Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
“What do we do now?” I asked. We had wasted the last hour on nothing but trial and error to try and get both guys out of the maze.
Brute force hadn’t worked. Backtracking to the entrance had failed. Corbin even tried taking flight in his crow form, only to still be under the same invisible shield that kept them trapped within the maze’s boundaries.
Corbin sat there on the ground, arms draped over the tops of his knees. “We can’t very well go running to the Council and ask them for their help,” he said, noting the obvious.
As for Bale, he had been mostly silent the whole time. He looked like a man who had spent his life looking for the key to unlock a chest only to discover that the treasure had never been inside it to begin with.
I frowned as I racked my brains for some ideas. When an idea finally sparked, I glanced toward town and then back at where they stood beyond the first row of corn.
“Maybe when I light the bonfire, it will unlock whatever is keeping you both inside the maze,” I offered hopefully.
Sullenly, Bale muttered, “Or maybe we’re doomed to suffer here for all we’ve done.”
Stomping over to the opening, being careful not to get too close, I glared at him. My words came out stern and irritable.
“Listen here, Bale Halloway, and listen good. Who you start the fall festival with is who you end it with, right? So, pull your straw from your damn ass, and tap into that smug attitude of yours.”
Both men stared at me, genuinely taken aback.
Cricke—
The chirp of the cricket was squashed, literally, by Corbin’s hand.
“Sorry,” he muttered sheepishly. “Crow instinct.”
Deep in thought, I paced, tapping my fingernail against my front teeth.
Glancing up at the moon, it was past its highest point now, with dawn approaching at a breakneck speed.
What would Aunt Laurel say about all this?
She’d say that magic has a sense of humor. It sure as hell did, and I didn’t find it all that fucking funny right now.
Mentally, I ran through all the superstitious things she used to say.
“The moon enhances powers, doesn’t give or take them.”
Not helpful at the moment.
“Faith and fear are the universe’s cousins. Closely knit and never far from each other.”
Not relevant to this predicament.
“Two tablespoons of peppermint schnapps.”
I needed the whole damn bottle.
“If it scares you once, listen. If it scares you twice, find out why.”
Pfft. The only thing after tonight that scared me was that woman lurking in the library’s basement.
My pacing stopped.
Nothing in this town ever seemed like a coincidence; maybe she hadn’t been either.
Looking at Bale and Corbin, I was already backing up a few steps in a clumsy half-jog. “I might have something! I will be right back!”
With that, I turned and took off towards the archives section of the library.
“Harlow, no! Wait!” I heard Bale shout behind me.
Corbin’s protest came right after. “Dammit, Har! Come back!”
I wasn’t even sure that this was an idea worth pursuing, but the weight of the moonlight seemed to trickle down my spine. Tail-flicking energy.
All of Falston was quiet, tucked away in their beds and completely unaware that things had changed— be it for better or worse.
Despite the weary ache in my legs, I ran. Not to save myself this time, but to save them.
When I arrived at the library, gasping for air, the doors were locked up for the evening. No hesitation, I would take a page right out of Corbin’s book of borderline criminal behavior.
Summoning my cat, my body shrank into the familiar shape of fur and fluid grace. Nobody was about to arrest a cat for breaking and entering, now were they?
Roaming the perimeter, I got lucky when I found an overlooked access point through one of the egress windows. It would keep a human out, but certainly not when I was ten pounds of feline stealth and grace.
Dropping down into the small well surrounding the window, I nosed my way through the curled-back screen where the hinged pane had been left unlatched.
I walked my front paws down the interior wall, the window frame slowly dragging along my curved spine, before I silently dropped on top of the aged wooden cabinet that held the old card catalog.
Another quiet leap and I hit the floor, wasting no time in shifting back to human.
Looking around, the lights were on, suggesting movement before I had even begun my entry.
“Hello?” I called out, feeling rather stupid that I was talking to a seemingly empty area.
Come try and scare me again.
Inhaling deeply, I recognized the scent of burnt wax and something deeper, richer, beneath it.
I scanned the shelves, running my fingers along the spines of all the town’s history, lined up for anyone to brush up on. If there was anything in here that could help us, it wouldn’t be obvious.
Walking along the back row of shelves, my finger paused on one particular book as I tilted my head just enough to read the title presented in red foil letters against the black fabric cover.
