Page 2 of Autumn Ritual

I stopped short, rubbing my arms. That could work. My parents wouldn’t hesitate to let me spend the next few months there. I would be close enough to have the occasional dinner with them, while still being able to disappear into my work.

A real smile tipped my lips. Acres of land would provide solitude. The view while writing would inspire the setting of my romantasy. Fresh fall air, walks along the shivering shore, a glass of wine on the deck with a fire—I could do that!

By the time we left the haunted maze, I was practically jumping up and down with excitement. Leaving the city was the best choice. Coming back to my roots wasn’t career suicide. I took life’s lemons and made the best damn cocktail ever.

“Let’s grab some food!” Carlo suggested.

I looked around our group. There was one person I needed to say goodbye to, and then I would slip away. Socializing wasn’t my favorite thing. Granted, I’d grown up with these people, but their brains were built differently. They had jobs that required human interaction. They thrived off their social calendars. I was content to be alone.

“Where’s Ivry?” I asked.

Maria tossed her faux blonde pigtails. “I don’t know. Did we lose her?”

“She’s not here.”

“She’s a big girl,” Giosuè laughed. “She can handle herself.”

I was about to yell at him that leaving someone behind in the corn maze was wrong, when Maria began to vibrate with energy.

“The don is here,” Maria stage whispered.

Carlo pulled himself up straight. As did every other guy in our group. Their change in posture was a silent salute to their fearsome leader.

Camilla snorted. “Yeah? So?”

“So, we should go say hi,” Maria insisted, looking across the event area like a huntress who’d spotted her prey.

I pulled out my phone and dialed my friend as the girls in our group broke away to talk to Lucian Ravello while the boys went to scope out the food trucks. There was a wrestling match in the corn pit, and someone was playing king of the hill on the haybale castle. Dozens of visitors were selecting pumpkins from the benches and antique chairs to purchase. The line to enter the maze was still long. Good for the town and their event committee.

An icy breeze slithered across my skin.

“Sara?” Ivry answered in a breathless rush, her voice crackling in my ear.

“Hey! Are you still in the maze? Do you need us to come back to find you?” I clapped a hand over my other ear to hear her response.

“Oh! No,” Ivry laughed. “Sorry, I should have texted. But I already left.”

Relief rushed through me, followed by a spike of annoyance. Ivry was older than the rest of us and had been like my big sister growing up. She even stayed home alone with me sometimes when she was a teen, and I was the gangly kid in braces. And when I was sick, she was my biggest cheerleader. Her unshakeable faith helped ground me through the cancer treatments. We’d always been close.

But she could have told me she’d left. “Okay, good, I’m about to leave too.”

“Sorry if I worried you.” Ivry sounded contrite.

“No problem, talk to you tomorrow?” I asked absently as Maria intercepted the mafia boss with her flock of friends.

The hairs on my arms lifted as another chilling blast of the supernatural fluttered through the event. I looked around but didn’t see anything.

“Sure thing!” Ivry chirped, and the call disconnected.

I shook myself.

It was hard to be upset with Ivry for ditching us. I hadn’t been interactive with the group while we’d traipsed through the corn maze. My own thoughts consumed me enough that I hadn’t even noticed her absence. Ivry was just the one friend I more than tolerated, so wondering if she was lost had worried me.

I need to be a better friend.

Just another reason why the lake house held appeal. I wouldn’t be interrupted with obligations unless I came into town. There would be a legitimate excuse to be a hermit.

“Okay, I’m going to head out,” I told Camilla.