Opal was waiting for me at the entrance to the kitchen, but it was Capri’s gaze that I met and held. She was standing in a protection circle she had chalked in bright blue on the white tile. The circle was dormant, its edge smudged where Opal had exited.
“How quickly can you be ready to go?” I asked the blond witch.
She stiffened her shoulders. “In minutes.”
“Now?” Opal asked. “Right now?”
“Yes.” I tried to look at her, to soften the harsh expression I could feel carved across my face, but I found I couldn’t. I settled my hand on the young witch’s shoulder instead. “Please.”
She pressed her hand over mine. Then she nodded, gazing down at her feet. “I’m packed.”
Ember was sorting through the final piles of paper on the kitchen table. “I’ll stay.”
“No,” I said evenly. “The house will be easier to defend when I’m not worried about protecting you.”
Aiden stepped up behind me, then around, running his fingers along my outstretched arm. Then he settled his hand over Opal’s and mine.
The young witch looked up at him, blinking. “I could help,” she whispered.
“Always,” he murmured. “But Emma and I will feel better if you’re safely away while we help Samantha deal with the people hunting her.”
“You’ll escort the witches to the airport?” I asked. My tone was hard and pointed. I had no desire to ever address Aiden sounding like that, but he simply squeezed Opal’s hand and mine as he nodded.
“I’ve texted Jenni —”
“It’s too dangerous.”
He gave me a quelling look.
And for some reason I accepted it. I wasn’t alone in needing to protect Opal. Aiden was right beside me. The sorcerer was a valuable resource. And so was Jenni Raymond, for escorting the witches at least.
He laughed quietly, as if completely understanding my need to make rational, not emotional, choices.
Christopher and Samantha stepped around us. The telekinetic crossed to the fridge, pulling out apple juice. The clairvoyant went to the cupboard, grabbing a glass and setting it on the island. They were pointedly not looking at each other. Their individual magic ghosted their movements.
I ignored them both, focusing instead on my hand on Opal’s shoulder, her hand on mine, and Aiden’s on top of both. Gentle magic shifted between us.
Capri’s gaze on me was steady. “What are we up against?” The witch’s tone was brusque but not unkind.
“Two black witches. Twins,” I said. “They’re employed by some sort of powerful telepath who calls herself a mystic. As Aiden said, they’re here for Samantha, but unfortunately, they saw me with Opal in the park. So that puts her on their radar.”
Capri and Ember exchanged glances. The lawyer witch grimaced. Then she started gathering all her neat piles of paper, placing them in her briefcase.
“The witches are drained,” Aiden said. Squeezing our hands again, then releasing them, he continued on into the kitchen. “It will most likely take them days to recover, if not a week.”
I glanced down the hall, feeling Paisley prowling toward us. “Opal, I’ll be up right behind you.”
The young witch nodded, running her hand over the demon dog’s head, neck, and back as she crossed down the hall.
“Would you go with her?” I asked quietly. “Please.”
Paisley pressed her nose under my hand. I scratched behind her ears, listening as Opal climbed the stairs. Her footfalls were slow but soft, not stomping. So the earlier stomping had been something else. A sense of ownership, maybe.
I was so desperately angry — on the edge of being incapacitated by a churning tangle of emotion. I gathered that anger around me tightly. I would hold it in check until I needed it. Just like I held my magic.
“Thank you,” I whispered to Paisley.
She snorted as if indicating that she didn’t need to be thanked to do her job. Again. Then she trundled down the hall to follow Opal upstairs.
I stepped farther into the kitchen. Arrangements needed to be made and executed efficiently.
“Twin black witches,” Capri said grimly, speaking to Ember as if they’d already come to some conclusion.
The witch lawyer nodded. “Onyx and Jet. I’ve got a few preset barrier spells we can put on the car.”
“They won’t last more than an hour,” Capri said, pulling out her phone. “Not against all that steel. Maybe save them for the airport. I’ll book us on the next flight into Seattle that I can get.”
Samantha downed one glass of apple juice and poured herself another. But she needed sleep, not juice. As did Aiden, after having his wards ripped asunder.
“You know the twins?” the sorcerer asked.
Both witches nodded, looking grimly concerned.
