HOLLOW CREEK WAS QUIET. Unfortunately, it was not still.
“Look at this.” I was dumbfounded as I stepped to the bank and surveyed the magical fragments flying around. Not only were there more than before, they were also bigger.
“This is bad,” Aunt Tillie intoned, glancing around. “This is really, really bad.”
“What do you see?” Hannah asked, her forehead creased in frustration as she tried to follow our gazes. “There’s nothing out here.”
“Oh, there’s something.” My stomach rolled as I looked to Landon. “This place is getting out of control again. There’s magic everywhere. We’re going to have another situation just like before if we don’t get this under control.”
“Any suggestions?” Landon couldn’t see the magical shards flying about, but he trusted me enough to know they were there.
“I ... don’t know.” I reached out to one of the magical shards. It flew away from me, as if coasting on a warm breeze, and collided with another shard. Several splinters flew off and began growing their own shards.
“This place will turn into a magical bomb if we don’t do something about it,” Aunt Tillie insisted. “It’s feeding off the energy of anybody who comes here.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” Hannah admitted.
“This place is a mess,” Aunt Tillie replied.
Hannah’s gaze was beseeching when it landed on me. I searched for the proper way to make her understand.
“Um ... it’s hard to explain. In a nutshell, we’ve used our magic in this spot multiple times. It hasn’t always been good magic. On more than one occasion, we’ve had to take an enemy down here.”
Hannah’s expression didn’t change. “That doesn’t explain what you’re looking at now.”
“The remnants of magic we’ve used here have been building,” I said. “They’re ... hanging in the air. You can’t see them because you’re not magical. Several weeks ago, the girls came out here and found the shards. They managed to use them to give themselves magical abilities. That’s how all of this started.”
“Okay.” Hannah flicked her eyes to Landon, but he was completely focused on me. “If I can’t see the shards because I’m not magical, why could the girls see them? Are they’re magical?”
I held out my hands. “Maybe. If they are, the lines that run through their families are weak.”
“What’s the option if they’re not magical?”
“Their age,” Aunt Tillie replied. “Children are more open to believing. There’s a reason I was more than happy to run around with Bay, Clove and Thistle when they were younger. They believed anything I told them. That made them more powerful, even as children.
“I knew my little girls were magical,” she continued. “These other girls might not have been magical, but their age and the town they grew up in allowed them to believe enough that they could see the shards ... and decide to use them.”
“You have to understand,” I said. “The magic the four girls were using didn’t belong to them. They were burning through it fast. They didn’t realize the ramifications and what that might do to their bodies. They only cared that they were suddenly magical.”
Hannah seemed lost in thought. “So what do we do?”
“I’m not entirely certain. It’s dangerous for kids to be out here, but this is a party spot.” I looked to Aunt Tillie. “Can you ward it like you do your pot field?”
Aunt Tillie’s eyes went wide and she made a series of slashes across her throat. “Utshay ouryay outhmay,” she hissed.
Hannah’s face lit with amusement. “I haven’t heard pig Latin since I was a kid.”
Landon interjected. “Hannah doesn’t care about your pot field. She’s a profiler.”
“I love pot,” Hannah said. “I don’t remember seeing a pot field anywhere on the property, though.”
“That’s because she has it warded,” I explained. “Any law enforcement type who wants to find it will get a severe case of diarrhea instead. Plus, it’s invisible.”
“Wow.” Hannah’s eyes went wide. “That is ... diabolical.”
Aunt Tillie gave a satisfied grin. “Thank you.”
“We need something similar for this place,” I insisted. “We have to keep the kids out of here until we can figure out what to do with these shards. The circus people tried to help us but obviously it didn’t work.”
“Obviously,” Aunt Tillie agreed. “We need bigger witches.”
“Bigger witches than us?” I was confused.
“Or witches who are already working together and know how to combine their magic. I heard about a group in Hawthorne Hollow. I’ve heard whispers about them several times over the years. They’re making magical waves these days because they have a new member.”
“The witches ride motorcycles,” I said.
Aunt Tillie nodded. “I’m thinking maybe they can help with this. I’ll reach out when we have this behind us.”
“Can you ward it until then?”
“I can, but I would really like to know what’s been going on down here.” She planted her hands on her hips. “It was nowhere near this busy with shedded magic when we took down those girls the first time. I would really like to know how this happened.”
I could think of only one way to do that. “You start the wards,” I suggested. “Don’t make them specific for teenagers. We need to close off this space from everybody but ourselves until we can fix this.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Aunt Tillie rolled her eyes. “This isn’t my first ward.”
“What are you going to do?” Landon asked as he followed me away from the water. “How are you going to figure out what happened down here?”
“There’s only one way I can think of.” I was grim. “Remember I told you about the two ghosts I managed to call to me here, the ones who had been sort of forgotten?”
He nodded. “You were going to interview them for that series you have planned for The Whistler.”
“Yes, and I still plan to do that. I haven’t been back down here since the girls went nuts and wanted to kill us. I’ve been busy with other stuff. They’re still down here.”
