By the time Evelyn had regained her strength enough to pull herself up from the floor, Frankie and Levi were emerging from the kitchen again. She watched as their eyes locked on someone across the room.
Hecate.
Evelyn whipped her eyes back toward Frankie and saw his jaw clench in anger. Yet nobody made a move in such a public place. Perhaps that was the reason Hecate decided to surface here instead of elsewhere, like the crossroads. Then again, no matter where Hecate went, she was typically the one in control.
An idea struck Evelyn. If Hecate was the Goddess of the Underworld, and gatekeeper to the crossroads, then hypothetically she could exist in two places at once—maybe even two planes at once.
Evelyn looked over at the disgraced goddess for any trace of acknowledgment on her part. However, if Evelyn’s theory was true, Hecate had probably developed a way to focus on whatever plane she wanted to by shutting out the other noise. Meaning, she wouldn’t see Evelyn until Evelyn gave her a reason to look.
“Hecate!” Evelyn barked suddenly. Her voice was muted. Like trying to scream in a dream.
But it did the trick.
Suddenly, Hecate’s eyes moved away from Frankie and Levi, and she stopped in her slow pursuit of them. She looked around in Evelyn’s direction, as if the oracle were lost in a crowded room or something.
She must be searching through all the places she simultaneously exists in, Evelyn thought.
Finally, Hecate’s eyes locked on Evelyn and she sneered.
The goddess turned on the oracle with venom in her eyes.
This is it, Evelyn thought. Say something. Do something. What’s the plan?
Before she could come up with one, Hecate caught the attention of Frankie and Levi slowly sneaking out through the back room.
Hecate clenched her fists as she watched them leave, then turned to Evelyn. “We’ll finish this later.”
Evelyn was too stunned to do anything.
Hecate disappeared through the back room as well. Only then did Evelyn have the idea to follow her, but she came up short when she hit the invisible forcefield that kept her tied to Tommy’s proximity.
She glanced back at him and saw that he was making change at the register behind the bar, completely oblivious to the exchange that had happened on multiple planes at once, right in front of his eyes.
She rolled her eyes. The nonmagical are so oblivious sometimes.