“We went to the Academy with them,” Capri said, exchanging a look with Ember. “They were expelled.”
“Excommunicated,” Ember added. “Though they were never able to tie the disappearances to them.”
“Disappearances?” I prompted, despite my need to get on with the conversation. To execute a plan that would get Opal to safety.
“First, a number of familiars went missing.” Capri sighed softly. “Including my cat. A Korat. She was the last in her particular line.” She glanced at us, hesitating. “A few branches of the main Pine coven focus on breeding feline familiars. I’d planned on trying to breed her, with her consent, of course, that summer.”
Magical creatures, like the Adept themselves, didn’t procreate easily. Chances were that the Pine coven would have been devastated by the loss of their last female Korat.
“Then a first-year student went missing,” Ember said darkly. “The Academy searched for three days, completely shutting down the school. I still don’t know what, if anything, they found. But the twins were expelled at the end of the shutdown.”
“What coven are they part of?” Aiden asked.
The witches eyed him, affronted. “No coven,” Capri spat.
“It might be helpful to know,” Aiden said gently. “If their bloodline has a predilection for a certain power set.”
“Assume blood magic and sacrifice, sorcerer,” Ember said stiffly. “Assume dual casting. Assume they’re stronger together. Death curses. And for goodness’ sake, don’t let them get a piece of you. They aren’t coven witches.”
“Knowing if we’re going to be facing demons would also be helpful,” Aiden said.
Ember glanced at Capri.
The blond witch shrugged. “I would doubt it. Summoning is draining, isn’t it? The twins don’t seem the type to share power.”
Ember nodded in agreement. “That’s a solid supposition. The twins will want to feed power into themselves, not give it away.”
“They were self mutilating,” I said. “Cutting, bleeding themselves.”
Capri hissed.
Ember shook her head, glancing out the French-paned doors at the backyard. The snow cover was still steadily shrinking under the warmth of the day. “I doubt that would be the first choice for either of them. As crazy as it sounds, I’d suggest warding your chickens.”
“I don’t plan to let them on the property a second time,” I said. “I’ll hunt them down while you head out of town. It’ll provide a distraction if they’re watching me, not you.”
The witches quieted, presumably absorbing my hunting comment. I should have kept my mouth shut and my intentions to myself.
“And the telepath?” Ember finally asked, speaking to us all. “A charm can be made, I believe?”
Capri shook her head. “We’d need something of hers …”
From my pocket, I retrieved the coil of hair I’d ripped from Chenda. “Got it. And I pulled it out, so it should still have some follicle.”
Capri just blinked at me. “The mystic’s?”
I nodded grimly, aware of Christopher’s heavy gaze on me. “Unfortunately, it’s the only piece of her I managed to get. Will it be enough for a charm for each of you?”
Capri stepped forward eagerly, plucking the hair from my fingers. But then she frowned slightly. “This isn’t my area of expertise.”
“We’ll both cast,” Ember said, pulling out her phone. “I’ll get the spell. We’ll need wearable objects.”
“If you have enough, I wouldn’t mind a tracking spell as well,” I said.
Capri nodded thoughtfully, stepping back to the window and peering at the coil of hair in the brighter light, presumably looking for hair follicles.
“I also might have something to help smooth the transition to the airport,” Aiden said, giving me a quick smile. “A refraction rune I’ve been working on. I’ll put it on the cars.”
“The mystic isn’t going after Opal,” Christopher said with a put-out sigh. “You’re evacuating resources we could use, Emma.”
I pivoted slowly, deliberately, to stare at him. A tense silence settled over the kitchen. The other four were watching me.
“Emma,” the clairvoyant whispered, hurt.
“Your counsel is no longer needed,” I said stiffly. “You’ve proven that our safety is not your first concern.”
Samantha stepped closer to the clairvoyant, arms crossed and frowning.
Christopher glanced at her, seeking support. “I made a choice to —”
I cut him off. “Yes, you did.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” he snarled. Then he blinked away the magic that welled up in his eyes, threatening his vision. “Maybe you need another session with Aiden in the loft.”
I had actually raised my hand, had actually reached for him in anger, when a noise of surprise from Samantha stopped me. I curled my fingers into my palm, slowly lowering my hand.
