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Logically, there’s no doubt in my mind that’s true, but the illogical part of me aches to watch her go, insisting we should be together, for now and always.
As I sweep away on the wind, I wonder if Blaire has advanced enough in her witchly practice to whip up an anti-love spell. I’m beginning to think magical intervention is the only way I’ll be able to walk away from Annie before it’s too late. Before I cause her more pain, suffering, and regret.
Pain is still utmost in my mind in fact when I arrive at the Wonderfully mansion to find the front yard on fire.
Chapter 14
Baron
Rematerializing so quickly I stumble and nearly trip on the cracked sidewalk in front of the home, I crouch down, gathering a giant snowball from the drift the plows have shoved to one side of the road. I carry it with me as I hurry through the fence, toward the bushes blazing in the corner of the yard.
I’m about to dump my giant, flame-snuffing missile onto the fire when a voice cries from the doorway, “No, Baron, don’t! Let it burn!”
I spin to see Blaire rushing down the steps in pajamas and her socked feet with Darcy steps behind her. He scoops her up in his arms, a decision she seems inclined to protest before he says, “I’ll take you to him. We don’t have time for frostbitten toes.”
She loops an arm around his neck. “You’re right. Thank you.”
“Two of my favorite phrases, especially from your lips,” Darcy teases, making me think I may have misjudged the seriousness of the situation until he stops in front of me and adds in a much more sober tone, “Something or someone hijacked Jolene’s portal in the hydrangea bushes, the one she used to communicate and visit others of her kind. She warned Blaire something was attempting to come through about twenty minutes ago and went back in to fight off whatever it was.”
“She insisted we burn the bushes as soon as she disappeared,” Blaire says, clearly upset. “To destroy the portal. She said she’d find her way back to us eventually, but I’m not so sure. I don’t…” She swallows, her throat working before she adds in a thicker voice, “I don’t feel her anymore. And I’ve always felt her, since the first day we arrived, way before I knew she wasn’t just a spider.”
“She’s powerful and clever,” Darcy says, his arms tightening around Blaire. “If she believed she’d be able to return to you, then I believe it, too.”
Lips thinning, Blaire crosses her fingers in the air before turning to me with an even more worried look, “Where’s Annie? I thought she was with you.”
“She is. She was,” I clarify. “She went to get Sophie, while I came as fast as I could.” I explain the demon char mark and rune on the abandoned cottage and Blaire and Darcy both curse beneath their breath at the same time.
Blaire squirms in his arms. “Put me down. I have to tell Casey. She can’t go to work tonight, and Amy sure as hell isn’t going to daycare. The center is only a few blocks from that cottage, and Manny’s already proven he has zero issues with kidnapping.”
Darcy turns back toward the house, nodding his head for me to follow. “I’ll put you down inside,” he says. “Casey isn’t going to slip out the back door without saying goodbye. We still have time.”
We still have time…
The words make my stomach sour, and my ribs lock tight.
I have a feeling time is growing shorter than we think.
I turn, searching the street, but all is quiet beyond the red glow of the burning flower bush. I cross to the front gate, intending to go find Annie and apologize to Darcy and Blaire for disappearing later, when two nearly matching silhouettes appear at the end of the lane. Up close, it’s obvious that Annie and Sophie aren’t identical twins—their facial features are significantly different, and Annie is nearly an inch taller—but from a few blocks away, they’re startlingly similar. Even the way they run, with short, mincing, pained-looking bounces that make it clear jogging is as foreign to them as thrashing to heavy metal music, is virtually identical.
But they are far different people, a fact proven when I meet them halfway to the house. Annie’s first breathless words are, “Casey, the baby, are they okay?” while Sophie’s are, “Did the spider make it out alive?”
“Everyone in the family is fine,” I assure Annie, unable to resist taking her hand and giving it a comforting squeeze. Shifting my focus to Sophie, I add in a cooler voice, “According to Blaire, Jolene went into the bush to keep an intruder from entering the yard through her portal. She told Darcy to burn the bush after she passed through. She expressed her intention to return to the home at a later date, but…right now we don’t know how she fared.”
Sophie’s shoulders slump with a relief that seems a bit misplaced. I know the spider is an ancient protector of the Wonderfully women, but it seems strange that her first instinct was to be worried about Jolene over her newly found family.
Especially the niece she claims to adore.
Annie sucks in another ragged breath, clinging to my hand as we hurry toward the house. “We saw another char mark on the way here. On the side of the white covered bridge.”
My head jerks her way. “The one on the way out to the swamp?”
She nods. “And it looked fresher than the first one by the pita stand.”
“And I’m pretty sure the sigils are guiding runes,” Sophie pants. “Whoever made them is leaving a trail.”
“A trail for other demons,” I conclude, earning a sigh from Sophie and a brow-furrow from Annie.
“We can’t know for sure,” she says, “but that makes the most sense. Though why they need a marked path out of Nightfall, I have no idea. It’s not like it’s that big. And there are maps available on the internet if you know where to look.”
