Chapter One
North Salem, New Hampshire
Present Day
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MADISON BOLTED UPRIGHTand gasped for air. Where had she just been? Because she was certain she’d been somewhere else. Somewhere far away.
Yet again.
Just like she was over and over, night after night.
Only this time had been different. More pressing by far. Riddled with a sense of urgency, fear, and lust. Overheated, she opened the window beside her bed and dragged cool morning air into her lungs.
“Good morning, beautiful!” Her sister Riona waved up, flashed her usual bright smile, and took a few snapshots of the old oak tree out front. “Hope Luna didn’t wake you with her barking.”
If only.
“She didn’t.” Madison scanned the branches for her raven. “I take it Oran got her going again?”
Her raven first appeared several years ago in a dream before he became very real and landed on her Boston apartment windowsill. Since then, he had become a regular visitor in both her dreams and on her sill before, miraculously enough, he followed her here to her and her sisters’ new home.
“Yup, Oran mostly got Luna going.” Riona shook her head. “I swear the two were talking if such a thing were possible, then your bird flew off that way.” She made a dismissive gesture in the direction of the Stonehenge through the woods. “Or should I call it a mad dash?” She let the camera strapped around her neck rest against her chest while she clipped back her long curly black hair. “He squawked up a racket then took off like a bat out of hell.”
Odd because typically, Oran was calm in his overly wise way.
“You seem pretty fixated on that tree, sis,” Madison mentioned. She understood why, too. There was just something about it. “Catch anything good yet?”
Where Madison was a renowned psychic, Riona was gifted in other ways. Namely, what she was able to catch with her camera. Not just remarkable pictures but, quite often, other things. She had long told her substantial fan base that she merely had a way of playing with the light, but Madison and, quite possibly Riona’s clients, knew better.
Her sister caught things people couldn't see with the naked eye.
Sometimes it was auras. Other times orbs, or even spectral anomalies. Whatever she captured, Riona attracted them. They were drawn to her in some unexplainable way and only able to show themselves via her camera.
“Not sure if I’ve caught anything yet, but I got the strangest feeling I might, so I headed this way.” Riona made a come-hither motion. “C’mon down. Freshly brewed coffee and muffins in the kitchen.”
Madison nodded, threw on some sweats, and a sweater, tied back her unruly auburn hair, and headed down. She was glad that out of her four sisters, Riona had been the first to move in. Not that she didn’t love her other two siblings, Shannon and Constance. She did. They just weren’t as upbeat as Riona, and that’s what she needed right now. Someone to keep her from sinking too deeply into a funk born of feeling like she was being hunted. Tracked down.
Not just when she was awake either but in her dreams.
It had started about six months ago, driving her to seek out a home further north. This house, to be precise, when it came to her in a dream. She would find sanctuary here. Safety. At least for a little while. Safety until she remembered something important. An elusive memory just out of reach.
One she sensed was connected to whatever she had just dreamt about.
Thankfully her sisters were willing to go in with her to purchase the old colonial, but what choice did they have after she met their realtor, Adlin? More specifically, when he shared things most people would find unbelievable.
Though he had said it in a rather jesting manner, according to him, numerous women who lived in this house over the years had traveled back in time. She hadn't let on that she believed him, but how could she not? Especially considering the dreams that had plagued her and her sisters since childhood?
