“Hawthorn!”
“Well done. Both of you.” Hawthorn stood and opened her arms. Rowena surrendered to her embrace, feeling some of the stress melt away. “There’s somebody outside who would like to see you.”
Buttercup brayed at her from the stable. Rowena went to the mule and hugged her gently. “You’re a sight for sore eyes,” she said to the mule.
Hawthorn cackled from the doorway. “Touching. But she isn’t who I meant.” Hawthorn nodded in the direction behind the cottage. Rowena and Jonathon made their way behind the cottage. There in the clearing, sat the women they had saved from the wagons and the prison. Rowena’s throat clogged up. Tears stung her eyes once more.
“They are safe because of you both,” Hawthorn said, squeezing their shoulders.
“Not for long. That horrible judge is tormenting us all in the future.”
“One battle at a time. If Brenna is anywhere near as canny as you are, she’ll see it through.”
Chapter Seventeen
Oakwoods Now
Brenna’s sleep-blurred eyes strained to see Maggie. She was snoring softly. Unable to see herself going back to sleep, Brenna swung her feet out of bed. She made her way to the door with her arms out in front like a zombie to avoid crashing into anything. The sound of rain falling made her shiver as she walked out into the hallway, seeing a crack of light spilling out from behind a partially closed door. Her bare feet landed on a wet spot on the floor. Her eyes cleared up enough to see a trail of wet footprints leading to the door.
She pushed the door, wincing as it made a creak. Ronan was sitting on a huge bed reading a book. A pile of sodden clothes lay on the floor. Kiba lay in front of a roaring fire. Oddly enough his fur was damp.
“Can’t sleep?” Ronan asked, putting down what he was reading.
“I was asleep, well I had another dream.”
“So, you didn’t sleep much.”
“I guess not.” She walked further into the room. “Can I sit?”
“Sure.”
“What you reading?”
“I’m going over the ingredients we need.” He showed her the old spell written by Hawthorn.
“Oh, shouldn’t you be asleep?”
“I should be. But when there’s something on my mind I have trouble sleeping.”
“Worried about the judge?”
“That wasn’t what was on my mind.” He raised an eyebrow, looked her in the eyes. She blushed.
“Oh, well uh any, anything I can help you with?” she stammered.
“Is Maggie asleep?”
Brenna nodded. “I don’t want to seem creepy or anything, but I feel a connection to you, Brenna.”
“I probably don’t need to say anything. Even somebody who can’t read minds could tell I feel the same.”
Ronan smirked. “I think Maggie will be okay alone for the rest of the night. Don’t you?”
Brenna did.
The sun tried to shine through thick dark clouds. Fog had risen early in the morning and was still strong at lunchtime. Brenna turned away from the window and glanced at Maggie who was shoving a filled croissant into her mouth. On the table in front of them, Brenna’s grandmother’s photos were laid out.
“So,” Maggie said with her mouth full. “Where were you last night?”
“Huh?”
Maggie gave Brenna a knowing look.
“What?” Brenna said, trying to keep a straight face.
“How come you weren’t in bed this morning? I woke up and was scared somebody had kidnapped you.” Maggie took another bite.
A smile slipped out, unbidden.
“I knew it!” Maggie’s eyes were bigger than the cup holding Brenna’s coffee. “Did you… you know?”
“What do you think I am? A brazen hussy? I only just met him.” Brenna winked.
Just then Ronan entered the room.
“Is he walking funny? Or is it just me?”
Brenna slapped her hand against her own forehead. “I can’t take you anywhere.”
Ronan’s cheeks turned red. He pivoted on the spot and retreated from the kitchen.
Trying to distract herself, Brenna flipped through the photos. “I’m sure this is the same spot in the forest.”
“I mean, it’s kinda hard to tell but you could be right.”
“I think we should go there,” Brenna said.
“How would we know where this spot is?”
“I don’t know. Hold on a minute…” Brenna examined one of the photos again. “Ronan, do you have a magnifying glass?” she yelled out.
“Sure, hold on a minute,” Ronan called back. He walked back into the room, opened a drawer and rummaged through it, pulling out a tiny magnifying glass. He passed it to Brenna.
“What’ve you got there?” he said, looking at the photos.
“My grandmother took them before she died. They are the same area taken from different angles.” Brenna positioned the magnifying glass over the photo and peered through it. After finding nothing she moved onto a photo taken from eye level. She scanned the photo and stopped. Was that? It was indistinct but yes; a small star engraved on one of the trees. Brenna widened her eyes. How had she not noticed it earlier? It had to be the pentagram carving near her grandmother’s cottage. “Check it out. This is the tree near the cottage. It’s the same carving.”
“Maybe she really liked that tree,” Maggie said.
“I think we should check it out.”
“Good idea.” Kiba whimpered gently under the table. “All right, boy, come on,” Ronan said, leading Kiba to the fridge. Brenna stood up to make coffee and Maggie headed upstairs to shower. Ronan fed Kiba a big slab of some sort of meat. Ronan sat in front of the photos and leaned in for a look. “You think there’s something important here?”
“It’s worth a look. Did you know that the judge could possess people?”
“I had no idea.”
“The moonstone showed it to me. He possessed my lawyer who was in charge of selling the land. He turned into black mist and entered his body.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. He was a pretty crummy guy. He didn’t deserve to die, but he wasn’t very nice. I don’t think he had any family.”
“That’s good news at least.”
“What are we going to do about the judge? Maggie thinks we need his bones to vanquish him.”
“She could be right. Especially if he can possess people. If we could find his remains, if there are any, we could cleanse them rendering, him powerless. Then we could do a simple ritual to make him move on from this world.”
“What do we do if we can’t find his remains?”
“We’ll work out something.”
“Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
“Ready when you are.”
Once Ronan had gathered some things for the ritual, they all left for the forest.
The gates were still absent when they arrived. Ronan drove down the muddy path, stopping when the path turned into trees. Brenna hopped out and opened the back door for Maggie. She stayed in the car, staring at the trees. “What’s wrong, Maggie?”