Magic didn’t exist.
And, once again, here I was having odd thoughts.
“I’m almost there. I think it’s the next exit.”
My aunt was silent for a moment before she spoke again. “Take the exit and make sure you stay on the path. Don’t take a detour or stop for anything that might come your way. Ravenwood is waiting for you.”
I frowned, looking at the GPS again. “What do you mean?” Her words were weird. Then again, everything I’d been thinking for the past hour had been strange.
Another pause. “Nothing, darling. You’ll be here soon. Finally. And Ravenwood will welcome you home. As will I.”
“I hope so,” I muttered as tension rolled over me again at the momentous changes I was barreling through. “Are we sure you need a bakery? It’s a small town. There has to be one already.”
“There was one a few years ago, but the tenants moved on. Lately, we’ve been dealing with the supermarket and their baked goods. Not that they aren’t adequate, but there’s nothing like bread and sweet treats from a true bakery. From your bakery. The town needs you, Sage. The building is ready and outfitted to your specifications. You’ll be able to start soon.”
My stomach clenched, but I still smiled. I hadn’t made it up to Ravenwood yet because I had been dealing with estate issues and Rupert’s family. Closing up my life and my house back in Norfolk while trying to open a bakery and a small business in a town I had never even been to, had been all-consuming. I still couldn’t believe I was doing it, but things were falling into place.
Maybe they needed to after everything else had shattered around me. Grief wrapped its spindly fingers around my throat, squeezing, suffocating, the mere force of it overwhelming.
“It will be good to see you,” I said, my voice choked.
“I can’t wait to hold you again, my Sage. See you soon, darling. Remember, stay on the path and you’ll find Ravenwood.”
She hung up, and I frowned. “That was peculiar,” I whispered. Though Aunt Penelope was pretty unusual. She was always giving advice, her voice filled with warmth and wisdom when she did.
She wanted me to come home. Such an incongruous word. Because I had thought I’d had a home for so long. Yet, now, it was gone. There was nothing for me back in the small house where I’d loved Rupert. Nothing for me in Virginia at all.
Rupert was gone, and all ties I had to that life had faded away with him, or perhaps they’d been snapped into pieces by the agony. The brain tumor had taken him quickly, even as he wasted away. I never wanted that image in my head again, even in the short years since I had lost him.
I loved him, and I would always love him, but I was ready to move on now. I’d spent these past couple of years finding out who I was. I needed to discover who I could be without him and outside of the place that held our memories.
I had gone through my grief differently than most. And I wasn’t the same person I had been before. I was finding my way—a home to settle in.
Maybe that was healing. I didn’t know, but I would find out. I needed to. And whatever pulled me toward Ravenwood urged me to do so.
My GPS signaled, and I took the next exit.
Ravenwood beckoned me.
I crossed over the exit and got onto the road, the same path my aunt had just mentioned. As soon as I did, dark clouds filled the sky. I frowned and looked up, wondering where the storm had come from. I hadn’t known there was a storm on the horizon. I hadn’t seen it, but maybe I hadn’t been paying enough attention—which probably wasn’t smart, considering I was still driving, and it had been a long day.
A long month. A long few years. A long agony.
I frowned and shook my head as the rain began splattering on the windshield. I quickly turned on the wipers, the sound almost…rusty. It hadn’t rained in a while.
“This storm came out of nowhere,” I muttered.
I hadn’t remembered seeing it on my weather app that morning when I left, but storms did pop up here. Maybe this was the usual. I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything about Ravenwood. Other than the fact that my aunt had told me to come.
And since I had nothing else to do, I went. Now here I was, entering this small town as lightning streaked overhead, cracking in the sky. I swallowed hard, my knuckles going white as I kept on the road.
The rain began beating down harder, so loud that I could barely hear my thoughts. I had long since turned the radio down, and all I could hear was the sound of the storm raging outside. One I hadn’t even seen until it surrounded me.
Dark clouds burst overhead, the rain becoming a deluge. The road was so slick that I was afraid I might need to pull off, but I didn’t know where to do that. Would other cars be able to see me? My lights were on bright, even in the middle of the day, but I could barely see. It was as if night had come out of nowhere.
I swallowed hard, sensing the taste of metal on my tongue as fear encroached.
I needed to focus, to get through this. I had to find a place to pull off. There was nowhere, other than the embankment, and that didn’t seem safe. I needed to find my way to a part of the road to pause, collect myself, and hopefully let the storm pass. And then I could get to my aunt and Ravenwood. The wind rattled my car, and I nearly skidded off the road.
“Crap,” I whispered and slowed down. There weren’t any other cars, no lights, and I had no idea where I was. I looked at the GPS, but all I saw was darkness. It couldn’t seem to find me in the storm. None of this made any sense.
I looked up and screamed, slamming on the brakes even though I knew that was a stupid move in this rain.
A dark wolf stood in front of me, its eyes glowing gold in the headlights. I shouted, hoping to hell I didn’t hit him.
I spun, fishtailing on the wet road, and did my best to steer into the skid, but I couldn’t remember what direction that was. Was I supposed to go with my back wheels or my front wheels? All thoughts of driver’s ed, and everything I had ever learned about driving through a storm escaped me. Tires screeched. I saw the eyes of the wolf again, and it lifted its lip, baring one fang.
I blinked as if lost in the moment. Everything froze around me, and warmth suffused me as I tried to focus. Attempted to see what was going on.
The wolf looked at me. When I blinked again, it was gone.
Everything moved quickly after that, and I was silent as I kept my hands on the wheel, trying not to roll over or skid off into the dirt and grass along the side of the highway, but there was no stopping my car.
The wet road, my overreaction, the storm, and that wolf had created this.
My car skidded horizontally through the grass, and the sound of my wheels popping as I slammed into the grass to the side echoed in my mind, nearly deafening me.
I blinked, my mouth dry as I tried to keep myself steady.
I was going to die. I wasn’t even going to make it to my new home. I would die on this road with nobody around.
I would be alone. After so much time wondering who I could be as someone standing on their own two feet, I would die alone.
Finally, my car stopped, and I tried to breathe, my heart beating so fast I could practically hear it beating a staccato rhythm in my skull.
I quickly looked around and then looked down at myself.
There wasn’t a scratch on me. I was fine. My car, on the other hand…I didn’t know.