Ainsley stood stock-still, facing the mysterious woman.

I stayed several yards behind Ainsley. I didn’t want to stop anything from happening. Whatever it was that was about to go down, I had to believe it would help me understand what this disruption in the story was all about.

“We have waited a very long time for this moment,” the woman said with a warm smile.

She seemed pleasant enough, and harmless. Then again, she was dressed in some old-fashioned costume in the middle of the woods. That was freaky at the very least.

“I know you,” Ainsley said, as if struggling to dig up a memory. “But I don’t.”

“You could call me your mother, but you have several mothers. And fathers. We’ve all been looking forward to this moment.”

As the woman spoke, she walked in front of the towering pile of rocks, gently touching the moss-covered boulders. She moved smoothly, as if floating. But she wasn’t floating. The dirty hem of her dress and grungy bare feet were proof of that. But it sure added to the general weirdness of what was happening.

“You’re not my mother,” Ainsley said, though she didn’t sound so sure about that.

“I’m not your biological mother, but there is a little bit of all of us in you,” the woman replied. “You’re starting to feel that, aren’t you? Things are changing. Your body is changing. Those changes are allowing our wonderful gifts to flourish within you.”

“I don’t understand,” Ainsley said.

That made two of us.

“You will,” the woman replied. “You’re a bold young lady. You take control. We sensed that in you such a very long time ago. Even as a baby. It is why you were chosen. And now, once the ascent is complete, you will have tools and strength the likes of which you could never imagine.”

The woman raised one hand, extended her arm, and slowly waved it back and forth. Above her, the branches of the trees swayed in unison with her movements. When she stopped, the swaying stopped.

Yeah. Whoa.

“It will be quite remarkable,” the woman said.

“This is scaring me,” Ainsley said, her voice cracking.

“There is nothing for you to fear,” the woman replied soothingly. “Your control will become absolute as you usher in the future. It is the beginning of a wondrous time.”

She held her hand out, and a scarlet cardinal flew from the trees and landed in her palm. It was like something out of a Disney princess movie. A really weird Disney princess movie.

“Raise your hand,” the woman said.

Ainsley hesitated, then cautiously lifted one arm. The cardinal flew to her and landed on her hand, letting out a series of sharp chirps that sounded as though it was greeting Ainsley. Ainsley looked at the bird in wonder, then suddenly stiffened.

“No,” she said, and shook the bird off her hand.

The cardinal flew away and landed on top of a boulder behind the woman.

“If you won’t tell me who you are,” Ainsley said, “tell me who I am.”

The woman smiled warmly. “You are who you have always been. Until now.”

She reached for the cardinal. The bird didn’t move when the woman gently grasped it. But as she brought it forward, the cardinal transformed. Rather than the beautiful red bird, the woman now held a gleaming silver dagger with an eight-inch blade.

I had to hold my breath to keep from gasping in surprise.

“Tomorrow is Samhain. On that highest of holy days, the powers we gave you will fully blossom and create the path that will lead us into our future. Now, give me your hand.”

The woman gestured for Ainsley to hold her hand out. The woman’s other hand clutched the dagger, as if ready to use it.

Things had suddenly gotten serious. This was no Disney story.

Ainsley took a nervous step backward.

“No…no…I don’t like this.”

Whatever spell had been holding Ainsley, it was losing its grip on her.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

“That’s enough!” I called out.

The woman’s expression quickly twisted from warm and welcoming into a grimace of anger.

And she was holding a dagger.

“Cretin!” she snarled viciously as she pointed the dagger at me. “You will not stand in our way again.”

Again? What was that supposed to mean?

“Let’s go,” I said to Ainsley, and grabbed her arm to pull her away.

The woman wasn’t going to let us leave that easily. The moment our backs were to her, a huge swarm of white ravens flew out from the bushes in front of us. There was a fluttering chaos of white feathers churning through the air, headed our way.

I instinctively let go of Ainsley and raised my arms to protect my face. We were seconds away from being swarmed by a flock of albino ravens under the control of this strange woman. I backed away quickly with my head down, waiting for the birds’ sharp beaks to start pecking at me. Their shrieking war cries pierced straight into my brain as I fell to my knees.

