RoadBlock by Amelia Bishop Page B

to be paid.”
    They all sat in silence as they absorbed this information, until Dagger spoke up again. “What did Calvin have to do with this?”
    Adelaide sighed, then closed her eyes and nodded. “He kept the house available for Betony and Calderon. He warded the cliff road against anyone with ill-intent. And he created an invisibility around your little neighborhood.”
    “An ‘invisibility’? What does that mean?”
    “It means that no one can find you there. No one can hear you, or see you. Only, of course, the people in the physical area of the homes themselves, but it is invisible to the powers of seers, or any other witches from afar. Calderon wouldn’t have even found the house if we hadn’t made sure he was shown it in person by the realtor.”
    “Oh, Goddess. That’s impressive.” Calderon thought back to the day he saw the house, and how it had struck him immediately as the right house for them. “Spells of that magnitude take years.”
    “Yes. Calvin used all he had on them. All his power, all his time.”
    Wade leaned forward, “And Melody gave her life so he could do it.”
    Adelaide looked down, regret sagging her features. “Yes.”
    Dagger shook his head slowly. “And I always thought Calvin was weak.”
    “He was weak in water manipulation, strong in spell craft. But he never used his power on anything else, not after the prophecy.”
    “Is there anything more you can tell us?”
    “I can’t think of anything relevant. You’ll need to find your own way to this witch, and your own way to destroy the threat. Not even Diana knew how that would play out, and as far as she’s told me, she still doesn’t. If you think of anything else you’d like to know, call my cell phone. I always have it with me.”
    Dagger got up and hugged Adelaide. “Thank you Adelaide, we’ll do our best.”
    “I know you will.” She smiled warmly at Dagger, and surprised Calderon and Betony by hugging them both. Wade stood awkwardly near the door, but Adelaide strode over to him and pulled him into a hug as well. “Take care of them, Wade, and yourself.”
    Her eyes were shining with unshed tears as she opened the door to see them out. All her hopes for the future of her coven rested on those four, and if Diana was right, the future of all witches depended on them as well.

10.
     
    The ride back to the house was silent, everyone lost in their own thoughts. They had several hours to kill before they had to leave for Wade’s mother’s house, and after learning their homes were a kind of ‘safe zone’, they decided to go there to regroup and discuss what they’d learned. Betony stood in the driveway, arms folded across her chest, chewing her bottom lip. “I want to make a circle, Cal. I think we need to focus.”
    Dagger nodded. He was feeling the same way. “We have a circle. Follow me.” He led them to the empty strip of land between their houses, but instead of following the path they had taken to the little cemetery, he turned right and slipped between two fat bayberry bushes into a little clearing. Calderon and Betony looked around in admiration of the little space.
    There was a circular patio of blue slate, inset with red slate markers carved to represent each of the four directions. In the center, a small hollow had been dug out and a fire-bowl sat flush with the ground. A pile of logs were neatly stacked in a tiny open woodshed tucked between some large clumps of grasses, and a small wooden chest sat next to that. The waves crashed onto the beach below, and the wind whispered through the tall grasses, but no other noises reached them. It was a beautiful place, and Betony’s mouth hung open in a gaping smile. “This is awesome!”
    “Yeah, thanks. My parents and Calvin built it a long time ago. It’s always been a special place for me.”
    Wade looked around, remembering the times he’d spent here with Dagger during their training. Dagger had been the reason Wade had stayed with the coven