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Wherever my mother had gone, she hadn’t gone there willingly.
* * *
An hour later, the entire Conclave was sitting in the living room of Lightkeep Cottage, squawking over each other like a flock of overexcited birds.
“…have to consider the possibility that she left of her own accord, or—”
“But she already agreed to renew the Covenant!”
“She changed her mind, then! What’s so—”
“And left the child behind, knowing the dangers? Unthinkable!”
“It was unthinkable to leave in the first place! Imagine a Vesper leaving Sedgwick Cove!”
I’d been biting my tongue since they descended on us, but I was running out of patience. Perhaps Rhi could see it on my face because she raised her voice over the squabbling.
“I don’t think this speculation is getting us anywhere!” she shouted, and the others fell silent. “Whether she left of her own accord or not isn’t really the issue. We need to find her or we can’t renew the Covenant.”
“What do you propose then, Rhiannon?” Ostara asked.
“We can start by trying to trace her car. She might have GPS tracking or something like that,” Rhi said, before turning to me. “Wren do you—?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Maybe.” I’d tried on her phone, but as it was turned off, I couldn’t get a signal.
“And we can gather together some volunteers to spread around town. Someone must have seen something,” Rhi said.
There was much disconcerted murmuring over this suggestion, and more useless, cyclical discussion. I wanted to scream. We were wasting time. I turned from the group to try to compose myself and happened to glance out the window into the garden, where a movement caught my eye.
It was Eva, standing among the flowerbeds, waving her arms frantically to get my attention. I gave a small wave back, just so she knew that I’d seen her, and turned back to Rhi.
“I’m going out to the garden for a minute. I need some air,” I murmured to her.
She smiled wanly. “I don’t blame you.”
I slipped out and ran for the far side of an enormous Rose of Sharon bush. There I found not just Eva, but also Zale and Nova waiting for me.
“What are you all doing here? How did you—”
“Myabuela, of course,” Eva said. “And they both live with Conclave members, too.”
I frowned at Zale. “Wait, you too?”
He nodded. “Davina’s my granny. And since she’d rather fling herself off the cliff than admit she needs hearing aids, she hasn’t successfully kept a secret since the mid-90s.”
“I… I’m really glad you’re all… thank you for…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. I burst into tears instead.
“Aw, Wren, it’s okay,” Eva said, throwing her arm around me and letting me cry into her shoulder. Zale joined in the hug on the other side, and even Nova gave me an awkward pat on the back.
“It’s not okay. Everything’s a mess. They can’t stop arguing about what to do, and no one seems to realize this is an emergency. My mom would never take off like this. Well, okay, she did once, but that was to protect me. She wouldn’t leave me here, not with the Covenant hanging in the balance.”
“We know,” Zale said.
“We all heard her at that Conclave meeting yesterday,” Eva said, nodding fervently. “She was serious when she promised to renew the Covenant.”
“So you believe me, then?” I gulped, tears still streaming.
“Of course, we do,” Eva said.
