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“A little,” he said. “But I think those extra touches I added were worth it. I was wondering if there’s some way I can start working on the wall around the estate… But I guess any paint on the stones would stand out as something strange.”
I considered that possibility. “True, but we could do tokens like we have before. I could bury them around the property. That would give my protections an extra boost without anyone even seeing them. And we could make them really simple since no one will see them, so you wouldn’t have to work too hard.”
“Perfect!” He pointed a finger at me. “That’s tomorrow’s project, then.”
Ky glanced at the door and then his phone again, frowning. A nervous twitch wriggled into my stomach. I pulled out my own phone to scroll back through my messages. Yes, I’d checked with Seth that he could get here at six. He’d said it’d be no problem, that he should be finishing his shift with his dad at five.
What if something had happened to him? Something that had left him so incapacitated he couldn’t even contact us?
“Can you try your dad?” I said to Ky. “They were supposed to be working together most of the day. At least then we’d know he was okay until recently.”
“I already texted him too,” Ky said. “No answer there either. But that’s less surprising. Dad still hasn’t gotten totally used to the whole cell phone thing. We’re lucky if he’s got the battery charged half the days of the week.”
I paced from one end of the hall to the other. “If they’ve hurthim…”
“We don’t know that’s what happened,” Gabriel said in a low, smooth voice. “They shouldn’t be able to do that. He’s only a little late.”
Damon’s head jerked up. “Hey,” he said. “That oath—does it cover your father too? He shouldn’t be able to hurt any of us, right?”
A cold prickle shot down my back. “It should cover all the families allied with the Frankfords. Even if they were sticking to the barest letter of the law, that would include everyone named in the files. My father’s in there.”
His shoulders came down, but not completely. “What about that Courtland guy?”
Master Courtland, my former tutor, had been conspiring with my stepmother, sharing research on how she might twist my consort ceremony so the fiancé she and Dad had chosen would have direct control over my magic. I didn’t know what Master Courtland’s stake in the conspiracy was, or if he even knew the full extent of it. His name hadn’t come up anywhere else. But Dad clearly had the older witching man in his pocket.
“My father couldn’t order him to do anything that would hurt us directly,” I said. “And neither of them have any magic of their own to attack us with. Why are you asking about them?”
“I just remembered,” Damon said. “Yesterday I was cruising by the old guy’s house and I saw him in the yard with your dad. Just talking, but it’s not like I trust anything they’d be talking about.”
Before he’d even finished speaking, I’d bristled. Snuff my spark, what was my father doing around town?
He wasn’t forbidden from visiting a friend near the estate. Technically he wasn’t even forbidden from coming here and requesting entrance—he just couldn’t waltz right in like he owned the place, because he no longer did.
Like Damon, I couldn’t imagine any good reason for him to be poking around. If he’d wanted to see Master Courtland, he could have invited him somewhere else. How long had he spent in town? Was hestillhere, just a few minutes’ drive away?
“If you see him again, it’s fine with me if you make it clear he’s not welcome,” I said. “However you feel like doing that.”
Damon grinned sharkishly. “Oh, angel, that’s an invitation I’m not likely to turn down.”
Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “Is that really a good idea?”
“It’s a horribly bad idea for him to come anywhere near here,” I said tersely. The memory of the last time I’d talked to my father swam up—the way he’d talked as if what he’d tried to do for me was beyond his control, not taking any responsibility—the way he’d sneered at my consorts as iftheywere unworthy of me.
The way he’d looked at me when I’d bluffed that I’d release the demon to do whatever it wanted with him, as if he’d really thought I was that stupid and that sick-minded.
Suddenly I felt nearly as queasy as I had in the cave with that thing and with him. Why couldn’t he just leave me the fuckalone?
Imogen appeared at the bottom of the stairs, which she must have descended more quietly than usual. “Rose?” she said hesitantly.
“We’re in the middle of something,” I snapped. A jab of guilt hit me immediately, sharpened by the way her eyes widened. Most of my anger deflated. I stepped toward her. “I’m sorry. What is it?”
“I just… I was hoping I could talk with you.” Her voice was unusually quiet too. Now that I was paying more attention, it was hard not to notice how subdued she was in general. Even her bright red curls hung a little limp against her shoulders. “If now isn’t a good time, though, it can totally wait.”
“No. I—” I glanced at the guys.
“Go ahead,” Gabriel said. “We’re still waiting for Seth anyway. If he hasn’t shown up soon, we’ll split up and scout out the roads between here and the house and wherever he was working.”
I smiled at him with a rush of gratitude and motioned for Imogen to come with me into the parlor. Having seen how nervous she looked, I closed the door behind us for privacy.
