The floor creaked as Valerie closed in behind me. “What is that?”
I opened the journal carefully.
1692.
Just a date at the top of the page, one scrawled in shaky, faded hand-writing. The pages had yellowed, become very brittle, and I turned them carefully.
More dates. And…names.
Then one word. Curse.
I turned the pages faster and faster. At the end of the book, I reached the last entry. Five years ago. I saw the names listed. Brent Peters, Rafe Channing, Giles Donovan, Catherine Falk…
“It’s a list of them all,” I whispered and excitement had my hands trembling a bit.
“What?” Valerie was right behind me now.
Carefully, I closed the old book. “I have to get this to my dad. Helen—she found a listing of all the cursed families. She knew the wolves!”
A door squeaked open. Not a door at the front of the shop. The back entrance, the door just a few feet away. My head whipped toward that door, and I saw Cassidy standing on the threshold. Her eyes widened in surprise. “Anna? Valerie? Wh-what are you doing here?”
The journal was a heavy weight in my hands.
“You broke into my grandmother’s shop?” She continued, her voice hardening as she took in the scene and advanced on us. “Why?”
I held the book tighter. Time to get this all out in the open. “Because I wanted to find out who hurt her.”
“An animal attack, it was—”
I shook my head and her words stopped. “You know the truth, Cass. You have to.” She’d lived with Helen. Helen had surrounded herself with magic and mystery. How could Cass not know? “You were the one who told me about Haven and the witches who came here—”
Cassidy swallowed. “That’s just a story. I was messing with you. I don’t…”
Her words trailed away, as if she couldn’t even bring herself to finish what she knew was a lie.
“Haven is cursed.” It was Valerie who spoke now. “A wolf came after me—”
“It came after me, too,” I put in quietly.
“And it killed your grandmother,” Valerie finished.
Cass stared at me, eyes wide.
“But it wasn’t an ordinary wolf.” I gripped that journal tightly, aware of Valerie close to my back. We were in this together. “It was someone who lives here, in Haven, someone who was cursed. Someone who changes into a wolf and kills.”
No change of expression crossed Cass’s face, but she swallowed, once, twice, as if choking back emotion. “She always told me to keep silver close.” Her gaze dropped to my necklace. “She wanted you to have the silver, too.”
To keep me safe.
I realized then that, yeah, Cass understood the truth, even if she hadn’t wanted to admit it, not even to herself.
Her eyes squeezed shut. “You know who the wolves are?”
Her voice sounded too hollow. Too broken. I nodded, then realized she couldn’t see me. “I do now.”
Her eyes opened and dropped to the journal. I saw understanding in her sharpening gaze. She held out her hand. “Give me the book.”
I didn’t. Right then, I didn’t trust what she’d do. I could practically feel her rage spreading to fill the room. “They aren’t all bad, Cass—”
“Bullshit!” Her voice snapped like a whip. “A werewolf freaking killed her! He ripped her to pieces! Don’t stand there and tell me they’re not—”
“One wolf.” I braced my legs and lifted my chin. Valerie was dead silent behind me. “Not all of them. You can’t punish them all for what one—”
“Can’t I?” Cass laughed, and I really didn’t like that mocking sound. The pain and fury were pushing her too far, twisting her. “If what you’re saying is true, they’re all cursed. All monsters, and maybe it’s time someone took them all out.”
“You don’t mean that.” I hoped she didn’t. “You’re upset. You need to just—”
“I need my grandmother back.” Her smile was cold and bitter. “But I’ll settle for putting the bastard who killed her in the ground.”
This wasn’t the Cass I knew. “Let my dad—”
“Do what? Let him find more bodies? Let him protect the wolves?” More laughter, the kind that held a crazy edge. Too much pain. “Werewolves. Granny told me to watch out for monsters. She told me they howled and clawed, but she never told me that she meant actual werewolves! She never told me they were real!”
And I suspected why. “Because she wanted to protect you.” As much as she could.
A tear slid down Cass’s cheek. “But I could have protected her.”