“Rachel?”
That was ridiculous. Are you ready to go?
“Yes,” I answer, even though I’m not even sure where we’re going.
I go back into the kitchen and open the basement door. “We’re going down there?”
Maybe she plans to kill me after all. It seems to be a trend.
Don’t be a chicken. Let’s go.
I get the feeling that we’re going to miss Imala’s Summer Solstice celebration tonight.
As I walk slowly down the narrow stairs, cold air hits my face and shoulders, making me shiver in my t-shirt. It isn’t as dark as I first thought, thanks to a few skinny horizontal windows that are at least partially covered in the grass above. It still feels spooky to me, though. “Maybe we should go back to the house and see if Bilda is home yet,” I offer, pausing on the bottom step.
She huffs.
“Fine. What did you want to show me?” When this house is mine, the first thing on my list is to install fluorescent lighting down here. No creepy basements for me.
I follow her - I can barely see her now - into one far corner. Open it.
“Open what?” I ask, but even as I say the words I notice an odd pattern in the stone. It doesn’t quite match up. There’s no door knob, though. I look at her.
Pull, silly.
Pull what? I squint closer and run my fingertips along one of the rough cracks before I feel that it’s a separate panel, not attached to the wall at all. Squeezing my fingertips into the crack, I pull.
The panel practically falls on me, and I have to scramble back out of the way as it crashes to the basement floor, raising a cloud of dust. I inhale some and start choking on it.
Rachel waits patiently.
When I think I’ve got myself under control again, I wipe the tears from my eyes and peer into the now-exposed space. A chill wind rushes out around me. “Where does this go?”
The other end of Jagged Grove. To the colony.
Oh. This might be good... “Why can’t we just walk there?”
Do you want them to know you’re coming? Aries can do away with Bilda before we get there.
I’m about to ask why that matters when she disappears into the dusty gloom, so I just follow.
The cold is just as bad in here. Maybe worse, because the space - evidently it’s a tunnel - is damp. I’m careful to not touch the walls. They’re only a tiny bit wider than my outspread arms, and the ceiling brushes my hair a little as I walk. I try not to think about that. Somewhere nearby I hear water dripping.
Just come on, already. It’s a long way.
“Why is this here?” I ask after a few minutes, when the footing seems firm enough that I don’t have to concentrate on it.
It goes to my father’s house. He didn’t like it that I was so far away from him, so he made me a shortcut.
I stumble anyway. The idea of my father being on the other end of this trip makes my whole body go tense. “Uh, are you sure we should be using it?” I ask.
Of course. That’s why he made it.
“For you...not for me. And why can’t we just walk over there again?”
It isn’t forbidden, exactly, but the two colonies don’t mix well. It’s...frowned upon. Why do you think I gave you the house?
“Umm...I don’t know? Something about sisters and secrets?”
He asked me to, silly. When he realized that he couldn’t save me, he wanted to be sure he had contact with you.
“What if I don’t want contact with him?”
She doesn’t answer. She just keeps going. But as I make my way along behind her, I could swear I hear her laughing quietly.
Is it terrible to say that the end of the tunnel scares me more than the tunnel itself? In spite of the chill, the dark, and the musty dampness, I would almost rather stay right here than meet the man on the other end of our little journey. “Maybe he won’t be home,” I mutter to myself, hoping.
It takes me a while to notice the little nooks and crannies in the tunnel walls. They are low to the ground, but only a couple of feet deep. At the top of each one, near the ceiling, hooks stick out of the stone. “What are these?” I ask.
You don’t want to know. Keep going.
Dread and distaste filled her voice, and I stare at the next one we pass for a few moments, trying to figure out why. All I can think of is-.
Torture chambers, if you must know. Keep up, and let’s get out of here.
OK, I’ve changed my mind about staying here. I walk faster. Although it does occur to me that if my father built this tunnel, he would logically be the one who did...that. Tortured people, or whatever.
