“Yes.”
He helped me to my feet but didn’t let go, arm steady around my shoulders.He brushed dirt and leaves off my cheek with gentle fingers.
“What did he do to you?”he asked, jaw tight.
“I—I don’t know.Every time he spoke, it was like I had to go to him.Like he could make the loneliness stop.Like he understood everything, and I’d never have to feel this empty again.”Heat flared under my skin—not desire, but shame at how badly I’d wanted to believe the lie.“He was pulling on the grief.On missing Alice.”
The images still lurked at the back of my mind, false comfort wrapped around hooks.
Owen’s jaw ticked.The anger in his eyes wasn’t for me.It was for the demon.
A pained groan sounded from the edge of the clearing.
“Tani,” I gasped.
We hurried toward the trees.The fairy queen lay crumpled on her side, still in her full-size form, one hand pressed to her head.Blood trickled down from a gash along her hairline.
“Why didn’t you use your powers sooner?”she muttered, and gave Owen’s arm a weak, annoyed punch.He didn’t even flinch.
“You knew he has magic?”I asked, exasperated.“Why am I always the last to know everything?”
“You silly girl.He’s an elemental,” Tani said.“A Druid.”
Druid.
The word landed differently this time.
“An elemental?”I said.“What does that mean?”
Owen met my gaze.“Elemental druid.We use the powers of the world around us.I can harness air.Hence the thunderstorm.”
“That was… you?”
Realization slammed into me.The thunderstorm.The wind.The lightning.And then I thought of his father—the way Dougal had incinerated the other demon without hesitation.
Fire.
Air and flame.Father and son—guardians of a Crossroads town that sat where realms brushed too close.
“Help me get her back to the truck,” Owen said.“She needs that cut looked at.”
“I’m fine,” Tani grumbled, trying to stand.Her knees buckled.Owen caught her before she face-planted.“Okay, maybe not fine.”
“We need to move,” Owen said.“I bound him to the tree, but I don’t know how long it’ll hold.He’s drawing on the ley breach.He’s stronger than me here.”
“Who is he?”I asked, unable to stop myself from looking back.
Tani shuddered.“Something that should’ve stayed on the other side of the gate,” she said.“And he’s decided you’re his new favorite prize.He’ll use your grief like a fishing line until he reels you in.”
I swallowed hard.I took one last look at the demon slumped against the hickory, shadows already coiling around him like smoke.
I had a gut feeling this wasn’t the last time I’d see him.
And that terrified me.
Chapter Twelve
Bythetimewereturned to the house, washed the grit from my scraped palms, bandaged them, and tended Tani’s wounds, night had fully settled over Hickory Hollow.Darkness pressed against the windows, thick and listening, as if the world outside had leaned closer, curious what would happen next.
