Chapter 15 #2
“Of course we do,” I said. “Mom, we can’t just close on a Saturday with all those tourists in town. Think of the complaints.”
“She’s right, Kerridwen. Not to mention it will look suspicious, and we don’t want to give the rest of the town any reason to poke their noses into our business.
Besides, what’s the point of staying home?
We’re just going to pace around and drive each other nuts waiting for news.
Might as well keep busy.” She stood up and fetched a large basket of pre-wrapped scones and cookies off the counter.
“Here, honey. Replenish the jars on the counter, and don’t forget, we got the new branded wax paper bags in. ”
“Do you want me to come with you?” my mom asked.
I blinked. “Why? I know how to open. Besides, Persi should be there.” “Should” being the operative word. Between everything happening at the lighthouse and her frequent slipping away to visit Bernadette at all hours, I wasn’t exactly counting on her.
My mom bit at her lip, and then sighed. “I know, I’m just... I’m just on edge with this whole…” She struggled for a few seconds as she tried to put it into words.
“The whole ‘a-stranger-who-found-our-grimoire-turned-up-dead-and-then-the-body-vanished’ thing?” I suggested.
She laughed humorlessly. “Yeah. That.”
“Well, sitting at home won’t change it,” I pointed out.
“I suppose not,” she said with a sigh, “but I’d feel better if this was all figured out.”
“I know,” I said. “But in the meantime, a crowded shop full of people is probably the safest place I could be.”
Rhi was nodding and looking down at the grimoire, running her fingers over the cover gently. “I know we didn’t want the Conclave to find out about the grimoire yet, but I must confess, I’m glad they know now. I don’t feel safe keeping it in the house anymore.”
“I agree,” my mom said. She threw the book a baleful look, and then smiled up at me. “Go ahead, honey. I’ll keep you posted about the lighthouse.”
“And I’ll be down to relieve you at lunch time,” Rhi added. “Just have to jar and seal last night’s charms. They’re selling out like crazy.”
I gave them both a quick hug and, after promising again that I would be careful, slipped out before they could think of another reason to keep me there.
Guilt rippled through me, but I kept my lips pressed shut.
It wasn’t just that I thought I’d get in trouble for helping Jess get her body back.
This might be my only chance to understand the Source, a chance not a single adult in Sedgwick Cove would allow me to take if they knew about it.
The truth was that none of the witches of Sedgwick Cove had ever fully comprehended the Source.
It wasn’t until just a few months ago that we even realized where exactly it was.
Though we had drawn on its power for hundreds of years, we could neither understand it, nor claim it as our own.
All we’d managed to do was stop the Darkness from taking control of it, and even that accomplishment was in danger of falling apart.
But Jess wasn’t a witch. She had information that we didn’t, and it was possible she might finally help unravel a mystery that had underpinned this town and its residents for our entire history.
As for me, I was the one the Darkness was after.
I was the one it wanted to use to access the Source.
Didn’t that mean I should learn as much as I could about it?
Wasn’t I the one person who needed every bit of knowledge about the Source I could possibly find?
I knew the answer to that question.
I had to get off my bike and push it when I reached downtown—Main Street was too packed with people to maneuver through them safely while riding.
It was barely nine o’clock in the morning, but people were already crowding the shops decked out in elaborate costumes, and lining up for the walking tours.
“—says they start at nine o’clock, but there’s no tour guide here,” a woman was saying loudly into her phone, while three middle schoolers dressed as the Sanderson sisters moped and grumbled beside her as the line behind them stretched down the street.
As I secured my bike inside the gate at Shadowkeep, movement caught my eye from where the glamour hid a secret staircase up to the second floor.
I adjusted my gaze and watched as a young woman hurried down the steps toward me.
It took me a moment as my eyes focused to see that it was Leila Nightjar.
Her pretty face was twisted with worry as she hurried toward me, wringing her hands.
“Wren, hi! Is Persi around? I’ve been ringing the bell upstairs but no one’s answering,” she said, looking over my head toward the street, like she was worried she might be overheard.
I glanced at my watch. I was late, but only by a few minutes.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, Leila,” I said.
“She’s not here yet, but she should… well, actually, I’m not really sure when she’ll be in,” I hedged.
With what was happening over at the lighthouse, I couldn’t guarantee Persi would be at the shop any time soon.
“Oh.” Leila’s face drooped into such a pitiable expression, I wanted to hug her. She was carrying a bunch of flowers wrapped in brown paper tucked under her arm.
“Can I… is there something I can help you with?” I asked, a little nervously. I wasn’t technically allowed to sell things out of the upper level of the shop yet, but if it was something simple…
“No, I… I just really needed to talk to her. That charm she sold me the other day, I…shit, I’m late,” Leila said as she glanced at her watch. “Just… just have her call me?”
“Okay, sure thing,” I called after her retreating back. “Um… I’ll let her know!”
I watched Leila hurry away, and felt a pang of uneasiness.
Persi was known all over Sedgwick Cove for her charms and spells she sold out of the top level of Shadowkeep.
Had one of them gone wrong somehow? There was no time to worry about it.
If Persi had customer issues, that was her problem to deal with—I had bigger issues at the moment.
I hurried to unlock the door, turn on the lights, and prep the store for opening.
No matter how quickly I moved, it wasn’t fast enough; as soon as people in the street saw that there were signs of life inside, they started lining up out on the porch, queueing all the way down through the gate and out onto the sidewalk.
