There was utter silence in the center of the grove now. A stillness that declared Maeve was listening intently.
“It’s up to you, Maeve. But we’re not the only ones looking for you. And we’d like to keep you safe.”
“You can’t.”
It was a little girl’s voice, and it came from the right, but Scarlett didn’t go dashing towards it, and she held Lex back. They’d be so much better off if Maeve decided to trust them.
“I think we can,” Scarlett said.
“They’re like you. They can do things. Things more than flowers.”
“I can do things more than flowers,” Scarlett said simply.
“There’s a lot of them.”
“I’m a druid. So are you. Did you know that? It’s why the trees cry with you. And do you know what they say about druids?”
The girl didn’t answer.
“They’re impassable when they're together.” Lex was the one who spoke. “They have you now, Maeve. They’re going to keep you.”
“You’ll send me to foster care.”
“No, we won’t,” Harper snapped. “You’re ours now.”
“I don’t want to see someone else get hurt.”
“You won’t,” Scarlett said. She held her hands towards the voice and a small shadow moved. “You’re so smart. You did it. We’ll do the rest.”
“I didn’t see anything,” Maeve said. “But they don’t know that.”
She stepped forward. She was dirty, her long red hair was tangled around her face, and there were tracks of tears on her cheeks. Her features were hard to make out, but the sheer paleness was obvious. She was too-thin. Too-scared. Too-white. She was Scarlett’s now.
Scarlett opened her arms and Maeve threw herself in them.
“I’ve got you,” Scarlett said lifting the little girl. “I’ve got you.”
“We should take her to the station,” Lex said.
Scarlett snorted and Harper said dryly, “Don’t be stupid.”
They took her home.
* * * * *
They took her, in fact, to Maye. And Maye called the Circle. Before they’d even arrived, there were cars lining the drive of the Oaken property. There were women at the edge of the property as they drove over it, and silent hands were raised in greeting. There were bonfires that lit portions of the groves and the silhouette of women on brooms against the moon.
Maeve was a ball in Scarlett’s arms while Lex drove and Harper sang. It was rare for Harper to sing, but she saw it comforted Maeve, and that was all that was needed. Lex drove past the cars, he drove all the way up to the front porch.
Maeve woke up when Scarlett settled the child into Lex’s arms, but Lex seemed to have a natural ability of transferring a sleeping child because he whispered a soft word, and Maeve settled back into sleep on his shoulder.
“Is she ok?” Maye asked.
“No, but she will be,” Harper said. “She’s ours now.”
Maye looked at her daughters, at the little girl in Lex’s arms and said, “She’s mine I think. I was feeling something growing. It was a place in my heart for my newest daughter.”
Harper blinked and nodded while Scarlett found a tear rolling down her cheek. This was why she felt so drawn to Maeve. And somehow the little girl slipped into a spot in Scarlett’s heart right next to Harper. Time would bring true love, but the place for the love to grow was there.
“I suppose my project makes sense now,” Maye said. “I had thought it would be for Luna and Ella, but they do prefer their mother’s room.”
Maye led the way into the house, up the stairs, past Gram’s room, Harper’s room, and Scarlett’s room to the little attic. Maye had replaced the pull-down ladder with a wrought iron spiral staircase, but Scarlett hadn’t thought anything of it. Lex made his way up it, and Scarlett followed. Her breath caught as she stepped into what had been a maze of boxes and cobwebs.
Gray wide-planked wooden floors had replaced the cheap slats of wood that had been laid haphazardly. There was a sunroof that let the moonlight in onto a bed that was carved trunk and woven branches of trees. As though someone had taken oak trees in the winter, miniaturized them, and then frozen the branches in the most appealing formation possible. The tangle of branches created a canopy that had been strewn with strands of fairy lights. There was a beautiful vanity in one corner with a matching armoire in another.
“It’s lovely,” Scarlett breathed.
“Leave the light on,” Harper said. “She’ll wake terrified.”
Knowledge and memory spoke from Harper’s words, and it brought back the many nights when Harper had woken Oaken house with her nightmares.
