Aggie watched Briar-Rose pace the living room. Occasionally, she would sit, only to fidget restlessly and rise to repeat the cycle. This pattern had continued since Petunia’s dramatic departure. Aggie was familiar with Briar’s jittery state that followed receiving unsettling news, and normally, she’d let her to play through her emotions. But now that she found herself wrestling to contain the young witch's magical abilities, Briar's freak-out was accompanied by tea sloshing back and forth in their mugs with every anxious movement.
“Briar, please,” Aggie urged gently, a small smile breaking through as Briar finally sank back into her chair.
“Sorry, it’s just...” Briar’s eyes flicked toward the foyer, as if sheer willpower could bring her desire to fruition. When nothing happened, she turned back to Aggie. “What if she doesn’t come back?”
“She’ll be back…. We have her daughter,” Aggie reassured with a teasing lilt, hoping to calm Briar’s nerves. “Nia was always the pugnacious of the two of you. She just needs time to cool off.”
“That’s what you said last time,” Briar countered, tilting her head. “And you know that’s not what I meant…. I just don’t want to be locked out of her life again.”
“Oh, Briar,” Aggie sighed, placing her hand gently over Briar’s. She remembered how devastated Briar had been when Petunia left, and how long it took her to regain any semblance of normalcy—though Aggie doubted she ever actually recovered. Aggie was about to comfort the near-hysterical girl when an unusual sensation washed over her again.
It wasn’t the same feeling she experienced when she was pulled into the darkness. For a brief moment, Aggie entertained the idea of demons infiltrating the manor but quickly dismissed the notion. Even without her coven’s power, her protection spell around the manor would endure for a while even after she did.
Aggie tilted her head upward, using the air currents throughout the house to heighten her hearing as she tried to pinpoint the source of the unsettling sensation. Her eyes narrowed, her focus sharpening as she tried to identify the presence lurking stealthily within the manor's walls.
Briar’s brows furrowed as she noticed Aggie’s growing agitation.
“Aggie?” Briar asked, following her gaze to the ceiling.
A thunderous slam from the front door jolted Aggie out of her magical focus. She grasped at the fading tendrils of the enigmatic sensation, but it slipped through her fingers like a wisp of smoke, vanishing as Petunia stepped into the living room. Aggie and Briar-Rose exchanged glances and released a small, simultaneous sigh of relief.
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***
“So, Captain Fruity Loop, ready to call it a bust?” Jace asked, rummaging through the last dresser drawer for anything valuable. He grimaced, finding nothing but a box of thread. “An epic disappointment.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” Acacia muttered, more to herself than the others, sinking onto the antique couch and shaking her head as she strained to piece together the fragments of the past few days.
Her mother’s final words echoing from her new foster guardian that morning… learning her mom wasn’t really her mom… Aggie’s talk of demons, and then there was how she survived the attack. Acacia stared at her hands, certain there had to be more to what was happening to her and the others…or else Jace was right, and she was losing her grip on reality. And even though she’d just met him, Acacia knew she really, really didn’t want Jace to be right.
“He’s right. We should go,” Harper said, hovering by the door. “People lock rooms for privacy.”
“Shady people lock things to hide shady shit,” Acacia snapped, springing up from the sofa, vexed with Harper’s goody-goody nature. “Think, Mary. Why would an old woman bother locking an empty library on the fourth floor?”
“Harper,” she corrected, her voice a faint whisper.
“Here’s a crazy idea. If you care so much, ask her,” Jace suggested, flicking a cobweb from his shoulder.
Acacia pressed her hands against her temples, feeling like her head might explode. She couldn’t remember the last time she thought this hard about anything. She knew there was a reason Aggie locked this room. There was something important here…but where? Acacia flinched as a gentle hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her muddied thoughts.
Harper had finally ventured further into the room, attempting to comfort her. She understood Acacia’s pain, but concocting insane theories and invading others’ privacy wasn’t the appropriate way to navigate through her grief. “There’s nothing here,” Harper said softly. “We should get back to Zinnia.”
Acacia swatted Harper’s hand away, narrowing her eyes. “Whatever,” she muttered, storming toward the door. She blew a stray hair from her face, but instead of falling back into place, it floated upward as if caught in an invisible breeze before settling atop her head.
Harper followed close behind, her steps cautious and quick.
“Girls,” Jace muttered, rolling his eyes. As he moved to join them, his gaze fell on a stack of books perched on the edge of the table. With a grunt, he reached out to knock them over, but before his fingers could even graze the bindings, a warm glow emitted from his palm, sending books cascading to the rug. He cast a wary glance at his hand before shoving it into his pocket and following the girls. “This place almost got interesting.”
Just as they reached the door, an eerie, rhythmic thud reverberated through the wooden floor, rattling from the ground beneath them to deep within their very bones, freezing them in their tracks.