Page 85 of The Witching Hours

Dart continued shoveling mac and cheese and acted like I hadn’t addressed him. Mason, on the other hand, wanted to talk.

“I think the fiery rain is pretty,” he said.

“I haven’t heard about that. When did you see it and what does it look like?”

“It happens right before they do something,” he said.

“Something like…”

“Moving furniture.”

I nodded. “Gotcha. What does it look like?”

“It looks like the air is full of tiny little explosions. Little explosions that become sparks. But the sparks don’t burn or hurt if they touch you.”

“What color are they?”

“All colors. The air is full of little bits of rainbow on fire,” he said.

I smiled. “You must be an artist, Mason. That’s kind of poetic.”

He ducked his chin and returned my smile, clearly liking the citation.

I looked between David and Molly. “Have either of you seen the fiery rain?” They looked at each other blankly before shaking their heads no. “Alex. Have you seen what Mason is talking about?”

She nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“Dart?” The youngest looked up at me. “Have you seen it?”

Dart didn’t answer, but looked at his parents. “Can I go get a soft ice cream cone out of the machine?”

“You can,” David said. “Right after you answer Ms. Danann’s question. Have you seen the fiery rain?”

“Yeah. It comes out of the hole,” Dart said nonchalantly.

Every other person at the table went stock still and stared at the kid.

After a pause, David got his wits about him and said, “Dart, you can go get ice cream just as soon as you tell us about the hole. Where is it? What does it look like?”

“It’s in the dining room. It’s black with smoke around the outside,” he said, looking longingly at the soft serve ice cream machine across the room.

“That’s very helpful,” David said. “Does it stay open?”

Dart shook his head. “’Course not. It opens up and the fiery rain shoots out. Then they come.”

“Okay. Go get your ice cream,” David said.

“Me, too?” Alex and Mason said in unison.

“Yeah. Best manners,” David cautioned.

I was grateful to get five minutes with David and Molly alone. “This has been a really productive supper. Lots of incredibly useful intel. I could see you were surprised by some of it.”

“I don’t know why they haven’t been talking to us about these things,” Molly said.

“I’m not a child shrink, but they may be thinking the best way to support the family is silence,” I said.

“That makes sense,” David replied. “But I don’t think silence is the best thing for my kids. I don’t want them to feel like they’re carrying a burden they can’t share with us.” He glanced at Molly to indicate he meant the two of them.