I shake my head and wish I’d brought Bumper. He always steadies me.
Then again, for all I know my long lost father eats white owls for supper, so maybe it’s best that Bumper isn’t here.
Shh. We’re almost there, Rachel says to me in the dark. I’m about to say that it’s about time when she stops and I accidentally walk through her. It makes me shiver, so I stop.
Voices sounding not that far away carry toward us in the drafty air. I can’t make out what they’re saying, but I can distinctly make out a male and female voice. No, make that two female voices. One of them laughs at something.
“Who is it?” I whisper. Is the male voice my father’s? If so, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard it.
Shh.
I lean forward without moving my feet. One of the female voices sounds familiar. The other is lighter, almost giggly. When I recognize it as Bilda’s, I gasp.
If she’s hanging out with wicked witches, why is she so happy? Unless she doesn’t know they’re wicked yet, and they’re just buttering her up. And if that’s my father in there, how can she be giggling? I thought all this time that she hated him, so why all the merriment now?
Rachel moves forward a little, closer to the end, but I’m afraid to take a step. What if they hear us? Or worse, what if they know we’re here and this is just a trap for me?
But if my dad wanted to trap or hurt me, why would he instruct Rachel to leave me an entire house?
I’m confused, and I kind of want to just sit down and cry. Or better yet - go back to my office and cry.
But Bilda is in there, and I need to save her. Even if she thinks she’s having fun with new friends, I need to get her away from the evil Aries and the man who is possibly my father.
Resolved, I brush through Rachel again and head for the door.
Wait. It might not be best to just barge in like that. Daddy doesn’t really like-.
I ignore her and step up to the door. “Bilda is in there, and who knows what they’re going to do to her.”
There isn’t a door knob on this side, either, so I just take a chance that this end is built like the other, press my elbows against it, and push.
There’s a thunk, which makes my funny bone go all haywire, but nothing moves. “Ow.”
The voices have stopped. Wonderful - now they know we’re here. So much for the element of surprise; I could have just wandered up to the front door and knocked.
Hmm. He must have enchanted it.
“Well, un-enchant it. Open it. Whatever, Rachel. Just get me in there.”
Stop being so bossy.
“I’m not...” My voice trails off as footsteps come closer on the other side of the door panel.
I hear muttering, but when it pops open, I’m so surprised that I just sort of fall along with it and land on my rear in the room.
Somewhere behind me I hear a noise from Rachel, but when I look back over my shoulder to where I thought she was, she isn’t there anymore.
I look up to see three people - like I guessed - but none of them are my mother. Or Aries. Or even the strange man who came with Aries to the door earlier. I stare up at them in disbelief, and they stare back down at me with a mixture of surprise and annoyance on their faces.
The room itself seems to be a really, really nice office, with lots of heavy furniture and soft gold carpet. It’s
nice, in an executive sort of way. Through a slit in one of the curtains I can see more rooftops and the ocean down below, but that’s all.
“I thought Dravo said that this room was secure,” the man says, staring at me like I have rats on my head. He’s wearing thick glasses, but looks distinguished in a navy cardigan and slacks. His face is square and long, making him appear dour.
“It is - he said that his daughter was the only one who could open that door.” The woman who said that had red, cropped curls around her face and long thin arms. She looked like a slightly-past-her-prime high school beauty queen. Green eyes glared down at me.
“That’s not Rachel,” the man huffed. “He lied.”
“No, he didn’t,” the second woman said, and when I got a good look at her I had to look again. “Mom?”
She was already shaking her head. “No, dear.”
Her face wasn’t quite as full as Bilda’s and she was an inch or two taller, which was hard to see from my spot in the floor. Still, with a casual glance they could pass for twins.
“Who are you people?” I ask, pushing up from the wobbly door under my knees to a standing position.
“The better question is, who are you?” The redhead asked, then before I could answer the man said again, “Dravo lied.”
“Is Dravo my father?”
