Blood Witch_ Book Three - Cate Tiernan [49]
For what seemed like a long time Robbie just stared at me. “This is mind-blowing,” he mumbled finally.
“Tell me about it.”
He offered a sympathetic smile. “I’ll bet things have been crazy at your house lately.”
I laughed. “Yeah, you could say that. We were all freaked out about it. I mean, my parents never told me, not in sixteen years, that I was adopted. And all my relatives knew and all their friends. I was . . . really angry.”
“I’ll bet,” Robbie murmured.
“And they knew how my birth parents died and that witchcraft was involved, so they’re really upset that I’m doing Wicca because the whole thing scares them. They don’t want anything to happen to me.”
Robbie chewed his lip, looking concerned. “No one knows why your birth parents were killed? They were murdered, right? I mean, it wasn’t suicide or some ritual gone wrong.”
“No. Apparently the barn door was locked from the outside. But they must have been scared about something because they gave me up for adoption right before they died. I can’t find out why it happened, though, or who could have done it. I have Maeve’s Book of Shadows, and she says that after they came to America, they didn’t practice magick at all—”
“How did you get your birth mother’s Book of Shadows?” he interrupted.
I sighed again. “It’s a long story, but Selene Belltower had it, and I found it. It was all a bunch of weird coincidences.”
Robbie raised his eyebrows. “I thought there weren’t any coincidences.”
I looked at him, startled. You’re absolutely right, I thought.
“So why are we here?” he asked.
I hesitated. “Last night I had a dream . . . I mean, I had a vision. Actually, I scryed in the fire last night.”
“You scryed?” Robbie shifted in his seat. Creases lined his forehead. “You mean you tried to divine information, like magickal information?”
“Yes,” I admitted, staring down at my lap for a moment. “I know, you think I’m doing stuff I shouldn’t be doing yet. But I think it’s allowed. It’s not a real spell or anything.”
Robbie remained silent.
I shook my head and glanced out the window again. “Anyway, I was watching the fire last night, and I saw all sorts of weird images and scenes and stuff. But the most realistic scene, the clearest one, was about this house. I saw Maeve standing outside it and pointing underneath it. Pointing and smiling. Like she wanted to show me something underneath this house—”
“Wait a second,” Robbie cut in. “Let me get this straight. You had a vision, so now we’re here, and you want to crawl under that house?”
I almost laughed. It didn’t sound bizarre; it sounded utterly insane. “Well, when you put it that way . . .”
He shook his head, but he was smiling, too. “Are you sure this is the house?”
I nodded.
He didn’t say anything.
“So do you think I’m crazy, coming here?” I asked. “Do you think we should turn around and go home?”
He hesitated. “No,” he said finally. “If you had that vision while you were actually scrying, then I think it makes sense to check it out. I mean, if you actually want to crawl under there.” He glanced at me. “Or . . . do you want me to crawl under there?”
I smiled at him and patted his arm. “Thanks. That’s really sweet. But no. I guess I’d better do it. Even though I have no idea what I’m looking for.”
Robbie turned to the house again. “Got a flashlight?”
“Of course not.” I smirked. “That would make me too well prepared, wouldn’t it?”
He laughed as I slid out of the car and zipped up my coat. I hesitated only a moment before I unlatched the chain-link gate, then headed up the walk. Under my breath I whispered: “I am invisible, I am invisible, I am invisible,” just in case anyone was watching from one of the neighboring houses. It was a trick Cal had told me about, but I’d never tried it before. I hoped it worked.
On the left side of the house, past the shaggy rhododendrons, I found the place where Maeve had been standing in my vision. There was an opening between the low brick foundation and the floor supports. The opening was barely twenty inches high. I glanced back at the car. Robbie was leaning against