“Seems almost easier to take karate and start breaking them with my hand,” I joked. But I was proud of myself. We had been working on this exercise for the past three weeks, and at most I had made a few of the crystals fall off, but never had broken down the structure entirely.
She held out a small bowl and I poured the rock salt into it and wiped off my hand. “Rowan, how powerful was my mother?”
“More powerful than I was. So powerful that she was afraid of her own potential. She severely limited herself, and she hampered your development. I know you love her, and she loved you, but she was afraid of her magic. Althea had a lot of your great-grandmother in her. Colleen Fletcher was an incredibly powerful witch.”
I remained silent for a moment, then finally asked the question I had wanted to for a long time. “How did the man who murdered Colleen’s daughter die?”
“Did she write about it in her journal?” Rowan said without missing a beat.
“To some extent. She said you helped her.” I had been leery about discussing what Great-Grandma Colleen had written in her diary. I wasn’t sure how far I could push Rowan in terms of talking about things that had happened a couple hundred years ago.
Rowan motioned for me to sit beside her. “I knew this was coming at some point because your great-grandmother couldn’t keep a secret. The man who murdered Lara was a serial killer. I knew that the moment we encountered him. And we couldn’t find the proof that he had killed Lara, but we knew that he would kill again, if given the chance. I bewitched the sheriff into forgetting that he had ever seen Lara’s body, or the man who killed her. In fact, I bewitched the deputies too. Val helped me.”
“Val Slater?”
“Yes, Val was around back then.”
“Colleen mentioned that you and she did something so that the sheriff believed Lara wandered off into the forest. Why did the two of you keep her murder silent?”
Rowan leaned back in her chair, tapping her fingers on the table. “If it had come out that there was a serial killer in town, Moonshadow Bay would quickly have ceased to exist. The fear would have driven people off.”
“But you and my grandmother knew who did it.”
“Yes, and it took us several months to find him. Val and I glamoured the sheriff and his deputies, and Colleen threw a glamour on her husband. We did it to save the town.”
“How did you track him down? The killer?”
“Colleen and I spent several months doing intense trance work. We found out that one of the local farmers had been responsible. We also discovered more blood on his hands. Lara was the fourth girl he killed.”
“So, you and my great-grandmother…”
“We lured him into the Mystic Wood. He went willingly. Once we were deep inside the forest, I gave him a potion that stopped his heart. We had dragged out an old trunk earlier, and we put his body in there. I had asked Val to go there earlier, and he dug a grave for us. Very deep into the earth. Vampires are super-strong. Then he left, never asking any questions.”
“And you and Colleen buried the man in the trunk, deep in that grave. Who filled it in?”
Rowan shrugged. “Filling in a grave is much easier than digging one. Colleen and I did it together, aided by one of the Woodlings. We made a blood oath over it, that we would never breathe a word to anyone, not until the other had died. Colleen’s long gone, so I don’t think it matters anymore.”
I thought over what she said. Part of me wanted to go out in the woods and find that trunk, to unearth it from the murky grave it was in, to open it and see for myself. But I knew I wouldn’t. It was a family secret, my great-grandmother’s secret and my grandmother’s secret. And I would keep it with me, deep in my heart, till the day I died.
“I’d like to ask you one more thing, and then I won’t ever mention this again. Well, two things, I guess. One: who was the man who killed Lara? And two: did you ever sleep with my great-grandfather, Brian?”
Once again, Rowan held my gaze steady with hers. “His name was Nate, Nathaniel O’Leary. As to the second half of your question, I reserve the right not to answer. But perhaps you should ask yourself whether you are asking the correct question. Brian was a friend of mine. But Colleen…she was the one that I was willing to kill for.”
Startled by her answer, I fell silent for a moment as I took in the meaning of her words. Finally, I asked, “Did you want me to do any other exercises while we wait?”
Rowan shook her head. “No, I think we’ve done quite enough this evening. Let’s go upstairs and relax while we wait for Ari.”
Ari showed up about an hour later. It was six-forty p.m.
“I’m sorry I’m late, but my last client didn’t show up on time. As it is, I cut her appointment short so I could make it.”
“Not a problem,” Rowan said. “Here, let me show you what these wireless microphones do.”
She did, and then we fastened them into our bras.
Rowan held up a device that looked like a tape recorder. “It’s digital, so it will record everything that you say and hear within a ten-foot radius. Don’t walk too far away from Sheryl or you’ll lose what she says. We need to record as much as we can about the energy exchange being a way to gain extra life, and anything you can get her to say about recruiting bringing in good money. You might consider expressing some last-minute hesitation so that she can try to convince you that it’s worth it.”
“Got it. Is there anything we shouldn’t do? Anything that would tip her off?” I asked.
“Don’t just offer her your energy. She has to insist on payment. The checks are good, actually, so if she runs them through a phone app, they’ll clear. We set up a dummy account.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “I’m nervous. What if she’s got a gun? What if she’s not as unassuming as she seems?”
Ari laughed. “I don’t see her as unassuming at all.”
Just then, Killian trooped in with Tarvish behind him. “We’re starved,” Killian said.
I motioned to the kitchen. “Doughnuts are on the table, and milk is in the fridge. I don’t have time to cook, so what you see is what you get.”
“What about you? Is there anything in particular you want?” Killian asked.
“By the time we finish this, I’ll probably be starved, but right now I’m too nervous to think about food.”
“Killian tells me you are off on a quest,” Tarvish said “if you run into any orcs, let me know. They’re my specialty.”
I gave him a serious smile. “Thank you, but I doubt we’ll run into any orcs. Just eat what you’d like or order in. Chinese sounds good, though so does Mexican. If you have any leftovers, I’ll eat whatever.”
And with that, Rowan went back to showing us how to use the equipment as we prepared to infiltrate Majikoil.
Chapter Twenty
After Rowan wired Ari and me up, the microphones hidden in our bras, we headed out onto the porch. There was a black van in the driveway, unmarked, and I couldn’t see who was driving it. The van had tinted windows.
“Don’t ask to be introduced to the officers, it’s better that you don’t see their faces. They stay in the shadows, at least for now.”