Chapter 28
Snow had drifted into deep slopes on the Midwinter back porch, but Hayleigh kicked her way out into the night regardless, dragging the old woman along with her. Stephan followed behind at a close distance, his face laced tight with confusion.
“Is that what you saw when you looked at me through your pebble the other day?” she asked, glancing through sliding glass doors to be certain no one else was standing close enough to hear the conversation.
“Mmm-hmm. And I don’t need the hagstone to see it anymore. It’s all over you.”
Hayleigh raised a hand to her cheek in self-consciousness. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Would you have believed me? You needed to take a bit of a walk on the wyrd side first.” The old woman looked Stephan up and down. “It’s clear from both of your auras just how far you traveled in that direction.”
Hayleigh’s cheeks grew so hot that she was grateful it had finally stopped snowing, because if not, it would have melted against her cheeks.
“Would the two of you please explain?” Stephan crossed his arms.
“Oh,” said Birdie, raising her hands and looking down, “I guess he didn’t know.”
“Didn’t see that one coming?” said Hayleigh.
“My dear if I saw everything, I’d go even more batty.”
Haleigh finally dared to look at Stephan, knowing his expression would demand the explanations she’d been withholding.
“I guess I can see…and talk to…what you call the ‘other folk.’ They don’t have to reveal themselves to me. Not just because they’re haunting me, but because I apparently always could.”
“And when did you figure all this out?” asked Stephan, his voice stilted.
“Baba Yaga told me,” said Hayleigh, her voice low as she admitted it, but then she whirled back to Birdie. “But I don’t know how I feel about it yet, which is why I didn’t want to tell anyone.”
“Well, it’s what you are,” said Birdie, “however you feel about it. So you’d best sort your feelings soon, because you’ve got a curse to break.” And with that, the old woman returned to the party.
Hayleigh was left to face Stephan alone.
He leaned against the house with his arms across his chest, gazing into the night wood.
Guilt briefly surged up through her chest, but then she smacked it back down.
She had not wronged him. This was her private information, which she could choose to reveal or not.
When she finally opened her mouth to speak, she affected a voice she hadn’t used in some time. A smooth, impersonal tone cultivated for tense discussions at work.
“I’m sure you feel slighted by my having withheld this information, but I’m not obligated to share everything with you.”
“Of course you’re not.” He pushed his way off the wall. “But I can’t help wishing you’d wanted to.”
And then he too returned to the party, leaving her alone in the frosty night.
When she finally ventured back inside, he was standing with Rowan in a corner, discussing something in hushed tones.
He gestured for Hayleigh to join them, and while Rowan didn’t exactly look happy about it, she didn’t leave.
Gavin came to stand behind her, hands massaging her shoulders.
Zaide was there as well, sitting on the ground cross-legged with a sketchbook open.
“You need our help to fix your mess,” said Rowan, as Hayleigh approached.
Hayleigh crossed one arm over her chest, wondering just how much she’d be made to beg. “Maybe.”
The white-haired witch peered through thin gold-rimmed glasses. “We’re going to serve up some accountability to your bosses?”
“Ex-bosses. If I were still working there, this would be so much easier. I could probably walk in and download what we’re looking for. Since I can’t, we need a different plan.”
“And I guess you don’t have one yet,” said Zaide.
She could not keep the exasperation from her voice as she said, “No, I have not yet figured out how to indict a multinational corporation that has entire departments devoted to avoiding this very thing. I mean, there are some Hail Mary options. If we wanted to just break into my old boss’s house and go The Craft on him, he’d probably tell us what we need to know, but then he’d systematically destroy us before we could do anything with that information. ”
“What about the person who did the environmental assessment?” offered Gavin. “They might know something. Do you remember who it was?”
Hayleigh shook her head. “I was never looped in on details like that.”
“Probably would’ve been a good idea to fully understand what you were selling,” muttered Rowan.
Frustration ran hot through her veins, and she dug her nails into her palm.
“Yes, I am aware. Any other hot takes on how bad a person I am?” She looked at Gavin first, who dropped his eyes to the floor, and then at Zaide, who just raised an eyebrow and shook her head.
“Anyone? Let’s just get it all out so we can focus. ”
Stephan’s hand swept the back of hers, making her aware of the fact that she was digging her nails into her palms. She gently eased off the pressure and allowed him to pull her back against his chest, where she settled into the solid wall of him.
Rowan, meanwhile, looked properly rebuffed. After a moment, she said, “We’d be most likely to find a paper trail at your office, but that would be hard to break into. Any other options?”
“Could someone’ve taken files home?” offered Zaide.
“They weren’t supposed to,” said Hayleigh.
Gavin put a hand on his chin. “But it doesn’t mean they didn’t, and if they did, it’s more likely to still be around. As soon as there was any whiff of controversy, they probably scrubbed the office, and while they likely told people to do the same at home, that doesn’t mean everyone complied.”
“Are we back to breaking into your boss’s house?” said Rowan, eyes oddly bright.
“Who knew my little sister was a wannabe cat burglar?” asked Stephan with a chuckle. He had moved to idly running his hands up and down Hayleigh’s arms, sending gentle pinpricks throughout her system.
“I have a lot of anger to work through these days,” said Rowan with a wink. “Which is why I might be willing to bend my ‘no memory wiping’ rule…”
“Well, I’m not,” said Gavin, “not if there’s any other option.” And then he looked at Hayleigh expectantly, as if it were up to her to prevent his girlfriend from addling her brain with more mind magic.
“Say we go all Bilbo Baggins and burgle our way to proof—what then?” asked Zaide.
