“You must be wrong. Any child of Lucille McKenzie would believe in things beyond our understanding.”
I didn’t want to insult her by explaining that it was Mac’s mother’s blind faith in all things psychic that had turned him into such a skeptic. After his father’s death she’d spent a huge chunk of her life savings trying to contact him. She never succeeded, as far as Mac was concerned. Lucille would say she’d seen glimpses and hints that he was trying to make contact. It was a sad story in the end. She never really moved on and Mac blamed the mediums in town for her single-minded pursuit of her dead husband.
“I don’t think they see eye to eye on the subject of psychics.”
“Hmm.”
“Anyway, I need help figuring out what the dream might mean. I don’t want to just wait until I find myself in a stone stairway running to rescue Seth. Maybe I can keep him safe beforehand if I can understand what it means.”
Ms. Whittle was already shaking her head. “You don’t know enough yet. Have you discovered any techniques that help the dreams to come?”
I looked down at the table. I’d spent the last fifteen years or more trying to learn techniques that stopped the dreams. I shook my head. “The only thing I’ve noticed is that when my friend Diana does a spell, it seems to trigger the dreams.”
Neila nodded. “If you are truly open-minded to your friend’s spell-casting that could be enough to invite information.”
“I need to learn witchcraft?”
“Oh my, no. I don’t get the sense that it would be a good fit for you. You need to become more open-minded to the idea of receiving information. If we’re lucky, you’ll get a more specific message if you are open to it.”
I nodded and finished my tea. The moment I set down the cup, Neila stood.
“I don’t want to rush you, dear, but this . . . potion is at a delicate stage.”
She steered me back to the front door and I found myself on the front porch, with more questions than answers.
*
After my abrupt dismissal from Neila’s house, I felt unsettled. Seth texted to say he was back at my house. I drove slowly back home, thinking. So much had happened in the five days since Rafe had died. I felt like my life had been upended. Diana was frantic about Dylan, I had hardly seen Mac, I was in the middle of a murder investigation again, and Seth had appeared and was apparently planning to stick around.
Seth. I had been avoiding thinking about why he might have run all the way from New York to here. He seemed to be doing just fine, but no kid just picks up and travels cross-country on a whim. Do they? I was feeling a good amount of auntly guilt for not pursuing this earlier. I told myself I would have if it hadn’t been for everything else that had been going on, but I wasn’t buying it. I was a coward. I didn’t want to pry into Seth’s life and I almost didn’t want to know what the problem was because then I would feel compelled to fix it. But after that dream I knew I had to find out what was bothering him. If he was in danger, I had to know why and I had to help.
I found him in what I considered to be his room. He thought of it that way as well, if the detritus on the floor and every flat surface was any indication. The dogs were watching him in rapt attention as he ate popcorn and clicked away on his computer.
“Working on homework?” I said from the door.
“What? Oh, yeah.”
I entered the room and he flipped his laptop shut. Hmmm.
“Should we take the guys for a walk?”
Both dogs jumped up at the word “walk,” and they seemed to struggle with whether to focus on the popcorn or the possible adventure outside.
“Sure.” Seth hopped up and the dogs got in line behind him.
One of the officers I’d worked with in the past had two teenagers. He had always said the best way to talk to a teen is to do something else to distract them from the fact that you are actually conversing. Driving in the car, doing the dishes, and for Seth and me it was the dogs—either walking them or playing with them.
Once we were a block or so from the house I began my interrogation.
“Have they sent you much homework from school?” I asked. Grace had texted me that the school would be e-mailing assignments on a regular basis.
Seth lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “Not too much.”
“Heard from any of your friends from school?”
He shook his head. “Not really.”
I threw all the advice out the window and went for the straightforward approach.
“What’s going on, Seth?”
He gave me a startled look.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, why did you appear out of the blue on my front porch?”
“I thought you were cool with it. Should I go to Nana Rose’s house?”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I like having you at the house. It’s just . . . shouldn’t you be in school and hanging out with your friends?”
He exhaled. “I like it better here. I wish I could just stay—”
My phone buzzed. It was Diana’s ringtone.
“Sorry, just a sec,” I said and answered.
“Clyde, can you come right over? Please?”