“She’s a lucky girl,” Lex said. “Very lucky to have you.”
Maye shrugged and pulled back the bedding on a bed that had already been made and prepared. They settled Maeve in with little regard for her filth. It could all be washed, and she needed sleep.
No one said a word until they were back in the kitchen.
“She was hard to find,” Harper said. “She’s smart. She’ll be trouble.”
“You still light things on fire,” Scarlett told her sister. “Mom can take Maeve. How are the girls? Ella?”
“She’s…haunted. But it’s fading,” Maye replied.
Scarlett messaged Gus that they’d made it back to Oaken house with Maeve and that she was going to sleep. She left Lex to a strand of energy charms that Maye was stringing for him while Harper was telling him he should focus.
“What do you mean?” Lex asked as he knotted the charm bracelet about his wrist.
Scarlett paused long enough to hear Harper’s answer.
“You aren’t distracted now,” Harper said casually. “Now you hunt.”
Lex knotted the charm bracelet a second time around his wrist, took the sandwich and coffee Maye offered, and only nodded once.
“You should take, Gus,” Harper said casually when Scarlett had let the swinging kitchen door go. She paused again, listening harder but Lex’s reply must have been one of those enigmatic shrugs.
Harper replied to whatever Lex had done with, “You’re a warlock. You’re good at hunting. Gus is a vampire. It’s his nature. Take Gus.”
“A hunting vampire is dangerous,” Lex finally said.
Scarlett closed her eyes, thinking back on Gus’s face as he’d left her at the bakery. It had been stark, all angles and shadows. But it hadn’t felt dangerous. Not to her at least.
“Someone killed a druid girl,” Harper said. “A little danger sounds appropriate.”
“Not all of us can be as casual as you about the law.”
“Maeve is ours now,” Harper said. “Better a vampire hunting than druids.”
Lex’s snort was amused. This time it was Harper who was silent. But Scarlett knew the look her sister was almost certainly giving Lex. It was flat and dangerous and said that Harper would take care of it if Lex didn’t. Scarlett waited to see if Lex would reply.
“You leave it to me,” Lex said.
Harper was silent again, but Scarlett had no doubt that her sister was the one shrugging noncommittally this time. Her warning had been given. Lex would listen or he wouldn’t. And Harper wasn’t the kind to warn a person twice.
Scarlett finally left the swinging door, bypassing the front room where Gram, Henna, Mr. Jueavas, and Mr. Throdmore were murmuring together. Tiptoeing up the stairs, Scarlett paused at the landing where a wide picture window overlooked Oaken property.
Since the Circle had arrived and bonfires were burning throughout the grove, while energies are being melded and their recovered sleeping druid child was being given dreams of root and cloud, of quiet streams, and blooming flowers. She’d wake and then she would be many things, but her healing would be jumpstarted, and her heart would be soothed. She wasn’t going to be ok in the morning. Not after everything she’d been through, but it would be better.
Scarlett found that just looking out at the Circle—druids who’d come to take care
of one of their own was soothing her. The magic of her people was reaching inside her soul and telling her that it wasn’t her fault that Bridget had died. That she was a good mom. That loving again would be ok. And that the path was ahead—she could walk it with grace or stumbling, but her faith in her abilities was such that she’d never leave it. If she wasn’t going to leave her path—she should own it. Resolve formed in her soul and she let the magic of her people fill her heart with a fire of warmth to match the fires burning on the Oaken property.
Scarlett found her girls sleeping in one of the twin beds in Scarlett’s bedroom. The girls were curled around each other. Max’s eyes opened, his tail flopped, and he settled back down onto the pillow next to Luna. Her long bark-brown hair was brightened by a small parakeet, a baby squirrel, and three kittens. Scarlett swung herself onto the second bed, curled onto her side and fell asleep to the beautiful sight of her babies sleeping peacefully.
