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“So, I found this,” she said, and held up a silvery pendant on a brown leather cord.

“Usually, I try to stay out of my mom’s and my grandma’s stuff.

It’s their property, after all. But I decided I needed to do what I could to find any possible clues, and when I looked in my mother’s jewelry box, I found this pendant or charm, or whatever it is. ”

She laid it in Ben’s palm, and he leaned down to take a closer look. Engraved in the metal was the head of a unicorn with a circle surrounding it, almost like a halo. The work was very fine and delicate, almost like an etching transferred to sterling silver.

“Do you think this design is supposed to mean that the unicorn definitely comes from inside the stone circle?” he asked, and her shoulders lifted.

“I can’t really say for sure. But it looks like they’re connected somehow.

” Sidney looked at him then, gray eyes grave, full of speculation.

“I have no idea where she even got the pendant. The rest of her stuff is pretty normal — a few amethyst pieces my dad got her, because that’s her birthstone, and purple is her favorite color.

Some turquoise things she bought when we went to visit the Grand Canyon when I was a kid.

This pendant or charm or amulet…it’s not really her style. ”

Ben would have to take Sidney’s words for that, since he’d never met the woman in question, let alone inspected the contents of her jewelry box. For her to possess something so out of character meant it had to be significant somehow.

“Maybe you should try wearing it,” he said as he handed the pendant to her, and Sidney took a step back, looking as startled as if he’d just suggested that she slip a live snake over her shoulders.

“Do you really think that’s such a good idea?” she asked. “What if I just…disappear or something?”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he told her. “To me, this feels more like an amulet that might give you safe passage through the portal…if that’s even what’s happening here at all.”

She looked dubious, brows drawn together and mouth slightly pursed. Then her expression shifted to one of worry.

“If that’s the case, why would my mother leave it behind? Shouldn’t she have been wearing it when she went with my grandmother to investigate the stone circle?”

Both good questions. Unfortunately, Ben didn’t have any real answers to either of them.

Unless….

“It could have simply been a clue,” he said. “Something to help lead you in the right direction. After all, she couldn’t have known that the unicorn would take you to the stone circle at precisely the correct time, could she?”

Sidney glanced away from him and toward the window of his rented room. From up here, you had a good view of the forest, and maybe she was looking at it in the hope that it might provide some answers.

Apparently not, though, because her shoulders slumped. As cheerful as she’d seemed when she first arrived, she now appeared to be the picture of defeat.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “That’s the problem — I don’t really know anything. I suppose I can see why my mother and grandmother would have wanted to protect me, but leaving me totally clueless doesn’t seem like it was the right strategy.”

Ben had to agree with her there. While he was sure that her relatives had only had Sidney’s best interests at heart, it seemed their protectiveness had backfired.

“They might not have known everything, either,” he said. “So I suppose you should try to cut them some slack. If they’d known for sure that walking into the circle would send them to a different plane of existence, do you really think they would have gone inside?”

“Probably not,” she responded. While she still didn’t look entirely cheerful, she also seemed a little less downcast. “And again, we don’t know for sure that’s even what happened.”

“Well, with any luck, we’ll get a few more answers tonight,” Ben said. “For now, I think we should rest up and do what we can to prepare.”

“If we’re going to tromp around in the forest right after dinner,” she said, a faint hint of a smile beginning to touch her mouth, “then we should probably go eat somewhere casual.”

As far as he’d been able to tell, all the restaurants in Silver Hollow seemed fairly casual. Rather than comment on that, however, he only asked, “Any suggestions?”

“Hog Wild,” she replied at once. “It’s a barbecue place, and it’s pretty good. But it’s also not the kind of restaurant where they give you cloth napkins.”

Considering how messy barbecue could get, Ben thought that might be something of an oversight. However, he understood what she was trying to say.

“Sounds like a plan. Meet there at seven-thirty?”

It wasn’t that he wanted to postpone their meal for as long as possible. No, he just wanted it to happen late enough that they could head into the forest immediately afterward.

She seemed to get his meaning, because she nodded, saying, “I’ll see you then. And if I find anything else that seems a little weird, I’ll text you.”

“Well, hopefully not,” he said with a smile, but she only shrugged.

“This is all pretty weird, wouldn’t you say?”

After delivering that remark, she let herself out. For a moment, Ben stood there, looking at the door and wishing he’d been smart enough to come up with some reason to have her stay a while longer.

Since he hadn’t, he went back to his laptop and his notes.