Torn From the Shadows (2 page)

I pulled it out and blew away some of the dust. Running my hands over the front cover, I felt an imprint of letters. I didn’t know what they spelled out—not even my capable vision would help me read in almost pitch-black—but I was still carrying my phone. I yanked it out and held it above the journal’s cover like a flashlight.

A familiar family crest made my heart stop for a second, but my pulse picked up again as soon as I read the inscribed name.
Pepita Garcia.
This was my grandmother’s grimoire and it featured the same engraving as the one Oren had given me.

With shaky fingers, I somehow managed to hold the light steady while opening the book with my other hand. The first page had a dedication.

For my dearest, Pepita, you are my heart and soul. You will always be my one and only.

My breath caught in my throat. The next page featured something I now recognized—Hecate’s Wheel. Why did this symbol seem to be popping up everywhere lately?

“Sierra, I’m home!” Willow’s voice made me jump, and I dropped the grimoire.

Another plume of dust hit my lungs and I sneezed. Bending over, I snatched up the journal, closed the cupboard door and spun around. I couldn’t let her find me in here. Not when I wasn’t sure what I’d stumbled upon and she still didn’t know so much about our family secrets.

I headed for the stairs but bounced off what felt like an invisible block of ice. I stumbled, barely keeping my legs beneath me. I squinted, trying to figure out what could be strong enough to do this—even as my subconscious encouraged me to chant a protection incantation.

“Who’s there?” I whispered.

No one responded, but when I attempted to get past, I was once again shoved backwards.

“I know you’re there, so show yourself.”

Before my eyes, a shadowy figure manifested.

“Penny?” I hadn’t seen her in over a decade but would never forget one of the best friends I’d ever had.

“Hello, Sierra. It’s been a long time.” Her frame wavered, as if dust particles were the only thing keeping her together.

“What are you doing here?” She’d been my ghostly companion for years, but one day vanished.

Penny’s lips curved into a smile. She appeared faded and worn like an old photograph, but she looked just as I remembered her—wearing a blue summer dress and her dark, curly hair pushed away from her face in a ponytail. Penny had saved me from a very lonely childhood. I used to think of her as an invisible friend until Grandma helped me understand why I could see her.

For years, Penny—who’d apparently died a decade before I was even born—became my best friend. So why did she just manifest inside a hidden, dusty room?

“I’ve always been here,” she finally said. “I never left you.”

“Sierra, where are you?” Willow yelled. “I’m home from school. I need to speak to you!”

Damn. It sounded like she was at the bottom of the stairs leading up to my room. The last thing I wanted was for her to come looking for me. There’d been enough weirdness in her life already.

“Penny, I have to…” My voice trailed off because she’d vanished as quickly as she’d appeared. I glanced at the ground and noticed something that made my blood run cold. A triangle inside a circle was etched deep into the concrete floor near my feet.

Just like the one at Roe’s house.

I pocketed my phone and tightened my grip on the grimoire as I made my way towards the stairs, with no one blocking my path this time. As I raced up the concrete stairs, a bunch of questions stirred—what the hell was Penny doing here? Why did my grandmother have a secret space within the house’s foundation, hidden from everyone? Did my grandfather know about it? I wanted to understand what this meant, but right now no one could answer my questions.

I took a deep breath and stepped back into the closet, emerging into my bedroom.

My eyes closed instinctively because the sun was too bright after all that darkness. The window was open, so I sucked in a breath. After my dusty stay, I needed some fresh air.

“
Sieeeerrraaaaaa!
” Willow sounded impatient.

I cleared my throat. “I’m coming. I’m just in the bathroom.”

“Oh, sorry,” she called back.

That would get her off my case long enough for me to haphazardly shove the plywood back into place and lock the closet door. I pressed my back against it and looked at the journal still in my hand.

In the light of day, I could clearly see Grandma’s name on the leather cover but didn’t have time to read the contents. I had a teenage half sister living with me now, so taking time to do whatever I wanted
when
I wanted was slowly becoming impossible.

I stuck the grimoire into my locked dresser drawer—the one housing my witch’s toolbox and blades. Before dashing out of the room, I tucked my silver dagger into my boot and strapped the moonstone boline to my thigh. Taking the stairs two at a time, I headed downstairs and reached Willow in no time.

“Hey, Will,” I said with a smile.

“Hope I didn’t interrupt anything in the bathroom.” She really looked her age in her private school uniform and with her hair up in a messy ponytail. The thick blue blazer with the school’s crest, white blouse, and below-the-knee checkered skirt wasn’t very flattering, but the outfit suited her.

“No, I was done.”

“Well, this is an awkward conversation,” Ebony Aikan said. She was my friend, fellow spook catcher, and assistant.

“Hi, I didn’t know you were here.” I was glad she was, though. This was a great surprise. Ebony and I had been on shaky ground for a while, but months had passed since her vampire ordeal and we were getting back on even, familiar turf.

“She was waiting outside,” Willow said.

Ebony shrugged. “I knocked a few times but you didn’t answer.”

The old Ebony would have used her key to get inside. But there were several subtle differences in her personality now. “Sorry,” I said.

“No prob.”

I turned back to my sister, who looked like she wanted to say something. “You said you needed to talk to me?”

She looked away, kicking her chunky black shoes against the bottom step. “Yeah, I do.”

Ebony chuckled.

“What, you know what’s going on?”

“Sorta, and I don’t think you’re going to like it.” Ebony was wearing what had become her uniform lately—a stretched, woolen sweater over tights and knee-length boots. Her new washed-out clothing and ashy complexion made her look older, but thankfully she no longer appeared malnourished.

“Willow, what’s going on?”

Instead of responding, she turned away and headed for the kitchen.

