Page 6 of An Invocation of Monsters

I’d hugged her at every opportunity. Held one of her hands as I read to her during chemo treatments. I tried to force the power through me when I touched her.

But it didn’t work, and I was stumped as to why she was the one person I couldn’t heal.

The answers were here in these woods, in the place she’d hidden.

So no matter how weird this was, or if the people she’d been friends with looked like serial killers, it didn’t matter.

I had to keep going.

Kase glanced at me when I pulled my glove back on. “We’re almost there.”

A minute later, he pulled the truck off the gravel track and onto a paved drive. We drove under trees that bent inward, framing the road for us. Through the packed trunks, I could see the glitter of the sun on water, and a lake expanding in the distance.

My mouth dropped open for a second when I got my first look at Deepwater Lodge.

The lake itself was huge, but the mansion perched on the edge was just as awe-inspiring from its sheer size.

It was a chunk of modernized Victorian architecture dropped in the middle of the wilds, a confection of floor-to-ceiling windows, stained glass glowing with roseate colors, and a tower or three that nearly matched the surrounding pines in height.

“Welcome to Deepwater Lodge,” Kase said proudly, as my gaze finally dropped to the lawn surrounding the Lodge and its front doors.

A shard of disquiet lodged itself in my chest.

The double front doors were framed with more antlers, and there was a young woman about my age sitting on the stone wall surrounding the mansion.

She looked like the female version of Kase: tanned skin, dirty blonde hair, wearing a shabby chic white dress. She was barefoot, a flower crown of Queen Anne’s Lace and daisies set atop the mass of wild curls.

I frowned as we drew closer, watching as the girl tore several petals from a daisy and tossed them in the air as she watched us drive past, like a mock-celebration of throwing confetti.

Kase pulled around a gardening shed and parked the truck behind it. I slid out with relief and managed to brush him off before he could grab my duffel bag, slinging it over my shoulder.

I turned around and my heart almost leaped out of my chest. The girl was standing right behind me, almost nose to nose with me.

Her eyes were enormous, a clear shade of blue. A faint smile touched her lips. “You must be Elle,” she said, extending a hand. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

“Yes, I’m Elle Gray.” I took her hand, waiting for the inevitable frown when she felt my glove, but the vague smile never left her face. She never blinked, either.

“This is Willow Barrett,” Kase said, his gaze flicking between the two of us.

“Mary and Joseph are waiting,” Willow said, abruptly releasing my hand. She was still staring at me. I was quite sure her eyelids hadn’t moved once since I’d turned around.

I resisted the urge to wipe my hand on my thigh as I followed Kase. I was wearing gloves, and she didn’t look dirty, besides.

There was just something about her that made me feel like I’d flipped over a rock and found the underside crawling with fat white grubs.

My gut churned again as we approached the front doors of Deepwater Lodge, the racks of antlers looking spiny and like they might reach out to grab us, but there was no pop in my ears, no sudden pain.

I walked into the place my mother had come to every summer, my chest tight.

What was I hoping to find here?

It was beautiful, the ceiling of the foyer rising several stories. Everything was made of dark wood, offset by the cream furniture and golden sconces on the walls.

While I couldn’t imagine my polished mother backpacking in the woods, I could definitely imagine her coming here. Then I closed my eyes, breathed deep, and smelled the waft of a magnolia candle.

The tightness in my chest was almost unbearable. That was my mother’s scent. She’d always had a magnolia candle burning in our house.

It was like walking in and being hugged by a ghost.

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