Witching There's Another Way: A Cozy Mystery (The Witchy Women of Coven Grove Book 4) by Constance Barker

in Russia, and then in the Antarctic.”
    “What about the music?” Bailey asked. “Dala’s mother said Isabelle was humming strange music, just like the little boy from the tour group this morning.”
    “Like, we could actually be looking for a pied piper… being?” Avery asked.
    “Where did you hear all this?” Chloe wondered as she loaded materials and reagents back into the little chest Frances had brought down from the attic.
    Bailey waved in the direction of the library. “Dad got the interview with Dala this morning, after she reported Isabelle missing. He knew the sorts of questions that needed to be asked, I guess. She talked about an imaginary friend, as well—one that wouldn’t give its name and which ran off her old imaginary friend. It sounded creepy.”
    “What happened in Creswell?” Avery asked. “With the missing boy?”
    Aiden sighed, and shook his head slowly.
    “You mean to say,” Bailey said, “that… you think the Faeries took Isabelle?”
    “I can’t say that for sure,” Aiden said. “But… I believe that’s what happened in Creswell. Someone was arrested for abduction. He was exonerated, however, when they failed to find any evidence of foul play. It was like the boy, Kieren Pollock, just vanished into thin air.”
    “But the door to Faerie here is still locked,” Avery said.
    “As far as we know,” Frances pointed out.
    Bailey shook her head, “No, he’s right. This can’t have happened. How would they have gotten to Isabelle if they couldn’t come through the door? If they could, wouldn’t they just… do it?”
    “I don’t have all the answers,” Aiden said, apologetic. “All I know is what I’ve seen so far and even then… no one can ever be certain about what happened to Kieren. I wish I could be more certain.”
    In the pained moment of quiet, Chloe tapped the top of the now loaded little chest. “Traditionally,” she said slowly, “there are… other ways that Faeries took people from our world. In the folklore, I mean.”
    “Right,” Bailey said. She looked at Aiden. “Circles of toadstools, right? And circles of stone?”
    “The myths hinge on circles,” Aiden said. “Really, it’s those that are key. But, natural circles. Circles of trees, flowers… anything that happens on its own.”
    “Assuming they do happen on their own,” Chloe said.
    Everyone looked at her.
    She shrugged. “Maybe they’re a symptom, not a cause.”
    “Right. It’s possible.” Aiden’s eyebrow rose slowly. “But, in the stories, it’s not as simple as stepping into the circle. Normally there are taboos, things the people that are taken do to offend the Faeries. I think it’s up to them who goes through those doors.”
    “Why does that matter?” Avery asked.
    Aiden looked at him. “Well… because if the Faeries took Isabelle, and we wish to retrieve her… I only see one way to do that.”
    “Don’t say it,” Frances sighed.
    So, Aiden didn’t.
    But Bailey did, shivering with a sudden chill when she did.
    “We have to go into Faerie to get her back.”

 
     
    Chapter 7
    “Thomas is going to be so disappointed,” Avery said to Bailey as they descended the path toward the caves.
    She took his hand in hers and held it reassuringly. “Maybe not,” she said. “Maybe… time moves differently in Faerie. If we can even get there. Aiden’s research is all hypothetical and even with Professor Turner’s notes… it’s possible the Caves simply won’t let us go through.”
    “Right, I know all that,” Avery sighed. “But I’m tired of being optimistic and getting disappointed because of it.”
    “You don’t mean that,” Bailey said. “Not really, right?”
    Avery shrugged. “One thing after another lately.”
    “You don’t have to come, you know,” she said. “Earlier, I was trying to tell you to go back with him.”
    “Are you serious right now?” Avery asked. He rolled his eyes, and put an arm around her shoulder. “If I had gone, and