Raven gave a short bark of a laugh. "How pithy. Thanks for the advice."

Cal gave them a last considering look, then nodded at me. We walked away from the group. I dumped my tray at the bus bin, and we left the lunchroom, heading for the main building.

Cal walked with me to my locker. I spun the combination and opened the door while he waited.

"If they make a new coven, will it affect us somehow?" I asked, my voice low.

Cal brushed back his dark hair and shrugged. "I don't think so," he said. "It's just…" He pinched his lip with two fingers, thinking.

"What?"

"Well, I wonder who they're working with," he said. "They're obviously not doing this by themselves. I hope they're being careful. Not every witch is… benign."

I felt tension weave its way into my short-held peace and looked at Cal. He kissed me, warmth in his golden eyes.

"See you later." A flashing grin, and he was gone.

CHAPTER 11

Connected

January 3, 1982

Old Jowson lost three sheep last night. This is after all the ward-evil spells we've been doing for the past month. Now most of his flock if gone, and he's not the only one. He said today in the Eagle and Hare that he's wiped out—doesn't have enough ewes left to start over. There's nothing for him to do except sell out.

I feel like all I do is go around doing warding spells. We're all paranoid and living under a dark shadow. For the past week I've been spelling Ma's leg after she broke it, bicycling to the village. But even with my spells she says it's hurting and not healing properly.

I want to get out of here. Being a witch is doing no one good nowadays and is doing a bushel of harm. It's like a film is over us, lessening our powers. I don't know what to do. Angus doesn't, either. He's worried, too, but he tries not to show it.

Damnation! I thought the evil was behind us! Now it looks like it was only sleeping amond us, in our beds. Winter has awoken it.

— Bradhadair

On Wednesday morning, when I was toasting two Pop Tarts for breakfast, I heard footsteps overhead.

"Mary K.!" I said. "Who's upstairs?"

Mary K. blinked. "Mom," she said, turning back to the comics. "She's staying home sick today."

I looked at the top of my sister's head. Mom never stayed home from work. She had been known to show houses in a snowstorm when she had the flu.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked. "She was fine last night, wasn't she?" She and my dad had had dinner out alone, something they almost never did. I had figured they were avoiding me, and I had waited up for them, but at eleven-thirty I had given up and gone to bed.

"I don't know. Maybe she just wanted a day off."

"Huh." Maybe this was my chance: I could go upstairs right now and get her to answer all my questions.

On the other hand, I would be late for school. And Cal was at school. Besides, if she wanted to tell me anything, she'd have told me by now. Right?

I sighed. Or maybe the truth was, now that the chance was staring me in the face, as it were, I was afraid to seize it. Scared of what I might learn.

My Pop-Tarts leaped energetically out of the toaster and broke on the kitchen counter. I gathered up the pieces in a paper towel and gave my sister a gentle kick.

"Let's go," I said. "Education awaits us." Mom would be home when I got out of school. I could talk to her then.

Mary K. nodded and got into her coat.

As it turned out, my big confrontation didn't work out the way I'd planned. When I got home from school, I'd worked myself up for a real scene. I went up to Mom's room, threw open the door… and found her sound asleep. Her red hair lay across her pillow, and once again I noticed the silver strands in it. Was it my imagination, or were there more of them than even a couple of days before?

She looked so tired. I didn't have the heart to wake her.

I crept out like a mouse. Then Tamara called and asked if I could come over and study with her for a calc test. So I went. Anything to get out of the house.

I had dinner at Tamara's, and when I got home, Mom and Dad had both gone to bed.

I went into the study and switched on the computer. I wanted to go to one of the on-line Wicca sites and see if I could find out the meaning of the runes on Selene Belltower's door frame. I could still picture at least five of them in my mind. I also wanted to look up Maeve Riordan's family tree again. Maybe there was some link I hadn't noticed or some other information I'd missed.

While the computer booted up, I sat there, biting my thumbnail and thinking. Part of me was getting more and more wound up, the longer my parents avoided answering my questions. But I also had to admit that part of me was almost happy about these delays. I was honestly afraid of how painful and ugly the whole scene might be.

I logged on and entered in the html address that I remembered from before. But instead of Maeve's family tree a message popped onto the screen:

The page cannot be displayed. The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.

I frowned. Had I entered the address wrong? I typed in Maeve Riordan and ran a search. Twenty-six matches popped up.

Last time there had been twenty-seven.

I scrolled rapidly down the list. No html. Was the genealogy site gone?

I tried running a search for Ballynigel. That took me to a map site and opened a window with a map of Ireland. Ballynigel was a dot on the west coast. I couldn't zoom in on it.

I typed in Belwicket and clicked the search button. I got no hits.

I slapped the keyboard in frustration. The site was gone. Just gone. As if it had never been there.

I told myself not to get too worked up. Maybe it was being upgraded or updated or something. If I just tried it again in a couple of days, it might well be back.

Closing my eyes for a moment I tipped back my head and breathed deeply. Then, feeling calmer, I entered a Web address I'd gotten from Ethan—an address for a site about rune magick.

In a moment the home page opened, and mysterious symbols glowed before my eyes. I leaned closer, my worries fading to the back of my mind as I began to read.

It was nearly an hour later when I finally logged off and shut down the computer. When I closed my eyes, runes still danced across the insides of my lids. I'd learned a lot tonight.

I picked up a pen and traced my new favorite rune on a scrap of paper that sat by the keyboard. Ken: It looked like a V turned on its side. It stood for fire, including inspiration and passion of spirit. It was so simple, yet so strong.

Underneath it I traced my other new favorite rune, Ur, strength.

I sighed. I needed a lot of that right now.

On Thursday afternoon I was startled when Mom came into the family room. I was watching Oprah and doing my American history homework.

"Hi, Morgan," she said, sounding tentative. Her hair was brushed and held back from her face by two combs. She wore no makeup, but she had on a sweat suit embroidered with leaves. "Where's Mary K.?"

"I dropped her at Jaycee's," I said.

"Oh, all right," Mom wandered over to the far wall and picked up a clay pot that I'd made in third grade, then set it back down on its shelf. "Hey, how come I haven't seen Bree round this week?"

I swallowed hard, replaying the scene yesterday in die cafeteria, when Bree and Raven had announced they were starting their own coven. I didn't think Bree would be spending a whole lot of time with me anymore.

But I didn't have the strength to get into it with Mom right now. So I just said, "I guess she's been pretty busy."