Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 by Mara Webb (hardest books to read TXT) 📗

“Look at the rock more closely,” he insisted. I stepped across black dirt, my feet crunching on burnt foliage and brittle sticks. The rock was slate gray in color, but there was something darker on it.

“Is that…?”

“Blood!” Ryder said. “I reckon so. I figured you might know if it was some sort of ritual thing.”

“You have massively overestimated my experience with weird stuff if you think I know anything about this,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “But you think that Miller came out here, created this whole space for himself and then threw some blood on a big rock?”

“It could be a feeding ground, or, or…” he stammered.

“I know you see the worst in him, but is there a chance that you have read into this too much?” I asked.

Ryder stood back from the rock, a few feet to my left. I saw his shoulders rise and fall dramatically as he let out a deep breath, clearly frustrated with the situation. I stepped closer and tried to make eye contact with him, hoping to reassure him that I didn’t think he was crazy.

“I don’t know why you trust him,” he said. I hadn’t noticed just how brown his eyes were before, like a rich velvet. I could see now why Greta has been so drawn to him. He had a climber’s body, slight and muscular. “He’s dangerous. I have to protect you, I have to… you spending all that time with a monster is making my life harder.”

“He’s not a monster. He’s my friend, he’s—” I stopped myself. What was Miller to me? All we had shared were a few moments, a little flirting here and there and that was it.

“I see it. I know,” he said. He looked pained. I could almost feel it in my chest. “Can you just promise me that you will stay alert? He’s the sheriff, I know you two have to go off around the islands together, so it’s not like I can go everywhere you go. What if something happens and I’m not there?”

“I’m a witch, remember?” I smiled. I lifted my hand up and touched the side of his arm. I had intended it to be comforting, but I pulled my hand back quickly after my fingers touched his skin. I had felt that same jolt of energy as when Miller had held my hand.

The look on Ryder’s face suggested that he felt it too. Oh boy.

“We should get back down to The Guitar Yard,” I said, desperate to break the tension.

“Huh?”

“The guy who runs the place was shot and someone smashed up the windows. It’s a huge mess,” I said.

“Do you think it was Miller?” he asked. I laughed but saw that he was serious.

“No! He was with me on Wilmore when it happened. Let’s just get back to the high street and try not to accuse Miller of anything illegal for five whole minutes, see how it feels,” I teased.

We walked back through the trees to the sound of bird song. I thought about what my life had been like before I moved here, how I’d never really heard the sounds of nature before. Even as we got closer to the high street, it was quiet. There weren’t many vehicles on the island, just the occasional bus bumbling along.

The calm didn’t last long though. By the time we reached The Guitar Yard it seemed like everyone in a one mile radius had come over to gawk at the crime scene. I couldn’t see Miller anywhere.

“You weren’t kidding,” Ryder muttered from behind me. “There’s glass everywhere.” I carefully stepped around the shards on the ground, despite now wearing more appropriate footwear than I had been earlier.

I stepped into the building, looking around for Miller. He was the sheriff; he should be here.

“Be careful back there, the body is behind the cash register. Don’t touch anything,” I said, listening out for sounds that someone was upstairs.

“There’s no one here,” Ryder replied. I walked over and saw that the bloodstained carpet remained, but the body was gone. I looked back and the shoe still lay in the middle of the floor.

“Maybe the funeral home came to get him already,” I muttered. Why wouldn’t they take the shoe? I know that Miller had told me a dozen times that they didn’t have a forensic team on the island, but surely the shoe would be added to evidence.

Something didn’t feel right. This place shouldn’t be unguarded, but there were no police anywhere. What had happened to pull him away from this building?

“So… when do you want to talk to Effie and Kate about the ritual site?” Ryder asked. I shot him a look. “Greta taught me a little magic; I can tell that the place I found in the trees is being used for something. I think that it’s important. Maybe it’s related to what happened to Jake today.”

“Let me just get someone from the police station to keep watch here,” I sighed. There was a strange taste in my mouth, almost metallic. I stuck my tongue out and opened my mouth like I was trying to catch rain drops. I had turned away from Ryder, but it seemed that he could still see me.

“You’re a strange one, you know that, right?” he laughed.

“Let me live my life,” I tried to say, my mouth still wide open. It came out more like, ‘let meh lif my lice’ and he laughed again.

“Sadie!” Miller said, running back into the building from the street. He had seen me first, but then spotted Ryder behind me. I was standing directly between them both, I could feel a heat in the air that hadn’t been there before.

I closed my mouth and looked back and forth at them, waiting to see who would speak first. Any movement that Ryder made, Miller immediately mirrored. I remembered something I’d read that reminded me of