Autumn Calling (22 page)

“Oh my God. I had no idea? Were you
hurt?”

“No. I got a couple of scratches here and
there but I was okay. Fought the magic with a little of my own
magic saving us both.”

“I’m so sorry, but Dad and I would have
never approved of that. Dad doesn’t go in much for the decisions of
the family since Violet died. Something very bad must have gone
down the night she was killed because I’ve never known him to even
really speak to Aunt Yvonne. I always got the impression he has a
deep seeded hate for her, but he keeps it to himself. Not sure why.
She’s a weird one. I don’t particularly love Juliette, but Yvonne?
Now that woman sometimes give me the creeps.

“It’s curious you should mentioned crows
attacked you, because that was always Aunt Yvonne’s thing. She had
a raven as a familiar for years until it died not long ago. It used
to poop on me and peck at my head when ever I came into the
room.”

“Do you all have familiars?” Summer
asked.

“Yes. At the age of twelve we pick an animal
we find most fascinating. I wanted a leopard, but they told me I
couldn’t have a big cat in the city, though one of the Macabres
from way back had a panther. That must have been so cool.”

“Yeah. Though you wouldn’t ever want to make
it mad or forget to feed it.”

“No kidding.”

“So you settled for a smaller version and
got Vixen.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t suppose Yvonne is behind the crow
attacks?”

“There was more than one?”

“Yes. One was just a scare, I think, and the
other was an all out attack. You really didn’t know about this? I
figured with so few of you that you would all know everyone’s
business.”

“That’s where you would be wrong. Dad’s
loyal to the family but he almost never agrees with the decisions.
My guess is they don’t bother telling him much anymore because they
know what his answer will be.”

“Hmm.”

“I don’t imagine he’s going to be all that
happy to hear there have been several attacks on you that no one
bothered to tell him about.”

Summer didn’t know what to say. What did
Autumn think was going to happen? She must realize that everything
points to their offing her and the rest of the Midnights.

“I even caught Dad with that flannel shirt
of yours that you ripped up to bandage me when were in the cave. I
had taken it off when I took a shower and then it was gone. I
figured Juliette had gotten a hold of it and thrown it away, but I
found it in Dad’s office when I was looking for printer paper.
Guess he wanted a little piece of you.”

“I’m not sure if I should take that as a
compliment or find it disturbing.”

“Compliment, definitely. Will you meet him?
I’ll come too if you’re nervous.”

“Actually that would be nice, though I doubt
Uncle Morti would ever approve of my meeting up with not one but
two Macabres. He’d tell me I had a death wish or something else
just as insulting to my intelligence.”

* * *

After work the next day, Summer stopped by
city hall to see if maybe she had missed a page in the blueprints,
but after examining the originals on file again she found she’d
copied everything in full. However, when checking details of each
page and noting the legends she did find the symbol but it was of
no use either as it basically said “CLASSIFIED.”

That wasn’t very helpful, she thought to
herself. What to do now. Maybe she could ask the carpenter they
hired at the clinic for handyman jobs and maintenance, otherwise
she was completely out of ideas.

On the off chance the city clerk might know
what the symbol was, she asked when she returned the drawings to
her.

“Did you find what you were looking
for?”

“Yes, and no.”

The woman looked confused.

“Yes, I found the symbol in the legend but
it did not reveal its meaning. You wouldn’t happen to know what the
symbol means, would you?”

“Let me see,” the woman said.

Summer pointed to it on the drawing
legend.

“Hmmm. That is odd. It looks more like a old
rune symbol than a standard architectural one.”

Summer reexamined the mark and agreed the
woman could be correct. “Are there meanings to the different
symbols?” Summer asked.

“I’m sure there are, though I am no
expert.”

“Could you guess?”

“I could, though it might be wrong.”

“That’s okay.”

“All right, but you really ought to consult
an expert, or check it against a book. Let’s see. If I’m not
mistaken I’d say this was the thurisaz rune symbol which can be
interpreted to mean ‘door.’”

