“It’s not crazy. That last part is interesting though,” he said with a wink.
Brenna’s eyes opened wide. “Um, I’m not even going to ask you how you knew what I was thinking.” She looked around the room. “We should concentrate on the problem at hand,” she said, trying to keep her thoughts under control.
“The coven has arranged a meeting at my house tomorrow. They want you to attend as well. We’ll be arranging the ritual needing to be done on Hallows eve.”
“That’s two days away.”
“Yes. We don’t have much time. There’s still a lot to do.”
“I know. Some of the ingredients are rare. And there’s the matter of my friend Maggie. She’s still missing.”
“We’ll try to resolve all that tomorrow. You’re going to need plenty of sleep. It will be draining.”
“After all of this wine that shouldn’t be a problem.” Brenna hoped he wasn’t over the legal limit to drive. “However, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“Sure.”
“Do you know the name of the judge who was responsible for sentencing the witches in Witches Hill?”
“The one who sentenced Isabel?”
“Yes.”
“Hector Prime.”
“Hector…” Shockwaves rippled throughout Brenna’s body. The evil face of her lawyer involved in buying her land appeared in her mind staring at her maliciously.
“Yep. Hector. Why?”
“He’s the one keeping the witches’ souls trapped. I know a dream will show me exactly what happened soon. But here’s what I know. Rowena was supposed to be burnt after it was found out that she was a witch. I don’t know what happened to her, but the judge, Hector, he went missing. I’m thinking he is the obvious suspect. I don’t know why he waited so long to get his revenge, though.”
“He possibly wasn’t strong enough. It takes a long time for evil spirits to become powerful enough to affect the lives of people, living or dead. Good news is, we can destroy him now that we know his name. He isn’t going to make it easy for us, though.”
“That did occur to me.” The waitress brought over their food and set it down.
“Here ya go. Enjoy.” Her gaze lingered a little bit too long on Ronan before hustling away, but Brenna didn’t blame her.
The lights in the room suddenly flickered casting them in darkness for a second. Ronan looked around the room, narrowing his eyes.
“We should leave.”
But the food smells so good! “Why?”
“I think we’re being watched. Don’t worry. We’ll ask for a doggy bag.” Ronan paid for their meal, waited for the waitress to have it wrapped, and escorted Brenna outside. The rain had gotten heavier. Brenna dodged a puddle as she rushed to Ronan’s car. The only sound during their ride came from the overworked window wipers and the persistent rain.
Ronan stopped his car in front of the Shady Oak Motel and shut off the engine. He fidgeted with the car keys dangling from the ignition. Brenna cleared her throat. She sensed Ronan had been thinking about something during the ride.
“If you have something on your mind, you’ll have to tell me. I can’t quite read minds like you can.”
Ronan smirked. “I can’t always do it. The circumstances have to be right. Anyway, I was thinking that if you wanted to, you could stay at my place. I have plenty of room. I’m sure we wouldn’t get in each other’s way unless we wanted to.” A not so innocent smile lightened his face. “This place must be costing you a fair bit.”
For the first time since she had met him, Ronan looked nervous. He wouldn’t stop fidgeting with his keys.
“I’m kind of friendly with the owner. I’d feel bad abandoning him.” Her words took the smile off Ronan’s face.
“Oh.”
Whoops. “Yeah, he used to be in a relationship with my grandmother,” Brenna said quickly.
“Oh, really?” Ronan’s face lit up once more.
“Yes. He’s kind of like a father figure to me. It seems strange though, I haven’t really known him for long, but I feel like I have. He’s great.”
“I’m glad to hear it. You always needed somebody like that,” Ronan said, mystifying Brenna.
“How do you know that?”
“Your Gran told me.”
“My grandmother?”
“Yes.”
“How? When?”
“I went back in time a few years to do some research on you. I talked to her.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Brenna found the idea of him talking to her dead grandmother strange.
“Please don’t feel like I invaded your privacy or anything. Hawthorn told me I should try to get to know you. In case you didn’t believe I was here to help. She thought I could tell you some obscure thing that only you and your grandmother would know.” He stopped playing with his keys. “It was kind of a backup plan.”
“After everything that has happened to me lately, you didn’t need it,” she said, looking toward the dark hotel. Then she added, “Can I think about your offer?”
“Sure. If you want, just pack your bags and you can stay tomorrow night after we meet with the coven.”
“Sounds good. I’m just not sure about…”
“It’s okay, I understand. You can think about it. I would feel better if I could keep an eye on you. That’s all.”
“Sure. I can see that. Goodnight, Ronan.” Brenna took one last look at his dangerously handsome face and all but jumped out of the car before she changed her mind and spent the night with him. She splashed through the rain, ran up the stairs and straight into her hotel room flopping down onto her bed. She stared at the dark ceiling, her mind racing a hundred miles an hour. She turned over and gripped her pillow thinking about Ronan. After a good amount of tossing and turning on top of the cozy covers. Brenna finally went to sleep with a gigantic smile on her face deciding she would accept Ronan’s invitation.
Chapter Thirteen
Darkwoods 1645
The guard opened up the door and shot Rowena a suspicious look. “What took so long?” he grunted.
“I had a bit of trouble with the locks.”
“Oh, you don’t usually have to go in. You can just throw the food through the bars. I should have told you that,” he said as he took Rowena’s arm, pulling her away from the cells.
“I can’t stand the smell in there!” He slammed the door shut, making her jump.
“There are two dead girls in there,” she said.
“That’ll explain the smell.” He started to walk away.
“You’re just going to leave them there?”
He stopped walking and turned to look at her with a dumbfounded look on his face. “Lady, somebody will move them later.”
“It looks like one of them has been there for days.”
“Why do you care? You don’t have to put up with the smell.”
“Yes, but the others in there do.”
“They’ll survive.” He continued walking.
Rowena’s bottom lip trembled. She bit it hard to stop it. They’ll survive. Rowena thought then that if she had anything to do with it, they would indeed survive.