But nothing happened.

The shrieking and fluttering stopped.

I stole a cautious peek over my arms to see the impossible.

A dozen white ravens stood lined up on the ground. Their low, calm coos joined together and sounded like an idling engine. That was cool by me, as long as the engine didn’t get thrown into gear. The birds were all looking to my right, intently focused on something.

I glanced in that direction to see Ainsley with her hand held out to them in a Stop gesture.

She had prevented the attack.

“Get up, Marcus,” she said with surprising calm. “We’re leaving.”

I cautiously got to my feet, trying not to make any sudden moves that might flip the birds out and send them back into a pecking frenzy.

“Walk back the way we came,” Ainsley said. “Slowly.”

I skirted around the lineup of freakishly big birds.

Ainsley kept her hand out to hold them back as she rounded the flock from the other side.

The birds stayed focused on her, turning in unison to continue facing her.

The two of us met on the other side of the flock and backed away, toward the wall of bushes.

“Will they come after us?” I whispered to Ainsley.

“I have no idea,” she said.

As we were about to hit the bushes, the woman called out, “Now do you see?”

I stole a quick look back to the woman, expecting her to be all sorts of angry. But she stood with her arms folded, smiling proudly. On her shoulder was the cardinal.

“Do you need any more proof of your abilities, Ainsley?” she called.

“We’re leaving,” Ainsley announced defiantly.

“Go,” the woman said with a shrug. “On Samhain you will return.”

“Don’t bet on it!” I yelled.

The woman’s expression turned ugly again. “Do not interfere, cretin,” she snarled. “This time we will not show mercy.”

This time? What did she mean by that?

I turned and pushed the branches aside to form a path for us to get through.

“Are they coming?” I asked.

“We’ll know once we get to the other side,” Ainsley answered, breathless.

I fought through the dense tangle with Ainsley right behind me. When we broke out of the far side, we both looked to the sky, expecting to see the flock of vicious birds swooping up and out of the circle to dive-bomb us.

They didn’t.

“We’re out of here,” I said, and grabbed Ainsley’s hand.

We ran back to the school, first dodging through the stand of white birch trees, followed by a mad, twisting journey through the pine forest. We made it to the edge of the woods without any problems and jumped out onto the wide stretch of grass that marked the beginning of the school property, and civilization. We stood on the grass, both breathing hard from the desperate run. I had my hands on my hips, looking at the ground, wondering what to say.

“I don’t know,” Ainsley said.

“You don’t know what?”

“I don’t know who that was or what any of it meant.”

“Let’s walk,” I said.

We may have been out of the magical forest, but I didn’t feel comfortable being anywhere near it, so we headed for the school.

“Why did you follow that dog?” I asked. “It was like you were in some kind of trance.”

“I don’t know, Marcus,” she said with confusion. “I feel like I’ve just woken up from a bad dream.”

“She said you were changing. That your body was changing. Is it?”

“You mean besides suddenly being able to move things with my mind?” Ainsley asked.

“Yeah, I guess. And the bird thing. That was…odd.”

Ainsley laughed nervously. “Well, yes, if you must know. I’m thirteen. Things happen when girls hit thirteen.”

“Really? Like what?” I said dumbly.

She gave me a sour look. It took me a second to realize what she meant.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh,’ ” she said. “I started getting my period a couple of weeks ago. I can’t believe I just shared that with a total stranger. And a boy.”

“Get over it,” I said dismissively. “So…she said those changes are letting their gifts flourish within you.”

“Whatever that means,” Ainsley said.

“Has weird stuff like this happened your whole life?” I asked.

“No! No way. None of this makes sense.”

“Do you know that lady?”

Ainsley thought hard and frowned. “I think. I don’t know. She looked familiar but…I’m so confused.”

“When did the accidents start happening? Was it, like, when you started getting your…you know?”

She thought a second, then suddenly got all agitated. “No!” she exclaimed. “What does one have to do with the other?”

“I don’t know. I’m just guessing here. I have no idea why you can do what you can do, or why that freak can move trees and get birds to attack and turn a cardinal into a dagger. But she sure knows a lot about you. And from what she said, something big’s gonna hit the fan tomorrow and you’re in the middle of it.”

