Read Online The Sign of Seven Trilogy by Nora Roberts - Free Book Online Page A

boy with dark hair. And red eyes.” She saw by the way Cal paled she’d flicked a switch. “You have seen him.”
    â€œWhy do you ask about that?”
    â€œBecause I saw him.”
    Now Cal pushed to his feet, paced to the window, stared out at the woods. The light was dimmer, duller already than it had been an hour before.
    They’d never told anyone about the boy—or the man—whatever form the thing chose to take. Yes, he’d seen him, and not only during that one hellish week every seven years.
    He’d seen it in dreams. He’d seen it out of the corner of his eye, or loping through the woods. Or with its face pressed to the dark glass of his bedroom window…and its mouth grinning.
    But no one, no one but he, Fox, and Gage had ever seen it in the between times.
    Why had she?
    â€œWhen and where did you see him?”
    â€œToday, just before I turned off onto Pagan Road. He ran in front of my car. Came out of nowhere. That’s what people always say, but this time it’s true. A boy, then it wasn’t a boy but a dog. Then it wasn’t anything. There was nothing there.”
    He heard her rise, and when he turned was simply stunned to see that brilliant smile on her face. “And this kind of thing makes you happy?”
    â€œIt makes me thrilled. Excited. I’m saying wow! I had myself what we could call a close encounter with an unspecified phenomenon. Scary, I grant you, but again, wow. This sort of thing completely winds me up.”
    â€œI can see that.”
    â€œI knew there was something here, and I thought it was big. But to have it confirmed, the first day out, that’s hitting the mother lode with the first whack of the pick.”
    â€œI haven’t confirmed anything.”
    â€œYour face did.” She picked up her recorder, turned it off. He wasn’t going to tell her anything today. Cautious man, Caleb Hawkins. “I need to get into town, check into the hotel, get a lay of the land. Why don’t I buy you that dinner tonight?”
    She moved fast, and he made a habit of taking his time. “Why don’t you take some time to settle in? We can talk about dinner and so on in a couple days.”
    â€œI love a man who’s hard to get.” She slipped her recorder, her notepad back in her bag. “I guess I’ll need my coat.”
    After he’d brought it to her, she studied him as she shrugged it on. “You know, when you first came outside, I had the strangest sensation. I thought I recognized you, that I’d known you before. That you’d waited for me before. It was very strong. Did you feel anything like that?”
    â€œNo. But maybe I was too busy thinking, she looks better than her picture.”
    â€œReally? Nice, because I looked terrific in that picture. Thanks for the coffee.” She glanced back to the dog who’d snored lightly the entire time they’d talked. “See you later, Lump. Don’t work so hard.”
    He walked her out. “Quinn,” he said as she started down the stairs. “Don’t get any ideas about Lois Laning it and trying to find the Pagan Stone on your own. You don’t know the woods. I’ll take you there myself, sometime this week.”
    â€œTomorrow?”
    â€œI can’t, I’ve got a full plate. Day after if you’re in a hurry.”
    â€œI almost always am.” She walked backward toward her car so she could keep him in view. “What time?”
    â€œLet’s say we’ll meet here at nine, weather permitting.”
    â€œThat’s a date.” She opened her car door. “The house suits you, by the way. Country boy with more style than pretention. I like it.”
    He watched her drive off—strange and sexy Quinn Black.
    And he stood for a long time watching the light go dimmer in the woods where he’d made his home.
    Â 
    C AL HEADED FOX OFF WITH A PHONE CALL AND arranged to meet