“There was an environmental watchdog group mentioned in the article you found,” said Hayleigh. “The Western Mining Action Project? Apparently, they’re the ones who did the testing that verified the groundwater issues. They’d probably know what to do.”
Stephan snapped his fingers. “I actually know someone from my program at the U who ended up working there.”
“Really?” asked Hayleigh, heart quickening at the revelation.
“Really,” said Stephan, nodding with a broad smile. “I’ll figure out if I’ve still got her contact number somewhere.”
It only occurred to Hayleigh then to wonder—would passing on the proof be enough to break the spell?
Or would she have to wait for justice to actually be delivered?
Because that could take years. Would she spend the entire time always on the edge of a fresh disaster?
Never able to build anything without seeing tiny creatures emerge from the shadows to tear it down?
Would it be soon enough for Red?
“When is this all going to happen?” asked Gavin with a clear of his throat. “Because if this caper of yours involves going to the Seattle area, I’ll remind Rowan she’s both jet-lagged and on the cusp of the Winter Fest’s biggest days.”
“Right,” said Rowan, deflating. “I guess we’ll have to go Christmas Day or after.”
“I’m not sure I could go any sooner either,” said Stephan, eyes full of apologies. “I don’t think I can get more time off work. All hands on deck right now.”
Hayleigh’s heart thundered in her ears. “Am I supposed to just sit around until then while the curse does what it wants with me?”
“We can look into other angles,” said Stephan. “And make this idea into an actual plan. There’s plenty more to do. Like, for example…Hey, Birdie, come here!”
The old witch toddled over, giving Hayleigh a significant look, and Stephan finally presented their idea of the divination spell. She held her breath, waiting for what the others thought of the idea.
“We should scry,” said Birdie, expression thoughtful. “Best to use the bowl.”
“She’ll fill a bowl with water,” explained Stephan, “and see images in its surface—assuming the spell works.”
“Is there a chance you’d get…a name?” Hayleigh asked hopefully.
“You wish, honey,” said Birdie, cackling. “We’ll have to work a little harder than that. But if we put our heads together to interpret what I see, I’m sure we’ll get something useful.”
Work together. They expected her to come and take part in the ritual?
“We should do it tonight,” said Rowan.
“Magic’s the best it’s gonna be for a while,” agreed Zaide.
Birdie waved a finger at Stephan. “You are going to have to ask the woman in charge, though.”
They all looked over to where Liliana Midwinter was working with her husband to ladle bowls of soup from a large stockpot.
The bubbling concoction filled the air with the smell of rosemary, citrus, and paprika, and Hayleigh remembered then that the head of the Midwinter coven specialized in magic of hearth and home, including food magics.
What magic, she wondered, did the soup contain?
The look of resolve on Stephan’s face hardened as he crossed to his mother, and Hayleigh followed at his heels.
“You have a question in your eyes,” said Liliana, not even looking up from her soup. “Well, make yourself useful if you’re going to hang around.”
Stephan stepped up to a bread block and began slicing through a thick-crusted bread that had been shaped in a plaited circle and overlaid with triangles that gave it the appearance of a beaming sun. When he cut into it, it gave off the smell of pumpernickel and the first days of spring.
A similar loaf had been on the table with all the rest of the food, a thick white candle at its center. She thought then of the kolach she had made with Baba Yaga, and how the breads occupied similar places at otherwise different tables.
Catching her looking for something to do, Joe Midwinter gestured her toward a cabinet. “You can grab plates for that bread he’s cutting.”
With a grateful smile, she slid open the grainy maplewood cabinets and pulled out a pile of pale green ceramic plates, settling herself next to Stephan.
“We want to do a ritual tonight,” said Stephan as he sliced. “A scrying.”
His mother let out a gentle snort. “We have a lot on our plate for the longest night.”
“It’s important.”
A smile played on his mother’s face. “They always are.”
“She needs to satisfy a Wild Hunt, and if she does, a whole lot of people will be better off for it.”
His mother’s eyes widened then. She stopped in her work, ladle hovering in the air, then looked straight at him, eyes occasionally flicking to Hayleigh. “And you’re sure scrying is the best option?”
“I’ll vouch for it,” called out Birdie. “They’ve really got nothing else.”
Everyone looked at Liliana then, awaiting her decree. The hearth witch scanned Hayleigh from head to toe. “And you’re willing to participate? With an open heart?”
“Yes,” said Hayleigh, though the word caught in her throat as it squeezed its way past the lumps of her old fears. “Yes, I am.”
A smile slowly spread across Liliana Midwinter’s face, and warmth peeked its way through her mask of authority. “You’re welcome in our circle, then, Hayleigh Gray. Just for the scrying, of course. We’ll do it first, and then you can go.” Her voice was firm but not unkind.
“That’s perfectly fine,” said Hayleigh with a heady rush of relief.
Stephan slipped his car keys into her pocket. “We might be a couple of hours after, so I totally understand if you don’t want to hang out here with the old guys. I can get a ride home.”
“Old guys?” said Gavin. “I’m younger than her, and you.”
“My mistake—the old at heart guys…”
Gavin only inclined his head at that. Apparently, his enthusiasm for fountain pens extended all the way to attending pen conventions.
“We’re gonna watch Die Hard,” said Roy. The enthusiasm with which he said it suggested he really thought it would be a tempting proposal, but she’d never been one to accept the “Die Hard is a Christmas movie” argument.
“I think I’ll probably head out after the ritual,” she said. “It’s…been a long day, and I’m pretty drained.”
A bowl of soup was thrust into her hands then. Liliana Midwinter gazed at her from across its buttery orange surface.
“Then you’d better eat up,” warned the hearth witch, “because this is going to ask even more of you.”