I parked in my driveway, noting that no one else was there yet. As I headed toward the door, pizzas in hand and equipment left in the car, I sensed a movement around me, heading toward the house. Frowning, I headed up the stairs, reaching out to try and sense who was there.
It’s about time you got yourself home, came a whisper that washed over me.
I froze. Who the hell was talking to me? I turned around, looking, wondering if it was my mother’s spirit, but this didn’t feel like her at all. The voice did sound familiar, though.
Finally, I stepped up on the porch and froze again. There, in front of the door, was a vase with one perfect rose in it. The rose was beautiful, so white it almost seemed to be formed out of snow.
I set the pizzas on the steps and gingerly picked up the vase. My hand tingled, the same as it had when I picked up the note the previous night. I brought the flower to my nose and inhaled. A crisp scent of vanilla and cinnamon, of cognac and oranges swept through me.
The Ladies. It had to be from them.
And then, as if emerging from a long sleep, a memory surfaced, from a day long ago, when I was very young.
“Go out back and pick me some tomatoes, would you, January?” My mother was making lasagna for dinner and she wanted to make the sauce.
I was seven, and I headed out on the back porch, squinting as the sun rose overhead. It was July, and everything seemed to sparkle. I found the garden basket and headed down the steps toward the kitchen garden my mother kept.
The day was glowing, the sun rising high in the sky, and the drone of bees and insects filled my ears. I wasn’t afraid of bugs—I didn’t like spiders much, but I had a little stick to move them off of the plants, and so I never minded picking vegetables for my mother.
The tomato patch was near the back end of the yard, where the soil was best for growing vegetables. The Mystic Wood was only a few steps away. Well, twenty yards or so, but it didn’t seem that far to me. I set the basket down and began picking the ripe orange globes, setting them carefully into the basket. The dusky scent rose from the vines—a scent I had fallen in love with early on. Tomatoes were my favorite food in the world, and my mother had taught me how to tell when they were perfectly ripened.
After a few minutes, though, I began to notice a steady hum coming from the wood. I turned to stare at the trees. The forest seemed overly vibrant, and I suddenly felt like I was watching a cartoon—everything seemed to be almost like neon animation. After a moment, when I didn’t see anything, I turned back to the vegetable patch.
I had almost finished harvesting the tomatoes when I noticed something emerging from the Mystic Wood. It looked like a golden child—a small girl who might have been near my height, but she was very thin, and she shimmered like the sun, covered with sparkling gold.
I laughed, thinking it was a clever costume.
Ari—my best friend—was away at a summer camp for young witches, and I had wanted to go but my parents wouldn’t let me. So I had spent most of the summer by myself. Oh, I had other friends, but they didn’t live a few doors away like Ari did, and they weren’t as much fun to hang out with. So another child, who lived in the woods behind my home? I welcomed her presence. I knew that she was a she—just like I knew that her name was Rebecca. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me.
“Hi,” I said, heading toward the edge of the tree line where Rebecca was standing.
“Come play,” she said, holding out a hand.
I laughed. “I have to take the tomatoes to my mother first, but I’ll come back and play with you afterward!”
“No, come now.”
I knew I should take the tomatoes in, my mother was waiting for them, but Rebecca seemed so insistent and I was lonely.
“All right.” I reluctantly set the basket on the ground and took a few steps toward her.
The golden gleam around Rebecca seemed to fade at that moment, and I froze. The look on her face seemed to contradict her friendly voice. She looked angry, and her teeth were long and sharp, and she looked hungry—hungry in a way that frightened me.
I began to back away but she lunged toward me. I shrieked and stumbled back.
At that moment, my mother raced down the porch steps screaming, “Get away from my child!” at the top of her lungs.
The spell broken, it dawned on me that Rebecca—whoever she was—wasn’t the best playmate to have. She scared my mother, and that scared me. I shrieked, trying to crabwalk back up the lawn since I couldn’t seem to scramble to my feet.
As Rebecca drew near, there was another flash of light, and I caught the glimpse of a tall, sturdy woman wearing a long dress and a flat-topped hat as she appeared in front of me. She reared back, seeming so large that she blotted out the sky, and she let out a growl that scared the hell out of me. But it also scared Rebecca, who turned and raced back into the Mystic Wood. The woman turned around and knelt by me.
“You must listen to your mother, January. And you must listen to me. My name’s Esmara. Don’t forget this.” And then, she vanished.
I turned as my mother came running up. The look on her face was still frightened, but I could see relief peeking around the corner.
“January, come here,” Mother said, holding out her arms.
I ran into her embrace, and she hugged me tight. As her arms encircled me, I heard her whisper, “Esmara is safe. You can always trust her. If I’m not around, you can safely ask her for help.” But she didn’t want to talk any more about her, for some reason, and it wasn’t till years later that I discovered I had had a great-aunt with that name.
I placed the pizzas on the dining room table along with the vase and rose, and shrugged out of my coat. I felt grimy and cold, thanks to the day, and I wanted a shower. I texted Ari, Caitlin, and Killian to come in when they got here, that I’d be right down. I left the door unlocked—in Moonshadow Bay you could still do that without worrying, as long as you were in the house—and headed upstairs. Stripping, I stepped beneath the hot water, shivering as the chill in my veins began to thaw. After washing up, I quickly dried my hair, then pulled on a circle skirt and a V-neck sweater. Heading downstairs, I realized I didn’t have any makeup on, but decided that I’d just have to look washed out for the evening.
“Hey,” I said, hearing the chatter from below and hurrying downstairs. Ari was there, along with Caitlin, and Killian was just taking off his jacket. “I’m sorry—I couldn’t wait to shower.” I suddenly felt exhausted.
“Not a problem. I’ll heat up the pizzas,” Ari said, setting down her wine glass. I saw that somebody had brought a bottle of zinfandel.
I curled up in the recliner, folding my legs beneath me. “Caitlin, did you fill them in on what happened?”
She nodded. “Yeah. So, have you called Rowan Firesong yet?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. I decided I’d wait until tomorrow. It’s almost ten and frankly, I’m too exhausted to even think. What do you think? Should we wait till tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I think so. Oh, I got a call about ten minutes ago from Tad,” Caitlin said. “His parents arrived, and Hank woke up. They’ll both be in the hospital overnight.” She let out a sigh. “I’m dead tired. I think I’m just going to go home, and I’ll see you at the office tomorrow morning. Let’s say nine? Tad won’t be around to squawk about it.”