When Mae Kingsley is forced to move into her family’s rundown lake house, she discovers small town living is not as simple as it seems. Bursts of violence, silent treatments, archaic rituals and two very cute guys with seriously mysterious motives all appear with the rising of the new moon.
But that’s nothing compared to the family secrets soon to be revealed. A box sealed in a vault, hidden rooms, naked swimming. There’s a trove of family revelations just beneath the floorboards, waiting to be exposed.
As the paranormal bonding season for the High Council Witches begins, Mae must quickly decide who to trust and who to fear before a deadly family tradition repeats itself and her chance to live a normal life completely disappears.
Excerpt
Ticket to ride
“Uh, hi,” I said.
The school bus driver just picked up her clipboard and checked me off her list. She swung the door closed behind me and wrestled the stick shift into drive.
“You didn’t find a gold chain with a moon charm on it, did you?” I asked.
“No.”
She didn’t take her eyes off the road.
“Oh. Okay… thanks.”
I doubted she did much of a cleaning or even a spot check at the end of her route, so I bent to look under the seats myself.
“Whatcha doin’?” Kate asked as I made my way back.
“I lost my necklace.”
I peeked under the seats on either side of the aisle, but no jewelry.
“I always double clasp mine,” Kate said.
How nice for you, I thought, but held my tongue.
When I was convinced the floor didn’t have my chain, I got up from my hands and knees and tried to dust off the grime.
Kate made a face.
I purposefully sat down in the seat located the row behind her instead of sitting beside her and looked out the window, willing her to get the message and turn forward in her chair.
Kate was always on the bus before me, and it was common practice to plunk oneself down in the same seat as a friend so neither of you got stuck with a seat mate you didn’t like, especially on a route as full as this one. So in choosing to glide past and sit by myself, I hoped to gently point out her rightful place as an acquaintance, not a friend, without being too rude.
But if she didn’t take the hint soon, all pretense might disappear.
I popped in my earbuds and finally, seeing I wasn’t in the mood to chat, Kate dropped back around in her seat. I exhaled the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.
After that, the bumpy route was quiet.
I stared out the dirty window and tried to silence the humming questions buzzing about in my brain.
The bus pulled up to the stop where the girl who’d sat beside me had boarded. She was there waiting for us, but at our arrival, she didn’t move to get on the bus. The driver stared out at her, the bus door cranked wide open, but still the black-haired girl didn’t move. Our driver waited another moment, but it was clear the girl wasn’t boarding.
“Fine by me.” The driver swung the door shut.
On the girl’s face, I detected a bit of a smile. She hopped up off the tree stump and started walking back up the gravel road to her house.
“Wait!” I shouted.
I hurried up to the front of the bus.
“I want off. I want off the bus.”
“That’s not how this works.” The driver clamped the bracket to lock the door. “You get on at your stop, you get off at the school.”
“But I want off here.”
“And I want a rich man to pay for my jet skis. Them’s the breaks.”
I watched helplessly as we pulled back into traffic.
“You didn’t make her ride.”
“Not on my bus, not my problem.”
The bus lurched into the street.
I had to catch my body weight and brace for a sudden stop.
“Now go sit down,” she criticized. “It’s not safe to be standing.”
It was pointless to draw her attention to the fact that she was the one who’d decided to drive away amidst our conversation. I weaved my way back to my empty bench.
Kate watched me arrive. Her eyes were wide as saucers.
I briefly considered avoiding her and finding a new place to sit altogether, but when I looked around for another spot to take, they were all filled.
That made sense.
The black-haired girl had only sat beside me because there were no other benches unmanned. Reluctantly, I sat back down in the row behind Kate.
“Why’d you want to get off?” she asked.
I almost laughed out loud.
Good question.
“I dunno,” I admitted. “I just didn’t feel like going to school.”
That wasn’t it, but it seemed reasonable enough. And Kate didn’t push.
“Tell me about it,” she agreed. “My geography teacher, Ms. Stelliston, gave us two chapters to read and sixteen questions. On the very first day! What a sadist. I have a whole after-school regime, of course, to complete all my homework. But that seems wildly excessive…” Kate continued to prattle on, leaning into my personal space, elbow dangling over my seat.
I didn’t bother to try to regain my privacy.
I just punctuated her stories with enough nods and oh yeahs to keep her chattering the whole way to school.
Deep down, I think we both knew I didn’t hear a word.
Author Bio
Julie Catherine is an author, screenwriter and playwright.
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I love the whole idea of High Council Witches.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being on the tour!
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