I smiled and nodded. “Exactly.” Then I headed to the door.
Outside, I put the box down and looked at the sun. It was east, behind the house, and I realized the view from the front deck, the swing there would be amazing. The sunset over the ocean. I made a vow to watch it later tonight. But right at this moment, I needed the northern point.
It’s to the left.Nix nudged me that way.
How do you know?I started around the side of the house as Megan and Nix laughed.
We are wolves. We know our directions.
I shook my head but kept walking. I wasn’t sure where I needed to be, but when I took one more step, I knew. This is where I needed to be. I dropped to my knees and pulled everything out of the box. Everyone froze beside me as I put everything on to the ground, kicking up a small amount of dirt into the air.
“Um, Amy?” Toya started'.
“Hanna, can you get me some wood? I need a little fire.” I cleared off a spot and looked back to the cabin.
“Amy?”
“Hanna? Can you bring two big rocks from the garden over here? I need to suspend the metal bowl over the fire.” I organized everything again.
I heard footsteps and I looked up to see Wendy. “I got the bowl.”
“AMY!” Toya screamed, finally snapping my attention to her.
“What?” I sat back on my feet.
“Do you realize where we are?” Toya looked around.
“North?” I was still focused on the spell.
“My daddy died here.”
Carly’s words had my stomach dropping. I finally looked around and realized everyone was staring at me, but I couldn’t blame them. This place, this place was still so fresh in our mind from last night.
“We need to move this to a new spot.” Micca offered, but I shook my head. This was the spot that I needed.
“We can’t.” I looked down at the ground, blood still a dark stain that I didn’t see. But now I understood. “This is the only place for this spell, and I think Carl knew that.” I sat back on my feet and waited.
“What do you mean, this is the only place for the spell?” Toya crouched in front of me.
“The spell has to be cast at the north point of the property. The spell, the barrier, stops people from finding those within. My father cast one to keep Carly safe, but since he went into hiding, he wasn’t able to come here to renew it.”
“Renew it?” Micca looked around. “How do you do that?”
“This spell is powered by a sacrifice. The hair of the cloaked, and blood.” I swallowed. “Normally it is the blood of the caster…”
“But Carl…” Toya started, and I nodded.
“My daddy, he fought to get here.” Cary whispered. We all turned to face her.
“What baby?” I grabbed her hand and pulled her closer.
“My daddy. He fought through the men to get to this place. And then he stayed here.” She met my eyes, and a tear trembled at the corner of her eye. “I watched from the window. But he made sure to be here.” She pointed to the ground. Then her eyes bounced back to mine. “He knew, didn’t he?”
I just nodded. “He wanted to make sure you were going to be safe for the rest of your life, baby girl.”
She sank to her butt. “He did this to protect me?” Her question was soft, and I chuckled softly.
“Oh baby. Everything he did was to protect you.” I kissed her head, and we waited for the rocks and wood. Hanna came back with the wood, Wendy following her with the rocks.
