As soon as I opened the door, my heart sank into my stomach. There on the top shelf was a huge plate full of chocolate chip cookies.
I grabbed the plate and took it into the parlor. “Where did you get these?” I asked Lilith.
She looked a little taken aback and I realized I’d sounded panicked. I needed to dial it back a notch because I didn’t want to get her agitated.
“Sorry,” I said and nervously straightened out the hem of my shirt. “It’s just that I know you don’t bake.”
Dad came through the door just then, and he saw the cookies in my hands. Our eyes locked, and he knew why I wore a mask of anxiety.
“I found them on the front porch,” Lilith said. “I’ve never been one to turn down chocolate.”
“Lilith, didn’t you think it was strange that someone left you cookies on your porch?” Mom asked her gently.
“Maybe, but there was a note,” Lilith said.
“Where is it?” I asked.
“I left it…” Lilith stopped to think. I could see some of the light retreating from her eyes. She was going back into the fugue state she’d been in before. “I left it on the dining room table.”
I rushed into the dining room and located the note. She’d placed it on top of a pile of unopened mail. Dad joined me, but I wasn’t sure what I’d expected to find.
It wasn’t as if Samara was going to use the cookies to cast a spell on Lilith and then leave a note outlining her plan. Plus, as far as I’d been able to figure, the cookies were a spell to summon the dead.
Thank you for stopping in the other day. I look forward to more fascinating conversations in the future.
“Stop in where?” I asked Dad.
He took the note from me and looked it over. Once he double-confirmed that it wasn’t signed, he took the piece of sky blue paper into Lilith.
“Lilith, who is this from?” Dad asked. “Who did you go see?”
“I...” she said before more of her awareness retreated from her eyes. “I don’t remember. I just know that when I saw the note, I knew it was fine to take the cookies. They were from a new friend.”
“We need you to remember,” Dad prodded.
“Remy,” Mom chastised.
“I know,” he said and gave her a pleading look. “But we have to know.”
“I need to lie down,” Lilith said, and she sounded utterly exhausted.
“Okay, Lilith. I’ll help you to bed,” Mom said.
“What about food and tea?” I asked.
“Could you bring the tea to my room?” Lilith asked my mother.
“I can,” she said and helped Lilith get back up from her chair.
“I’m not so hungry anymore,” Lilith said.
“I’ll finish making the tea,” I said.
Mom left the room with Lilith, and Dad took Laney. He and I went back into the kitchen where I pitched the cookies in the trash, just to be safe, and finished making the tea.
“You’re throwing them out?” Dad asked.
“I think it’s the safest thing to do. If she’s been eating them, that’s what could be causing this. She can’t eat any more, so they have to go,” I said.
“I agree,” Dad said. “But I was thinking… those cookies are a summoning spell, right?”
“I think so,” I said.
“So, why would they be causing what’s going on with her?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet,” I said. “But Amelda and the other Aunties are fine, right? So, it’s not the reduced magic that’s causing this in Lilith.”
“Unless it’s just hitting her harder for reasons we don’t understand yet,” Dad said.
“Still, the cookies need to go in the trash,” I said. Just then, Laney began to fuss a little. “I’ll take her.”
“And I’ll take the tea to Lilith and help your mom get her settled for the night. You take the baby home, Kinsley. Go home to your husband and enjoy your family,” Dad said.
“I don’t know how I can with all of this going on,” I said.
“You have to, sweetie. You only get this short time with your baby girl, and you’ll never get it back,” Dad said. “Lilith would not want you to waste it.”
“I’m not wasting it,” I said.
“It will be gone just the same,” Dad replied.
He was right. Thorn, Laney, and I would never get this time again. Plus, I was exhausted. I’d been tired before all of this started, but my fatigue had only grown.
“Will you call me if you need me?” I asked.
“Of course,” Dad said.
We finished saying our goodbyes, and I headed out to my car. On my way down the sidewalk, I could have sworn I heard someone rustling the branches in a huge lilac bush across the driveway.
I heard it again, and I looked between the car and the bush. I had to decide what to do. Everything in me wanted to go see what was making noise in the bush, but I knew I should put Laney in the car and leave. Or go back in the house.
Or call the police.
Anything but walk over to the bush and investigate. Fortunately, I didn’t have to investigate myself. Meri darted off in the direction of the bush.
After a minute, Meri returned. He didn’t seem to be in any hurry.
“There’s no one there,” Meri said when he trotted back.
“Oh, good. It must have been a raccoon or something,” I said.
“Not unless the raccoon is wearing boots,” Meri said.
“What?”
“There are boot prints on the other side of the bush,” Meri said. “They retreat off into the grass, so I can’t follow them.”
“Is the grass flattened? Maybe we could follow that,” I said.
“Kinsley, you have a baby in a sling. You’re exhausted. Oh, and you’re not some sort of tracker. You need to go home,” Meri said.
“We should at least call the police,” I said. “But we don’t know how long those footprints have been there. Someone was for sure out here before, so it could be from then.