I was beginning to regret offering to open on my own, but at least it would keep me busy and distracted until my friends got there.
Finally, I unlocked the door and let in the excited horde, bracing myself behind the counter.
Unlike the other days when dealing with the tourists, I found myself watching them closely, and wondering if any of them, like Jess, were not what they seemed.
Did any of them know there was more to this place than met the eye?
Did any of them have magic, or come from covens outside of the borders of Sedgwick Cove?
Always, my eyes were peeled for Veronica Meyers, though I knew she would have to be out of her mind to show her face here again.
Then again, she didn’t have to show her face, did she?
I understood enough about glamours to know that she could disguise herself against detection.
But that would only work for a short time—all witches had the ability to see through a glamour if they thought someone might be using one, and I was nearly always on alert.
I was so distracted examining the faces in the crowd and trying to sense glamours, that I didn’t even notice when two very familiar faces appeared at the counter, right in front of me.
“Earth to Wren? Come in Wren!” Eva said, as she waved her hand frantically in front of my face.
“Huh? Oh, sorry. I’m kind of—”
“Freaking out? Losing your ever-loving shit?” Zale suggested.
“I was gonna say distracted, but sure,” I said. I looked over their shoulders, and felt my heart sink a little. “No Nova?”
Eva’s grin faded into a sad half-smile. “Yeah. She bailed.”
“She told us to apologize for her, but she didn’t actually sound sorry, so…” Zale looked over his shoulder. “Where do you want to talk? No offense, but this seems like the literal worst place to have a private conversation.”
I rolled my eyes. “I realize that, but I’m stuck here for a while, and I didn’t want to lose any time.
You can wait for me upstairs. Come behind the counter,” I said, dropping my voice.
They ducked under the side of the counter, and popped up beside me.
I went to the door and, making sure no one was paying too much attention, opened it for them to enter.
“I’ll be up in a few minutes,” I whispered after them, checking my watch. “Rhi should be here any minute, and I can take a break.”
They nodded at me and ascended out of sight.
It felt like forever, but only about five more minutes passed before Rhi finally shoved her way through the door and across the crowded store to the register.
“Goddess above!” she gasped, raising her baskets above her head to maneuver her way through the throng of customers. “This is crazy, even for Samhain!”
“You’re just in time,” I told her, and pointed to the glass jars on the counter. There was now one lonely cookie left inside beside the pair of tongs.
“I’ll get these refilled,” she said with a sigh.
“And I’m taking my break,” I said. “Just gonna pop upstairs.” And I disappeared up the stairs before she could question me.
I found Eva and Zale wandering around and examining the shelves upstairs. They both dropped what they were holding, and joined me at once at the round table in the corner.
“We have to keep this quick,” I told them in a low voice. “I don’t want Rhi getting suspicious. You can both slip out down the outer staircase when we’re done.”
“Wren, seriously, what is going on?” Eva asked, and for once she looked anxious instead of intrigued. “That woman, Jess—”
“Is fine,” I said. “She’s safe outside of town and laying low for the moment. I’m going to tell you everything I can. I’m going to have to leave some stuff out, and it’s gonna seem like important stuff, but it’s not because I don’t trust you. It’s because I trust her and I gave her my word.”
“You trust her?” Eva asked, narrowing her eyes at me. “A woman you just met?”
“Yes,” I said. “I should probably start there.”
As quickly as I could, I explained about Asteria’s message, and about the grimoire. Their reaction to the reappearance of the grimoire was exactly the same as Nova’s.
“Will you please keep it down?!” I hissed. “Do you want Rhi to come up here?”
Zale said something unintelligible, because his hand was now clamped over his mouth. I was looking at Eva, however.
“Nova doesn’t want to get involved because… well, it’s the Source. And the Claires—”
“Have a complicated history there,” Eva said, nodding her head. “I get it.”
“But do you get where I’m coming from?” I asked, not quite managing to mask the note of desperation in my voice. Luckily, Eva’s expression was entirely clear as she nodded.
“Of course, I do,” she said. “You can’t grow up under Xiomara’s roof without developing a healthy trust of the ancestors and their messages. If Asteria says we can trust her, then we can trust her. So what’s next?”
I was so relieved that tears began to well up in my eyes, and I had to blink them impatiently away. “Thanks, Eva. I really… thanks.”
Zale, meanwhile, finally seemed to have gotten a handle on himself. He pulled his hand away from his mouth, and asked in a strangled sort of whisper, “So is the Conclave flipping out over the grimoire? Because I assumed it was just over the whole missing body thing.”
“Yes. And it sort of sucks that they were already on high alert, but now I think it might actually work to our advantage,” I said.
“How?” Eva and Zale both asked together.
“Because, like I said, Jess needs to get under the Playhouse to examine the Source, and the grimoire has been moved to the lighthouse for safekeeping. And I think that might be exactly the distraction we need.”
Eva frowned. “Meaning?”
“Meaning security has two locations to guard instead of just one. We have to draw them away from the Playhouse to the lighthouse, just long enough for Jess to get inside and get a look at the Source.”
“And exactly how are we supposed to do that?” Eva asked.
“With a distraction.”
Eva rolled her eyes. “Obviously, but what kind of distraction?”
I smiled. “The kind only a waterworker can provide.”