“Tell me.” Holly’s voice was urgent. “What else did you find, Maggie?”
“A sort of poppet,” I said. “It’s made from a fashion doll, and it looks exactly like Willow.”
“Shit! Don’t touch it!” I could hear that Holly was running. “I’m at my car. I’ll be at your place in less than five minutes.”
“I didn’t touch it,” I said. “I’m sitting in the back, behind the cottage. I want to keep searching and make sure there isn’t anything more.”
“I’m on my way. Wait for me.” Holly said, and she hung up.
Feeling numb, I went inside for another garbage bag, and I sat on my back porch step and waited. I heard Holly pull her car in the driveway, and then her door open and shut. She wasn’t running when she appeared from around the side of the cottage, but she looked like an avenging angel—albeit one in a black maxi dress.
I’d never seen her wearing anything remotely witchy before, and it came as a bit of a surprise. Or perhaps I was in a slight state of shock, since it was easier to focus on her outfit instead of the reality of what I’d discovered.
I stood as she approached. It was everything I had not to take a step back from her. The energy crackling off Holly was palatable.
“Show me,” she said.
I walked her over to the poppet. “I found it tucked in the bushes.”
“You’re sure, you didn’t come into contact with it?” she asked as she studied it.
“No. I used a stick to pull it out.” I shook my head. “Holly, I’ve never seen work like this before.”
“God damn it.” Holly’s voice was grim. “I have.”
“You know who did this?”
Holly knelt in the grass, holding her hands out, and sensing the energy from the poppet. “Yes, I know.”
“Who?” I asked, kneeling down beside her. “Who would try and use magick to harm Willow?
“Leilah Martin Drake,” Holly said. “She absolutely would, and this is her work. I’ve seen it before and I know exactly the sort of damage it can do.”
I blinked in surprise. “What could possibly be Leilah’s motive?”
Holly placed a hand on my arm. “At a guess I’d say she’s jealous of your and Willow’s place in the Drake family.”
After everything I’d heard about Leilah, it all made a horrible kind of sense. My horror was slowly being replaced by anger, and with that came a sudden realization. “She’s messing with Willow because she knows nothing would hurt me more.”
“Exactly.” Holly nodded.
My stomach roiled. “I grew up watching my mother wield dark magick, Holly. But even she never went after a child!”
Holly went to retrieve the garbage bag. Efficiently she used the stick to roll the poppet inside the bag. “Have you ever found anything else like this since you moved in the cottage?”
“The first night,” I said, and quickly told her how I’d destroyed it and worked a banishing.
“It’s a damn good thing you listened to your instincts, back in January.”
“I did put a warding in place after the cottage was broken into and trashed,” I said. “Autumn took me to your family’s store and I loaded up on supplies.”
“That probably bought you some time.” Holly folded her arms. “Has anything else been happening? Anything weird?”
“Shit!” It hit me hard, and I slapped a hand to my forehead. The dead birds, I realized. The creepy black dog…I’d seen a black dog in the middle of the road right before my car accident too. It was the reason I had stomped on my brakes… “Oh my god,” I said, shutting my eyes against my own stupidity. “Yes, there has been. I just never put it all together before now.”
“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself.” Holly slipped her arm around my shoulders and steered me back to the bistro table and chairs on the back porch.
“God damn it! If anyone should have put this together—it should have been me!” I caught myself. I’d almost been shouting, and I didn’t want to wake Willow. With an effort, I lowered my voice. “I was raised on this style of magick, Holly. I can’t believe I was so blind to it.”
“Have you considered that perhaps you were purposefully blinded?” Holly’s soft voice had me considering her.
“How do you mean?”
“Perhaps a reluctance was used against you.”
“I’m not familiar with that term.”
“A reluctance,” Holly explained. “Can be used to disguise something, make it seem less desirable, or to even cloak another practitioner’s actions.”
“That actually makes a sick sort of sense.” I nodded. “I think someone’s been watching us since we moved in. I’ve been seeing this black dog at the oddest times. Willow’s seen him too. Then there’s the dead birds.”
“Tell me about that,” Holly said. “Whatever you can remember that’s stuck in your memory as odd, or anything strange that made you uncomfortable.”
“Let’s go inside,” I suggested. “Where we can be assured of privacy.”
With a nod Holly followed me in. She calmly placed the wrapped poppet on the kitchen counter, picked up my salt shaker, unscrewed the top and poured all of the salt over the bag.
“Smart,” I said, nodding at the salt.
Holly went to the sink to wash her hands. “Would you get me some paper and a pen? I think it’s a good idea to take notes on your experiences, and create a sort of timeline.”
I joined her at the sink, washing my hands as well. “You bet. First I want to check on Willow. Once I get her breakfast and take her to school we can get into all of this and come up with a game plan.”
“Perfect.” Holly nodded. “I’m going to start us some tea,” she said, making herself at home in the kitchen.
“Okay. Be right back.” I walked to Willow’s room determined to be cheerful and not to let my daughter know I was worried. I took a deep breath, put a smile on my face and opened the door. “Morning, sleepyhead!” I sang, turning on her lights.
My smile faded when I focused on her bed.
