She may have been absent from her hometown for the last twenty years, but some things never changed, and Mercy’s small-town mentality was one of them. She knew, without a shadow of doubt, that the second she set foot on Mercy soil, the news that the “West girl” had returned would spread like wildfire. Before long, all anyone would be talking about was how her father had brutally murdered her mother.
Olivia lifted her head from the wheel and leaned back against the seat, dropping her hands to her lap. They didn’t know the truth, none of them did, not even the cops. She’d spent years trying not to think about that night. She squeezed her eyes closed as the memories tried to force their way to the surface. For years, she’d managed to lock them up tight, shoving them into the deepest recesses of her mind—that is, until now.
The closer she got to Mercy, the more the memories had started to chip away at her defenses, and with every mile marker, her stomach tightened with anxiety and her heart began to pound harder, her neck and back clammy with sweat despite the cool fall air.
She shouldn’t have come. She sure as hell didn’t need the inheritance, a rickety old house on the edges of a lake in the middle of New England. The stupid thing was probably falling to pieces anyway. She should just put the car in reverse and leave. Her hand hovered over the gears, trembling for a second before she fisted her palm so tightly that her nails left tiny half-moon indentations in her skin.
She couldn’t leave, and she damn well knew it. It was the same reason she’d made the journey in the first place, the same reason she’d ignored the nagging, perverse little voice inside her that hadn’t shut up the whole drive from Providence.
The town of Mercy was hiding a dark secret. Something old and powerful lay beneath its sleepy streets, and it was beginning to stir. She’d felt the raw tug of power, heard the sly cajoling whisper. It was calling to her. Even now she could hear it, a relentless drumbeat in her chest.
She didn’t notice the sky begin to darken as the dark black and purple clouds rolled in ominously. Every now and then, a small, muted burst of light pierced through the cloud cover. A deep rumble rippled through the turbulent skies, but Olivia paid no mind. Her vision began to dim at the edges as a strange buzzing filled her mind. There was a sudden tightening around her ribcage. It felt like something was calling to her, a seductive whisper that a part of her somehow recognized.
Olivia…
She jolted suddenly at a loud banging on her window, and with her heart pounding erratically in her chest, she sucked in a sharp, startled breath. She turned to look through the rain-spattered window and could make out a uniform beneath a heavy raincoat. Her eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, and sure enough, she caught a glimpse of flashing lights. Taking a breath to calm her still-racing heart, she lowered the window, blinking rapidly as cold raindrops struck her face.
“Problem, Officer?” She cleared her throat, hoping her voice didn’t sound as shaky as she felt.
“Ma’am.” He nodded in greeting as he stooped low, leaning toward her with his hand resting on the top of her door. She didn’t miss the way his eyes swept over her, and then casually scanned the interior of the car. “Is everything alright?”
“Yes, thank you,” she replied as she studied the ruggedly good-looking man in his thirties, noting the warm, dark brown eyes, and the hint of a beard. Her gaze dipped to the badge pinned to his jacket.
“I’m afraid you can’t stop here,” he informed her, the rain dripping from the wide brim of his hat as he gazed up at the rumbling sky. “Got some strange weather rolling in.”
“So I see,” Olivia murmured as she watched another heavy black and gray cloud flicker with light.
“Ma’am?” His brow furrowed as he studied her. “Do you require assistance?”
“No.” She sighed deeply as she looked up at him. “Just a backbone.”
“Well, if you’re certain,” he replied warily. “You be sure and drive safe. The road up ahead can get a little slippery, and there’s a sharp bend to the right about a quarter of a mile in.”
She nodded as he stepped back, still watching her carefully. “Thanks.”
Given no other choice, she rolled the window back up and finally dropped the gear into drive and eased back onto the road. By the time she hit the edge of town, she realized the place had barely changed in the two decades she’d been absent. Walker’s Auto was still there, as was the Sidecar Diner. Slowing her car, she turned onto Main Street, passing by Bailey’s convenience store on one side of the street and the traditional Irish pub, The Salted Bone, on the other.
The old ice cream parlor, Miz Willow’s Scoop’n’Shake, was still there, a site that brought an unconscious smile to her lips. She found herself wondering idly if the sweet old hippie still ran the place. She felt a small, unexpected pang of nostalgia and was forced to admit that maybe her memories of Mercy weren’t all bad. She could still remember running down to Miz Willow’s for a sundae on a hot summer’s day with her best friends Jake and Louisa. She shook her head as a slight smile continued to play on her lips. No, the memories weren’t all bad.
She passed by the library and Old Mercy Mutual Savings and Trust, then the Mercy Museum of Magic and Witchcraft. When she was a kid, the museum had been one of her most favorite places in the world, run by a lovely old German woman named Ms. Gershon. She was probably gone by now, Olivia contemplated regretfully. After all, it had been over twenty years, and she’d seemed ancient when Olivia was a kid. If she hadn’t passed away, she’d almost certainly have retired by now.
Heading east onto Walnut Drive and then north onto Maple, her smile slowly began to fade, replaced with a kind of grim determination as she drove deeper into the heart of town. There was one place in particular she needed to visit before heading up to the lake house, and she knew the longer she put it off, the harder it would be.
With a heavy heart, she pulled over and parked on the side of the street. Her heartbeat sped up, knocking hard against her ribs and a low-pitched whine hummed in her ears. Climbing out of the car, she pulled her jacket tight against the wind, noting that the rain had picked up once again.
The moment her foot hit the sidewalk she experienced a peculiar throb of energy. It wasn’t the same as the presence she’d sensed earlier, this was different. It felt like it was coming from the town itself, as if Mercy were somehow alive. She gazed along the quiet residential street of the tidy little cul-de-sac and blinked against the rain collecting on her eyelashes. For the barest hint of a second, she could’ve sworn she could see winding ribbons of energy like a central nervous system with tiny synapses connecting everything. Even the ground itself pulsed and throbbed with magic.
She lifted her face to the dying light, allowing the cold rain to patter against her face, and as she breathed in deeply, she felt the air crackle with magic.
What the hell was going on? Had the town always been this way? Was it just that she’d been unable to detect it as a child? Or was the strange undercurrent of power something more recent?
Her gaze swept over the neat row of houses noting the minute changes that had occurred during her twenty-year absence. Although some houses had been painted different colors than she remembered and what had been fledgling trees planted either side of the road, were now fully grown, she still recognized the place.
Taking a few tentative steps down the street she stopped at the edge of what had once been her childhood home’s front lawn. She’d ridden her shiny red Schwinn along this very sidewalk, rolled wildly across the soft, green carpet of lawn with her sweet cocker spaniel, Truman.
There was nothing left but a void where her home had once stood. She stared at the vacant plot of land in front of her sandwiched between a pair of cute two-story clapboard houses. The memories came thick and fast, her mother reading her bedtime stories after an evening of sitting out on the back stoop on clear nights, watching in fascination as her father pointed out the constellations.
Feeling an intense stab of pain and loss Olivia sucked in a sharp breath and shut her eyes against the rapid film reel of images that slammed through her mind.
