Witching Time (The Wild Hunt #14) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,16

the girls looked up at me and waved, and I found myself smiling.

“Little brats,” I whispered. “All they do is take. They never give anything back. Except for you, Kaitlin. You’re different.” Startled by my words, I shook my head and looked out the window again. There was no one there.

“Trinity is here,” Tyra called from below.

“I’m coming.” I hurried back down the steps. “Hey, Trinity.” I stepped around Tyra to give him a quick hug. “We have a spirit on the premises. At first I thought it might be a poltergeist, but now I think she’s just a disgruntled ghost.” Turning back to Tyra, I said, “I don’t think she’s attached to the actual attic. Let’s have a look at those trunks.”

Tyra led the way into the kitchen. A large room, with an eat-in area that also overlooked the backyard, the kitchen looked cozy and homey, but the broken stoneware that littered the floor spoiled that feel, and the cupboards had been opened and boxes and bags of food were spilled everywhere.

“She certainly did a number in here.” I pointed toward the trunks. “Trinity, there—can you open those?”

Trinity knelt by the trunks, gazing at the padlocks. Then, he pulled out a huge ring of keys from a messenger bag that he carried everywhere. He eyed the locks again, then the keys, and finally chose one, slowly fitting it into the padlock while he whispered something under his breath. A moment later and a soft click indicated he had been successful.

He quickly unlocked the other one and then stood back. “There, all done. I’ll stick around for a while to make sure you don’t need me anymore.”

I gingerly opened the first trunk. Inside were a bunch of papers. We piled them on the table, sifting through them, but they looked like somebody had cleared out a desk and just dumped them in the trunk, closed the lid, and forgot about them.

“These must have…yes,” I said, examining one and seeing the name “Denise Rigby” on the page. “These were hers—the woman who owned the house before your landlord bought it. I can’t see anything here that might trigger her, unless there’s something incriminating in here. So, she wasn’t married? Her husband didn’t take these with him?”

Tyra shook her head. “No, she wasn’t married. Or rather, she was divorced.”

I sifted through the papers until I came to a photograph that showed a crusty-looking woman who looked about fifty, along with a tall man around her age, and four teenagers. They looked a lot like older versions of the children that I had seen in my vision and were standing in the back yard. I glanced at the back of the photo and written there were the names: Hiram, Denise, Kaitlin, Donny, Frank, and Diana.

“Did your landlord mention if she had children?”

Tyra shook her head. “No. The person who sold the house was a lawyer, so either she didn’t have children or they hired him to sell the house for them. Here, let me—”

The other trunk suddenly thumped as the lid began to rattle. I dropped the picture and motioned for Tyra and Trinity to move back. The next moment, the lid flew open with a bang. I jumped, even though I had been expecting it.

“What the hell?”

“I think there’s something in there she wants us to see,” I said, moving forward cautiously. I peeked into the trunk. There was a jewelry box, and what looked like a scattered array of scarves, gloves, and handbags.

“What do you want me to look at?” I asked, looking at the ceiling. “The jewelry box?”

The lid thumped again, rising and falling.

“Must be that.” I pulled out the jewelry box and carried it over to the table, where I set it down.

A modest box, it was made out of polished mahogany. Inside the lid was a mirror. As I sorted through the trinkets inside, I saw a heart-shaped locket. It was the only thing that looked of any worth. I opened it up and there was a picture of a young girl—the one who had looked up in my vision—on one side, and a very small key on the other side. I took the key out of the necklace, frowning. “I think this is Kaitlin, from the other picture.”

There was a sudden shift of scarves in the trunk and they fell to the side, uncovering what looked to be a smaller box. I lifted it out. The box had a tiny lock on the box, and I glanced