Whatever was in those woods, it had my town in its sights.I wasn’t running anymore.Not from Hickory Hollow.Not from what I was.
Chapter Nineteen
Theshimmerfollowedusfrom the driveway onto the country road.A thin, gold-threaded distortion that clung to the blacktop like a seam coming undone.
As if it was tracking us.
I peered in the sideview mirror, my stomach in knots as I watched it stretch longer behind the truck, brightening whenever my pulse jumped.
“Owen… it’s following us.”My voice shook as I said it.
“I see it.”He mashed the gas and pushed the truck faster.
I gripped the door handle so hard my hand cramped, holding my breath in the short drive from the house toward town.When he parked the truck, we both jumped out at the same time.
Movement across the street caught my attention.
There was Rylyn closing up the flower shop for the night.
I froze, staring across the way as guilt slammed into me hard.
I hadn’t even thought about the flower shop since all chaos broke loose.I’d been too preoccupied with the crossing, the sludge in the woods, the thing that stepped out of shadow like it owned my name—and learning Alice was my mother.
Rylyn—still in goth attire—locked the door and then turned to head to her car parked on the side of the building.Our eyes met from across the street.The girl stared at me, but I wasn’t sure what her expression was under all the eyeliner and black lipstick.
“Piper, come on,” Owen urged.
I forced my feet to move and jogged around the front of the truck.
“I see how it is, Piper!”Rylyn shouted from across the pavement.
Remorse pounded through me.I’d have to explain later to Rylyn—maybe she’d understand.It was clear she was actively caring for the shop while I was trying to save my own skin.
I hurried after Owen who held the door to the antique store open waiting for me.Once I was inside, he threaded his way through the rows and rows of antiques toward the back.
“Owen?That you?”Dougal called.He popped out from the private office at the back.“What are you doing here?I was about to close the shop.”
“Dad, I need the Sun Disk,” Owen said, voice urgent.
Dougal’s brows drew together.“The what?”
“No time to explain.”Owen stepped around him and continued on his path toward the back of the shop.
Dougal looked at me, question in his eyes.I gave him a shrug and a sheepish grin as I hurried after Owen.
“What’s this about, son?”Dougal fell in step behind me.
But Owen was already at the back of the store, popping open a ladder and pushing it under a round, gold-inlaid talisman mounted high on the wall.
In the late afternoon light, it looked decorative—beautiful, old, and harmless.
Except it wasn’t.
The moment my gaze landed on it, something hummed deep and low under my skin.Recognition.Magic.
Owen climbed up the rungs of the ladder to the top and leaned over, but he still couldn’t reach it.
“Owen, stop,” Dougal said, voice firm and unrelenting.“This isn’t a good idea.”