“A door? Like a safe door or cupboard?”

“No, an entrance to another place or
room.”

“Oh. Right. Could it be to a secret
passage?”

“Hmm. I suppose it could be construed as
such. Yes. But again, I stress, that you look up its true rune
reference from something more substantial than my word.”

“I shall. Thank you. You’ve been very
helpful.”

“I’m glad I could help.”

A secret passage, Summer thought. Very
interesting. And that same symbol was in the room where the egg
was. Wouldn’t it be an incredible stroke of luck for them to find
there was a secret passage that could be entered from outside the
Macabre mansion and lead right to the room where the egg lay
waiting. Or was it too easy. She’d have to consult Hunter for his
opinion on the matter.

* * *

The next day Summer met up with Hunter to
relay the information she had discovered from the lady at city
hall. He was thrilled by the possibility, though it still needed to
be confirmed that the symbol was what they thought it was either by
checking a reference or by attempting to open it from the outside.
Of course just because there was an entrance didn’t mean they had
any idea how to open it or whether it actually went to the room
above or not. That would have to be sorted out by Morti and Hunter.
Summer had done her job in getting the blueprints and finding a
possible entrance.

Time to get back to work at the clinic and
afterwards a quick brush up lesson on some pyrotechnics with Morti,
which she was not looking forward to.

She’d been avoiding Morti as much as she
could. She knew she should take a lesson out of Tori’s book and
just meet the situation head on to get it over with since putting
it off just made her more nervous about doing it. She’d always
admired that about Tori. It made her almost fearless in Summer’s
eyes.

No, today was the day she’d bite the bullet
and get it over with, that is unless by some miracle Morti canceled
the lesson himself.

Summer found herself procrastinating and
finding excuses not to head to the far side of the graveyard to
meet Morti. Sully seemed to sense what she was doing and started
herding her toward the door. A few yards from the door and she
turned around saying something about forgetting to bring her
notebook. Sully coughed up a small flame that shot just in front of
her.

“Sully. What are you doing?” Summer
demanded.

He gave her an almost human look expressing
he knew she was avoiding the inevitable. She succumbed to his
disapproving face and turned back around. In the meantime, Sully
peed on the tiny flame making it sizzle and smoke into a damp black
ash spot on the ground. When he was done he ran past her to where
she was too meet Morti.

Next thing she knew, he was taking a lap
around the graveyard with a drool soaked Morti tightly in his
mouth. She wondered if Sully had done this to make her laugh and
give the situation a less stressful feel to it. Whether that was
his intent or not, it worked. The sight of the crabby cat grumbling
for the hellhound to put him down gave her a little perspective on
her fears.

By the time she made it to where they did
their lessons, Sully was finishing up and set the disgruntled
feline back atop of his favorite tombstone. Summer couldn’t help
but smile. His fur stuck out in all directions. It made it hard to
take him very seriously when he was belting out commands. She was
able to form her fireball quite effortlessly at his direction.
Maybe that had been the problem all along with her lessons. Maybe
she was so nervous around him she couldn’t perform as he instructed
due to that stress.

Though Morti did not compliment her on her
technique, he did move on to a more tricky assignment of pulling
electrical tentacles from the ground and clouds above to use as she
commanded. In the past, he would just drill her over and over on
the lessons for the day.

She looked at Sully who lounged on his back
at the base of the grave, sunning his belly and snoozing through
their class. Had Sully known how to conquer her fear of Morti? Or
was it just a fluke. She might never know for sure, but she looked
at him a little differently from then on after.

Though Morti didn’t voice any praise, he was
unusually pleasant—well pleasant might not be the right word, but
certainly less crabby than he normally was.

When they were done and just before Summer
was about to head back to her home, Morti asked, “Has there been
any new progress, regarding retrieving the egg?”

“I asked the city clerk what the symbol was
on the drawing and she felt it was a rune. Though she did not feel
qualified to interpret it, she thought it might mean door or
entrance to something.”

