“They’re constantly complaining about the noise and the other animals and it’s just too much. I can’t think when I’m there. Ever since last summer when I heard Baxter, I just can’t shut it out. I’m not ready to tell my parents about it. I thought maybe you could help me.”
I understood his situation only too well, but I hadn’t figured out my own methods yet. How was I going to help him? Then I remembered the dream. Maybe this is what I was supposed to save him from. New York has a lot of tall buildings. Maybe it was saying I needed to rescue him from New York. Did my sister cackle like a witch? Was I saving him from his own mother?
I must have spaced out for a moment because Seth had gotten up to come snap his fingers in front of me.
“I asked my mom if she would let me stay through till the New Year and see how it goes. I can register at CH High and they can talk to my old school about which classes I should take.”
“I’ll talk to your mom and we’ll see what we can work out.”
Seth’s smile told me he thought this was a done deal.
37
Monday morning Seth and I had just returned home after walking the dogs when a black Tahoe pulled into the driveway. I squinted at the glare shining off the windshield and waited.
Skye hopped out and walked toward us.
“Hi,” she said and bent to pet Baxter. Her hair fell and covered her face. Baxter wagged his whole body and acted almost as besotted as Seth. Tuffy glowered from under his ponytail until she turned to him and rubbed his ears.
“What’s up?” I asked.
Skye pulled a file folder out of her messenger bag.
“I was talking to Diana at work and she told me I should bring these to you.” She held the file out to me.
“What is it?” Seth asked.
She bit her lip and wouldn’t meet my eyes. “It’s Rafe’s family tree.”
“What?” I snatched the file from her and flipped it open. It was the same diagram I had seen last week when we searched Rafe’s house. “How did you get this?”
She glanced nervously at me and stepped a little closer to Seth.
“I went back after the police left last week. I wanted to see if they had found this.” She pointed toward the file.
“You took it?” I tamped down a surge of guilt at having stolen Rafe’s grimoire and the knowledge that I would have taken the family tree as well, if it had been there when I went back.
She nodded. “I knew it was important to Rafe and that he didn’t want anyone else to see it. He wouldn’t even let me look at it, and I was doing research for him.”
Seth bounced on his toes and rubbed his arms. “Can we talk about this inside?”
We went in the house and dealt with the dog treats. Baxter would be both spoiled and in another weight class by the time Seth left. If he ever left.
“Tell me what this is about,” I said when we were settled in the living room.
Skye took the file from me and laid some papers out on the coffee table.
“This is Rafe’s family tree according to his grandmother. See the signature in the corner? That’s Amity Leal.”
Seth and I leaned forward to look.
Skye continued, “According to this diagram, Rafe’s grimoire was passed down through the female side of his family, and because he was the only child, he received it from his mother. These notes here show the passage of the grimoire down the female line to Rafe.”
Seth and I nodded and I wondered where this was leading. I knew Rafe had the grimoire, as did everyone else. It was how he had claimed his leadership role in the coven.
“This is the part that gets weird. When I showed Diana this family tree, she showed me this other one.” Skye reached into her bag and pulled out a copy of the genealogy chart from the back of Dylan’s book.
“It looks the same to me,” Seth said.
Skye nodded. “It’s almost the same. However, the one Diana has clearly shows that Rafe was adopted.” She pointed to the dashed line linking Rafe to his adoptive parents.
I nodded. “Did you know he was adopted?”
Skye shook her head. “He never told me. As I said before, he had an interest in Neila Whittle and her family tree. That’s what we were working on. He never told me why, just that he had a personal interest.”
Seth pointed to the diagram Skye had taken from Rafe’s house. “What’s this other part?” He pointed to another branch that came off the marriage between Rafe’s great-grandparents.
“That’s what I wanted you to see,” Skye said to me. “This shows that there was another branch of the family, but it went through the son who died in World War II.” She pointed to the notation. “And down to this person.” Her finger landed on a circle with the name Monica.
I shrugged and looked at Skye. Her finger tracked back to the father of Monica—his name was John Lavelle.
“So?” Seth scooted forward to get a better look.
“Is this Morgan Lavelle?” I asked.
Skye nodded. “I heard them arguing once and Rafe said he liked her old name better. I didn’t think much of it at the time because people do change their names sometimes if they join a coven.”
“According to this, they’re second cousins,” I said.