Chapter 11
”Do you think we can trust him?” Morgan asked after Dove left.
Jolene shook her head skeptically. ”You know the first rule. Never trust anyone but ourselves until we have solid proof they are trustworthy.”
At that moment, Belladonna trotted into the room, her tail held high. She went straight to Celeste, rubbing against her leg with a loud purr.
”Where did you come from?” Celeste bent down to scratch the cat”s ears. ”Kind of weird that she wasn”t here when Dove was in the house. Now she just happens to show up as soon as he leaves?”
Johanna tilted her head to study the cat. “Sometimes, she can be shy. She”s famous for sneaking off to one of her many hiding spots for a nap. Could be just a coincidence.”
Jake nodded slowly, arms crossed, as he pondered their dilemma. ”Maybe so, but we can”t ignore our instincts. Something feels off about Dove”s story. We need to be cautious until we know more.”
”Agreed,” Cal said. ”He tried to warn us about Sofie, but for all we know, his sister in the green cape is the good guy and Dove is the bad guy.”
”I don”t know about that,” Fiona said. ”If it”s the woman in the green cape who came into Sticks and Stones, I got a bad vibe from her. Then again, she didn”t actually do anything bad. I suppose she was looking for the stones so that she could prevent them from finding their way into the woods.”
”Guess we didn”t do a very good job at preventing that,” Morgan said.
Johanna smiled reassuringly at her daughters. ”That”s all right. I”m sure we can figure out a way to remedy the situation,” she said.
Celeste nodded. ”First thing tomorrow, I”ll start trying to conjure up some ghosts from among our ancestors. They may be able to provide some insight into all this.”
Luke chimed in, ”I”ll contact Dorian tonight to see if she has any additional information that could help and find out exactly when this alignment is.”
Calvin added, ”I can dig into some old maps of the area to see if they indicate anything about ley lines or past strange occurrences.”
Mateo piped up, ”Oh, and I know someone we can talk to about ley lines and alignments. She”s kind of an expert on these sorts of things. Jolene, want to come with me to meet her tomorrow?”
Jolene smiled. ”Sure, that sounds great. The more we can learn about what”s really going on here, the better.”
”Hey, look, it”s not raining anymore.” Celeste pointed at the window.
Outside, the rain had stopped, and sunshine was breaking through the clouds. Morgan”s gaze drifted to the woods. Despite the sunshine, they were still dark and ominous. ”Did you guys notice that the darkest energy seemed to be deeper into the woods?”
”Meow!” Belladonna hopped up into the windowsill and looked out toward the woods with the rest of them.
”I did, and that crazy squirrel-elope thing didn”t follow us out as if it didn”t want to leave the woods,” Fiona said.
”Nothing dangerous followed us out, which is good,” Mateo added.
”Yeah.” Celeste looked out at the woods too. ”Good thing whatever weirdness is in there isn”t spilling out into our yard.”
”At least not yet,” Fiona said grimly.