Secrets in the Dark (15 page)

The Rejects had left a
trail of destruction in the cabin. Some of the kitchen cupboards
were empty — their contents thrown all over. Most of the cups and
plates were broken, and the shattered bits glimmered across the
wooden floor.

Faith whispered, “They’re
out of control. They think they can do anything they want in
here.”

“
Ronny’s going to be
pissed!” I heard Olivia’s quick sound of protest. Darn, I’d cussed.
“Sorry Olivia.” My hands balled into fists. Not only were the
Rejects coming in here now, they were destroying things that belong
to Ronny’s friends. “I just wish I didn’t have to tell Ronny about
this.”

“
You wished!” Faith said,
looking around.

I sucked in a breath,
waiting for some sign that my wish had worked. Nothing happened. I
let my breath out in a sigh. We didn’t fall through a tree, get hit
by strange winds, have animals appear, or anything even a bit
unusual. “I guess there’s no spell for that.”

Note to self – Figure how
this wishing stuff works!

While we checked through
the cabin, the dog sniffed around, periodically growling low in its
throat.

“
Rusty sounds as upset as
we are,” Olivia said. “I don’t think he likes the
Rejects.”

I laughed. “I love our
animals. They have good taste!”

I was a bit reluctant as we
made our way back to the tree. I was in no hurry to tell Ronny what
happened. We each took a moment to say goodbye to our animals.
Shadow got an extra-long goodbye. I was trying to postpone going
back, and Shadow didn’t seem to mind the extra attention.
Reluctantly, I took my turn through the tree.

As we emerged into the
cemetery, Olivia exclaimed, “Oh no! It’s dark. I’m supposed to be
home before dark.”

It was hard to be
careful
and
fast
as we made our way through the cemetery. I kept worrying that we
would bump into the Rejects. Even though we hurried back home, we
weren’t fast enough. Faith texted that we’d have to wait another
week to meet with Ronny, at least for her to be there. She’d been
grounded for being late.

Both Faith
and
Olivia had curfews
earlier than mine. The next day at school, I asked Olivia how she’d
managed to avoid being grounded.

“
I told Mom we were
helping your sister-in-law,” she said, looking smug. “She thought
we were at Ronny’s house.”

“
You lied? What if she
checks with Ronny?” I asked.

“
She won’t. And I
didn’t
lie
to
her. We are helping Ronny. Maybe I didn’t tell Mom
where
. But it is the
truth — we’re helping Ronny!”

Somehow, I didn’t think her
mom would see it that way, but I wasn’t going to argue. Olivia had
assured us more than once that everything she said would be the
truth. She just wouldn’t promise it would always be the whole
truth.

Faith kept telling her it
didn’t count as truth if you left out whole bits of it, but Olivia
didn’t see it that way. I just hoped Olivia’s mom never found out.
I had a feeling Olivia would be grounded for a lot more than a
week.



Waiting for Faith to be
un-grounded seemed really long. When Saturday morning finally got
there, we hurried to Johnny’s. I worried the whole way there. I was
going to hate telling Ronny about the Rejects entering Chimera and
messing up Ghalynn’s cabin.

For once, I really wished
I’d been wrong. Ronny was really upset. I’d never seen her like
that, like flames were going to shoot out of her eyes. Maybe my
face showed how uncomfortable I was, but I was glad when she said
she wasn’t angry with us. I never wanted
anyone
that angry with
me!

“
Promise you will be
careful around those other children.” She said this through
clenched teeth, making it harder than ever to understand her. “And
please, do not lead them to the cave or to Ghalynn. I do not know
if he will be willing to help if he knows human children destroyed
his belongings. It is as you say, ‘when the cat’s away, the mice
will eat your cheese’.”

First Faith then Olivia
started giggling. Doug had a hard time controlling his voice as he
told her, “It’s ‘when the cat’s away, the mice will
play’.”

“
Oh, then that saying will
not work, will it. They were not playing.”

“
It works fine,” I told
her. “It’s not supposed to mean playing in a good way. It means
doing things that aren’t right because no one’s
watching.”

“
Thank you. I will
remember. And you keep away from those children.”

We assured her we had no
intention of getting anywhere near the Rejects. I told her,
“Listen, there’s a story about a witch buried in our graveyard.
Kids have been looking for her grave for years. Supposedly, if
someone finds her magic book, they’ll be able to do magic. Does
that have something to do with Chimera?”

The sound of Ronny’s
laughter filled the diner. There was a moment of silence as people
around us paused their conversations to listen. It was a joyous
musical sound. Her face brightened as she laughed and she looked
more like her normal self.

Between fits of laughter
she said, “That is our legend. One of my mother’s sisters — I guess
she was my middle aunt — went missing over three hundred years ago.
It is rumored she died, or perhaps was murdered, and buried near
the entrance to Chimera. In what is now your cemetery.”

Ronny’s voice took on a
storytelling cadence as she continued, “She was a powerful witch,
whose book of spells was extensive. Everyone in Chimera would like
to find that book. It would be of great value to any magick
user.”

My interest was all over my
face. Ronny smiled at me, but it felt more like a pat on my head
than a real smile. “If a Mundane were to find the book, it would do
no good for them. Only a magick user would be able to use her
spells.”

I felt a twinge of
disappointment. Not that I’d really believed I would find it. But
I’d loved the idea that if I did, I could become a powerful magic
user. That thought was even more appealing now. Maybe there’d’ve
been something in that book to stop the Rejects.

As
we got ready to leave, Ronny hugged me tightly and whispered
in my ear, “It is very important that you get to the cave and find
what Ghalynn meant in his note. But it is even more important that
you stay safe. Please take care of yourself, I do not want you hurt
on my behalf.”