Three gazes fasten on me again. “Yes,” the Bilda-clone says. Then she comes over and puts a hand on my arm. “I’m May, Trinket.”
The man coughs. “This isn’t Rachel - have you lost your ever-loving mind, May? Rachel died. Remember that? You should.”
I take a step back. “Why should you? Did you kill her?”
May’s eyes go sad, but she doesn’t answer me. Instead she turns to the man again. “I’ll not have you speak to me that way, Quinn. She is here at the behest of her father, and thanks to Angelo.” She squeezes my forearm where her hand rests. “We’re lucky to have her, actually. She’s our new healer.”
“Just like Rachel,” the red-haired woman murmurs, looking me up and down.
“According to Dravo, she’s much more powerful than Rachel.”
“I don’t think that’s-.”
They ignore me. “I don’t know,” Quinn said. “Rachel was powerful in her own right, even for a half-blood.”
“But she was spoiled rotten and too immature to use it properly.”
I’m not going to argue with that - I’ve seen the results first hand. “Excuse me?” I ask.
They pay no attention. “Growing up without her mother wasn’t good for the girl, but Dravo did all right,” May cut in. “She was just sowing her wild oats, so to speak.”
“Umm...”
May finally notices my discomfort and clears her throat. “Everyone, I would like you to meet Trinket.” Pause. “Bilda’s daughter.”
“You all know my mother?” This is getting stranger by the minute. I feel like I’m teetering on the edge of schizophrenia.
May laughs. “Of course we do, sweetheart. She’s my sister.”
I stare, because this might just be the straw that breaks my mind, but she’s still smiling.
“Bilda has a sister? Another sister, I mean?” I ask. As far as I know, her only sister is Aunt Louise, back in North Carolina. I sink back to my spot on the floor, hoping that I can catch them all not looking and crawl back through the tunnel and home. But May sits down with me.
“First I find out my father is here, now I find out that I have another aunt?”
She pats my shoulder. “Two, actually. The three of us haven’t been together for a very long time.
“Why?” I’m almost afraid of the answer, but I have to ask. “And do you know where Bilda is now? That’s why I’m here - to look for her.”
“She’s not on the other end of the island?” There is a hint of alarm in May’s voice, and when she looks up at the others they don’t look all that happy either. The redhead is frowning, and Quinn looks downright upset.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, looking at May again.
“When did you last see her?” she asks me.
“This morning some time?” It seems so long ago. “She left with a man I didn’t know and a woman named Aries.”
Quinn groans, but I don’t take my eyes off May. Her complexion pales. “Aries?”
I nod, knowing exactly how she feels. I felt the same way when I saw her at the door this morning. “Tell me what’s going on. Please?”
“Probably nothing.”
“You’re lying.”
Quinn clears his throat. “First things first. May, are you positive that this is Dravo’s daughter? He hasn’t mentioned her, and she looks nothing like him.”
Why does that piece of information relieve me? Also why, after being alone with only Bilda for all these years, am I suddenly drowning in family? “He’s right,” I say. “All I have is the word of Bilda and Angelo. I could be anyone.”
I could be away from this place.
May just laughs. “I was there when you were born, dear. You have a tiny red birthmark on the inside of your right pinkie finger. It looks kind of like a ladybug.”
Well, yeah, I do, but that’s nobody’s business. My hand draws into a fist to hide it.
A quiet knock at the door makes us all look up, and Quinn walks over to open it. A man in a red and black uniform looks at all of us expectantly. Quinn says, “Please go find Dravo. Ask him to come here. We have an intruder.”
The man nods and leaves without a word, and my stomach starts to churn. My father will be here any minute.
May offers me a glass of water, but I decline, so we all mostly just stare at each other until the door opens again. Not because I don’t have questions, but because I have too many - I can’t figure out where to start. I look up at the sound of the knob turning, waiting to run for my life, or cry, or get angry, but the man who steps inside is definitely not my father.
