Free The Witching Hour (The Witches Pendragon Mystery Series Book 1) by Julie Sarff Page B

for the strings of her owl-print apron and unties them.
    “Isn’t Manon here?” Sheila asks.
    “Why would she be?” I question. “She’s probably closing up her store.”
    “That’s strange, I saw her not that long ago, she was walking towards the house. But  a young man came running up the drive calling her name. Don’t know how she knew him, but they went walking into the woods together.”
    “Manon, sweet innocent little Manon went walking in the woods with a man?” I ask.
    “No.” Sheila’s tone is serious. “He wasn’t a man. The boy looked way too young for her. It wasn’t that kind of a relationship. The boy came out of the woods a little bit later but Manon did not, so I thought she might have ended up here.”
    “That does sound intriguing,” Beatrice murmurs while I wonder: should I be worried about our missing sister witch? Should we go search the woods for her?
    I suggest that we do just that thing, when I see Elise from the hardware store slinking down the street. She’s wearing a hoodie pulled tight around her and looking a little shifty. I watch her glance up and down the Quai des Marais. Apparently satisfied that nobody’s watching her, she crosses to the other side of the street and heads in the direction of the river. A moment later she crosses the bridge heading for the woods.
    “I think the two of you should go and search for Manon,” I assert.
    “Really? There’s nothing wrong with walking through the woods by oneself. We all used to do it back in the Feral Forest. Maybe she’s just missing the whispering of the trees. I know I miss it sometimes,” Sheila says, but even she doesn’t seem to convince herself with this argument. Her voice trails off and she furrows her brow.
    “You have to go and look for her, just to be sure,” I insist. “And right now, I have to do something. I’m heading to the river, to the woods on the other side. If I’m not back by the time you find Manon, come looking for me.” Quickly, I toss the keys to the store to Beatrice who has her mouth open, ready to ask me a million questions. I’m sure she wonders why I suddenly feel compelled to head to the river at such a late hour. I don’t give her the chance to ask anything; instead I slip away, hurrying after Elise.
    I walk with quick steps. The heels of my shoes make a clippity-clop sort of sound as I head down the sidewalk. Why am I doing this, following a girl I barely know? Inside, I know why; my witch’s intuition tells me that Elise is somehow involved in the murder of poor Hugo, and if I want my shop to return to normal, I need to find out exactly what she’s up to.

Chapter 11 (Elfie)
     
    “If we are going to face this force of nature head on,” Hatha huffs, after the four of us carry the catatonic Claire-Elaine back to her room, “We must do it at the hour when we are the strongest. So, I suggest we all turn in for a couple hours of sleep. We’ll regroup at midnight down in the kitchen. Since Elfie has already experienced paranormal activity in that room earlier this evening, we might just be better off in the kitchen than in the basement anyway.”
    There’s wisdom to her words so we nod and head upstairs. Undeniably, I feel unsettled preparing for bed, knowing that I have to wake up in a few hours and confront a ghost. Instead of slipping into my pajamas, I don my long black robe of old. I’m not sure why, but it brings me comfort and confidence. Staring at myself in the room’s free-standing mirror, I am swept back in time to the Forest Fosse. On nights when it wasn’t raining, we witches would all pull out our woven sleeping mats made out of rushes and sleep under the stars. Staring up at the night sky, I felt at one with my sisters, as well as with the animals of the forest, and with the divine universe that glittered overhead. That’s really sappy and nostalgic, but it’s true. Even though I love modern day France, living in the forest with 60 other witches and the