Chapter 9
With Luna on one hip and a squirrel tucked into the back of her shirt, Scarlett had to admit—privately—that the squirrel was charming. It was chittering softly and nuzzling her neck. She and Luna made their way past Gram and her friends in the living room who’d taken chairs or couches in corners. Scarlett nodded to those who were awake and kept moving.
“No more pets, Lune,” Scarlett said.
“But sometimes they need us, Mommy.” Luna’s wide, moss-green eyes were fixed on Scarlett’s face, and she could see an utter lack of comprehension that they couldn’t have all the animals.
“If they need help like Chitters, we’ll help them. But we can’t keep adding animals to our house. Especially if they’re in a safe place like Piper was, no more pets.”
“But we love Piper,” Luna said. “We love her so much.”
“Please, Luna. Please help me, Luna.”
Luna looked up at Scarlett, cupped her cheek and said, “Ok, Mommy.”
Her gaze was so earnest Scarlett was sure that Luna was telling the truth as she knew, but Scarlett also knew that Luna would forget the next time she and another animal shared secrets. Scarlett took a deep breath, held it, and told herself that this is what came of having bright and talented daughters who could talk to animals. It was fate. She sighed and realized by the time Luna was an adult, Scarlett would have the skills of the average veterinarian.
Maeve was sitting at the table with Maye and Lex when Scarlett came into the kitchen. Maeve was so shiny that she must have come downstairs, a moment ago.
“What happens now?” Maeve asked, her gaze was fixed on Scarlett from the time she came into the kitchen.
Scarlett put Luna down, crossed to Maeve, and simply gave her a hug. You couldn’t ask if someone was ok after what Maeve had been through.
“I’m happy you’re here,” Scarlett said to Maeve. She blinked and her eyes were temporarily shiny, but Maeve didn’t react in any other way.
“Would you like some breakfast?” Maye’s gaze was fixed hungrily on Maeve, but experience had already taught Maye that you couldn’t push when it came to building a relationship like the one Maye hoped to have with Maeve.
“Um,” Maeve said.
Harper entered, nodded once to Maeve, and opened the cupboard for a bag of Oreos. It wasn’t that Harper didn’t care. She’d probably murder someone before she let Maeve get hurt, but Harper didn’t show emotions.
“Yes,” Scarlett replied for Maeve. Of course, the child wanted breakfast. She was probably starving given that she’d been on the run for two days. Scarlett scooped bowls of oatmeal for everyone but Luna and Harper, placing the platter of toppings on the table. Before Scarlett joined the others, she gave Luna a baggie of oatmeal cookies and said, “Cousin Marta is roasting marshmallows in the grove.”
Luna ran for the door as Maye said, “But she isn’t.”
“Luna’ll get distracted,” Scarlett said and then said to Maeve. “Tell us everything. What did you see?”
“I didn’t see anything.” Maeve fiddled with the bowl of oatmeal only putting sugar and cream in her bowl after everyone else had. But her gaze was fixed hungrily on the food. “I don’t understand why anyone would hurt Bridgey. We were just leaving. We…”
Maeve’s mouth clamped shut and Scarlett said, “It’s going to be ok.”
Maeve took a large bite of oatmeal, and Scarlett thought it was partially just to hide the flood of emotions. Finally, she said, “I don’t know. She got spooked after working at the diner. She came home and said she was going to do one more run and then we’d go.”
“When was that?”
Maeve shrugged and then said, “I don’t remember when she got back from the diner, I’d been reading a book. But…after she left to do the run, I was going through our stuff to get what we wanted to take.”
“When did you leave?” Lex’s voice was as gentle as a spring rain.
“Midnight? Later? Bridgey ran errands for people pretty late.”
Maeve paused, nibbling on her thumb. “I got our bags ready, and Bridget left for the run. She came back ever more spooked, but she wouldn’t say what was wrong. She just made us walk through the woods towards that bus stop on Highway 28.”
“You can’t hide as well after a while. The trees thin out. But we stayed off the road as much as we could.” Maeve’s voice started shaking, and Maye sat down next to her, taking her hand. The rest of them waited until she could speak.
