Page 59 of Silver Linings

This was all excellent news, especially the part where the town meeting wouldn’t be happening until tomorrow night. That would leave Sidney free this evening to go back out to the woods with him and see if the standing stones would be there after night fell.

Assuming, of course, that she was willing to prove his theory in real time.

“I figured that was what happened after I noticed his car was gone,” Ben replied. “And I’m glad that Eliza’s helping to get the word out. I have some news, too.”

As quickly as he could, he explained how he’d discovered that the Ogham letters spelled “dark” in old Irish, and how he’d realized that last night had been the dark of the moon.

“It might still be dark enough tonight for the stone circle to reappear, or it might not,” he concluded. “The only way to know for sure is to go back there and see what happens.”

To his relief, Sidney immediately nodded. “That makes sense,” she said. “At least this time, we’ll be better prepared.”

True enough. They wouldn’t be dashing into the forest, chasing after a unicorn, but retracing the steps they’d taken this morning to get back to civilization.

And she hadn’t questioned him, had taken it on faith that he’d utilized the research skills he’d developed while getting his doctorate to lead them to the place where they needed to be.

“What time is full dark?” she asked next.

Luckily, he’d already looked that up as well. “Late,” he said. “Almost nine o’clock. So if we strike out around nine, it will be very dark by the time we get to the clearing.”

Her mouth twisted in a rueful grin. “When I hear stuff like this, I almost miss Standard time.”

Ben couldn’t really blame her for that. Although he didn’t think he could live in the scorching heat of southern Arizona for more than a few months at a time, he did appreciate the way the state stuck to one time year-round without all that foolishness about springing forward and falling back.

“Look at it this way,” he said. “We’ll have plenty of time to eat and get ready before we head out.”

Some women might have asked if that was an invitation to dinner. Sidney, however, only looked thoughtful. “I suppose so. Do you want me to defrost something else for us?”

That would be the easiest thing. On the other hand, if they went out to eat, they could let themselves be seen in a highly visible place, and people might not be quite so curious as to what exactly they were doing together if it seemed their sole interest was grabbing a meal.

“Let me take you out to dinner,” he suggested. “I figure it’s the least I can do if it turns out this was nothing but a wild goose chase.”

“Sure,” she said. Her expression still serious, she added, “Although something tells me it isn’t going to be a wild goose chase.”

A certain feeling in his bones told him it probably wasn’t. But acting as if everything was normal seemed like a good prelude to heading out into the woods and looking for circles of standing stones.

And unicorns…and glades of glowing moss. Over the past few years, he’d already pretty much trained himself to expect the impossible, but….

“There’s something else, though,” she said, and began digging around in her jeans pocket. “I was thinking about everything we saw last night and wondering if my mother and grandmother knew about the stone circle as well. It just seems like too much of a coincidence for them to have stumbled onto it out of nowhere, you know?”

Yes, it did. He supposed the real question was, how long had they known about the standing stones?

And why hadn’t they said anything to Sidney?

They probably wanted to keep her safely out of it, he thought. They’d already come to the decision that they needed to solve the mystery once and for all, and that meant making sure she stayed in the dark.

“So, I found this,” she said, and held up a silvery pendant on a brown leather cord. “Usually, I try to stay out of my mom’s and my grandma’s stuff. It’s their property, after all. But I decided I needed to do what I could to find any possible clues, and when I looked in my mother’s jewelry box, I found this pendant or charm, or whatever it is.”

She laid it in Ben’s palm, and he leaned down to take a closer look. Engraved in the metal was the head of a unicorn with a circle surrounding it, almost like a halo. The work was very fine and delicate, almost like an etching transferred to sterling silver.

“Do you think this design is supposed to mean that the unicorn definitely comes from inside the stone circle?” he asked, and her shoulders lifted.

“I can’t really say for sure. But it looks like they’re connected somehow.” Sidney looked at him then, gray eyes grave, full of speculation. “I have no idea where she even got the pendant. The rest of her stuff is pretty normal — a few amethyst pieces my dad got her, because that’s her birthstone, and purple is her favorite color. Some turquoise things she bought when we went to visit the Grand Canyon when I was a kid. This pendant or charm or amulet…it’s not really her style.”

Ben would have to take Sidney’s words for that, since he’d never met the woman in question, let alone inspected the contents of her jewelry box. For her to possess something so out of character meant it had to be significant somehow.

“Maybe you should try wearing it,” he said as he handed the pendant to her, and Sidney took a step back, looking as startled as if he’d just suggested that she slip a live snake over her shoulders.

“Do you really think that’s such a good idea?” she asked. “What if I just…disappear or something?”

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