“You’d hurt me?” Christopher whispered.
“Would it be any different than what you just did to me? To Paisley? How about using me to torture Zans earlier?”
“You’re deliberately misunderstanding the situation!”
“To what end? And why would I?” I asked, each word punctuated with anger. “I can’t believe it was you. That you’d be the one of the Five to betray me. To betray our family.”
His magic roiled around him, completely whiting out his eyes. His lips thinned, pale with anger. He breathed heavily as he watched some future unfold in his mind. Then he abruptly snarled and stalked away toward the hall.
“Stay away from Opal,” I warned him darkly. “She doesn’t need to navigate your influence right now.”
Christopher froze in place, his back to me. His magic stirred, reaching for me. I brushed it away. Again.
Stiff shouldered, he pivoted, crossing through the laundry room and out the back door.
Aiden and the witches remained silent, seemingly involved in their spell prep work. Ember and Capri were pointedly looking at something on the laptop the lawyer had opened. Aiden was sketching in his spiral-ringed notebook.
Samantha tracked Christopher as he passed the French-paned doors and stepped down into the backyard. Then she stared pointedly at me. “Wow, okay. You have changed. I’d say I like it, but throwing away a clairvoyant in a fight is an interesting choice.”
“You know what the mystic wanted? To walk away? You.”
She stilled.
“Yeah,” I continued. “That’s all. Just you and she’d leave us alone.”
“You said no.”
“Of course.”
“And Knox?” Her question was layered with so many things that I had a hard time figuring out what emotion was overriding it all.
I almost didn’t answer. There was a chance I was reading too much betrayal into Christopher’s actions. But I’d started the conversation, so I had to end it. We were wasting time. “You should ask him.”
Samantha clenched her fists. Everything on the island counter — cutting board, empty glass, salt and pepper shakers — rose an inch, then gently set back down. “I see.”
Aiden glanced at his phone. “Jenni got Jake Crenshaw to cover her evening shift. She was supposed to do a split. She’s ten minutes away.” He glanced at me. “I asked her to drive her work vehicle. Even black witches will hesitate to mess with the local law.”
“Fuck!” Samantha snarled.
The two witches looked up, startled.
The telekinetic clenched her fists. “I’ll go. It should be me.”
“It’s too late for that.”
Samantha ran her hand through her hair, then just left it settled on her head as if distracted. Overwhelmed. “I just … I needed help.”
“And you came to me,” I said stiffly, aware that Capri was watching me closely. “Where else would you go?”
“I can’t even offer to escort Opal to the goddamn airport,” Samantha spat. “I’m just fucking useless.”
“You’re not useless,” I said. “But if you left the property, that would certainly draw the mystic’s attention. I’m fairly certain she can track you.”
“Fuck me. The block. That’s how she got here so fast.” A second hand joined the first, both pressing against her skull as Samantha started pacing. I watched her carefully, trying to judge whether she might need a time-out. She could destroy the house with very little effort, though maybe not with her magic blocked as it was.
“You’re the most powerful telekinetic I’ve ever met,” Capri said helpfully. “And I attended the Academy.”
Samantha laughed harshly. “You met me on a bad day, witch. Normally, after laying eyes on the likes of me, running away would have been your first response.” She glanced at me. “The likes of us.”
Capri didn’t respond verbally. She simply shifted her gaze to me. “May we cast in the garden? Even with the snow cover, it would be the best choice.”
I nodded. “I’ll check on Opal. Can she join you? Even to watch?”
Capri frowned. “This is advanced —”
“Yes,” Ember said, her attention on the screen of her phone now. “It will distract the girl, Capri. And a third might be needed. This kind of casting is definitely not in my arsenal. The tracking spell is easy enough. Assuming Capri and I are even powerful enough to get through whatever spell Jet and Onyx will most likely have their employer cloaked under. But to block a telepath? Even with her hair, I’ve never seen such a complicated spell.” She pursed her lips, then looked at Aiden. “Would you have better luck with it?”
“A charm? No. My witch magic is limited.”
Ember sighed. “Dump out your purse, Capri. We need containers.”
