The Kelpie's Curse (book #1 in the Kelpie's Entrapment trilogy)

Day 6 pt. 5

By the time that they had finally had two bows picked out for Evelyn and Kaloria Renestrae was ready to tear her hair out. By the time that they were finally out the door of the local outdoor sports store she was sighing with obvious exasperation and internally she wanted to throttle the both of them.

    Never in her life did she think that picking out something so simple could be some complicated. However she supposed that Evelyn was the girliest member of their group so she should have anticipated that she would care about the color of her bow.

    Renestrae took a deep breath then slowly let it out in an attempt to calm her frazzled nerves. She knew that it wasn't Evelyn's desire to have a girly bow, Kaloria's current absentmindedness, or even going to some fancy artsy thing with Dageus that had her so on edge.

    Unfortunately she knew it was this funeral that had her feeling so antsy. Having lost three important family members before she turned eighteen Renestrae was no stranger to death and had accepted it for what it was, a very sad but unavoidable part of life. She hated funerals now not because of the sadness of them but because she felt out of place and usually ended up saying the wrong thing on accident.

    Most of the time her family didn't understand this so she didn't expect a bunch of people she didn't know to either. More than anything right now she wanted to find Dageus and get the hell out of Dodge before she accidentally ran into a member of the family or anyone else for that matter.

    "So what now?"

    Renestrae counted down from ten one last time before turning around to answer Evelyn with a forced smile.

    "Now we part ways."

    "Are you sure that's wise?" Kali asked, worry evident in her tone.

    "Oh don't worry about me." She answered with a dismissive wave of her hand and a short laugh. "Besides you two need to put your new bows in the car."

    "Where are you going though?" Kali asked.

    Renestrae shrugged her shoulders while walking backwards. "Around, Dageus didn't specify exactly where in town he wanted to meet.

    "You could just walk around with us until you bump into him, after all we still have to find Ainslie and his family." Evelyn suggested.

    Renestrae scrunched her nose up in disgust while continuing her backwards walk. "Sorry girls but as much fun as looking for an angry grieving mob sounds I think I'll pass on this one." She softened her expression then smiled sadly at Kali. "Give Ainslie my condolences." She then turned around before she tripped and started walking towards the library.

    Renestrae looked on ahead even when she felt the urge to look back. She still felt slightly guilty for going to this art gallery with Dageus while Evelyn and Kaloria went to the funeral but what could she really do?

    The girls might have been oblivious but she had not been able to miss the hateful looks that the cashier and a few of the patrons at the store had shot her way. There was nothing connecting her to any of these murders but it seemed that didn't mean squat to the locals.

    As much as she wanted to rant about how unjust that was she supposed she couldn't blame them. If this was happening in Sherwood she probably would have been thinking the same thing.

    She had just rounded a corner and spotted Dageus waiting at the entrance to the library when a couple of young men stepped out in front of her obscuring her view.

    She took one look at the four of them with varying degrees of light hair and angry blue or green eyes and took a cautious step back.

    "A-anything I can help you with?" She stammered, they did not look friendly, not one bit. Having been bullied almost her entire life Renestrae had quite a bit of experience with the unfriendly look but it was nothing compared to how these men where looking at her now.