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“We leave in the morning, then.” Rafe directed his words to Della, which made my urge to slap him all the stronger.
“Why wait? Show me your boat and I’ll go after her alone. You can dig holes in the ground until All Souls for all I care.”
Della put a quelling hand on my arm. “Vincent.” One word, but she spoke volumes.
“Margaret came here to help you.” My voice cracked.
Rafe’s chin hit a particularly stubborn angle. “All her efforts – and yours – will be for naught if we don’t find the amulet.”
My hands were fisted so tight my nails cut into my palms. Maybe I wouldn’t slap. Maybe I’d punch.
“We leave at first light.”
“We can go now. It’s just after noon.”
Rafe all but growled. “First light.”
“He has to reset the protection spell,” Della said, “and if you wait till morning, I may be able to give you a better idea of where to search.
I was fighting a losing battle but couldn’t bring myself to quit. “How many tunnels can the city have? We’ll start asking questions, and someone will tell us.”
Rafe’s scowl grew even blacker than normal. I could imagine that diving into a crowd of strangers would be like asking him to fly to the moon.
“Tomorrow, Vincent,” Della said with an air of conviction. “The Witches’ Council took her because they want us to join. They must know killing our weatherwitch won’t further their aim.”
“So?” I sounded petulant but couldn’t help myself. In reality, I did understand. Finding the amulet by Samhain had to be our priority. I’d defer just about anything in order to achieve that goal. Anything but Margaret.
If choosing one person over the rest made me selfish, then so be it.
“In the morning I’ll do another search,” Della said. “Hopefully you’ll have more to go on.”
I glanced at Rafe, who nodded, reinforcing his mother’s words. “Come with me. You can help set the wards.”
His gaze was directed at the window, but I recognized the concession for what it was. “Of course.” I’d be little actual help, but his offer was an unexpected consolation.
Della watched us, her expression puzzled. She must find it notable for her son to make such an offer.
Without explaining ourselves, we put on our wet things and headed into the forest, stopping in the same clearing as before. This time, Rafe spoke harsher words, his voice threaded with fire. He raised another dome, but rather than milky white, this one had jagged streaks of blood red and black.
Oliver Stevenson might have found a way through the old spell, but this one would hold. Its potency was visible, its power thrummed in the air. The Seattle Council may have captured Margaret, but they would not be able to breach this spell.
And tomorrow, they’d learn the extent of their mistake.
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen
Now we knew who had Margaret, but we still did not know where. I slept little, too worried to find a comfortable spot on that abysmal cot. Did I regret losing a day when Samhain was so close? Of course, but Rafe had had weeks to find the amulet, with no luck. What would happen in the next three days to change that? Where else could he possibly look? I never asked those questions, so I never got the answers. Martin Gallagher had deliberately made the amulet impossible to find, and right now, Margaret took precedence.
I roused myself sometime after sunrise, washing and dressing in the frigid bedroom. Della worked her seeking spell again. Other than an image of tunnels, however, she had nothing to add. After that, things moved quickly, since we only had one day to search for Margaret. For this trip, Rafe left his fine overcoat and polished boots at home. Dressed in his black cloak and mud-stained trousers, he stood on the end of the dock, one hand held high in the air. “Come.”
At his one-word command, the water at his feet shimmered and blurred. Something appeared, long and dark, and slowly became visible. A boat. A rowboat, to be more specific. I could do little but stand on the stony beach, arms crossed, shaking my head. Every time I thought I could trust Rafe and his mother, they did something else that showed me how little I truly knew them.
I could only hope my ignorance didn’t end up getting anyone hurt.
The boat was a sturdy contraption, some ten feet long with two benches and a pair of paddles set lengthwise. Once the thing was fully visible, Rafe waved me in.
At the edge of the dock, I noticed something strange. Atwisted bit of fabric stuck to the wood, as if someone had dropped it in the rain and then stepped on it. I picked it up.