Capri spun to grab her purse from the back of the nearest kitchen chair.
I gave Aiden a lingering look, wishing for one idiotic moment that I had run away with him. But then Opal would have thought I’d abandoned her. Another abandonment. I wanted to break that cycle for the young witch, not contribute to it.
Aiden smiled tightly, wistfully. “I’ll keep an eye out for Jenni.”
“Thank you.” I turned to the hall, pleased that I could legitimately delay saying goodbye to Opal while the witches sorted out the protection spells.
Samantha trailed after me.
Opal was perched on the edge of her neatly made bed, with her dark head bowed over the worn quilt spread across her lap. Her hands were fisted in its folds. The suitcase she’d gotten from Jenni Raymond was carry-on sized, but it was still only three-quarters full where it sat open beside her.
Paisley was sprawled out across the floor, half blocking the doorway, chewing on the magical bovine bone that Aiden had given her. I hadn’t seen the demon dog pull the bone out for at least twenty-four hours. I suspected she was hiding it from the witches. It still looked pristine, with nary a tooth mark. And Paisley had a plethora of exceedingly sharp teeth.
Opal looked up as I stepped into the room. Her eyes were dry and clear, though her expression was solemn. “Are they ready for me?”
“Before you leave, Ember and Capri need to cast a charm in the hopes of blocking the telepath,” I said. “You could join them. They might need a third witch. They’re going to cast in the garden.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Samantha settled her shoulder against the doorjamb behind me. Her magic pulsed through the blood tattoo on my spine once, then faded. “Hey kid,” she said. “I’m sorry about running you off.”
Paisley grumbled.
Opal shrugged her narrow shoulders. “I have to go back to the Academy. I’ve already missed, like … three weeks.”
Samantha tugged a phone from one of her multitude of pockets, stepping forward to offer it to Opal. “You’ve got an email, right? Plug it in here for me. Then you can send me a list of any supplies you’re missing.”
Opal blinked, then took the phone. “I already gave Christopher a list.”
“Then put some extras on the list you send me. I’d like to feel like less of an asshole.”
Opal’s gaze flicked to me for a moment, then settled on Samantha steadily. “You’re like … Emma’s sister … right?”
“Yes,” I said. “We are forever bound. Christopher, Samantha, Daniel, and Bee.”
Opal’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “So when Emma adopts me, you’ll be my aunt.”
Samantha chuckled. “Let’s just assume the paperwork has already gone through. I’m going to be a hell of an aunt. Now shove over. I need a nap, and your bed looks perfect.”
I laughed quietly.
The telekinetic crawled onto the bed, pausing to shuck off her knee-high boots only after she was supine.
Grinning, Opal typed her email address into Samantha’s phone, then placed it on the side table. She jumped off the bed, landing on both feet, still holding the quilt. “Can I take this to the Academy with me?”
“Yes.”
She folded it neatly, tucking it in her suitcase. She reached to zip the suitcase, but I stopped her.
“I’ll finish it up for you. Go help Ember and Capri, then we’ll see you off.”
She nodded, stepping past me. “Come on, Paisley. Let’s go see what the witches are up to.”
I let her go, curling my fingers into my palms so I didn’t reach for her. Paisley slid by me, making sure to bump my thigh with her shoulder as she followed the young witch.
Samantha’s gaze rested heavily on me as we listened to Opal traverse the steps. She was stomping again. I took that as a good sign.
“If you communicated more,” Samantha said peevishly, “I would have known not to come.”
I laughed dryly. “Didn’t take you long to make this all my fault.”
“I’m just saying … I would never have put the kid in jeopardy.”
I crossed to Opal’s suitcase, tugging a bundle of cash out of my pocket and looking for a zippered pocket to tuck it in. I’d grabbed the cash out of the small safe installed in the linen closet in the hall. It came from the money Daniel had left, but I didn’t mind dipping into it for Opal.
“Emma …”
“What?”
“That’s like ten thousand dollars. That’s too much for a kid.”
I glanced down at the bundle of bills in my hand, murmuring, “A teenager.”
“Fine, a teenager. That’s still too much. Even a thousand in cash would be ridiculous. You don’t need her standing out more than she already will.”
