Page 96 of The Lone Wolf Café
I smiled. “Me too. It’s good to know that I can do–”
“Nettie. Wait.”
Rowena’s head snapped up, eyes as wide as serving dishes. She looked like she’d just been electrocuted.
“You can calm people down,” she announced in a startled, robotic voice.
“Um, yes, I can. Rowena, are you okay?”
She bolted up from the couch, pacing from the window, to the door, then back to the window again. She muttered rapidly under her breath, her voice too low for me to understand what she was saying. It was as if she were trying to solve a problem.
Or formulate a plan.
“Nettie!” she exclaimed, suddenly spinning back in my direction. “We need to go down to the town hall and join the meeting. Right now.”
“What!?” My heart lurched out of my chest. “Are you insane!?”
Gods, she isn’t really going to turn me in, is she?
“No, Nettie, you don’t understand.” She rushed in front of me, kneeling next to the couch and grabbing my hands in hers. “I figured it out. I know how you’re going to stay in this town.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, wary-eyed, with a little voice in the back of my head wondering if Rowena had gone mad. “How on Earth are you going to persuade Wisteria Grove to let me stay?”
“Because…” Rowena grinned. It was a maniacal, thrilled, overjoyed grin, as if she’d just made a momentous discovery. “...I know how we’re going to stop the werewolf frenzy.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Rowena explained the plan on the way to town hall.
I walked beside her, our fingers interlaced beneath our cloaks, as I listened to her long, detailed explanation of her plan to stop the werewolf frenzy. I kept my gaze downward, nodding occasionally, taking in all the information. Wondering if this plan was feasible, or we were just two insane, pleading souls desperate for a miracle.
In theory, Rowena’s plan made sense. But we had no way of testing it beforehand, and we had no idea if it would actually work.
It was a gamble.
It was also unprecedented. At least from my knowledge, no magical being in the entire history of the world had ever managed to pull this off. But then again, I was part-witch, part-werewolf with one of the rarest witch powers in existence. I may have been the only one of my kind to haveeverexisted.
The autumn-leaf-strewn paths that wound through the cottages were silent and barren of witches. Our only company was the wind, the faint rustle of the trees, and the plethora of Halloween decorations in front of each home.
Normally, I loved such decor – the way they infused playful fear and mischievous joy into the world, inviting both humans and magical beings alike to celebrate the spooky side of life. It was a time of joy, merriment, and for witches, remembrance, wrapped in vibrant shades of orange, purple, and black.
But right now, it felt like wandering through a graveyard. All of this decor, this preparation… it was futile. On what was supposed to be one of the happiest nights of the year for witches, they would all be forced to hunker down in their homes, lightsoff and curtains drawn, praying the feral werewolves invading their village wouldn’t break their doors down.
It was terror.Realterror, not the kind manufactured by plastic pumpkins and hanging paper ghosts.
I clutched Rowena’s hand tighter as we walked past the cottages, averting my gaze from a giant, plastic skeletal dog lounging in someone’s front yard. It was lying down, jaws open in a wide yawn. A completely harmless pose. But the sight of those fake white fangs still hit a little too close to reality.
“You alright?” Rowena asked, whispering under her breath as we approached the village square. It was just as silent as the cottages, but I could hear faint rumbles of activity coming from the town hall.
“No. I’m a mess.”
“Yeah,” Rowena sighed. “So am I. Sorry, stupid question.”
I rubbed my thumb over Rowena’s fingers, trying to reassure her. She smiled at me, and I swore I would’ve kissed her again if we weren’t standing in the middle of the town square.
Once we approached the brick building and lugged the heavy doors open, we made the long, silent walk down the hallway to the meeting room. The faint click of our shoes on the polished floors rang like gongs in my ears.
The room fell silent when we entered.
