“I told you to get out!” Laurel shouts.
As if.I push my shoulders back and hold my head high. “I don’t care whether you believe my mother is a monster or a savior. The truth is, her confinement of the demon is weakening, and the veil is once again at risk. You have two choices going forward. Either get your shit together and help us or stay the hell out of it and leave us to handle it. But there will be none of this eleventh-hour bullshit of interrupting a ritual in progress. Enough people have died already.”
Wylder stiffens beside me, his gaze locked on the woman who took him in and mentored him for the past five years. “It didn’t have to be this way. Somewhere along the line, you lost the path. And it’s scary to see how many witches you’ve taken with you.”
The hurt and devastation in Laurel’s eyes as Wylder turns his back on her is the first genuine emotion I’ve seen in her.
Yeah, well, she deserves a little heartache and regret.
Turning on my heel, I stomp out of the room, Wylder close behind me. Quickened footsteps catch up a moment later, and we’re joined by Orion.
He casts a sideways smile and chuckles. “Well, if anyone wondered what having a Hallowind back in town would look like, they’ve just been enlightened. Sadly, I’m pretty sure that was a three-strike kind of clusterfuck, Popstar.”
I shrug. “Aw, I’m out of the coven? I’ll live. I have no interest in being part of whatever that bullshit is, anyway.”
Orion slings a heavy arm over my shoulder and kisses my cheek. “Me neither.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Ileave Rowan to work on the demon trackers with Mom and Sebastian, with the promise of returning with food to nourish the troops. As I stride through the house, it still feels like a dream—Mom is here.
She’s a ghost, sure, but in the life of a Wiccan family, that’s not all that weird.
It makes me a little sad Wylder’s mom and the others are bound to an enchanted object and able to go places and be part of things, while my mom is bound to Hallowind House and the property evermore.
When I asked her about it, she said that to set the anchor to pull her spirit from the ritual site, she needed a substantial power source.
The Hallowind standing stones did the trick, but now she’s bound to them.
Not that she seems to mind.
As soon as we patch up the tears in the veil and figure out what trouble I’ve been bound to with Tharuzel, we’ll bring home my sisters and patch up what’s left of our family.
It hurts that Dad won’t be part of that.
He’s really gone.
The radiators tick softly as I pause at the bottom of the stairs, listening for Asher and the pups. Nothing but the familiar sounds of the house come back at me.
“Asher?” My voice carries through the rooms.
No answer. No scrabble of tiny claws on hardwood. No excited yips from Nobuddy and Somebuddy responding to my presence.
“They must be outside.”
I head toward the back of the house, past the staircase and down the hallway that opens into the combined kitchen and living space. The afternoon light slants through the windows, catching dust motes in golden beams.
Out back, I catch the rumble of male voices—one is definitely Asher’s, but I don’t recognize the other. A moment of panic hits, and I push through the back door, searching.
I spot them near the back of the yard where the grass meets the wild growth of trees leading to the standing stones. Asher’s got his arms raised, drawing back what looks like a compound bow, and beside him stands a guy I’ve definitely never met.
Because, boy howdy, I would’ve remembered him.
The man is tall, broad-shouldered, and has dark hair that matches the rugged scruff along a jawline that could cut glass. As I close the distance, I notice his grease-stained hands even though he’s clearly cleaned up.
Jace Jenkins.The mechanic.
At his feet, a scruffy mutt with one ebony ear up and one brown ear down is being pounced upon by the pup patrol. The poor thing is looking up at its master with the patient resignation of a dog who’s waiting to be saved from being mauled by my ADHD canines.
