He goes through the east wing and into the kitchen. Stopping at the door, I wait at the threshold, hoping he isn’t in a destructive mood tonight.
“No!” I whisper-shout and lunge in his direction when he shrinks into his orb-state and moves toward the top cabinets.
Letting out a sigh of relief when he only opens the door before morphing back, I quickly move to close it when I see what’s in there: the everoot Rowyn had swept up after he threw the bowl in anger.
Shaking my head, I look back at him. “I don’t understand. We can’t take that. I have to save it.” His apparition flickers, something I’ve come to take as disagreement. If he’s not referring to the Foxglove sisters, then what? “Can you show me something else? Anything? I’m trying. I just—I need help, Nestor.”
For the first time, he nods. It’s quick—one single bob of his head before he’s turning away from me and heading toward the back porch.
Rushing behind him, I lose his translucent form in the dark until he stops under a beam of moonlight, waiting for me.
I don’t let him out of my sight again, but I become wary of where he’s taking me. We pass the garden and wildflowers at the edge of it. Without stopping, he moves through the trees. Looking around, I bite my lip and consider what to do. It’s creepy as hell out here. Without the foliage, most of the light from the moon makes it through the branches.
Nestor stops and turns abruptly when he notices I’m not following anymore. He flickers, showing his agitation. Letting out a breath, I run to catch up and follow him to the other side of the tree line.
This has to be on the property because it’s just as dead out here as the gardens. The grass is yellow and brittle, crunching under my boots. Even in the dark, I can make out the dark murky brown water in the lake.
It’s familiar despite never venturing this far. It’s not somewhere I recognize, but I swear I’ve been here before… Maybe in a dream…
Or a nightmare.
When Petra told me to leave my mother’s home and never go back.
Spinning in place, confusion growing, I find Nestor standing by a tree off the trail we followed. There’s a rusted shovel that looks like it corroded into the tree. When he snaps into the glowing orb, he hits it repeatedly. It makes a loud snapping sound as it breaks off from the trunk. It takes Nestor three attempts.
“Am I… Am I supposed to use that?” I ask.
He flickers once and watches me.
Grabbing it, I try to hide the disgust from my face and look around for any signs of where to begin. Growing impatient, Nestor, in his orb-state, hits the ground directly below him.
“Got it,” I mutter and roll my eyes at his dramatics.
It doesn’t take long. The large wooden box is less than half a meter into the ground, but it’s heavier than I expected.
Giving it a tentative shake, I can feel things sliding around inside. I glance at Nestor and hope there’s nothing dead inside.
Something alive would be worse, but unlikely.
The last thing I expect to find are books; at least eight that are bound in familiar, dark leather.
“Petra’s other journals…” I muse in awe. They’re replicas of the one I’ve stared at almost every night since arriving at the inn.
“Nestor,” I say and look up at him. “Did you find these? Is this why you haven’t been around the last few days?”
He bobs his head again, confirming my assumptions.
Then without a word, he breaks into a cloud of smoke before fading into the night air. I’ve never seen him completely disappear like that, though ghosts can hide their presence.
Not wanting to be out here alone, even if a ghost isn’t much protection anyway, I lift the box to my chest and run up to my room.
April 9, 1914
For such a horrible morning, the entire day turned around by mid-afternoon.
Mom refuses to hire more help at the inn, despite how desperately we need it. I spent the first half of my day running around town on urgent errands and lugging a cart with me. When I stopped for lunch, only halfway through my list, I ran into Nestor, and his friend Barrett.
I almost started crying on the spot when he asked me to attend his family’s dinner party that evening, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish in time! Not when I had ten more stops to make and was in desperate need of a bath. To my surprise, both boys offered to help me so I would have time to get home and shower.