“Ah.” He nodded. “They’ll know if anybody else has been here.”
“In theory. They’re sort of detached from this world, which is why I want to get their stories and help them move on. But they should know something.”
Landon rubbed his hand up and down my back. “Let’s see what they know and go from there.”
I WAS NERVOUS PUTTING MY abilities on display. I had to wipe my sweaty palms on my jeans as I prepared.
“It’s okay,” Landon said as he stood in front of me. “You don’t have to put on a show.”
“No, but from Hannah’s perspective I’ll be talking to thin air. It’s nerve-wracking.”
He sighed. “It doesn’t matter what she thinks, because I know you’re amazing. Just do your thing like you normally do. Everybody else here believes in you.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Aunt Tillie?”
“Well, maybe not Aunt Tillie.” He grinned and then leaned close. “She believes in you more than anybody.” His voice was low. “She’s a Winchester, so she can’t admit it. If she does, she’ll look soft.”
I shook my hands at my sides. “You’re right. I need to do this. Just ... keep everybody behind me.”
“I will.” He gave me a kiss. “Do your thing.” I watched him retreat toward the others, deftly reaching out his arm to catch Aunt Tillie around the waist as she tried to cut around him. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To help,” Aunt Tillie replied. “That’s what I do.”
“Since when?”
“Um ... since before you were born, Sparky.”
“We should let Bay do this on her own. She’s the one in control here.”
“I’m in control. In fact, if there was a job for people who simply had control of everything, I would be the queen.”
“Yes, you could do it profes
sionally.” Landon refused to let her go. “You’re sticking with me.”
Aunt Tillie didn’t put up much of a struggle. She positioned herself between Landon and Chief Terry and waited. That was as good as a declaration of love from her.
“Okay,” I murmured to myself as I closed my eyes. I knew who I was calling to this time. I wasn’t casting a net. There were two specific souls in this vicinity. Carol Umber and Carter Culpepper. They’d both died years ago. I planned to get their stories for a series I was going to run in the newspaper and then set them free.
Carol.
Carter.
I whispered their names in my head over and over again. They weren’t “present” ghosts. They spent most of their days drifting. Unlike the first time I’d called them, there was no reticence. They showed up right away.
“I knew you would be back.” Carol’s eyes sparkled as she looked me up and down. “Is it time for us to go?”
“Soon.” I felt guilty for ignoring her as long as I had. “It won’t take long,” I promised. “I have some questions first.”
“She always has questions,” Carter grumbled. “So many questions. Typical woman. That’s what she is.”
“If you ask my husband-to-be, I’m not typical at all,” I argued.
“Definitely not,” Landon agreed. “That’s one of the best things about you.”
“Has anyone been out here?”
Carol’s face was blank. “You’re out here right now.”
“I mean before now.”
“You’ve been out here before,” she said.
“Yes, but ... I’m talking about between the time I was here before and now. You saw us that night, the big group of us, and we were working against some younger girls. Do you remember that?”
Carol nodded. “You said they were evil.”
“She didn’t say they were evil,” Carter countered. “She said they were consumed by magic. There’s a difference. I just found them to be mouthy females. There’s always a lot of mouthy females out here.”
I studied him a moment, considering. “Have those girls been back here?”
“Not that I’ve seen.” Carter was blasé. “But I haven’t been looking.”
“What did they say?” Hannah asked.
“Shh.” Landon admonished her with a whisper. “Let her work. She’ll fill us in when she’s done.”
I appreciated that he’d taken control of Hannah. That allowed me to deal with my ghosts. “What about you, Carol?” I asked. “Have you seen them here again?”
“I ... don’t ... know.” Carol appeared conflicted. “I know they’ve been here, but I have trouble marking time. I’ve told you that.”
“You have,” I agreed. “You’re floating a lot of the time because nothing really anchors you here any longer. This is important. I need you to remember.”
“I can’t really remember.” Carol held out her ghostly hands. “All of it is ... jumbled. It doesn’t help that the dark ghosts have been here. I don’t like them, so I hide when they come. I don’t want them to find me.”
My heart skipped a beat. “The dark ghosts?”
She looked around. “They’re like us.” She gestured between herself and Carter. “They’re no longer in this world yet they stay. But they’re different in some ways.”
“More mouthy females,” Carter groused. “They talk and talk and talk. They never shut up.”
“What do they talk about?” I asked. “What do they say?”
“They have dark plans.”
Carol agreed. “They want the power that they say is floating around Hollow Creek. They want to take it and use it.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know. They talk about a lot of things.”
“They must have mentioned specifics,” I insisted.
“There is one thing.” She spared a glance for Carter. “You tell her. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news.”
Carter rolled his eyes. He was a cranky bastard when he wanted to be ... which was apparently all the time. “They want to take out you,” he said.
“Me?”
“Yes. They want to take out the rest of your family, too. They said something about a baby.”
I thought I might fall over. “A baby?”