I narrowed my eyes doubtfully.
Samantha snorted. “Please. She’s a black orphan who went missing for three weeks. A witch with an early specialization, dream walking. They’re thinking of advancing her, right? And now she’s got fistfuls of cash? Doesn’t the Academy cover tuition as well as room and board?”
“What do you know about it?” I grumbled, peeling bills from the stash. Then I tucked five hundred dollars in the mesh bag with Opal’s toothbrush.
“I interrogated Christopher about the baby witch. Plus, and I know you’ve probably missed it … I’m black. Black orphans can’t go around flashing cash.”
I frowned. “You think she’ll be … bullied?”
She snorted. “I think she’ll be ostracized. And magic, when wielded by witches, is a collective experience. She doesn’t have to be friends with them, but they’ve got to accept her.”
“I know that,” I said. But in truth, I hadn’t given any of this any thought. I’d been running on pure instinct, pure emotion. “You think … do you think I’m bad for her, then?”
“No,” Samantha said. “I think you have a perfect home for her. I think she’ll fulfill her potential here. Imagine the fee she’ll be able to charge, for the dream walking alone. And I’ll make an effort … you know, email the kid. Visit in the summer. It’s nice here in the summer, isn’t it? Less snow, right?”
I huffed out an involuntary laugh. “Because you’ll be such a good influence.”
“ ‘Good’ has a wide variety of interpretations.”
“It really doesn’t.” I zipped up Opal’s suitcase, pulling it from the bed. “How long do you want to sleep?”
“As long as you can give me,” she said, closing her eyes. “I’ve said my goodbyes. Then we need to have it out with Knox.”
I didn’t want to do anything of the sort. “He’s out of it. The black witches are hurt. I can take the mystic.”
“Maybe,” Samantha muttered. “But we can’t lose you, Socks. So I’ll straighten out Knox, with or without you. You hold grudges too long.”
I didn’t hold grudges. I made decisions. But not interested in prolonging the conversation, I left the room, carrying Opal’s suitcase with me.
“I’ve decided we’ll go to Vancouver,” Ember said.
I looked up from making sandwiches as the witch lawyer hustled into the kitchen from the laundry room. She was carrying her shoes. “Capri booked seats on a floatplane. Thirty minutes and we’re in Godfrey territory. The Mystic of the Golden Peninsula …” — that title was uttered with as much sarcasm as I’d ever heard from the witch lawyer before — “… will never follow us there.” She grinned, a little manically. “The entire city is warded.”
The entire city? “Excuse me?”
Ember laughed. “I told you when you bought the property here. No one messes with the Godfreys these days.”
That was mind-boggling. I couldn’t imagine even an entire coven having enough power to place a boundary ward around a city as large as Vancouver. “That must have taken decades …”
Ember snorted. “You’d think, hey?”
So that was a no.
“We’ll book a flight to Seattle from Vancouver. If we have time, we’ll meet Pearl Godfrey at the bakery. Capri has never been, and Opal will enjoy picking out cupcakes.”
“The bakery …” I echoed. “The Godfrey coven operates a bakery?”
Ember sighed. “You were going to have to meet them someday, Emma. Sooner now, because the Godfreys currently hold two of the seats on the Convocation.”
The witches Convocation was going to have to approve my guardianship of Opal. My stomach twisted. I’d seen how carefully Capri had been watching me. If Opal’s foster mother had any sway with the Convocation, I was never going to see the young witch again.
The exterior door banged open, then Opal tumbled from the laundry room into the kitchen, crossing around the lawyer and grinning madly. “We made charms.”
From behind the young witch, Paisley made a beeline for the island. Then, using a stool to prop herself up, she eyed the sandwiches I’d piled on a large plate. Critically. I didn’t cook. But peanut butter, homemade strawberry jam, and slices of whole-wheat sourdough fell into the ‘uncooked’ category perfectly well.
“We fumbled the first two,” Ember said ruefully, side-eyeing the demon dog slightly warily. “But we managed three. If they work. Opal will take one, leaving two for you. Plus the tracking spell.”
Capri had stepped into the kitchen after Paisley, hovering by the laundry room door. She was carrying two coats and two sets of boots, hers and Opal’s.
