“Hire them with what money?” Cece asked. “My house is falling apart around me, and my furnace is on its last legs. It’s supposed to get super cold next week, and not freezing to death in my own home is, honestly, more of a pressing concern.”
“You can stay at my place,” Kinsley said. “Do you need me to drive you to your house to get some things? I don’t trust that your piece of shit car will get you home and back to my place.”
“Hey, my car is doing just fine,” Cece said.
“Is it, though?” Maisie asked.
“For now. The mechanic did mention that if I didn’t fix… something else… it would just crap out again,” Cece admitted. “But it would be over six hundred to fix, and even the mechanic said the car wasn’t worth that much. But for now, I’m hoping the damn thing lasts me through the winter. And as much as I appreciate the offer to stay with you, I can’t. Knowing my luck, my furnace would quit completely while I’m at your place, and my pipes would freeze and burst or something.”
“Not sure it would make much of a difference,” Kinsley said. “As you said, your house is falling apart, Cece.”
“I’ve been watching some DIY home repair videos on YouTube, and I think there’s a bunch of stuff I can fix myself,” Cece said.
“We can help, too,” Maisie said.
“Or, you can just sell the house and buy a cute condo,” Kinsley said.
“With everything that needs to be fixed in the house, I wouldn’t even get enough to pay off the mortgage,” Cece said.
“I still think you should stay with me. At least while it’s so damn cold next week,” Kinsley said.
Cece squeezed Kinsley’s hand. “If I really am in some kind of trouble with this witch family, I won’t put you in danger, too, Kins.”
“But we’re supposed to be okay with leaving you alone and in potential danger?” Kinsley asked.
“You don’t have any magical ability,” Cece said gently. “I would at least have a chance to fight back.”
“I don’t like this plan,” Maisie said.
“Ditto,” Kinsley said.
“Honestly, I don’t think we have anything to worry about,” Cece said. “I think Aunt Sybil is wrong about the family coming after me. It’s twenty-five years. No one holds a grudge for that long.”
CHAPTER 6
“No one holds a grudge for that long,” Cece muttered to herself as she turned onto the road leading to her house.
One of the things she, her aunt, and her mom loved most about their house was the privacy. They lived in a small subdivision on the north end of the city, bordering Parsons Woods. Their house was the last on the street, with a long, tree-lined driveway and a backyard overlooking the forest.
Cece’s mother had loved that there was enough space for a garden, and Cece’s plant-loving self was tickled pink that the forest was practically in their backyard. Her aunt had loved that the Hayes River, which ran through Parsons Woods, was only a mile or so in. Knowing now what she did about her aunt being an apprentice water witch, her aunt’s frequent trips to sit by the river made more sense.
She sniffed loudly and blinked back the tears. She couldn’t tell Kinsley or Maisie this, but she was crushingly lonely. She missed her aunt and now Elora, and the privacy of her house, which she used to love, now felt like isolation, and maybe even a little dangerous.
“Don’t be silly,” she told herself, glancing at her reflection in her car’s rear-view mirror. “Everything is fine. You don’t have a witch family after you, and the only thing you have to fear at your house is freezing to death.”
She sighed, tempted for a minute to turn the car around and drive to Kinsley’s small but, no doubt, deliciously warm apartment. Instead, she glanced in the mirror again, pretending she couldn’t see that pinched look of worry on her face. “It’s fine. You can sleep in front of the fireplace tonight.”
Of course, that would require chopping more firewood, and while Cece was grateful for her neighbour giving her that huge pile of trees he’d cut down from his property, chopping firewood was her least favourite chore. She sucked at it, and it hurt her arms, and sometimes being a strong, independent woman who couldn’t afford to hire someone to chop firewood for her really sucked. She especially wasn’t going to do it tonight in the dark and the cold. She’d just have to add extra blankets to the bed and hope for the best.
A flash of light caught her attention, and she studied the headlights that were a few car lengths behind her. It wasn’t unusual to have cars on this road, she did have neighbours afterall, but it was a little weird that they hadn’t turned off yet. As she watched, a second car pulled out from behind the car and passed them. The vehicle was moving fast, and as it approached her, she squinted in the harsh glare of its headlights.
She waited for them to pull into the left lane to pass her, reflexively slowing a bit as they approached a sharp curve in the road. The road was slick with ice and snow, and her snow tires were a few years old and not the best. On her left was a house with a long winding driveway. On her right, pine trees, their branches loaded down with heavy snow, rose into the brisk night air.
The car was still coming up fast behind her, and Cece’s cry of surprise turned into a scream when, instead of passing her, the vehicle rammed her back bumper. Her car lurched forward, and she fought the steering wheel to keep control. Behind her, the car revved hellishly loud and smashed into her a second time just as they hit the curve in the road.
She slammed on the brakes, screaming again when she didn’t make the curve and, instead, her car fishtailed before hitting a dry patch on the road and flipping. Her seatbelt locked, and there was a dizzying sensation of feeling like she was trapped in a dryer as the car rolled repeatedly. There was a sudden and crushing pain in her leg, and Cece screamed hoarsely. The windshield shattered, spraying her with broken glass and cold air before branches slammed through the open windshield and battered her body.
The car landed right side up with a deafening crunch, and a horrific pain stabbed into her ribcage. She sat limply, the cold air seeping into her body and blinking in confusion at the liquid splattered across the steering wheel and mangled dashboard. Where did the liquid come from? She tried to reach for her seatbelt, screaming again when it sent fresh pain searing through her midsection.