“Where are you going? I asked you a question.”

“It’s better if I show you,” she called over her shoulder.

Ebony shrugged, so I followed.

I found it amazing that after being without a sister most of my life and only having discovered her this year, Willow and I slipped into a sibling relationship almost instantly. The fact her father died at the hands of a crazed Lamia and she was now my responsibility had a lot to do with it.

Willow Moss might be turning eighteen next month and finishing high school, but there was nothing average about her life. Her father’s wealth was paying for the private school education—which he apparently paid every year in advance. Although she couldn’t touch her inheritance until she became a legal adult, she didn’t really need it. She had a healthy savings account. Eli had made arrangements to take care of his daughter financially. It was the least he could do after putting her in danger because of his own supernatural obsessions.

“Well, what is it?” I asked.

Willow stopped in front of the back door and hitched a thumb towards it. “It’s out there.”

“What’s out there?” I was already ambling closer, trying to figure out why she was acting so mysterious. As soon as I stepped up to the screen door, I knew why. My first instinct was automatic—I took a step back. When the black dog jumped against the door paws-first, I cringed.

A barrage of memories flooded my mind and almost took my breath away. I looked away, couldn’t focus on the canine because it reminded me too much of Mauricio, the
Perro Negro
.

“He’s really cute, right?” Willow said with a smile. “So, can I keep him?”

“How do you know it’s a
he
?”

She shrugged. “It’s not that hard to work out.”

“Where did you get him?” I glanced outside and found the dog running around in circles on the grass. “He better not ruin my sunflowers.”

“He followed me home from the bus stop.”

“You let a stray follow you home?”

She bit her lip. “I saw him a few days ago, and he’s been waiting for me at the bus stop ever since. Today, I just couldn’t turn my back on him again. Please, can we keep him?”

“Willow, he could be someone’s dog.”

“He’s not wearing a collar.”

“So? He could be a house pet.” The next time I looked outside, my heart raced. The dog sat on the other side of the door. He was medium-sized, with black glossy fur and long ears that stood upright. Those caramel-colored eyes were fixed on mine. There didn’t seem to be any malicious intent coming from him but my hand instinctually ran up to my clavicle, where the
Perro Negro
had bitten me in February.

I took another step back.

“Sierra, what’s wrong?” Willow touched my elbow and I jumped. “What happened to your shirt?”

“Nothing,” I answered, hopefully covering both bases. I didn’t want to get into the sordid story of why a cute black dog had caused me to have flashbacks, or why my sleeve was torn. I sighed, trying to clear my thoughts and even out my breath. “If you take him to the local vet and he’s not micro-chipped, we’ll talk about it. There’s no point in discussing this until we know if he has an owner or not.”

I refused to spend the rest of my life being scared or suspicious of black dogs.

Willow’s eyes were shiny with hope. “Don’t you think he’s a cutie?”

“Sure.” He
was
very cute, staring at me with wide-eyed curiosity while wagging his long tail. I couldn’t pinpoint his breed.

“Freddy’s going to fit right in,” Willow said.

“
Freddy?
You’ve already named him?”

“Of course I have.”

“Let me guess, after Freddy Krueger?”

Willow bounced with excitement. “How did you guess?”

“Oh, I don’t know, you seem to be obsessed with
The Nightmare on Elm Street
movies.” Since she’d been living here, Papan, Oren and I had been exposed to the movies constantly—several times in a row. “I don’t get it. A kid your age liking the Freddy movies doesn’t even make sense. They were made way before you were even born. How’d you get into them?”

Ebony laughed and I turned to glare at her.

“You two are so cute together,” she said, by way of response. “If I wasn’t a confident person or liked Will so much, I might be afraid of her taking my place.”

I intensified my glare, but deep down inside I was cheering. Finding our way back to friendship meant a lot to me, and I couldn’t help but long for the days when we’d acted more like sisters than friends.

“It was Mum,” Willow said.

“What was?” I asked.

“You wanted to know why I like Freddy so much. It’s because of Mum. She loved watching horror movies, and Freddy Krueger was her favorite. We spent hours watching them together and would have marathons all the time.” A faraway look glazed over her blue eyes. “Even Jamie got into them because of her.”

Both of them were dead now, so I could feel her pain.

I swallowed the familiar lump in my throat. Talking about our shared parent always made me feel wrong, somehow. My mother had hated me for all of my peculiarities but in spite of Willow’s strange knack, she’d still loved her. For that, I was glad, but talking about Cian never got easier. And I sure as hell couldn’t imagine her watching horror movies.

Either way, I didn’t want to dwell on the direction this conversation had taken.

“Why don’t you go and change out of your uniform and do your homework?”

“I’d rather hang out with you guys, or with Freddy,” she said, pouting. “Can we take him to the vet before it closes?”

I opened my mouth to respond but Ebony butted in. “Don’t worry, Will, I’ll take you.”

I raised an eyebrow at Ebony. “Oh yeah, since when do you have a car?”

“Roe’s letting me borrow one of his.”

“Ah, that’s good. And how is old Roe, anyway?”

“He’s very well. Actually, he’s heading to Perth over the weekend to meet with a few catchers, and said he’ll call you before he leaves. He’s taking Juliet with him.”

“Good to hear. I’ll call him tomorrow,” I said.

Roe—previously Rochelle Spooker—was once the Collector at the Spook Catcher Council before it all went to hell. Now, he was setting up a new life and renovating his lavish family home, while helping Ebony and three stray teenage spook catchers. He was also looking into separating all of us from the Council so we could operate individually. He’d done a lot of traveling out of state recently, visiting independently run operations in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide to get a feel for how they functioned. He didn’t just want to mainstream—he wanted to assimilate with them and eliminate the Council from our lives.