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“Family meeting, outside,” I said. That meant not just my siblings, but Teresa and Cole, who were as close as adoptive siblings to me.
“Does Amelia count as family?” Shaw asked.
I wasn’t going to answer that loaded question. “Bring her.”
Grumbling, they followed me out of the house. Teresa and Cole met us outside. I quickly set a rapid pace through the woods, and they scrambled after me, asking questions I didn’t bother to answer.
I wanted to see how they responded.
“Which one of you,” I demanded as Amelia gasped at the sight of the body, “killed my witch?”
I tried to catalog all their faces, looking for guilt. God help me, I hoped it was none of them.
“I didn’t,” Amelia stammered.
Shaw put a protective hand on her shoulder. “Stone, what’s wrong with you?”
“She was under my protection.” She was also my friend, but that part didn’t matter.
I didn’t see guilt in any of their faces, just shock and horror.
But Liam wasn’t here. I needed to talk to him, too. I needed for him to see the witch and to try to read his face.
Because Liam had lost what was left of his mind when he met Amelia.
CHAPTER47
Amelia
The rest of that day,I couldn’t focus on anything else. I couldn’t stop thinking of the way Stone had looked at all of us, as if he thought any of us could be murderers. I couldn’t shake the terrible fear that Shaw or Liam had acted to protect me by stopping Louisa.
But Stone’s gaze had felt most heavily weighted on me.
If Stone thought I had killed Louisa… he would do his duty as the alpha. The thought drained my legs and made me feel weak.
It also crystallized what I needed to do next.
I’d never be able to convince Stone to trust me now.
I hugged Dylan hello when he came out of school. The ground was still soaked, his shoes squeaking over the grass, as he ran off to play with his friends, but the sun was shining. As I watched them, I had tears in my eyes, knowing we would have to leave this place he’d come to love so much. I brushed them away before Jainie came over, and we walked back as usual until we came to the fork in the road. She wanted to make plans for Caleb’s birthday party and I said we’d come, knowing we should be long gone by then. Dylan would’ve loved to go to Caleb’s birthday.
Further down the trail, a figure loomed in the forest gloom, waiting for me. Joshua.
“Run ahead to the house,” I told Dylan, ruffling his hair. “Aunt Karissa said she was making hot cocoa.”
That was only part of the afternoon snack his doting aunt had planned, and a familiar ache pressed my chest.
He brightened and ran off, leaving me alone on the trail with Joshua.
I turned to him and steeled myself. “I’m ready to go.”
“That’s wise.” He held out a cell phone. “Tomorrow when you bring Dylan to school, we’ll walk out of here, okay?”
“What’s the phone for?” I gripped it tightly, relieved to have a way to reach the outside world.
“So you can talk to your brother. And,” Joshua pulled a face, “In case something happens to me.”
That frank admission chilled me. “Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