Chapter 18

Where’s GPS When You Need
It?

All during April, I got
nervous whenever I thought about getting into Chimera unseen. We
planned to meet at Johnny’s before we went to the cemetery. Doug
was sure we’d be able to come up with something. I didn’t have his
confidence, and had been getting butterflies in my stomach whenever
I thought about it.

The Saturday of the full
moon, once I got to Johnny’s, I was so nervous I only ordered a
couple pieces of toast. None of us said much at first. The others
didn’t seem to have trouble with their appetite, but the more toast
I ate, the heavier it felt in my stomach. I finally resorted to
breaking off bits and rolling the pieces between my fingers,
turning them into little toast pellets.

I looked at the growing
mound of squashed brown pellets and sighed. It was stupid to be
mutilating an innocent piece of toast. I tossed it on my plate and
said, “You know, Andrew’s been spending a lot of time at his dad’s
garage. It gives him a really good view of the cemetery. We should
take the back exit. We could cut behind City Hall and enter the
cemetery from the side road.”

“
That could work,” Doug
said, sounding surprised.

Like it’s a surprise I
could come up with a good idea.

Faith drummed her fingers
on the table. Olivia and I shared a quick glance. Faith only did
that when she was
really
nervous. Like the time she had to give an oral
book report on the teacher’s favorite book. The same book Faith
thought was so boring she hadn’t been able to finish it. Now she
said, “Do you really think we can get in without them following
us?”

“Well,” Olivia put down her
fork, then carefully blotted her lips. “Even if they don’t follow
us, they could still get inside Chimera while we’re in there.” She
dug in her bag for her favorite lip-gloss and said, “What do we do
then?”

She didn’t give us a chance
to answer. “We have to decide what to do if, when, we see them in
there.” Olivia twisted her head from side to side, trying to look
at her lips in the back of her spoon.

Doug had been watching
Olivia go through this beauty ritual like he was wondering what
planet she was on.

Nice to know I’m not the
only one.

He shook his head and
pulled out his copy of the map. “According to this, there’s a
couple small roads on the right. If we notice them following, we
should take one of those side roads, then cut back across the
fields to lose them.”

“
That sounds good. I
guess,” Faith gave a twisted smile, clearly doubtful.

He grinned at her. “It’ll
work. You’ll see.”

We left out the back,
making our way behind City Hall and the fire station. At first, we
thought our plan was working. We didn’t realize we were being
followed until we got near the cemetery.

This time Faith recognized
the feeling of being watched. “Ugh! How do they know when to follow
us? Don’t they have anything better to do?” I watched as she
absent-mindedly slipped her left hand into her pocket.

Just one hand this time.
Was only half of her nervous?

“
We’re gonna have to
implement our strategy,” Doug said, as we hurried into the cemetery
and headed for the tree.

Olivia asked, “Did we ever
decide which road to take?” When I shook my head, she said, “Two’s
my favorite number — let’s take the second road.”

I said, “I’m not sure how
to do this. First, we need them to follow us off the main road.
That means we have to let them see us. Then we have to sneak back
through a field. That means we
can’t
let them see us. That makes my
head hurt.”

“
Simple, we wait until
they follow us, run ahead, then cut through the field when they
can’t see us. They won’t know where we’ve gone.” Doug’s voice
positively oozed satisfaction.

Faiths didn’t. “I just hope
we don’t get lost!”

Olivia sounded cross as she
leaned against the massive tree, “Don’t jinx us!”



Once again, I hated those
few moments of darkness. In fact, I hated them a little more each
time. I really didn’t want to fall on my face like Olivia had last
time, and leaned back as I stumbled out. Only it was too far back.
I ended on my butt.

I gritted my teeth when
Olivia and Doug burst out laughing. I was half-tempted to wish
something not very nice. Before I could either make a wish or get
up, Shadow ran up and jumped in my lap. So, maybe I shouldn’t be
upset after all.

I climbed to my feet,
Shadow in my arms, and we all took a moment for a short reunion
with our familiars. Then I told Shadow we needed to head out. As we
started walking, I kept a close watch on the side of the road,
looking for Olivia’s second road to the right. For a moment, I
thought of Peter Pan — second star to the right and straight on
till morning.

Straight on till morning
would
not
be good
in here!

Faith had been in enough
trouble coming home thirty minutes late. Being here until morning
would be a total disaster for all of us.

On the map, the second road
turned away from the mountains and the cave. Away from Ghalynn. And
with any luck, this plan would keep the Rejects away from
us.

My heart was beating fast
when we turned down the second road. We decided to walk until we
could barely see the beginning, then wait for the first sign of Ray
and the others. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait
long.

We could hear them before
we could see them. Pyg chose that moment to leave Olivia’s
shoulder, where he’d perched since we entered Chimera. I heard
Olivia mutter, “
Now
what?”

It didn’t take long to get
her answer. We heard Polly scream and Andrew curse, while Ray
yelled, “Not again! Some stupid bird pooped on me
again!”

“
What about me,” Andrew
yelled back.

“
It’s not in your eyes, is
it?”

As the owl swooped back
onto Olivia’s shoulder, she said, “Good job, Pyg! Let’s just make
sure he never realizes you’re the bird delivering the
droppings!”

Faith snickered.
“Delivering the droppings!”

I grinned. “How ‘bout
providing the poop?”

“
Dealing the dung,” Olivia
said.

“
Furnishing the
fertilizer.” Faith’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “Or making the
manure.”

Not to be out done, Doug
said, “Shoveling the sh—”