Page 53 of Thunder Road

Everyone in their group wore protective charms and carried an inscribed demon bell. Simon counted on the amulets to help hold off the troll, but he didn’t expect them to keep the creature away completely.

“You doing okay?” Vic sidled up beside Simon.

“I’m antsy. I can’t tell whether it’s just knowing what we’re planning to do or being this close to part of the genius loci.”

“Think the troll will show up?”

Simon nodded. “At some point. When he finally feels threatened. He’s gotten used to doing as he pleased all those years when the guardians were gone and the protections weakened. He’s not going to like getting brought to heel again.”

His phone chimed, and Simon checked his messages. “The teams in North Carolina are heading to their lighthouses. Once we’re all in place, we can start the ritual.”

The boat docked, and they scrambled out. Vic, Simon, and Hardin helped the passengers as the captain tied up at the pier.

“Be careful,” the captain warned. “No telling what’s in those woods. I’ll be waiting when you come back.”

Simon and the others hefted their packs, filled with the materials they would need to hallow the lighthouse and strengthen its connection to the web of energy that protected the coast.

Each of the teams heading for the other lighthouses carried the same equipment, charms, bells, and copies of the incantation. Simon had checked in with the witch teams to make sure the Low Rangers showed up as promised for security, and Vic double-checked with the homeless shelters. Everyone was in place.

Simon lifted his face to the wind. The ancient power of the island made his skin itch and pulsed in time with his heartbeat.He wondered about the keepers and their families who had tended the light for decades and whether they were attuned to the resonance from the beginning or grew more so over their residency.

To what extent did the lighthouses choose their keepers? I can’t imagine that someone who wasn’t in sync would last long. Have the lights missed their guardians? Does the nexus have the sentience to feel abandoned?

Despite no one living on the island, it wasn’t completely overgrown, and the dock was solid, suggesting that the Coast Guard kept the area around the lighthouse cleared and did routine maintenance on the pier.

Hardin led the way since he had been to the lighthouse before in an official capacity with the Coast Guard. Dan, his trainee, followed a few steps behind. Father Anne and her assistant, Beth, came next. Father Anne looked wary, and both she and Beth carried an iron ankh, a protective symbol that was as ancient as the creature they hoped to dispel.

Gabriella brought a duffel bag of the herbs and powders needed to paint the sigils and re-hallow the tower and the area around it. Miss Eppie carried a small satchel with the materials needed for her magical tradition. Sister Cecilia, the retired nun from St. Cyprian who Mrs. Ames had recruited, wore a necklace of a bishop’s crozier—one of the saint’s many icons—along with the amulets the others carried.

Simon and Vic brought up the rear. Simon’s messenger bag held additional charms and bells, and a paper copy of the lighthouse keeper’s incantation as backup to the digital version on his phone.

“You picking up on anything out there?” Simon wondered how the vibes seemed to Vic, whose strong intuition often seemed just a half-step distant from psychic ability.

“I haven’t spotted the troll—although since he can shapeshift, I’m not sure what I’m looking for,” Vic grumbled. He carried his gun in hand, a personal weapon, not his police service piece. “But I feel like we’re being watched.”

“So do I.” Simon scanned the forest that verged on the cleared area around the tower.

“The whole island makes me twitchy,” Vic added. “I’ll be glad when we’re done.”

His instincts, even if they don’t have psychic roots, are spot on as usual,Simon thought.

“Welcome to the Georgetown Lighthouse,” Hardin told them when they reached the base of the tower. “We don’t have clearance to go up in the tower, but fortunately, I don’t think we’ll need it. The ritual that has passed down from my predecessors is all done here at the bottom.”

Simon nodded. “That matches what’s in the version of the incantation I have as well.” He and Hardin had already met to work out any differences between the older version of the ritual that Simon had from the long-ago keeper and Simon’s more recent version. Simon had also compared notes with Father Anne to weave in anything found in the St. Expeditus archive.

They agreed that the individual keepers’ spells were more powerful since they set the wardings while Hardin’s version merely maintained what was already wrought. Steven had quickly agreed to cede doing the working to Father Anne.

Eager to get in and out before the troll showed up, everyone set about preparing for the ritual. Sister Cecilia and Father Anne began to paint protective symbols along the base of the tower in a substance made with consecrated and magical ingredients that faded to translucent when dry.

Gabriella set up a workspace with candles and a small brazier so she could invoke her wardings using mixtures and tinctures from plants to ward away evil and offer protection. MissEppie circled the lighthouse, burying small bags of goofer dust and graveyard dirt around the base. She added more invisible symbols to the inscriptions on the tower and made another circle burning a bundle of sage as she chanted.

Simon’s earpiece kept him in touch with the rest of the witchy crews and the people gathered at the shop. One by one, the teams at the lighthouses reported in, ready to begin their incantations.

“Everyone’s here,” Pete told him, “including your Skeleton Crew and a couple of people who said they’re descendants of the lighthouse keepers. We’re packed to the gills, and the power is off the charts. I mean,Ican feel it and I don’t have the ability. It’s practically making my hair stand on end.”

“Did the coven show?”

“Yeah. They’re getting along great with everyone. Don’t get me wrong—everybody is taking the protective piece seriously. They’ve all set out their cards, charms, dice, or whatever they use, and they’ll be ready to go right on time. It’s like the most off-the-chain Halloween party ever,” Pete added. “I hope you don’t mind, but I ordered sub sandwich platters, sodas, and cookies since you always need to eat after you do a big effort.”

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