Landon was suddenly by my side. “What are they saying?”
“They say that dark ghosts have been here, that they want the magic fragments that we can’t seem to get rid of. They’ve specifically mentioned me ... and a baby.”
“Clove’s baby?”
“I don’t know of another.”
He looked to Chief Terry. “Do they know how to stop the dark ghosts?”
Carol emphatically shook her head. She was too fearful to have any ideas regarding a takedown. Carter was more difficult to read.
“Do you know how to end them?” I asked.
“You’re the expert,” he said. “You should know.”
“Maybe you should tell me.”
“Like I said, you’re the expert. You need to take on the mouthy females. That’s your battle. I just want to be left alone.” With that, he disappeared.
“What did he say?” Landon demanded.
“He doesn’t know. He said it’s up to me.”
“Well, that’s just great.” Landon rolled his neck. “Have I mentioned I hate it when things take a turn like this?”
I managed a weak chuckle. “You might’ve mentioned it a few times.”
18
Eighteen
Landon was quiet after the ghosts departed. Chief Terry suggested lunch. We went to the diner and sat at our usual table. I wasn’t hungry but ordered soup because I wanted something to do with my hands.
“So what do we do?” Chief Terry asked when I hadn’t spoken in several minutes.
I shrugged and went back to playing with my napkin. “I don’t know.”
“I’ll tell you what we do, we make a shade trap and blast those things into the next century.” Aunt Tillie, unlike me, wasn’t having trouble talking. “I’ll make the trap.”
Landon turned to study her. “Can you do that?”
“I can do anything.”
“Let me rephrase that. Have you done it before?”
“Of course.”
That stirred me. “You have not. Stop telling tall tales.”
Her look was dark. “Do you want to be on my list?” she challenged.
Landon coughed one word into his hand. “Bacon.” Then he smiled at me. “I can tell you’re upset about what the ghosts told you, Bay, but as you like to remind me, we’ve been through this kind of thing before. We’ll figure it out.”
“I’m not upset,” I argued, surprised at how vehement I sounded. My annoyance was on full display, and I wasn’t proud of it. “I’m just thinking.”
“Well, think out loud.” Landon patted my hand. “I’m going to find the waitress and add a grilled cheese to your order.”
I watched him go to the front counter. He was determined when he wanted to be and there was no chance of talking him down now. He couldn’t fight ghosts for me, or control whatever was to come. He could, however, force me to eat a sandwich with my soup.
“He loves you a great deal,” Hannah noted as she watched me.
“He does. He’s just really bossy when he wants to be.”
“He’s also a glutton,” Aunt Tillie added. “He thinks food solves every problem.”
I thought about the way he’d ignored the burritos in favor of a bath the previous evening. “Actually, he doesn’t think that. He just needs to feel as if he’s doing something.”
“I agree with your assessment.” Hannah’s smile was easy. “Landon is the sort of person who hates when those around him are unhappy. While he could live with other members of your family being unhappy, you’re a different story. When you feel pain, he feels pain.”
“Without a doubt,” I agreed. “He’s feeling pain right now.”
“Then let’s fix it.” Hannah dug inside the
bag she’d carried into the restaurant. I’d seen her hitch it over her shoulder when we exited Chief Terry’s vehicle. She pulled out a thick folder.
“What is that?” Aunt Tillie asked, leaning forward. “Is that your list?”
Hannah chuckled. “I don’t have a list. Maybe I should start keeping one. You seem to find true joy in your list.”
“I do.” Aunt Tillie beamed at her. “Do you want to know who’s on my list right now?”
Hannah nodded at the same time I shook my head.
“She doesn’t care about your list,” I said.
“On the contrary.” Hannah’s smile never wavered. I could see why she was so good at her job. “I find stuff like this fascinating. Your great-aunt’s list will tell me a lot about her, and I find her to be an open book in some respects but an enigma in others. Who is at the top of your list, Ms. Winchester?”
“Call me Tillie or you’ll be on the list,” Aunt Tillie warned. “Willa is at the top of it right now. Usually it would be Margaret — she lives at the top — but I’ve moved her down a spot for the time being.”
“So you moved Willa to the top of your list because you consider her a threat,” Hannah prodded.
“I’m better than her,” Aunt Tillie insisted. “She’s no threat to me.”
“Then why did you move her to the top of your list? If you don’t fear her, there must be another reason.”
“There is. I hate her.”
“No.” Hannah shook her head. “There’s another reason.”
“Are you a shrink on top of being a profiler?” Aunt Tillie demanded. “I hate it when people try to shrink me.”
“And yet it’s so much fun.” Hannah winked at her. “I believe you moved Willa to the top because you think she’s a genuine threat, although not to you. You can handle anything. In fact, I’d wager that you have handled almost everything for your family for a long time.
“For example, where is your other sister?” she continued. “Where is your nieces’ mother?”
Aunt Tillie frowned. “Ginger died when they were younger.”
Prelude to a Witch Page 17