“No,” I said, slicing the crust from one of the sandwiches and putting it on a small plate. “You’ll take all three. One for each of you.”
“I think that is ill advised,” Ember said.
“The twins are drained,” I said. “The easiest way for the mystic to gain the upper hand right now is to obtain leverage. Hostages.”
I slid the plate across from an empty stool, setting it beside the glass of milk I’d already poured as I nodded toward Opal. She climbed on the stool obligingly.
“I see,” Ember murmured.
I looked over at Capri. “Aiden loaded Opal’s suitcase into your rental car.”
The blond witch nodded, slowly stepping up to the island. “The sorcerer and Jenni are discussing the route they want to take. But the floatplane means the sorcerer can get back here quicker. As soon as the plane takes off.”
I nodded, setting the final sliced sandwiches on the large platter, then shifting the smaller side plates and napkins I’d set out earlier toward the witches. “In case you’re hungry after casting.”
Capri took Ember’s shoes and coat from her, awkwardly carrying three sets of shoes and outerwear now. “I’ll put these by the front door and let Aiden and Jenni know there are sandwiches.”
That was surprisingly polite. “Thank you.”
Ember settled down on the stool next to Opal, reaching to take a napkin and plate.
Paisley grumbled, then paced around the island to sit beside me. She grumbled some more, until I obligingly made eye contact with her. Then she dropped her jaw open in a toothy smile.
“She wants meat,” Opal said helpfully, speaking to Ember.
“Completely understandable for a canine,” the lawyer said, nibbling on a sandwich.
“The jam is yummy though,” Opal said brightly. “Christopher made it.”
“Mmm,” Ember said. “It is.” Then the lawyer grinned at me.
I wasn’t too certain what the smile meant, but I returned it. That was only polite.
Capri stepped back into the kitchen, taking the stool beside Ember and quietly serving herself.
Aiden strode in, with Jenni on his heels. The shifter was in uniform. They both made a beeline for the food.
“All set?” I asked.
Aiden nodded, biting through half of a halved sandwich. “Runes etched on all the vehicles. I think the witches are smart to head into Vancouver.” He crossed around to lean on the counter next to me, brushing a light kiss to my cheekbone.
Jenni grabbed a napkin and a sandwich. “Sky is clear, so the floatplanes are flying on time. It’ll be a gorgeous flight.”
Paisley shifted so she could stare intently at Aiden. He shook his head at her. “You have plenty of food in your fridge.”
She grumbled.
Opal giggled, hand pressed over her mouth, chewing.
And I just stood there, savoring the moment. My gaze on the young witch, shoulder pressed to Aiden’s. Ignoring Capri, who was watching me.
“Where’s Christopher?” Jenni asked.
I stepped forward, cutting the crust from another sandwich.
“Emma is mad at him,” Opal said matter-of-factly. “So he’s in a time-out, in the barn.” She looked at me. “I checked on him. The chicks are pretty cute. I took a couple of pictures with my new phone.”
“Do you want me to wrap this?” I asked her. “I put a water bottle and some ginger snaps in your backpack. There’s some change in the inner pocket. The floatplane terminal will have vending machines.”
Opal smacked her lips thoughtfully. “Half now, half later.”
I passed her half of the decrusted sandwich, then cut the crust from two more halves.
“You’re mad at Christopher?” Jenni asked, quietly doubtful. “Something happened?”
“He made a choice,” I said stiffly. “Paisley got hurt.”
“Emma got hurt,” Aiden murmured behind me.
I ignored him as I opened cupboards, looking for a small Tupperware container for Opal’s sandwich.
“We should be going,” Jenni said, grabbing another sandwich half. “You want to be about thirty minutes early, and the roads are still a little slick.”
Ember and Capri obligingly pushed back their stools. Aiden collected their plates as Opal downed her milk.
As the shapeshifter and the witches crossed into the hall and toward the front door, Opal snuck Paisley a sandwich. The demon dog twined a tentacle around the young witch’s wrist and tugged her closer. Opal wrapped her arms around Paisley’s neck, then kissed her jowly cheek. Paisley huffed happily.
Aiden exited the kitchen toward the front door, his expression tight.
