13. Chapter 13
Chapter 13
What had they fallen into? Tessa tried to slow her breathing and her racing thoughts as she watched through the window to the enclosed back patio where Lily sat at a table with Ben. The little girl held out crayons and pointed at the paper in front of him, grinning. Apparently she wanted Ben to join in.
“I’ve never seen her take to someone like that before, especially a man,” Evelyn said as she washed up from dinner. They had spent an incredibly awkward meal with Evelyn, Lily, and Pastor Richards, who ate quickly and left to go home soon after as if sensing the awkwardness had something to do with him. As if it could be that easy.
Ben smiled at the little girl, and Tessa’s lady bits tingled. Holy hotcakes . Not again. She didn’t have time for distractions. Not when she’d just found out there might be another oracle. And how was she supposed to handle that? Her first thought was to call Megan, but she wanted to confirm what she suspected and she couldn’t exactly talk to her in front of everyone, right?
“Does he know the truth?” Evelyn asked.
Tessa turned back to Evelyn. “Truth?”
The older woman narrowed her eyes. “I hope we aren’t going to play games. You weren’t surprised about Lily’s gift. What were you going to ask me about her earlier before you stopped yourself?”
Well, crap. “I was going to ask you if Lily has a birthmark.”
Evelyn stopped what she was doing at the sink. “Yes. On her shoulder.”
In for a penny… “Is it in the shape of a flame?”
Evelyn wiped her hands on a dish towel. “How would you know that? Unless you’ve seen it before?”
Tessa nodded. Did she really want to tell Evelyn the truth? And what about Ben? As far as she knew from her conversation with John, Ben didn’t know the truth about dragons. Crap on a cracker . “I’ve never met Lily before, but yes, I’ve seen it. Does she also have two marks that run down each shoulder?”
Evelyn walked over to the refrigerator. There were numerous drawings held there with magnets. She moved some around and pulled off a picture that Tessa hadn’t seen yet.
“Yes. Does it have something to do with this?” The picture was of Lily with purple wings jutting from her back.
Well, the dragon was out of the bag now, wasn’t it?
Evelyn continued. “The marks on her back are not like anything I’ve seen before. They aren’t scars, so I didn’t know at first until Lily started drawing pictures with her wings. And I know what Mia’s passion was in the art world. She completed her thesis on dragons. It doesn’t take much to connect the dots, although it boggles my mind. How is this possible?”
“I’m not the right person to explain,” Tessa said. “It isn’t really my story to tell. Do you think Mia is a dragon?”
“No. I don’t think so. Are you?”
“No, and neither is Ben.” She watched the two of them coloring. “And he doesn’t know.” She grasped Evelyn’s hand. “It needs to stay a secret, especially since someone is after Lily. It could be because they know the truth.”
Before Evelyn could respond, Ben opened the back door and called to them. “You guys need to come see what Lily just drew.”
They walked outside, and he held up the drawing. It was the little house they were in, and it showed a man standing in front of it holding a crying Lily. Evelyn was drawn sideways as if lying on the ground.
Lily blinked back tears. Evelyn gathered her in her arms and comforted her while Ben walked over to Tessa and led her into the kitchen. “I don’t know if I believe that anyone, let alone a five-year-old, can see the future, but in case she can, I don’t think they should stay here any longer.”
“Agreed. We need to take them somewhere safe. Once we’re on the road, I’ll contact my friend and we can take them there.”
“John?”
“No. My friend Megan. Are you going to call John?” she asked, holding her breath. Please don’t call him. Please don’t call him.
“No. I don’t have anything concrete to report right now about Mia, and I don’t think he is going to believe me if I tell him about Lily.”
Tessa didn’t correct him. The less John knew right now, the better. He might insist that Ben bring Lily to him, and Tessa didn’t trust John. He was obsessed with breaking the curse. In Tessa’s experience obsession didn’t equate to rational thinking on the best of days.
Evelyn came into the room.
“Is Lily okay?” Tessa asked, peeking through the window to see the little girl was flipping through a picture book.
“She will be. The vision scared her.”
Ben stepped closer. “I think for your safety, you both need to come with us.”
Evelyn turned to Tessa. “You agree with him?”
“Absolutely. I have an idea of where you can go until we figure out who is after Lily.” She hoped she had somewhere for them to go. She couldn’t imagine that Eric’s clan wouldn’t take Lily in, especially if she was an orphan like Mia said.
“I’ve seen the truth in Lily’s drawings more than once. We’ll come with you. I’m going to tell Pastor Richards that we’re leaving for a bit, but I won’t tell him anything else so that he doesn’t have to keep lying for us. The town can say we’re gone, and it will be the truth.”
Tessa let out the breath she’d been holding. “Good. You should pack a couple of bags for you and Lily. I’m going to collect all her drawings to take with us.” She didn’t want to leave anything behind that could possibly be a clue to a future event.
Evelyn nodded. “Okay. You can put her drawings in her backpack. It’s in the living room.” She opened the back door. “Lily, sweetheart, come with me and let’s pack some of your clothes and books. We’re going to go on a trip.”
Lily bounced up from her chair and headed into the house. Her resilience awed Tessa. She walked to the refrigerator and collected all the drawings.
Ben had packed Lily’s crayons back into the box and collected the paper from the patio table. “When I walked into the kitchen earlier, your conversation seemed intense. If you found something else out, I want to be filled in.”
Things were getting stickier and stickier. “We need to get on the road, and then we can talk later, when we have them in a safe place.”
She walked into the living room, grabbed the backpack, and placed the drawings inside before handing it to Ben to put in what he had collected. She reached for the drawing pad that Evelyn had shown them earlier, and it fell to the floor and opened to a picture. The drawing was a side view of Ben’s blue truck with Ben and Tessa in the front seat and Evelyn and Lily in the back. Above the truck was a crescent moon. Tessa walked over to the window and took in the night sky before goose bumps ran down her spine.
“What’s wrong?” Ben asked as he joined her.
She held out the pad, and he studied it before looking out the window. The sky held a crescent moon shining down on them.