“What is Samhain?” Ainsley asked.

“Halloween. All Hallows’ Eve. Big mystical night, according to people who believe in big mystical things. After what I just saw, I may be one of them.”

We got to the school, but instead of going inside, we rounded the building to the front turnout driveway, where parents pulled in to pick up and drop off their kids. School was still going on, so there weren’t any cars except for a black SUV that sat idling nearby.

“My mom,” Ainsley said. “I almost forgot. She came to pick me up.”

“You should tell her what’s going on,” I said.

Ainsley thought about that for a moment, then said, “No.”

“Why not?”

“For one thing, she won’t believe me.”

I didn’t argue with her. I knew the feeling.

“I’m her perfect little overachiever. If I told her I had strange powers and was being asked to join some mystical cult, she’d lock me up.”

“Maybe that’s not such a bad idea. At least until after Halloween.”

“No, I have to find out what this is about. It’s actually kind of…exciting, don’t you think?”

“No, I don’t,” I said quickly. “This is serious stuff. Dangerous stuff. Whoever that lady and her friends are, I don’t see them being good guys.”

“Maybe not,” Ainsley said. “But I want to know what they want from me, and maybe learn a little bit more about myself along the way. Who knows? It might be a good thing.”

Her one-eighty change in attitude bothered me. She had gone from being confused and scared to actually thinking something positive might come from all this.

“It’s not going to be a good thing, Ainsley,” I said. “Trust me.”

Ainsley gave a cute little shrug and said, “I guess we’ll see!”

This was bad.

She started toward her mom’s car, then turned back to me.

“Thanks, Marcus. Looks like you may have come here at the exact right time.”

“Yeah, funny how that happened,” I said.

“See you tomorrow.”

Ainsley ran for the car. She seemed way too bright and happy considering what had just happened. She had started out freaked by the idea she might possess strange powers, and now seemed excited about what those powers might be.

It was a very dangerous road to travel.

She got in the car and threw me a quick wave as the SUV turned onto the street and powered away. I was left feeling helpless. I had learned who was responsible for the disruption at Coppell. It was Ainsley. This was her story. But that only raised more questions. Disturbing questions. Questions I had no answers for. I needed help. It was time to get back to Everett and the Library.

As I walked toward the building, the afternoon quiet was suddenly broken by the cawing sound of a flock of crows. My back stiffened. I looked to the sky in time to see a flock high in the sky, flying over the school. They were black birds, so I relaxed.

For about a second and a half. The flock made a quick turn and did a nosedive, headed my way.

“Oh, that’s not good,” I said to nobody, and took off running.

The birds had appeared black only because they were silhouetted against the bright October sky. They were actually white, and they were after me. With Ainsley gone, there wasn’t anybody to stop them. I sprinted for the school, grabbing at my neck for the Paradox key. I yanked the key over my head, and the cord caught on the hood of my sweatshirt.

“No!” I shouted with panic.

I pulled my hoodie off and fumbled for the key. A quick look skyward showed me that the birds were still plunging my way. I was seconds away from being attacked. I separated the key from the hoodie while still running.

The birds were so close I could hear the sharp flapping of their wings.

I held the key out as I ran for the first door I saw, willing the keyhole to appear.

It did. I jammed the key inside, twisted it, and pulled the door open on the Library.

But the key was still in the lock. I had to struggle to get it out. It was a critical three seconds, for it gave one of the demon birds time to attack. It landed on my head and grabbed a beakful of my hair. It felt like my scalp was on fire as the evil bird yanked away, ripping out a chunk of hair. I swept my arm up, knocking the monster off me. I quickly jumped through the door and kicked it closed as a dozen more birds hit it together, desperately thumping against it to get at me.

I stood with my back to the door, rubbing my burning scalp. The gut-clenching reality hit that this disruption was every bit as dangerous as our adventure with the Boggin had been. The only thing I knew for sure was that whatever was actually going on, it was going to come to a head the following night.

Samhain.

Halloween.

The countdown had begun and I didn’t have the first idea what to do about it.