Page 6 of Witch Unexpected
“Okay, now that isn’t normal.”
“No.”
“So, what are we dealing with? What did you need to show me?”
Ursula unlocked the passenger side door and stepped out. “This way.”
I trailed her toward the gate then fell into step beside her as we followed the barrier around the building toward the back where a field was visible.
“The teacher in question had a suspicion as to what we might be dealing with,” Ursula said. “The children went missing after lunchtime play, which happens on this field. So, she went to investigate.”
The field was also gated off from the road, just like the asphalt playground up front. But there was a woman waiting for us on the other side of this gate. She wrung her hands nervously, huge eyes staring at us from behind thick lenses.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re here.” She hopped from foot to foot. “It’s a waxing moon,” she said. “Not good to be out alone when the moon is so close to full.”
It was a common misconception that shifters were dangerous. I mean, they could rip you to shreds if they wanted, but they didn’t hunt people. They also didn’t need it to be close to a full moon to shift. They could shift anytime.
“They won’t hurt you.”
“Huh?”
“The Loup. They don’t hunt people.”
She blinked at me. “Oh, my dear, I wasn’t referring to the Loup.”
Okay… “Then what?”
She pulled open the gate and ushered us through. “The other folk,” she said in a hushed tone. “The other folk that frolic in the woods.” She jerked her head toward the tree line in the distance.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“She means fae folk,” Ursula said.
Fae? The fae were few and far between, a dying race, and one that didn’t venture into the human world very often. “You think fae have something to do with the children?”
“Have you heard of changelings?” she asked.
“Isn’t that where fae take a human baby and leave one of their own in its place?”
“Yes, that’s it.”
“These kids are what? Three or four years old? Hardly babies.”
“I know,” the teacher said. “But I also know what I saw. The children that returned aren’t human. I can show you. Follow me.”
We trudged across the moonlit field toward the tree line, and despite my bravado, a prickle skittered across my skin, my sixth sense warning me something was afoot. The shadows crawled toward us the closer we got to the woods.
The teacher stopped and pointed. “Look, do you see it?” she asked.
I scanned the gloom between the trees seeing nothing but…gloom. “Um, Ursula…?” And then I spotted it, a slender sliver of light cutting a vertical path through the air.
“You see it, don’t you?” The witch asked.
Yeah, I saw it. “What is that?”
“A rift,” Ursula said. “We believe it leads to the fae realm and the missing human children.”
“It’s a wild and dangerous place,” the witch said. “A dangerous place. Not for the likes of us.” She shook her head quickly. “Witches are defenseless over there.” She looked warily at the rift and shuddered. “Those poor children. They must be so scared.”
