sloping. It takes almost two hours to navigate down into the valley beneath. Once we’re almost at the bottom, Reid stops me. I lean against a tree, gasping for breath. “What now?”

  “We’re here.” He points over to my left. I have to narrow my eyes to see it in the distance. A small wooden house. It almost blends in with the trees around it. It’s engulfed by flowery vines and tall plants that threaten to burst from their tight confines of small buckets and wooden boxes. Where the land surrounding the house prepares for the steady sleep of winter, the life around the house is vibrant and green. A lady stands outside the door. She digs in a giant pot with a spade, shoveling black soil from a woven brown bag at her feet.

  I nudge Reid’s elbow. “Who is that?”

  Abby scoots up behind me, answering my question for him. “Svetta Cote. She is Julien’s great-great aunt.”

  “And she’s totally bonkers,” Grady adds, making a cuckoo symbol next to his head.

  Abby’s eyes narrow at him. “Grady. That isn’t nice.”

  “I’m sorry, how else do you describe her?”

  “I don’t know. Eccentric?”

  Grady rolls his eyes. “I apologize for being insensitive, Willa. Svetta is eccentrically bat shit crazy.”

  I take a few steps closer so I can see her better. Her long black robe drapes over her slim figure. Spiraling gray hair shoots away from her head like it’s trying to escape. A long nose outlines an even longer chin. I feel myself stepping backward.

  Reid catches my hand. “Willa. Where are you going?”

  “This was a bad idea. That woman looks like she has a basket full of red apples ready to hand out like trick or treat candy and I’m already so sleepy.”

  Reid laughs, pulling me forward. “She’s not an evil queen, my dear Snow White. She’s a lonely old lady and she’s expecting us.”

  “Expecting us? How?” I glance back at the old house and the even older lady. “She doesn’t look like the cell phone type.”

  “I told you last night. I sent a message.”

  “B
y smoke signal?

  “Of course not.” He laughs like I’m the crazy one. “Raven.”

  I move back around to Reid’s side, and a flock of birds springs out of the bushes next to me. The commotion catches Svetta’s attention and she looks up the hill at us. Reid throws his hand up in greeting. “It’s just us, Svetta.”

  She waves for us to come down the hill. I follow, trying not to fall over the crumbling dirt beneath my feet. “Mr. Thomas,” Svetta says, smiling. “Welcome to the Ridge.”

  “Thank you for accepting my request. I apologize that it was on such short notice.”

  “No apology necessary. Come in, sit down. I brewed up a pot of tea for the occasion.”

  “Tea and apples,” I say behind Reid’s back, and he shoots me a dirty look over his shoulder.

  I’m surprised by the inside of Svetta’s house. It’s…normal. It looks like any other house. No cauldron or jars full of frog toes. Not that I have a cauldron or jar of frog toes in my house. However, I don’t look like I should have a magic mirror and an emotionally compromised huntsman on standby.

  Wind chimes sing in the background as the breeze whistles through an open window in the tiny kitchen. Potted petunias and climbing roses overflow out of scarlet and plum pots at my feet. Patchwork quilts and baskets of yarn sit next to an empty chair by the smoldering fireplace. I take in a deep breath and I swear I smell ginger. Hot and straight out of the oven.

  Maybe I’m wrong about Snow White. This house is much more like Little Red Riding Hood. It’s straight up grandma heaven in here. There’s still a big bad wolf, though. Somewhere he hides, waiting to bare his big, sharp teeth.

  Svetta motions for us to take a seat at a round table next to the window. She removes her gangly cloak and hangs it on a hook by the door. Beneath it is a gown. It’s not that different from the one I wore for the Declaration ceremony. It’s woven in beautiful colors of yellow, orange, and emerald green. The design in each layer is intricate and small. She notices me staring. “I was just admiring your dress. It’s magnificent. Did you make that yourself?”