Page 98 of The Lone Wolf Café
Unless I stopped it.
Rowena repeated the plan, reminding the crowd they could potentially be rid of their full moon problemsforever, and quashing the talk of throwing me to the literal wolves.
But of course, the witches were skeptical. And I couldn’t blame them. This was all a wild guess. We couldn’t guarantee the plan would work.
“Very well,” Mariah nodded to Rowena once she finished speaking. “Witches of Wisteria Grove, now that you’ve heard Rowena and Nettie’s proposal, we will handle this how we handle all urgent, village-wide matters. We will leave it to a vote. There will be a show of hands – please vote yes if you would like to proceed with the plan to stop the werewolf frenzy. Please vote no if you would like to continue with our original plan of returning Nettie to her home pack.”
I huffed under my breath. She put it so elegantly, as if they were doing me a favor. The reality of me being dragged back to Hollenboro wouldn’t be so pretty.
What followed was the longest five minutes of my life as Mariah announced each option, the witches raised their hands – some more decisively than others – and the votes were tallied.
Adrian voted yes. Mabel voted yes. Willow voted yes.
Juniper voted no.
As did most of the older witches in the village.
In the end, it was close, but the winning side had it by a mere four votes.
The answer was yes.
The village would proceed with our plan to stop the werewolf frenzy.
Mariah declared that preparations would begin right away. There were disappointed rumblings among the witches on the losing side, convinced this was a terrible plan and Wisteria Grove should just get rid of me.
But amidst the grumbles and complaints, there was also hope.
Once the plans were cemented almost thirty minutes later, Mariah announced the meeting adjourned, with directions for those participating to meet at the town hall shortly before sundown. Adrian and Mabel were standing by the door and as Rowena and I departed, they both gave us a subtle nod.
“We wish you the best of luck,” Adrian whispered, just loud enough for me to hear.
I forced a shaky smile. They believed in me. Even if almost half the village didn’t.
But convincing Wisteria Grove to move forward with our plan had been the least of our worries. Because we only had a few hours until sunset, and this was Rowena and I’s last hope. If we couldn’t pull this off, I’d be sent back to Hollenboro.
We would have to say our goodbyes. Potentially forever.
I couldn’t bear the thought of it.
This has to work,I repeated in my head as we left the meeting room.Please.
Maybe if I repeated it enough times, and said enough prayers to both the witch and werewolf deities, it would happen.
The next few hours were awful.
But I treasured them deeply. Because while the impending sunset and the moon-crazed werewolves loomed heavily on our minds, these were the last few hours Rowena and I were guaranteed to have together.
We were both quiet. Pensive. Few words were spoken between us. I sometimes caught Rowena gazing wistfully out the window, her mind far away from the cottage, pondering every possible way our plan could go wrong.
Best case scenario, our plan simply didn’t work.
Worst case scenario, our plan didn’t workandthe frenzied werewolves accidentally killed us in the process.
If I end up captured and sent back to Hollenboro, at least I’ll still be alive.
But there was a chance, no matter how slight, that our wild, unproven plan would work. We both had hope. I could feel it in our little hugs and kisses as we flitted around Rowena’s cottage. I felt it when we sat together, squeezed into a large, plush rocking chair, sipping coffee and tea while pouring through Rowena’s stacks of witchy novels.
When Rowena lamented she needed to get a second rocking chair, my throat tightened. It was a sweet gesture, but I didn’t have the heart to remind her I may not be around to use it.
