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“Good plan.” I hold the van keys out to Darius. “Trade? We need to leave your keys for Flint.”
He shifts the skull in his arms to pull out his keys and drops them on top of the ones in my hand. “I’m not driving that thing.”
I shake my head. “You are such a snob.”
Fire simmers in his eyes. “What can I say? I like what I like.”
That warmth returns, and I avoid answering by walking to the driver’s side door to hide the keys in the visor. This new dynamic with Darius keeps catching me off guard.
After spending centuries sharing a body, I know him on an intimate level, but living with the essence of him in my body is different than facing Darius as a physical being. Seeing him standing in front of me makes everything we say to each other more real.
Last night was the first time in a while that we’ve slept in separate bodies, and I didn’t enjoy waking up to find him missing any more than Pen had. I just hid it better. I’m used to waking up with Darius inside me. For him to be gone gave me a moment of panic before I realized what probably happened.
While Darius likes to think he was good at keeping our thoughts separate, I’ve spent enough time with his insecurities to understand that he probably panicked and bolted. But he hadn’t fled far.
Discovering him in the kitchen with Flint had been worth the momentary fear. I hope it’s a sign that we’ll all be able to move forward together without the friction that’s filled our home since Darius took on his corporeal body.
I hurry to the driver’s-side door and climb behind the wheel. Pen sits in her usual spot in the center seat, with Darius on her far side, the skull cradled in his lap.
Pulling out onto the road, I wait for Johannsson to drive up behind me before I head toward the Conservatory across town. As I drive, I keep an eye on the speedometer to make sure I don’t break the law.
We may have a JTFPI officer following us, but Bailey has to be in a rage right now after losing his officers. We don’t want to give him an excuse to harass us.
Tension fills my body, and I grip the steering wheel. “What do you think happened to the bones?”
Pen’s leg bounces on the center well. “Buried beneath the dirt? Though, I don’t know how. There were so many last night.”
“The monster that was down there with us had to have done something with them.” Darius’s hand on Pen’s leg stops the bouncing. “We didn’t get a look at it, but it was big enough to knock down the tower we built to escape.”
“It looked enormous.” Pen’s hand swoops through the air in an arc. “Like a whale making waves.”
“Maybe it ate the bones?” My brow furrows. “I don’t remember any monsters like that, but a lot of monsters we’ve never seen before have been cropping up lately.”
“Could be another like the Hive Queen.” Pen pushes Darius’s hand off her leg, and it starts bouncing again. “Something from the Between that was let loose.”
If the demon courts locked it up in their space prison instead of exterminating it, it must be bad.
The others must have a similar thought, because silence falls for the rest of the drive through Clearhelm and out the other side, where I turn onto the road that borders the city.
Trees line one side, with the forest that surrounds the city running right up to the edge of the asphalt.
Only the Conservatory and the Remington Brother’s Farm are out this far, so traffic is nonexistent. The sanctuary for young witches needs the space to commune with nature and to avoid putting human lives at risk with any power outbursts.
I slow as I flip on my blinker and turn onto the tree-lined road that leads to the school. The heavy branches form a dome overhead, offering shade from the rising sun.
As the trees pull back, the large building comes into view.
The reconstruction has been completed, but the landscaping is still in progress. The new parks and pathways lead through the forest to the new greenhouse we built on the land we bought from the Remington Brothers.
While much of the building changed, the glass dome at the center remains the same, with an ancient tree rising through the roof.
I park in the small lot in front of the building amid the general use vehicles we bought for students to check out and the small bus for larger groups to go into town.
Johannsson pulls into a spot beside us, and we all climb out, Darius with the skull still in his arms.
We make our way up the stairs to the heavy wooden doors, and I step ahead to pull one side open.
This is another big change after we took over the Conservatory.
