A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(47)
Kendra gasped, and a wash of icy fear swept over me. Cassidy had told Kendra to give me a wide berth many times, but as a mother. A command from her coven leader couldn’t be disobeyed without facing some seriously harsh punishments.
I’d just lost my best friend.
Chapter Nineteen
There was a small buzzing sound. I burrowed deeper into the covers in an attempt to make it go away, but it wouldn’t be silenced. Groggy, I pulled my face from the pillow. It was still dark, the stars shining through my thin bedroom curtains. On the nightstand, my cell was lit up and rattling like a metal head in a mosh pit. “Whoever you are, you better be on the verge of being eaten by an entire nest of hellhounds…”
I made a grab for the cell, but missed, knocking my ancient iPod off the dresser. Thankfully, it landed in the safety of my shoe—one without demon dog drool. On the second swipe, I got the phone. The sudden light from the screen was harsh, and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust enough to read it. It was a text from Kendra.
Come outside.
I threw the covers aside and pulled my purple hoodie over my head with a yawn. Dad hadn’t been here when I came up to bed, but I tiptoed regardless. No reason to take chances. Not that I was doing anything wrong… Mom warned me about leaving the house at night, but technically I wasn’t. Well, at least I wasn’t stepping foot off the property. Same thing, really.
Down the stairs and through the office, I pulled open the door, reaching up to keep the bell from jingling. Kendra stood on the front lawn. She was in her pink ski jacket, with red flannel pants tucked into last year’s Uggs. I’d teased her relentlessly about them.
“Are you insane?” I whispered, trekking across the snow-covered grass. Craps. Shoes. I knew I’d forgotten something important. My socks were soaked through already, and my toes were beginning to numb.
“I’m sorry,” she said, meeting me halfway, pausing for a second before throwing her arms tight around me.
I returned the hug and pulled away. “Why the hell would you be sorry?”
“That I didn’t get back to the archives in time? That my mom is crazy? That I left with her—”
“Ken, I get it. Coven business. You had to leave.” A lump formed in my throat. “You shouldn’t be here. You were given an order.”
She shook her head. “I’m not giving up my best friend.” Her face paled, mouth forming a perfect O. “You didn’t really think—”
“What I think…” I couldn’t finish.
“Because as someone way smarter than me pointed out, I’m not Cassidy. I’m me. And me is a good person, not to mention a good witch. If Mom is Maleficent, then I’m Glenda, okay? I’m your Lorna. No matter what, I have your back, girl.”
Tears stung the corners of my eyes, and I pushed forward and threw my arms around her. “What I think, is that I love you like crazy, Kendra Belfair.”
Her shoulders shook with a laugh, and she pulled away. “You’re about to love me even more.”
With a blast of fetid air, Smokey appeared at my feet. “You found something.”
“Don’t get too excited,” she said, and went to sit on the steps. “I’m not sure what I have—or even if I have anything.”
I sank down beside her and pulled the sleeves of my hoodie down over my fingertips to stay warm. Smokey waddled through the snow, his short legs making the trek harder than it should be, then settled on my exposed toes. He gave a contented yap and rested his head atop my foot. “Okay, well, what did you maybe find?”
“Mom took everything out of the house when we got back. Notebooks, journals, she even nicked the spell books! She was on her way out to the car with the box, and she got a call. She just assumed I’d do as commanded and stay upstairs…”
I grinned. “You’re such a little rule breaker.”
“I didn’t find Lorna’s journal, but I did take this…” She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a yellowed piece of paper.
I had to skim it twice before seeing it. “It mentions Lorna Belfair’s mirror?”
“I think that’s what they used to trap the demon.” She took the paper back and pointed to the second to last line. “It says here that she imbued the mirror with great power, sacrificing much to rid the world of a terrible evil.”
“Was everyone so cryptic back then?” I sighed. “I read the same crap in Charles’s journal. Big sacrifice. Blah, blah, blah. But that doesn’t really tell us anything.”
“It doesn’t,” she agreed. “But read the last line. It mentions that this was the last job she would work on with Charles.”
“So?”
“So, why was it the last? What exactly did she sacrifice?”
“Town Hall!” I exclaimed, remembering the article about Lorna Belfair’s disappearance. “There was that bit at the Belfair table about Lorna disappearing. You think she had to die to trap you know who in the mirror?”
Kendra thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. “No. I mean, I know she left town, but our records show she didn’t die. At least not then. Maybe she and Charles had a falling out? Or something happened between her and the coven?”
“It did mention she was an outcast… There’s no way to find out, though? You just said your mom cleaned out the house and locked you out of the archives. Lorna’s been dead a long time, Ken. There’s no one from her time still around to ask.”