I looked away, crossing to the backpack I’d left hanging on a kitchen chair. My chest felt like a frozen lump of lead. I reminded myself that I was doing the right thing — the right thing for Opal — as I shoved the sandwich in its container into the pack, then zipped it closed.
I stepped back, reaching my hand toward Opal. She took it. Then I led her down the hall, guiding her out of my life. And not knowing if I’d ever see her again.
Christopher had been waiting to say goodbye to Opal on the front patio. I stood on the steps. He leaned back next to the door as the witches got the charms pinned on and the car loaded. Opal watched us from the back seat.
Jenni, driving her RCMP SUV, pulled down the driveway first. The witches followed in their rental car, wet gravel churning beneath the tires. Paisley paced alongside them.
Aiden in his SUV glanced back at me, nodding.
I nodded back. The trip to the floatplane terminal and seeing the witches off shouldn’t take him more than an hour and a half.
Opal turned around in her seat, pressing her hands against the back window.
I smiled as brightly as I could, though I felt like raging. I raised my hand, waving and smiling like an idiot, because I understood that was what the young witch needed to see. That was who she needed me to be.
The three cars drove through the front gate, picking up speed as they turned onto the main road. Paisley watched them until they were out of sight. Then she shoved her shoulder into the gate, closing it. I assumed Christopher must have fixed it, because Aiden wouldn’t have had the time.
I turned back to the house.
Christopher was watching me. “Am I still banished?” he asked.
The question was edged with anger and full of implications — specifically, that I was the one in the wrong. It wasn’t worth my time to answer it.
I had witches and a mystic to hunt.
Ignoring the clairvoyant, I stepped back into the house to clothe and arm myself.
“Emma,” he snarled after me, “you aren’t going to find them on your own.”
Leaving Samantha to sleep and Christopher to mope somewhere in the barn, Paisley and I triggered the tracking spell. The witches had housed Chenda’s hair sample and whatever else they needed to conjure their magic in a small pillbox decorated with a picture of piglets riding on the back of a pig. A sow, to be specific.
I placed the spelled pillbox in the palm of my left hand, feeling it tug me forward to the mouth of the driveway, then lightly to the left. West, toward Youbou.
Avoiding the deep, slushy snow that edged the salted pavement, the demon dog and I followed the spell’s directions on foot at a steady pace. Not running. The roads were quiet, but the occasional vehicle still slowed and gave us a wide berth. Doing anything resembling running would look out of place, especially in my pink raincoat and lined boots.
About a kilometer later, we found where the mystic and the black witches must have parked their vehicle. If the tire tracks in the snow weren’t enough of a clue, the fact that a large area had been scorched with magic so intensely that even I could feel it was a dead giveaway.
So Aiden’s assertion that they’d teleported from the property had been correct. Black magic fueled by the twins’ life force, judging by how they’d been cutting themselves.
A risky spell.
I hoped the mystic compensated her bodyguards generously. She was going to get them killed.
Paisley began systematically scenting the area, following the tire tracks slicing through the wet snow to and from the spot where the vehicle had been parked.
But it wasn’t the residual magic that had drawn the tracking spell. A brown mouse had been nailed through the chest to the nearest fence post. A wide field spread from the road edge to the river, used to grow some sort of grain crop. The day was warm enough that the blood on the wooden post hadn’t frozen. By the drip pattern, the mouse had been skewered alive.
As expected when dealing with black witches.
My stomach roiled at the conclusion. I hissed involuntarily. Paisley grumbled in agreement. Ember had been right about warding our chickens. Apparently, the twins could call small animals to them. To sacrifice.
A single long strand of pale blond hair had been wrapped around the mouse’s neck.
A decoy for the tracking spell.
Shit.
The twins weren’t as drained as I’d thought. Casting this decoy — likely only moments after arriving at the vehicle, right after a last-ditch teleportation spell, right after being drained by me. I wouldn’t have thought it possible.
I was wrong.
I hated being wrong.
And I loathed facing off against black-magic users. Their bloodletting usually spilled all over me, and I had a difficult time scrubbing myself clean.
I yanked out the silver-plated nail pinning the mouse to the post. Magic snapped under my fingers, and the nail came easily enough, releasing the mouse’s body. The fuzzy corpse fell to the ground.
