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Chapter Fourteen
Amy’s color had yetto return and her blue eyes, normally so pale, looked strangely dark against her skin. Gia came to stand in front of her and Amy scooted farther back against the floor until she had her spine braced against the faded old boards of the wall.
“Please,” she whispered. “We should leave. If there’s nothing here for them...” But then she stopped and laughed, a hysterical sound that echoed off the walls and bounced back to them in discordant waves. “Who am I kidding? She can find me. She always finds me.”
That caught Gia’s attention and she leaned in closer until Amy had no choice but to look at her.
“Who, Amy? Tell me who.”
Amy’s pupils shrank, mere pinpricks in the pools of pale blue. Terrified, she shook her head. “No. Please don’t ask me that.”
“Tell me.” Gia stroked her fingers down Amy’s jaw until she reached the chin, then gently nudged, urging Amy to maintain eye contact. “Who is it?”
“Ronna Greene.”
But it wasn’t Amy who answered.
“Ronna,” Gia murmured, turning to look at the boy who now stood in half in front of his mother.
Wyn had sidled closer and while his mother gaped at him in both shock and horror, he leaned against Gia, tucking his hand into hers.
“It’s Ronna Greene.”
Gia had an image in mind, a tall, thin woman with blade-sharp cheekbones and wintry gray eyes. Gia had passed through the small town twice before she and Amy had made their move on the compound, both times on her own. And her shade had made the trip three times on her own. Now, as Gia visualized the woman, her skin crawled and her lip curled.
Of course it was that woman. Her instincts had gone on red alert the first time she’d met the woman. Her gut response to the human had been visceral and strong—evil.
“Uh-huh. She was married to one of the men hunting us. He’s gone now. Died after...” The words trailed off and after a minute, he started talking again. “She’s the one who told them about me, about Mom.”
“Wyn, stop it.”
But in an unforeseen act of maturity and...ferocity, the small boy whipped his head around and glared at his mother. A sliver of the power that lay mostly dormant inside roused, making his dark blue eyes glow.
Gia’s own power stirred, recognizing a familiar energy stirring in the young boy. It wasn’t precisely shadow witchery in the boy. Something close.
“No, Mum. You stop it. I hear her.” He shoved his fist against the side of his head. “In here. I hear her voice and she’s hunting for us. She’s angry. Do you get it? She’s hunting for us. She knows he’s dead and she’s coming for you. You won’t be able to make this all better by giving her somebody else. She wants you and me both dead.”
Amy paled. “That’s insane. I didn’t do anything.”
“You were the reason she knew about us. The reason we were here.” He shoved his lower lip out in a display that finally fit with his youthful face.
His mother’s face crumpled. “I just wanted you safe. I thought we could finally make you safe.”
Gia, sensing a shift in Amy, lowered her hand and stood. So that was what it had taken—finally realizing that her own actions had endangered her son.
Backing away from the two, she turned toward Sorin. “We need to get them both away from here. Now.”
Sorin was eying Amy with acute dislike but he dipped in his head in acknowledgment. “Could this other woman track her? Like Amy says?”
Gia frowned.
“The human says this other woman can always find her.” Sorin lifted a golden brow. “Is it magic or something more mundane? Could she simply be tracking Amy?”
Uneasiness spread through Amy as an idea occurred to her. Anger over what Amy had done, Wyn’s sudden show of power, years before she would have expected to see it, had thrown her off her stride and she swore, pressing her fingertips to her brow to clear it. “No. Well, of course, it’s possible she could just be tracking her via more basic means, but that’s not what she’s doing.” Gia looked into Sorin’s eyes, held the man’s golden gaze. “I met her. The first time I saw her, I sensed her magic. She’s strong, but self-trained and...clumsy. She had no idea I was anything other than what I was pretending to be, a girl passing through town on her way out west. She felt something other about me and tried to prod at me, but...” Gia shrugged. “Like I said. She’s clumsy.”
Eyes narrowing in speculation, she shifted her focus back to Amy.
The other woman was still pale, but her mouth had tightened in strain and there was a look in her eyes that spoke of the change Gia had sensed in her.
