Page 4 of Sacred

I bluntly cut him off. “I can take care of myself. The real issue is getting answers out of those pricks. You know how they stonewalled the cops.”

“If an entire police department, and then later the FBI, weren’t able to prove anything, then what makes you thinkyoucan?” he asked. He immediately put his palms up. “Just sayin’, man. Not trying to be a dick.”

“I know what you’re saying,” I replied, tightening my grip on the steering wheel. “But like I said, I’ll figure it out. I always figure it out.”

The Covenant girl was in my head again, haunting me with that lilting tune she’d sung as she gathered berries. She was beautiful, but there was something else about her that caught my attention as well. Something strangely familiar that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But that didn’t make sense. I’d never been to Alderwood before, and my mother was never allowed to take photos during her time there. I couldn’t possibly have seen this girl before.

Her plump red lips flashed in my mind’s eye again, along with the sight of her wide-eyed gaze as she cast it around the woods, searching for the source of the sound I’d made with my boots. The seeds of a dark plan were slowly beginning to take root in my head. It would take a long time to figure out the details and make it all happen. Months, maybe even years. But in the end, it might be the only way for me to get real answers from the Covenant.

My lips curved into a thin smile. Jesse noticed and sat up straight. “Are you thinking what Ithinkyou’re thinking right now?” he asked, eyes narrowing.

“Depends on what you’re thinking.”

“You’re going to go back tomorrow to try and talk to that girl you saw, aren’t you?”

I nodded slowly. Talk? Not so much. Other shit? Sure. But Jesse didn’t need to know the finer details.

“Yup,” I said, staring straight ahead at the road. “I’m going back.”

3

Rose

“Miss Trudeau?”

I snapped out of my reverie and looked up. “Yes, Emilie?”

“I was just asking when the writing test is.”

“Oh, yes.” I sat up straight and forced a smile. “Sorry. I, er… I was just a little lost in thought there. The test is next Tuesday, so you have plenty of time to study.”

“Thank you, Miss Trudeau.” Emilie smiled and turned to join the other students slowly trickling out of the classroom.

I sighed and returned my attention to the tall stack of slates on the side of my desk. For writing tests, the Alderwood schoolhouse used paper, but today’s class for my students was arithmetic-focused, meaning their work was completed on slates that could easily be scrubbed off and reused.

I had to check everyone’s work before I left the schoolhouse, and then I had to return home and bake four raspberry and blueberry pies for the feast tonight. No one had actually asked me to do it; I’d volunteered for the task. I’d done so because I knew community spirit was important, and someone with my status had to set an example.

I was wholly regretting that choice now.

I simply wouldn’t have time to complete the marking, walk to the berry-picking spot, retrieve my basket from where I’d dropped it after yesterday’s scare, walk back, bake the pies, and then get ready for the feast along with the evening’s rituals.

Unless…

I tapped my finger on my chin, lips twisting in contemplation. If I left right now, I could hurry to retrieve my basket, go home and make the pies, and return to the schoolhouse to complete the marking while the pies were in the oven. Papa was home this afternoon, so he could take them out if I wasn’t back in time. He’d always been a fantastic baker and knew exactly when things were perfectly cooked simply by judging the smell. No clock needed. Unfortunately, his position as Governor took up most of his time, so the cooking responsibilities fell to me now. But not today. Today, he could help his frazzled daughter.

Satisfied with the solution, I tucked a small twig protection charm into my dress pocket and left the schoolhouse through the back door so I wouldn’t get caught up chatting to the parents of my students. I slipped down the cobbled alley behind the building and hurried to the main path leading to the woods.

As I made the familiar journey, I giggled to myself, feeling exceptionally stupid over yesterday’s dramatic episode. The noises I heard obviously weren’t a malevolent shade. It was just more deer, surely. I’d made myself nervous with all my thoughts of danger and darkness, and then I’d convinced myself that a real monster was lurking right there at the fence.

Ridiculous.

In the warm light of day, I could see exactly how silly those thoughts were. I truly had a wild imagination. Still, I was grateful for the protection charm in my pocket.

Just in case.

The path forked up ahead, leading off in three different directions. One way led to the Red Rocks—our village’s most sacred ritual place—and the right-most way led up to the Forbidden Cave, where only the village elders, healers, and alchemists were allowed to venture. They were the only ones in our community who had studied and fully understood our doctrine’s most sacred knowledge, and therefore the only ones who were equipped to handle the Darkness within.

The final path was the one I took to gather berries. It went past the eastern part of the valley farmstead first, overlooking the vast expanse of land with a breathtaking view before it meandered deeper into the woods. Eventually, it ended in a small clearing, and my berry spot was another ten minutes through the woods from there. I never got lost on the last leg of the journey, despite the lack of a path, because I’d been exploring this part of our land since I was a child. I knew every tree, every shrub, every log.

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