“Interesting and helpful. Have you informed
Hunter yet?”

“I have. He was going to try and confirm the
clerks suspicions.”

“Right, I’ll check in with him and see what
he’s turned up. Good job.”

Summer was stunned and almost tripped when
he said it.
Did he actually compliment me?
Did she hear him
right? She didn’t know what to say and after a moment opted to not
respond at all for fear that she’d somehow ruin the moment.

* * *

The following day, Summer received a text
from Autumn asking for another meeting in the usual place though a
car would pick her up at work and it wouldn’t be in the wee hours
of the morning.

Summer wondered if Marcus would be there and
this made her nervous the rest of the day wondering what he might
think of her. Would he like her? Would he be willing to try and
mend the fractured family? So many questions swam in her head, she
could barely concentrate on work. Dr. Stuart noted something, too,
and asked if she needed to talk, but she declined his kind
request.

She needed to sort things out in her own
mind before trying to verbalize them. Her biggest fear was that
after thinking of all these questions to ask Marcus, once
confronted by him her mind would go blank. This happened sometimes
when she had an argument with someone or an important test coming
up. Once she’d try to put words to her anger or start the test, her
mind suddenly would fall empty of any and all thoughts or
facts—very frustrating.

Of course there was always the possibility
that this was all a ruse to bring her out into the open and get rid
of her once and for all. Maybe Autumn would be in on or it or not,
but it was a distinct possibility. Just to be on the safe side, she
wrote a letter to Aunt Myrtle telling her what she was about to do
and where she was going, then sealed it in an envelope.

When the black sedan came to the door at
6:00 p.m., the time in the text, she handed the envelope to Dr.
Stuart before going out the door.

“Dr. Stuart, please deliver this letter to
Myrtle if I don’t show up for work tomorrow.”

“What? Summer, are you in trouble?” he asked
spying the car waiting for her.

“No. I’m just…making sure. Please don’t open
the envelope or alert Aunt Myrtle of it unless you suspect
something has happened. I don’t expect it too, but well, I just
want her to know where I went and who I was meeting just in case of
emergency.”

“I don’t feel good about this. Should I go
with you?”

“No. I’m sure I’ll see you tomorrow just
like any other day, it’s just…I’d feel better if I had a backup
plan in place.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure I’m being overly
cautious.”

“I swear if you aren’t here at nine on the
dot, I’m calling her and ripping this thing open.”

“That’s fine, but I’m sure it won’t be
necessary.”

He suddenly grabbed her and hugged her. She
consoled his trepidation with, “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

“Famous last words,” he mumbled as she
exited the glass door of the clinic. A slight man jumped out of the
vehicle at sighting her and opened the back door of the car. Once
she was seated they slowly pulled out the parking lot and she
looked back at the clinic to see a worried Dr. Stuart standing at
the door watching her leave.

An odd feeling hit her in the gut as they
traveled through town. The driver’s eyes seemed somehow familiar.
Whenever she met them they darted away as if to try and hide the
fact they kept watch over her whenever she turned away and looked
elsewhere. It could have just been her imagination, in fact she
felt sure she was just being paranoid, but she couldn’t get rid of
the deep-seated worried feeling that plagued her.

Otherwise it was an interesting ride to the
cabin since every time she had visited there she had flown. It gave
her a different perspective going up the fire road then turning off
and winding through the trees. It was a much longer drive than she
had thought it would be but very scenic. They pulled up next to a
black Land Rover parked in a small clearing.

The driver turned the engine off and glanced
at Summer through the rear view mirror. Something about the look
sent a chill up her spine and made the hairs on her arms and neck
rise to attention. What was it she was seeing in the man’s eyes. He
didn’t look the least bit familiar, but the hard look on his face
and the eyes were somehow known to her. He stood before the door
and opened it for her. As she stepped out of the car and turned to
make her good-byes the man’s face blurred and wavered as a video
might on a paused television.