Witches of East End - By Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,79

something important. And I think something might have happened to him. He hasn't returned any of my messages for several days."

"Something has happened to him," Joanna said. She took another deep breath. Freya wondered if she could stand to hear another revelation.

"He's gone to see the White Council," their mother told them. "I went to his apartment and waited for him. A messenger from the Council came by, with a letter granting him permission to speak, but obviously he decided not to wait for it. He's left to consult with the oracle. He's probably there already."

Freya gasped. "But why would he do that?"

"I don't know. Unless word about our actions here have gotten back to him somehow; maybe he was reporting our violations of the restriction." Joanna crossed her arms.

"Dad wouldn't do that," Ingrid said loyally. "If he went to the oracle there has to be a good reason for it."

"What was he helping you with, anyway?" Freya asked.

"The Fair Haven blueprints. I found something - these odd little design keys. Dad was decoding it for me. He said he'd figured out what they were, but then he disappeared."

"So maybe he wanted to talk to them about that?" Freya suggested.

Joanna whipped around to address Ingrid. "Fair Haven? You and Dad were doing something with Fair Haven?"

Ingrid described the key tags with the decorative scrolls. "I guess I should have asked you first, Mother, since you might know if there's something unusual about Fair Haven that we should know about."

Joanna shook her head. "Only that the Council told us when we settled here in North Hampton that the seam was there, the boundary where the living and the twilight worlds meet. But I think there might be something more to it. Before I left, I went out to Fair Haven, where the gray darkness in the water seems to have concentrated."

"It's not just here; it's in the South Pacific, and near Alaska as well," Ingrid said. "And I saw on TV the other day they think they might have found one near Reykjavik."

Joanna inhaled sharply at the news. "Whatever is in the oceans is not of this earth, I'm quite sure of that. I went to look for your father because I was hoping he could help me figure out what it was and where it came from so we could stop it. That spell I put on it won't last. I'm going to need both of you to help hold it up."

"We'll start immediately." Freya nodded.

"Good. With the three of us I think we can hold it back a while longer until we figure out how to get rid of it entirely." Joanna looked at her girls. "One more thing. What happened to the house? Has Gracella not been by to clean it? And how's my Tyler doing?"

"Tyler's in the hospital," Freya said. "Don't worry, I checked on him. He has a fever and an infection but the doctors say they have it under control."

Joanna tried to keep calm. If Tyler was sick, the hospital was the safest place for him to be. "First things first: Gardiners Island and then the hospital."

They were preparing to leave when there was a sharp knock on the door, and the three women jumped and looked at each other fearfully.

"The Council!" Ingrid yelped.

"The oracle doesn't knock," Freya scoffed. She peeked out the window and saw several police cars parked in the driveway, their lights flashing. "What on earth?"

"Open the door," Joanna instructed.

Ingrid moved toward the front door and flung it wide. "Matt!" she cried, her hands flying to her glasses. In all the ways she had imagined Matthew Noble visiting her home, this certainly was not one of them. The detective looked apologetic as he stepped inside the doorway with two policemen behind him.

"Hey, Ingrid, I'm really sorry to bother you, but I'm hoping your family has some time this afternoon to come down to the station and answer a few questions," he said, looking tired and anxious.

"Why?"

"Can we talk about it when we get there?"

"Do we have to?" Freya demanded. "Don't you need a warrant - or something?"

"No, we just want to ask some questions," he said sternly. "It's standard procedure."

"Matt - what's going on?" Ingrid asked fearfully.

"Why do you need to talk to the girls?" Joanna asked, her manner and tone imperious, as if the police detective were an underling daring to address the queen.

Freya snorted. "We're being arrested, aren't we?"

"Not at all, not at all. Look, we just want to ask