Chapter 7 #2
Deputy Hillard quickly waved his hand in front of me, silently begging me to lower my voice as he looked around nervously.
“I’m getting to that. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page, and explain why, even now, the reverence for the three sisters is still so strong.
There are a lot of people in this town who wouldn’t be alive today if their families weren’t saved from that fire all those years ago.
And it’s not just the fire. Drought. Famine.
Plague. War. None of it was able to touch Emberwood while the Mothers of the Mountain were here, and even now, the town is relatively prosperous despite its small size. ”
I’d never agreed with religious worship of any kind.
It all felt very silly and impractical to me.
If you wanted something to happen, you had to achieve it with your own hands.
Praying to a god to solve your problems for you was not only a waste of breath, but also a lazy way to avoid putting in real work.
Although, I supposed it was better that the ancestors of this town at least worshiped something that was tangible. If the sisters were able to accomplish even half of what the stories said about them, it was no wonder other people ended up worshiping them.
“Okay. I get it. These sisters are really important to a lot of people. I’ll try not to rock too many boats, but if people keep attacking me and my friends, then I can’t guarantee anything.”
“I know,” Deputy Hillard nodded, swirling the last dregs of his own cup of coffee. “It never should have gotten this far, but that body you found has stirred up a lot of hostilities.” He sighed again, and I nearly reached over the table to grab him and shake the answers out of him.
I didn’t need a long-winded story about the town’s history. I just needed to know how to keep my own people safe.
“The story of the Mothers of the Mountain has been told over and over,” Deputy Hillard finally said, though it sounded like every word had to be forcibly dragged out of him.
“But there’s one part of the story that is always glossed over.
The sisters’ initial arrival in town. They just walked out of the woods one day, with no indication where they came from. ”
I couldn’t contain the snort that escaped from my nose, and quickly took another sip of coffee to try and hide my reaction.
“I’m sure your cult has come up with all kinds of supernatural explanations.
They were born to a pack of wolves? Or maybe they were actually fallen stars that took human form.
” I snapped my fingers as a new idea came to me.
“Oh. I know. They grew up out of the ground and bloomed from flowers. It would explain their names.”
Based on the way his expression shifted, I could tell I’d hit the nail on the head with my last guess. Deputy Hillard cleared his throat and waved down the waitress for a refill on his drink, never once meeting my eye.
“Something like that used to be the common belief,” he mumbled once the waitress left. The diner wasn’t very loud since it could only hold a handful of customers, but I could still barely hear him over the chatter of the couple at the table next to us.
I leaned back in my chair, conscious of the creak of old wood. These chairs had not been made for someone of my size and weren’t very comfortable. Every time I moved, I feared it would collapse under me, but I still tried to look as relaxed as possible.
“Cults are all the same. Always trying to make their story seem more extraordinary than it really is.”
“It’s not like that,” Deputy Hillard snapped, clearly bothered by my repeated use of the word “cult”.
I just smirked at him, gloating at the fact that I’d gotten under his skin.
Realizing he’d reacted exactly as I wanted, he tried to rein himself back in.
“I mean… obviously we know that those stories were just a work of fiction. The Mothers of the Mountain are humans like everyone else. And as humans, they had to come from somewhere. That’s what this all boils down to.
Where the three sisters came from before they appeared in Emberwood. ”
“And where is that?” I demanded, already getting fed up. “You’re really beating around the bush. After all the buildup you’re giving to this information, it had better be something fantastic.”
I could have been home right now helping Magnus hunt down information about Creed. Or even with Ellis doing… nothing. We would be doing nothing at all together because I’d already decided that getting involved with him was a bad idea.
Even the one night we’d spent together was already going too far.
My gaze instinctively shifted toward the window. The shades were mostly drawn, so I could only see the tail end of my truck. He was still sitting in there, waiting for me.
Hopefully. After the way our conversation had ended, I wouldn’t be surprised if he chose to disappear off into the woods like he’d tried to do before.
A bubble of hysterical laughter welled up in my stomach as I realized Ellis had come into my life in the same way that the Milford sisters had wandered into town.
Well, almost the same. I doubted the sisters ever had a tree dropped on them.
Maybe that was the key to Ellis’s identity. The sisters actually were witches, and Ellis was the reincarnation of one of them.
On the other side of the table, Deputy Hillard never noticed my distraction. He was too lost in his own thoughts as he recounted a story that he cared about a lot more than I did.
“Their origins weren’t discovered until years after the Mothers of the Mountain settled in Emberwood.
Before coming here, the sisters were part of a cult on the other side of the mountain.
The Tamed Souls . They are a small but fanatical group that are focused on ‘returning to a time of order and innocence by living simply away from the chaos of modern society’.
That’s literally a word for word description I’ve seen on their recruiting material. ”
A car alarm started going off outside, disrupting the otherwise peaceful atmosphere of the morning. A few of the diner’s customers grumbled, but no one paid the noise much attention.
I barely even noticed as I scoffed at Deputy Hillard. “Ha. They left one cult to create their own. Why am I not surprised?”
“Oh, no,” Deputy Hillard quickly corrected me.
“ The Mothers of the Mountain were not willing members of The Tamed Souls . They were born to it and weren’t allowed to leave.
They eventually managed to escape and hid in the forest, traveling on foot all the way to the other side of the mountain until they eventually ended up here. ”
I wanted to scoff again, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
During my time in the service, I’d encountered several cults and other fanatical groups.
The young women raised in these kinds of environments were rarely treated well.
It was no surprise that the Milford sisters had run away, and deep down, I was impressed by the fact that they’d managed to successfully escape.
If their actions in the past weren’t interfering with my own life so much right now, I might have even admired them.
The car alarm outside was still blaring.
Why wasn’t the owner shutting it off?
“I’m still failing to see why any of this affects us now.”
“Because…” Deputy Hillard looked around the diner before leaning closer to me and whispering. “ The Tamed Souls are still around, and they claim that the Mothers of the Mountain stole something from their leader when they escaped. No one knows what it is, but The Tamed Souls really want it back.”
“ The Tamed Souls ,” I repeated, staring blankly at him. “So, you’re saying this other cult is behind everything that’s happening?”
“Yes. We aren’t sure how, or even when, they found out about the Mothers of the Mountain , but ever since then they’ve targeted us. They’d been silent for a while, until you uncovered that coffin.”
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath as a feeling of resignation settled over me.
“The locket, the key, and the journal that we found. These wouldn’t happen to be what the sisters stole from The Tamed Souls , would it?”
The answer would make sense, but Deputy Milford immediately shook his head.
“No. I don’t know what was stolen but based on the reaction I’ve seen from people who are part of The Tamed Souls , these items aren’t what they are looking for.
However, they do think that these items might lead to whatever they are looking for, which is why they stole the key and the journal.
They’ve even tried to steal the locket, though we’ve managed to keep that one safe, at least.”
That explained who stole the key and the journal, and also why Ellis and I were attacked.
But how had Ellis ended up with the key in the first place?
Was he a member of The Tamed Souls ?
No. That didn’t make sense.
If he was a member of The Tamed Souls then why would he hide the key from them, and why would he have been running from them in the first place?
A crucial piece of information was still missing, locked away in Ellis’s missing memories.
Before I could demand any more answers, I was interrupted by one of the other customers unexpectedly shouting.
“Oh my god! Look! Someone’s truck is being stolen!”
Several people clustered around the diner’s windows, pressing their noses to the glass for a better view of whatever action was happening outside. Curiosity got the better of me, and I looked over as well.
Only to see the tail end of my own truck, with the rear lights flashing in time to the wailing alarm.