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“Millie,” a male voice said from the rear of the house, “what are you doing, girl? The kids—”
“Kids!” Mrs. Potts all but screeched. “You bastard! How dare you do this to me—to us.”
She pushed past the rather startled Millie and stormed down the hallway toward the end of the house. I swore under my breath then apologized to Millie and scrambled after the incensed Mrs. Potts. I managed to grab her arm and stall her charge if not her anger just as she entered the rear living area. Two men—one around the same age as Millie, the other undoubtedly Henry—were sitting on the floor playing with a boy and a girl who looked to be about one year old.
Mr. Potts, I began to suspect, wasn’t cheating. At least, he wasn’t doing so right now. It was a suspicion that firmed when Millie came into the room, and the similarities between her facial features and his became evident.
“Mrs. Potts,” I murmured, “I think you’d better calm—”
“You,” she said, shaking her finger at the errant Henry, “have gone too far. Your carousing was bad enough, but kiddies—”
Millie cleared her throat. “I’m not sure who you are, but I think you’re under the wrong impression here—”
“I’m this man’s wife,” Mrs. Potts said. “And you—”
“Millie is my daughter,” Henry cut in heavily. “From the one and only affair I had some thirty-five years ago. I didn’t know about her until after we’d lost our own daughter; it certainly wasn’t the right time to mention her, and the longer I left it, the harder it seemed.”
Which didn’t explain why Millie didn’t seem to know about Mrs. Potts, but I let that ride. This was not my family or my fight.
“Oh.” Mrs. Potts’s voice was faint. She groped for the nearby chair and sat down. “Oh. Dear.”
For several seconds, no one said anything. I cleared my throat and then squatted beside Mrs. Potts. “Maybe we should leave—”
“No.” She took a deep breath and then patted my hand. “This needs sorting, here and now. But thank you, dear. I appreciate your help.”
Which was a dismissal if I’d ever heard one, but I nevertheless hesitated. She squeezed my fingers and added, “I’ll be fine. Truly.”
After another slight pause, I gave her the watch, then rose and left.
Gina trailed after me. “Do you need a lift back to town?”
I shook my head. “You’d better stay here and make sure she’s okay. She’ll be in shock.”
Gina nodded. I grabbed my handbag from the car, but didn’t go much farther than the road. The dark force was now so fierce it felt like a thousand gnats were biting me.
I studied the area, all senses on alert, trying to find the source of the dark energy. There was absolutely nothing nearby. Whatever it was, it remained some distance away… but that thought had barely crossed my mind when it surged, hitting with the power and fury of a gigantic wave and sending me staggering back. I caught my balance and swung around. Laughter drifted from the old pub, a bright sound that clashed with the dark force in the air. Whatever it was—whoever it was—it was coming from the other side of Newstead.
The wave hit again. Stronger—darker—than before. My skin crawled and my throat went dry.
It wasn’t just energy, but magic.
Black magic.
Blood magic.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It didn’t do a whole lot to calm my racing pulse or the deep surge of fear.
Only a very powerful dark practitioner could perform that sort of magic in the middle of the day. Usually it was done at midnight, when the moon was at her highest point in the sky and the full force of her power could be drawn on rather than the practitioner’s own.
Don’t chase after it, came Belle’s thought. Call Ashworth.
I will. I am. I dug out my phone and immediately did so.
A third wave hit. It felt like I was drowning in evil. Whatever the dark witch was doing, it was reaching a peak.
“This is an unexpected honor,” Ashworth all but drawled. “Have you two finally decided to come clean about your past?”
“We’ve nothing to come clean about,” I bit back. “And I think we’ve got a dark practitioner on the reservation.”
