Page 83 of Witches of Honeysuckle House

“You always said if you knew how the curse started you could undo it,” Angela said. “What about the journals?”

“Journals?” Florence asked.

But before Evie could answer the lights started to flicker, and the walls began to shake.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Evie, Now

“We need to go. Now!” Evie grabbed her mother’s journal then scooped Clara up from the ground.

Florence and Angela scrambled up from the floor. They helped Owen get to his feet. He swayed a little but stayed upright.

“Hold on tight.” Evie tried to keep the fear from her voice, but the words came out shaky. Clara wrapped her legs around Evie’s waist and gripped her around the neck. The spiral staircase creaked under every step. Lights blinked on and off as Evie hurried through the house with Clara in her arms.

The walls groaned as if the house might fall down around them at any moment.

When they reached the front room, they burst onto the porch and into the yard. The wind whipped up, and the lights flickered erratically against the storm-darkened sky, as if the house was looking down at them.

The window to Evie’s attic room slammed so hard the glass shattered in the pane and rained down on the side yard. Evie stared up at it, waiting for the others to appear in the doorway. Florence was the last one through, and as soon as she reached the porch, the door closed with a bang. Honeysuckle vines covered it, barring their reentry.

“Is the house mad at us?” Clara asked. The fear in her voice made Evie’s heart ache.

“I’m not sure, honeybee,” Evie said. But it certainly seemed that way. At least it wasn’t trying to hurt them anymore.

Angela came up behind her and rested a hand on Evie’s back. Evie relaxed into her touch, and if she hadn’t been holding onto Clara, she would’ve collapsed into Angela’s arms.

“I know you were trying to help,” Angela said, her voice soft, “but you shouldn’t have done this alone.”

“I didn’t want you to get hurt,” Evie said.

“And you thought I’d stand by waiting for the house to hurt you instead?” The pain in Angela’s voice only undid Evie further.

“I wasn’t thinking about my own safety,” Evie said.

“Maybe you should’ve been,” Angela said.

“She’s right,” Florence said. “You didn’t have to do this alone.”

Evie glared at her sister and tried not to cry. “I almost brought you into it yesterday, but all you wanted to do was fight.”

“If I remember correctly, you’re the one who picked a fight with me,” Florence said as she helped Owen walk to a nearby tree that could better support his weight.

“If you’d come the day the house burned, we’d never be in this mess,” Evie said. “You would’ve seen everything in the attic whether I wanted you to or not.”

Clara scrambled out of Evie’s arms and landed on her feet. She planted her hands on her hips and said, “Mom! We need to work together.Allof us.”

“Clara’s right,” Florence said with a heavy sigh, almost as if the fight had gone out of her. “What was that you were saying about journals?” she asked Angela.

“Something I’m guessing the house didn’t want us to hear.” Owen cast a wary look at Honeysuckle House.

“Clara’s magic didn’t just burn a hole through the wall,” Evie said. “We found a pile of diaries in front of the bookcase. Mom’s spell was in almost all of them in some form or another. I didn’t have a chance to read much beyond that. I was too focused on the spell.”

“With all of us, we might be able to get through them fast enough to see if there’s something else in there that could help,” Florence said.

“All of us?” Evie shot Owen a glare. “He took a job here under false pretenses!”

“I didn’t,” Owen said. “Not on purpose. I came looking for answers about my family. I was going to ask you about the curse, but after I heard you talking about it, I didn’t think that was such a good idea. I didn’t want you to fire me.”