“Like I said when I woke you up,” Madison joined her at the window, “something feels off.” Though perplexed, she remained practical. “Maybe we drank something bad.” She put a hand to her stomach though she didn’t appear queasy. “That’s got to be it. That’s got to be—”
“No, it has nothing to do with anything we drank, and I think we both know that.” She looked at Madison, positive something unusual was going on. “I think deep down, we’ve known it since we put these rings on.”
Madison’s brows pinched together more tightly. She tapped a perfectly trimmed unpainted nail on the window sill, counting under her breath to calm herself.
“We don’t believe...” Madison struggled for the right words. “We can’t be talking about something beyond reason.” She shook her head, again eyeing her ring with distrust. “That’s not how we work, Chloe.”
No, it wasn’t. Chloe was a journalist, always seeking the truth, which was never, ever fantastical. And Madison? As an accountant, she dealt with numbers and real-life to a fault.
Yet she saw in her friend’s eyes what she felt in her soul.
They were dealing with something far beyond normal.
“Where’s Julie?” she said. “Is she awake yet?”
Even as she asked it, she knew the answer.
“She’s not here,” Madison said. “Yet—”
“Her car still is,” Chloe murmured, noting Julie’s car in the driveway. A sense of certainty washed over her. “She was supposed to be here, but something happened.”
Madison’s eyes narrowed. “What?” She pressed two fingers to her temple, back to numbers, her go-to when stressed. Except this time, her ramblings made no sense. “Because the number was right. She had accomplished one, and that’s all she needed.”
“One what?”
“One...” Obsessively compulsive, Madison absently adjusted her ring, so the heart was dead center. She shook her head. “One...something.” Her eyes narrowed in concentration. “There are six altogether, but she just needed the one.” Her frown returned. She whispered, “Or maybe that was all a dream. It had to have been...”
A chill swept over her. “You dreamt too?”
“Maybe,” Madison murmured. Confusion warred with curiosity as though she tried to solve a puzzle. “I remember standing stones...” Tap, tap, went her fingernail. “Fog...” Another tap. “One very specific stone...”
Fog? Stones? This was getting too bizarre. Yet, in some strange way, it backed up what she had wanted to do since she pulled into the driveway yesterday. No, before that. The moment she knew where Julie lived.
“I need to investigate Mystery Hill.” She rummaged around in her duffel bag for a change of clothes. “That’s where I’ll find more answers.”
“In all this snow?” Madison rubbed her arms as if chilled. “This is just a break in the storm. You should stay put.” She looked outside. “Besides, we’ve got company.”
She froze and looked at Madison, speaking before thinking, her words a weak squeak of trepidation mixed with anticipation. “Is it him? Is he here?”
“Hewho?” Madison looked at her oddly. “I didn’t know you were expecting someone.”
“I wasn’t,” she whispered, though she was, wasn’t she? Her thoughts wandered to her dreams. Tohim. The man through the fog. He who drew closer by the moment as if breaking free from her dreams. “I need to get to the Stonehenge.”
“Why?” Madison shook her head. “You said you found all the answers about America’s Stonehenge that we needed. It’s not ancient in the least but one big hoax. And I tend to agree.” She gestured out the window, then re-clipped her already tidy, jet black hair. “Besides, the girls are here, so your romp through the woods will have to wait.”
“All three?”
“I think so,” Madison began before she shook her head. “Actually, no, just Alyssa and Destiny.” She pulled out her phone. “Nobody texted to say they were almost here or in Ciara’s case, where she is.” She sighed and frowned. “But then it seems I have no signal.”
“I’d be surprised if we hear from Ciara until she’s on our doorstep.” She yanked on skinny jeans, a too-big but super-cozy blue sweater, then pulled on boots. With a few rushed tugs, she whipped her thick, unruly hair back into a haphazard ponytail that would let go with one good wind gust. “Honestly, I’ll be shocked if she shows up at all.”
“Oh, she’ll show,” Madison replied. “For Julie, if nobody else.”
“We’ll see,” she muttered.
While she had taken to the others when they met in an online Broun forum six months ago, Ciara had been a hard sell. They all had their quirks, but Ciara was difficult to get along with. At least for her and her fellow Brouns. Julie was a different story. Ciara got along with her just fine. But then Julie wasn’t a Broun. Not that it should make any difference.
Alyssa and Destiny had just made it to the front door by the time they got downstairs. Not surprisingly, considering her obsession with waking up at the crack of dawn, Madison already had a fire going, and coffee brewed.
