West

I sent Carter the picture I had just taken and a text.

I think you're keeping something important from me. If I'm in danger, I need to know, Carter.

Why not at least warn me?

Thunder drew my gaze towards the barn. I went to the window once more and gazed out.

The whispering I had heard around the phones was too faint, but that around the well was louder. If I couldn't read one, I should be able to read the other. Gripping and releasing my cell phone, I couldn't help thinking I needed to know what - or who - was in the well. I dared not risk waiting until the second storm was over.

The stable hands finished rounding up the horses and secured the barn before trotting towards the servants' wing of the house.

I tucked my phone in a pocket and moved away from the window. Going to my door, I opened it, expecting to find Nell loitering the way she always seemed to be. No one was in the hallway, though I heard the movement of someone in one of the rooms whose door was cracked open.

I crept towards the stairs, cringing when the floorboards creaked beneath my light step. I hurried down the grand staircase, eyes darting around to make sure no one saw me.

The house was brightly lit and quiet. Voices of the visitors from town came from the parlor, and I assumed Nell was with John. The shutters had been drawn on the windows on the main floor, and I hurried to the front door, pulling it open. Stepping out, I closed the door quickly and breathed a sigh of relief that I had made it this far. The wind was strong, though it contained no telltale droplets of moisture that would precede another hard rain.

I took it as a good sign and raced from the house to the barn, pressing myself to the side not visible from the house. I tucked errant hairs caught up in the wind behind my ears. The charged wind was exhilarating, warm and cool swirling around me in a dangerous dance.

Lightning like that from the night I arrived made me look upward, and an instinct wriggled. If I had arrived in a lightning storm, was there some way for me to leave during one, too? Was Carter's weird magic or technology tied to the charge of electricity from lightning?

Why am I thinking about it now? It wasn't the day I was supposed to change things, and yet, with John almost gone and the mystery of the three other girls twisting my insides, I couldn't help wishing I could hop in a car and just go home if things got too bad here.