It’s Jones.
His eyes land on me immediately and I push myself up from the floor, then turn to help May up. “What are you doing here?” I ask.
“Why do you look so terrified?”
“I thought you were my father.”
“That’s weird, Trinket.”
“No - I thought my father was going to be here any minute.”
He pulls me into a hug. “Your voice is shaking.”
Instead of jerking away, I hold onto him. “I’m really, really glad to see you, but I thought you wouldn’t be friends with me?”
“Angelo asked me to come. He said you might be in trouble.”
Angelo didn’t know where we were going. I’ll need to figure that out later, though. “I thought people from there weren’t allowed to come here?”
“Oh, we’re allowed.”
“It’s just frowned on.” I remember what Rachel told me.
“Since when does that bother me?”
“Ahem.” We turn to see Quinn staring us down, and I realize we were talking like no one else was in the room.
“Sorry.”
“Yes, well. Who is this?”
“Quinn, you know who I am.” Jones isn’t letting go of me, and I’m glad.
Quinn pushes his glasses up his nose. “Oh, yes. Hello, Jones. Caught any good steaks lately?”
Jones rolls his eyes, but his answer is interrupted by someone new stepping through the door. I tense again, before I realize that this is the strange man who came to the house with Aries this morning. I pull from Jones’s grasp, but keep hold of his fingers as I step toward the newcomer. “Where is my mother?”
He looks down at me, then back up at the rest of the people in the room. I feel like I’ve been dismissed. I hate that feeling, so I reach for him.
Before my hand gets anywhere near his arm, though, it smacks into...something. I try again, and watch my knuckles curl into thin air.
He’s wearing a barrier of some sort, an invisible one. I try again a few more times, banging on it, but there’s no getting through it. “Stop it,” he says after
watching me for a minute.
Jones tugs me back to him. “Magic,” he whispers in my ear.
I nod. I forget that magic is a normal thing here, instead of something to be hidden away.
“Where is Bilda, though? The last time I saw her she was with you.”
“I’m...not exactly sure,” he says, glancing at me before turning his attention to Quinn. “I hoped she was here, actually. She asked specifically where she might find Dravo.”
“She’s missing?” I glare at him. “You lost her? Where’s Aries? Are they together?”
I might as well be screeching on the moon for all the attention they pay me.
May says, “I was waiting on her - I thought she might come here. Did she even mention coming here, Calhoun?”
Calhoun doesn’t answer, but his expression goes dark.
“Why would you think that?” I ask. “My father left us long ago and never came back. She won’t speak of him at all, so why would she want to see him?”
May’s eyes are round. “She won’t speak of him? So you have no idea what really happened?”
I shake my head, grateful that at least she answered me.
“Oh, dear.”
She is definitely related to Bilda. “Oh dear, what?” I ask. I’m almost afraid that if this gets any more complicated my head is going to explode.
“She-.”
“May.” Quinn is giving her a hard look. “It isn’t our place.”
TWELVE
“Yeah, it sort of is, if you know what’s going on here,” I say.
But May nods at him and just squeezes my arm again. Jones pats my shoulder with the hand that isn’t wrapped around my waist now.
“Maybe Bilda just saw that you all are crazy and went home. Did anybody think of that?” I hope that’s where she is, safe in her kitchen making cookies for the twins or something.
“I just came from there,” Jones says. “No one is home.”
My heart falls. “Well...where else?”
The man named Calhoun doesn’t answer me directly. “I came here because she did mention finding Dravo, in spite of their...history.”
“What history? Jones, what are they talking about?” I twist around to look at him.
“Not a clue.” He’s watching the others closely. It occurs to me that he’s always showing up right when I need him, even if he’s angry with me or nowhere nearby. I’ll need to ask him how he does that. Right now, though, somebody - or everybody - is keeping information from me, and I hate that worse than anything that’s happened so far.
Conflicted Witch (Jagged Grove Book 2) Page 16