Page 97 of Woods of the Raven

I shrugged.

“Stupid?” Lorne asked Taylor.

“Because Xan’s gay, she didn’t want me around him.”

“Ah.”

“But she’s changed since my sister’s oldest came out.”

“What is that saying about whoever it is you hate will wind up in your family?” he commented, shooting Taylor a look.

I waggled my eyebrows at him.

“She never hated you,” Taylor clarified. “She just didn’t understand and didn’t want me to become a lesbian.”

“Because it rubs off.”

“She’s very different now,” she defended her mother, “but again, I’m sorry.”

“I know you are,” I said, giving her a gentle pat on the arm.

Inhaling quickly, she blew out the breath just as fast before passing me back my phone. “Now, what’s your question?”

“Where we swam is Parker’s Ferry?”

“Yeah.”

“Interesting, I never knew that.”

“That’s because there were never any signs out there,” she reminded me. “How would you know? I didn’t until I started doing my research.”

“Yeah, but tell me, do you remember the story about the cannibals?”

She shook her head. “Turns out they were cultists. Some Celtic god who wanted to wash the world in blood or some such.”

I knew all that, but her correcting me let me know we were on the same page. “And do you know where they lived? The cultists?”

“Oh yeah. Lemme show you on my phone. I took vast amounts of pictures of the maps in case Joanna locked them away again.”

“That woman sounds really mean,” Lorne stated.

“You have no idea,” Taylor huffed out before turning her phone sideways and enlarging the piece she wanted to show us. “And you’d think with me being married to a councilman, she’d be less of a bitch. I mean, he can help the library with funding.”

“Like she cares,” I scoffed.

Taylor sighed. “Okay, so look, in relation to the river where we used to swim, this is where the Phoenix Farm was.”

“Phoenix?” Lorne asked.

“Yes. They were like a lot of cults—certain they would die but be reborn in their heavenly reward with their god.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“I don’t know. The farm itself was built over ley lines, much like Corvus, but the ones on your land have never been mapped. The ones out there by the Phoenix Farm were, and they’re a bit strange.”

“Strange how?” Lorne asked.

Taylor lifted her phone, and after some button pushing and swiping, pulled up more pictures to show us. “See? It looks like it’s supposed to be an octothorpe, but the lines don’t form a fully connected grid.”