I crouched, looking around for a stick or something to dig with. But Paisley lumbered over and dug out a shallow grave in the frozen ground without me even asking.
We buried the mouse, using the earth to smother the witches’ black magic. Then I eyed the silver-plated nail. The mouse was of the earth. All creatures decomposed after death. But making certain the black magic contained in the nail was nullified was a different problem —
Paisley swiped the nail from me with a flick of her currently forked blue tongue, swallowing it.
“Well, that’s one way to neutralize it,” I said, straightening up. “But one day, something you eat is going to come back and bite you in the ass.”
Paisley chuckled darkly.
I stepped back to the road, holding the spelled pillbox in my palm. It tugged me in the direction of town, back the other way.
I started walking. Paisley kept to the edge of the road, occasionally flicking a single tentacle around her as if sensing for magic. She never did so when anyone was around to see, so I didn’t chide her.
A dead junco was waiting for us, pinned to the far side of the wooden outdoor stage in the riverside park. Another long blond hair was twined around the songbird’s neck. Its blood was a shade darker than the peeling red paint.
We buried it.
Paisley ate the second nail.
The tracking spell triggered again, leading us out of town.
The third decoy was pinned to the back of the “Welcome to Lake Cowichan” sign. The twins had sacrificed a little red squirrel. I nearly lost it. Not only were red squirrels endangered, the black witches were leaving blood magic out for mundanes to stumble upon.
That was ridiculously irresponsible. And I didn’t need their shit pulling more attention my way.
I had to clean the blood from the sign with wet snow.
I refused to cry, not even certain why I felt the need to do so. My face felt flushed, my eyes hot.
The tracking spell didn’t trigger a fourth time. Either I’d used up all its magic, or the black witches had distracted me long enough to get the mystic under heavy-duty wards, likely preset.
I’d wasted almost an hour and had uncovered only three decoys. The mystic — and the twins — had outsmarted me.
As I should have expected. Chenda had to have noticed it when I pulled out a chunk of her hair. But it was still annoying.
Foiled, Paisley and I headed back into town. We stopped by the Lake Cowichan Lodge, though Jenni had indicated she’d already checked every currently open hotel in town, plus advertised home-stay rentals, for newly registered guests.
Nothing.
As the clairvoyant had indicated.
I wanted to believe that Christopher wouldn’t outright lie. But I couldn’t force myself to trust him.
Paisley paused as we crossed back through town along a different route, watching a floatplane pass overhead. I had no idea whether it was Opal’s flight, or whether she would have been looking down even if she was on board. But, idiotically, I waved anyway.
The “Open” sign was turned outward on Hannah Stewart’s thrift shop — she’d been closed due to the snowstorm — but I hesitated outside. I wanted to step in to check on Hannah. But I didn’t know whether Jenni had told her that her abusive ex-boyfriend was dead, along with his father. And I wasn’t certain that news should come from me, or how I would explain even knowing anything about it, house-fire cover story or not.
My chest felt raw. I could brush it off as a residual ache from the death curse I’d fought off. But some part of me understood that I’d gone through an emotional wringer over the previous few days, and that it was going to take a while for that to settle.
Christopher’s betrayal wasn’t helping.
The cool detachment I had spent my entire life cultivating — specifically as a counter to my empathy — felt irreparably damaged. Unsalvageable.
In the hands of a telepath with the mystic’s level of power, that was a weakness that could be easily exploited.
I didn’t have exploitable weaknesses.
Or at least I didn’t used to have exploitable weaknesses.
So even though talking to Hannah, and maybe even buying a gift for Opal or a luxury item for myself, might have temporarily soothed me, I didn’t think it would help me at all in the fight I was facing.
Friendships, family, and the heavy sense of loss and betrayal creating a raw open wound in my chest weren’t going to help me vanquish the mystic. And knowing Chenda had moved through town previously without my sensing it, talking with Hannah would expose my attachments even further. My weaknesses.
So I stepped away from the window of the thrift shop.
Brushing my fingertips along the softly furred length of Paisley’s ear, I headed home.
I needed more information. Then we needed to regroup.