Thanks for the ominous advice, lady.
“I-I don’t know how,” I confessed.
“First, you’ll need to locate it. Something your grandmother could never do without kitsune sight.” Her face had softened so I could glimpse the woman my Gran had been close to during her life.
“Kitsune sight?” My brows drew together. I needed another freakish power, like I needed a bee sting on the ass.
The witch nodded. “In your kitsune form, you’ll be able to see the gate clear as day.”
“But you just told me not to shift too much.” My head was officially spinning.
She placed a hand over mine across the table. “I’m sorry, kid. But you’re going to have to make some hard choices, and deal with some hard outcomes. There’s no rulebook for this sort of thing.”
“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.” I actually felt worse since coming to see the witch.
“When in doubt, trust yourself above all others. As your magic comes alive, it will guide you. It will tell you what to do. If you listen carefully, and follow your own innate wisdom, your path will be true.” Her words rang with truth, and I finally understood why Gran had chosen her to speak with me.
Trusting myself was something I could do.
“Okay.” What else was there to say? I could barely make sense of my thoughts after what she’d told me.
Willemena stood.
“What? That’s it?” I blurted out, working to keep the panic at bay.
“Just one last thing and then you can be on your way.” She went over to a bookshelf, and pulled down a medium-sized black lacquer box, blowing the dust off it. When she reached me, her hands lifted the lid of the box to reveal a black leather-bound book nestled inside. A moonstone in the shape of an eye graced the center of its cover, reflecting a rainbow of colors from the sun rays that reached us through the window.
“Do you know what this is?” Willemena asked.
I swallowed hard, remembering Gran’s spell book and how similar it was to this book. Gran’s was black leather as well, though her moonstone was larger and in the shape of a crescent moon. When a witch’s magic presents itself by age five, they’re given a family spell book. They are invaluable to a witch’s education.
“A grimoire,” I whispered.
A freaking grimoire!
But why did it look familiar?
“It was your mother’s, and your great grandmother’s before that. Now it’s yours.” Willemena deposited the heavy book into my arms, and a sudden jolt of electricity raced down my body.
“What am I supposed to do with it?” She did get that I had no idea, right?
She chuckled. “You’ll have to figure it out, kid. But when your witch magic settles in, you’ll want this. Trust me.”
Great.
“Okay, ah, thanks.” I said it almost like a question and stood.
“That’s all for now, but I’ll be paying attention, Evie Black. If I get something that might help you, I’ll let you know through the smoke.”
“What do I owe you for your services?” I asked. No witch worked for free. In fact, no member of the supernatural community did, and I didn’t want to owe any favors.
“You owe me nothing, dear. Belinda already paid in full. If I can help, I will, and not just because of Belinda and the debt she made sure I owed her, but because of that gate. If you don’t manage to keep it shut, there’ll be lots more to worry about than your unpredictable magic and hybrid baby. We’ll all be lucky to keep our heads.”
And she seemed like she meant that—literally. Well, if her plan was to shake me up, it worked.
As she shoved me out the door, closing it rapidly behind her, I met Cass’ questioning gaze first, before I offered Molly the most tremulous smile in history. No one bothered to ask how badly it had gone. It was obvious. Cass only raised an eyebrow at the spell book in my hands.
We all trampled to the truck in silence and headed toward home. Cass must’ve really felt the weight of Willemena’s message, because he let me get halfway home before he made me tell him everything. After I did, neither he nor Molly had anything to say until we pulled up the long dirt road that led toward the cabin, Brock’s mansion, and apparently the gate to torment.