The Crows of Harvest
Sounded like a medieval tragedy written by candlelight rather than something that should be down here with the rest of the boring census records and various committee meeting minutes.
Pulling the book from the shelf, I opened it about halfway. Inside, the binding was all wrong, sloppy work. The pages were too modern and too fresh for anything that should have been stored down here.
Looking more closely at the words on the pages, my shoulders slumped. Instead of whatever should have been printed between the covers, it was a book detailing proper pruning methods for various apple trees. Flipping to the front page, it was published just five years ago.
Fucking useless.
Then… a cackle.
Shoving the book back onto the shelf, I rushed to the far end of the aisle.
“A book won’t tell you the answers you want to know,” the familiar voice of the unknown woman croaked from just behind me.
Spinning right back around, she wasn’t there.
Frustrated, I snarled. “Then what will, you cryptic bitch?”
More cackling.
I spotted her eyes peering through the shelves at me now with an unnerving intensity to them as they flickered and flashed ever-changing shades of red.
“Deals. I like deals.” Her voice was too high-pitched, too whiny, and definitely sounded like ice scratching at a chalkboard—horridly wet and cringy.
“A cat between the corn, that would be very tempting,” she suggested.
Hesitating momentarily, not because I was considering it—fuck that. I paused to listen to the meaning behind the words before I asked, “Another curse?”
“Mmhmm, very good, darling,” she crooned.
I shook my head. “Forget it, we have one too many in this town.”
“The choice is yours. Be the curse or burn it to its roots.”
In the blink of an eye, she was gone, and I was left without anything useful to bring back to the guys.
Refusing to watch time slip away as first light threatened the horizon, I shifted and hauled ass out of this place.
When I arrived on two legs, both men breathed a sigh of relief as I ran over to the maze’s exit point.
Bale skipped the pleasantries. “Where did you go?!”
“Library. Look, we don’t have a lot of time. Do you know anything about the woman who cursed you?”
With a dark look crossing his features, Corbin looked ready to storm towards the opening again until I held my hands up to get him to reconsider.
Looking at them both pleadingly, the first burst of color broke the blanket of night nestled over Falston.
“She can’t be trusted. All of this is her fault, that’s all we know,” Corbin finally said. His frustration was plain as day on his face that he didn’t have more to offer me.
Bale rested his hand on Corbin’s shoulder as he stepped forward as close as the barrier would allow.
“Look at me, kitten.” His voice was tender, bordering on a level of softness I wouldn’t have been sure he was capable of a couple of days ago.
When I did as he asked, the twitch of his lips at the corners spoke volumes. “You survived the hunt. That’s more than Corbin or I could have asked for.”
I felt the sting of emotion building up in my eyes. Especially when I glanced over at Corbin, and it looked like his heart was already being torn from his soul one crushing word at a time.
Bale continued. “The match belongs between your fingers. Lighting the bonfire makes sure that this tradition comes to an end, whatever that looks like for all of us.”
My fingers wiped hastily at my now-damp lashes.
“But I need to know you’ll both be okay.” My voice wavered with the tears that threatened to break into something even heavier.
Corbin looked at me, not bothering to hide the wet trails over his cheeks. He spoke with a hoarseness that held the weight of a man who was suffering.
“It’s okay, we’ll be okay.” A shaky breath as he struggled to maintain composure. “Bale and I have had a lot of years. Nothing—nothing—compares to the last few days with you. Know that you have been everything to us, and you’ll be exactly what Falston needs.”
The first tears spilled from my eyes as my chest felt like it was seizing up. “Stop making it sound like goodbye.” I tried to sound angry, but instead, my voice cracked under the pressure.
Bale’s hand wrapped around the side of Corbin’s neck, pulling him close in support.
“Goodbye would imply that the seasons would stop changing. Goodbye would be forgetting. No matter what happens, we could never forget you. I know you won’t forget us, kitten.”
I wanted to launch myself into the cruel magic ward that was keeping me from them until it either let me hold onto them for eternity or I died trying.
Hardly able to speak past the sorrow, I croaked out, “I… can’t do this. I can’t—”
Interrupting the moment was Mayor Dennison’s voice, filled with wonder and too much excitement for the emotional wreckage that lay bare three bound hearts.
“Glorious day! Can it be true? Miss Lenoir, you made it through Falston’s corn maze. I can hardly believe my eyes.”