Beth didn’t seem nearly as keen on sharing her experiences. She flushed, casting an apprehensive glance at the agent. “Um…it’s more Finley’s story, really. He got a better look at it.”
Shan tilted his head at Finley, who seemed to have discovered a sudden intense interest in drawing scientifically accurate leaves on the banner. “What did you see?”
Finley fidgeted with his pen, avoiding the agent’s hidden gaze. “Well, it’s hard to say, really.”
“Oh, comeon,” Estelle said in exasperation. She leaned toward Shan, dropping her voice to what was probably meant to be a conspiratorial whisper. “They don’t want to talk because most adults don’t believe in stuff like this. They’re worried you’ll laugh at them.”
Shan’s face was as serious as a terminal diagnosis. “I will not laugh.”
“I don’t think this guyeverlaughs,” Archie muttered.
“I would like to hear your story,” Shan said to Beth and Finley. For such a big man, his deep voice was surprisingly gentle. “I promise to take it seriously.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Leonie noticed Rufus pause, a book in his hands. He was watching Shan too, she realized, though not openly. It was always hard to read Rufus’s closed,still face, but she didn’t get the impression he’d caught the agent in a lie. More like he’dexpectedShan to lie, and was trying to figure out why he hadn’t.
“See?” Estelle said to Finley and Beth. She made a kind of ‘go on’ motion with her hands, as though trying to shoo words out of their mouths. “He wants to hear all about it. So tell him.”
Finley still looked a bit reluctant, though Leonie couldn’t tell if he was indeed worried about not being believed, or battling with his honor. “Well…first of all, you have to understand that Thunder Mountain is a special place. I don’t mean because of the camp, or the shifter community. It has a history of strange events.”
Shan nodded, as though this wasn’t the least surprising. “I know.”
Something about the way he said it made Leonie suspect he was speaking from personal experience. Most of those ‘strange events’ had occurred years ago, long before she’d come to Thunder Mountain herself. Still, she’d heard enough stories from family and friends to know that Shifter Affairs had been tangentially involved. She made a mental note to ask Zephyr if Shan had been one of the agents sent to assist.
Finley, for his part, seemed reassured by this calm reception to his tale so far. He relaxed a little, words flowing more easily. “Years ago, something evil came into our world here. I wasn’t even born back then, so I’ve only heard my parents’ stories. They drove it back?—”
“Withmyparents,” Estelle broke in, clearly unable to contain herself.
“And mine,” Beth added, her narrow shoulders straightening with pride. “My mom and dad both fought too.”
Archie, finding himself left out of this story, folded his arms, his bottom lip sticking out. “Hmph. If there had beenany bears there, I bet the battle would have been over a lot quicker.”
“Bears make strong allies,” Shan said, which made Archie stop pouting. “But in any case, I know that the evil was defeated. Permanently.”
“Yeah, that’s how our parents tell it too.” Estelle dropped her voice, adopting a spooky tone. “But was it?”
Shan tilted his head at her. “You believe it was not?”
Estelle shrugged. “From what my dad says, there were a lot of evil things running around back then. Maybe one of ‘em managed to hide. Everyone says there’s still something creepy lurking in the woods.”
Archie nodded eagerly. “It’s true. I met a camper last year who had stone cold proof that the ghost really exists. His older brother was at camp three years ago, and he swore on his life that one of his packmates had a friend in another cabin whose sister’s cousin actuallysawit.”
Shan, to his credit, somehow managed to keep a straight face. “I see. But I am more interested in the most recent encounter. What exactly did you see, Finley?”
Finley hesitated. Archie and Estelle stared pointedly at him, as if he were an actor who’d missed his cue.
Leonie had been starting to get a little worried—so far, the kids had seemed completely earnest, and there was no denying that evilhadvisited Thunder Mountain in the past. Now, however, her intuition prickled. You didn’t spend years working at a summer camp without developing a finely honed instinct for when you were about to hear a detailed, plausible, and completely fictitious story.
“I didn’t see it clearly,” Finley hedged. “It was late, and getting dark. But a couple of weeks ago, Beth and I were hanging around the cabins, waiting for her mom to come pick us up.”
“We’ve all been helping get the camp ready for summer,”explained Estelle, who’d always been constitutionally incapable of letting someone else tell a story that she also knew. “But that day, me and Archie and Rufus had all gone home already, because we live closer to the camp than Finley and Beth. That’s why we weren’t there.”
Leonie strongly suspected that therealreason was that, out of the group, Beth and Finley made the most reliable witnesses—except for Rufus, of course. But while her nephew would rather set himself on fire than betray a secret, he didn’t have a dishonest bone in his body. Asking him to spin a wild goose tale would be like trying to teach a fish to hula hoop.
She glanced sidelong at her nephew. Rufus had frozen in place, task forgotten. It was rare for him to look directly at anyone, but now he was staring at his friends, mouth set in a tense line. Whatever was going on here, he didn’t like it.
“We were sitting on the steps of one of the cabins.” Finley didn’t sound much happier about this story than Rufus. “Not doing much, just talking. I happened to look toward the woods, and I saw…”
“A light,” Estelle supplied when Finley didn’t continue. “At the edge of the trees.”
