“It was nice seeing you.” I turn around again, auburn ponytail swishing behind me. I’m familiar with the girl behind the counter, since I’m here all the time, and we make small talk while she rings me up. Then I head home, and the rest of the day passes much faster than I expected it to.
After taking Mystery for a ride around the property, Ethan and I went over the self-defense moves we’ve been working on. Then it was time to take a shower, get dressed, and of course, agonize over what I should wear tonight. I decided on dark jeans, boots, and a green sweater that compliments my hair. I’m pacing around the house when Ruby pulls in the driveway, and I make myself wait twenty seconds to answer the door after she rings the bell, so I don’t come off as creepy.
“Hi,” I say, opening the door.
“Hey,” Ruby replies. She’s dressed casually today in jeans and a puffy blue coat. “Ready to head out?”
“Yeah.” I turn, grabbing my coat off the banister of the grand stairs where I stashed it and put it on. I already said bye to Ethan—who’s in the parlor playing video games with Nik—and step outside onto the front porch with Ruby. Hunter shadows forward, going past us both and waiting by Ruby’s car. “Thanks again for taking me.”
“Of course,” she says. “And once you’re comfortable, you can come and go as you please. You are part of the coven. I mean, if you want to stay.”
“Trust me, I do.” We get into the car and I instantly relax when I hear AC/DC playing. “You like classic rock?”
“On occasion,” Ruby replies. “Do you?”
“It’s my favorite.” Smiling, I pull my seatbelt over my lap and click it in place. “I grew up hearing my dad listen to it and it just kinda stuck, I guess.”
“Same for me.” She pulls out of the driveway and heads into Thorne Hill. “So, the door is in the woods. Most of us park by a bait shop. It’s a rouse, of course, and it’s spelled to keep nons away. They see the shop, know what it is, but don’t have the desire to go to it. The door is not far from there, which is nice when the weather sucks.”
“Hah. I didn’t even think of that. But I guess that would be a problem when the way into the coven is hidden in the woods.”
“Exactly. You don’t know the town's history , do you?”
I shake my head. “Not the true history, I’m guessing.”
Ruby smiles. “Probably not. You know a Ley line runs through town, and we get the name Thorne Hill from the Thorne bushes that were magically placed to protect the Ley line. But when settlers started eyeing the land, witches knew they had to move in. This was over a century ago when people had more land than they do now. So spacing things out didn’t seem as weird, I guess. We still wanted our door somewhere out of the way, so to speak, and it’s fairly easy to place protection circles and enchantments in the woods. Nature holds a good magical charge on its own. So, while the door seems like it’s on the outskirts of town, it was done on purpose. Plus, a vein of the Ley line trickles off and goes right to it.”
“That’s…incredible.” I glance at Ruby. “And probably seems so normal for you.”
“Yeah. I grew up just knowing this stuff. Then I got to teach it, and it really seems like second nature.”
“You probably don’t come across too many people like me, do you?”
“You mean people who are magical but don’t know much about it?”
“Yeah.” I make a face and she laughs.
“No, I’ve never seen anyone have their memories taken in your sense, but we do see people who were raised outside the coven want to join and learn everything they can. Don’t worry. You’ll catch on fast.”
“I really hope so. For my safety’s sake.”
“What do you mean?”
I fidget my hands in my lap, remembering Ethan’s warning not to readily trust Ruby, though I’m already in too deep. “I, um, realized I was a witch when demons were sent after me. Turns out they wanted revenge on my aunt for binding their powers too. And then only a few weeks ago, I accidentally kinda resurrected a demon that my aunt had reduced to ashes and locked in a magically sealed box…that I opened.”
Ruby lets off the gas and looks at me for a few seconds. Then she laughs. “You’re starting to remind me of a friend.”
“Is that bad?”
“No. I’m sure you’ll meet her…eventually. Coven members have a tendency to know who she is.”
“I hope I can meet her even more now.” We make small talk the rest of the way, and I remember pointing out this bait shop to Ethan when we first moved to Thorne Hill. I thought it was weird to have a bait shop at the edge of the woods, in a town that doesn’t have any big ponds or lakes for fishing. And he just brushed it off, which was weird at the time but makes sense now that I know the place is spelled, keeping people—just like Ethan—away.