“There was a car in the shadows. I was next to a tree and Bridgey was ahead of me. She had been… like…moving ahead, checking things around, and then waving me forward. She wouldn’t explain. She made me promise every time that we stopped that if something happened I’d stay hidden. I’d be in the bushes or behind a post or wherever she could find and then she’d try to find another spot before she’d wave me forward.”
Maeve's tears were flowing silently but her voice had changed—wooden and calm. “When they turned on the lights, she screamed and ran. But not towards me. Not so we could get away together. She ran away from me. She did it on purpose. I know she did.”
Maeve sniffed but her voice hadn’t gained any more emotion. “They didn’t see me. I was in a ditch that time, peeking out. And there was a shot, but it…moved towards her. It wasn’t like they shot her, they weren’t even in line with her, and the bullet flew through the air and you could see it. It was a flash of blue. And Bridget fell.”
Maye wrapped an arm around Maeve, but the girl didn’t move. She was almost a puppet, speaking but so calm, too calm. Too precise. Too controlled. Except for those silent tears.
“I waited until they left. I hid and I waited and maybe she was dying the whole time because I waited until they drove away and were long gone before I checked on her. She was dead. But what if I’d gone earlier? Maybe I could have saved her.”
“They’d have you now if you left hiding,” Scarlett said. “You did exactly what you should have done.”
“Where was she working that day?” Lex’s voice had, if anything, become even more gentle.
“She works at the diner on the weekends. Then she sometimes does odd jobs or cleaning. It wasn’t a cleaning job because I usually help with those.”
“You don’t know who she was working for?”
“She had been upset for a while. I thought she was mad at me. I thought she was thinking about letting foster care have me.”
Harper cursed and rose. She paced the oversized kitchen while their mother simply held Maeve who was barely leaning in.
“You didn’t see who shot her?”
Maeve shook her head. But she pulled the backpack she’d brought with her on the table. “I think this might have something to do with it.”
Maeve opened the zipper and there were small packets of black powder. Maye reached out, but Lex held out a hand to stop her.
“They don’t do anything if you touch them,” Maeve said. “Bridget had me carry the bag.”
Scarlett looked at the backpack. The only thing inside of it was several packets of the
black powder in tiny little sealed plastic bags.
“What is it?” Scarlett asked.
“It’s warlock heroin.” Lex’s voice was flat. His untouched oatmeal sat in front of him, but his voice was tight with fury. A fury that was so strong it filled the room with a force of its own. Harper reached out and slapped the back of his head, and he looked up with glowing eyes.
“Get it in control,” she ordered, and Scarlett realized that he’d been doing something with those warlock abilities that only Harper could really understand.
“What?” Scarlett paused. Then asked again, even more shocked, “What is warlock heroin? And what is it doing in Mystic Cove?”
“Why haven’t we heard of this?” Maye asked, her arm was even tighter around Maeve, and Scarlett thought the kid was going to feel a bit smothered before those two worked out a peaceful road.
“They don’t sell it here,” Lex said. “People like us make it. They sell it to normals. It makes other drugs look like candy. It’s like the worst of heroin and the worst of psychotic drugs mixed together.”
Scarlett stood to get Maeve some calming tea. At the counter, she could hear what was happening and still take part but move not pretend everything was ok while she sat and talked to a little girl who had just lost the last of everything. She took the time to infuse the tea with honey and lemon and herbs to promote peace. Then she puttered at the counter trying not to think about how she'd felt something was wrong. People didn’t get murdered like this in Mystic Cove. This wasn't the town she’d known. With a shaking hand, she reached towards the black packets and then she said, “Someone killed one of ours over this?”
Lex’s face said he didn’t want to answer, but he didn’t need to. Scarlett wasn’t stupid, she was in shock.
“Someone killed my sister because she had those drugs,” Maeve said. She wasn’t surprised. She’d already figured it out. She’d witnessed it. And the flatness in her voice said she was buttoning down all of her rage.
“Was she using them?” Scarlett asked Maeve who immediately shook her head.
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