Sister Kate was behind the front desk again when I returned to St. Kate’s.
“Miss Holbrooke,” she said quietly as I tried to scoot past the desk. She glanced at her watch. “Sister Margaret noticed you weren’t home last night after babysitting. Is everything okay?”
The lies fell out of my mouth so easily. “So sorry, Sister. Mr. Johnson wasn’t in a state to drive me when they got back, and I didn’t want to spend all my money on a taxi, and Mrs. Johnson said I could stay on the couch, so I took her up on it, and then today was so nice out I told the Johnsons I would walk, and I’ve just been moseying my way back here. I guess I was daydreaming a bit and just taking it all in.”
I tried to make my eyes big like the innocent country girl I was pretending to be.
Sister Kate blinked hard. I couldn’t tell if she believed me or not, but she seemed to take pity on me. “Don’t let it happen again, or at least call if your employer puts you in that position.”
“Of course, Sister. I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again.”
I sighed with relief as I climbed the stairs. I needed St. Kate’s to remain a sanctuary for me for a while longer.
But when I opened the door to my room, a strange sight stopped me in my tracks. A large raven sat on the windowsill, peering in. I froze in the doorway, and it looked me in the eye with eerily familiar light-blue eyes, unblinking. It looked like the fumbled charm I had cast over Sister Margaret had come back to bite me.
I had given myself away in one moment of whiskey stupidity. I hadn’t been able to hide from Magda for even a full week. I felt so dumb. I had drawn on the ice floe to sneak in, and it had taken Magda a few days, but she must have been watching, waiting to see where my energy would pop up. And here was a raven with my grandmother’s eyes, hunting me down.
I reached behind me to pull the door closed in case there were any inquisitive ears around to listen, not daring to turn my back on the raven. I took a cautious step into the room but left several feet and the pane of glass between us.
“Magda?” I asked the raven tentatively, my heart pounding.
The raven cocked its head and cawed sharply. I jumped but recovered quickly, grateful not to hear my grandmother’s voice from its beak.
I narrowed my eyes at the bird and took another step into the room, feeling bolder. “So she sent you to find me for her,” I said.
The raven blinked, finally, but said nothing,
I need more time, I thought. I had just had my first taste of freedom. Nick flashed through my mind involuntarily. I wanted more. “I don’t think so,” I said finally.
Blowing open the door to the spirit world, I cast a charm at the raven through the window, muttering the words to myself. I had never spoken the words before, but the cedar chest’s secrets opened to me as always.
The raven blinked, and when its large eyes reopened, they were no longer that strange pale blue but the normal glassy black of a raven. It looked at me dully through the window, then took flight, unhurried. I wasn’t sure if it was still bewitched and would return to Magda to tell what it had seen or if I had broken the spell completely, but I felt momentary relief that I had bought myself time—or at least the day or so it would take the raven to cover the hundred miles back to Friedrich. But if Magda’s raven had found me, it was only a matter of time before Magda or my father or Uncle Joe showed up.
I thought about standing my ground, but what was I fighting for? I still didn’t know what I wanted. I thought about the girls I had met, and they were all nice enough, but their lives felt so quiet to me. They were different versions of Annie, working until they married a beau.
I needed more time, and I’d have to give Magda the slip again to get it. I couldn’t risk staying anywhere where I had used magic before.
And if Nick’s bar wasn’t exactly a safe haven, at least it would be an entertaining place to bide my time. Dorothy’s warning about Nick flashed through my mind, but what options did I have? I thought I could get away with sleeping at St. Kate’s, but I’d have to make myself scarce during the day.
Am I being stupid? I asked myself, that dangerous feeling rising under my skin.
I slipped on the new dress, shoved my feet into my moccasins, and let my hair spring free down my back. I attempted to smooth the fuzz at my crown, at least, thinking of Nick and his achingly sweet dimple.