The four women rode together, chatting about everything except the horrors created by Lilianna Rubidoux and her coven as they followed the road away from Black Bayou.
Pete lifted her head as the noon sun shone down on them. “Do you smell that?” she asked with her nose testing the air.
Corinthia sniffed and then put her kerchief to her nose. “Something must have died that the swamp critters couldn’t get to,” she said as she looked about. “Smells like we’re going to ride right into it.”
A few minutes later, they passed into an area where huge oaks shaded the road with gray-green Spanish moss hanging in clumps from the limbs.
“Do you hear that?” Eli asked. “It sounds like bees swarming, so be vigilant. Someone may have stirred up a hive.”
They kept their eyes peeled along the shaded road
