“Oh, I see,” I murmured.
“If we shift, we'll either ruin these clothes or, if we go ghost, end up leaving them behind,” Gideon confirmed. “And we don't want to waste good clothing.”
“Be careful,” I said. “Silas is tricky.”
“We know,” Garret said as they headed for the door. “We've been studying him and Michael, remember? It will be all right, Indigo Darling.”
I followed them down to the garage entrance and watched as they got into Garret's truck. As the garage door opened, Iclosed the house door and went to the front living room to watch as they drove down the driveway.
“My men,” I murmured. “Going to war. How positively medieval.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
I was still in the front living room, trying to distract myself with a Korean competition cooking show, when a buzzer went off. I flinched, then stood up and listened. It went off again.
“What the hell is that?” I followed the sound to a panel by the front door.
An image of the front gate filled the little screen above the number panel. Jackie was there, staring at the camera and shaking a fist. I frowned, then saw a button with a sound symbol on it. I pushed the button and came in on the middle of her tirade.
“—something to do with my brother! Let me in right now! Come on! I'm on your side! I can help you.”
I scowled at her. I loved Jackie, but she was supposed to be headed toward the Host house. Had she changed her mind partway there? That was good for her, but also bad for my men. They were counting on using her as a distraction. But they'd been doing this a long time. Surely they'd figure it out. Which left me with the Jackie problem.
I pushed an intercom button and said, “Jackie, this is Indie. Hold on. Let me figure out how to open the gate.”
“Indie? Holy fuck! Indie, what are you doing here?”
“Just hold on.” I found the button to open the gate and pressed it.
Jackie jerked into action, jumping into her car and then driving through the opening. Or tried to, rather. The nose of the car reached the border of the property and kind of bounced back. I saw Jackie frown and finally realized what the problem was. The ward.
I hit the intercom button again. “Sorry, Jackie. I forgot that there's a, um, shit. Just wait there. I'll come to the gate.”
“What the fuck is—”
I turned off the intercom before she got into her rant. I had no idea what I was going to say to her or how to explain a ward, but then I remembered Jackie was the one who brought Silas to Jake. She was familiar with this magic stuff.
I grabbed my jacket, pulled it on, then left the house to jog down the long driveway to the gate. I could hear her muttering to herself as I approached, and it made me smile. She was a spitfire, that one. And then I reached the gate and stepped into the lights.
“Hey, Jackie,” I said and crossed the ward.
Jackie got out of a car I didn't recognize. “Fuck. Indigo.” She shook her head and strode over to me. “What the fuck is going on? Last time I saw you, you were giving me the weirdest fucking look out of a second-story window over at Silas's loony bin.”
I let out a little laugh. Leave it to Jackie to make me laugh in the middle of a shitstorm. “There's a lot to tell you. But what happened to your car?”
“My car?” She looked at the vehicle. “Oh. Right. My car is different. Yeah, someone stole it yesterday.”
“Someone stole it?” I frowned.
“It's just so good to see you!” Jackie yanked me into a hug.
I went stiff in surprise, but then hugged her back. Jackie wasn't much of a hugger, but she'd been through some rough times. I could understand the need for physical reassurance.
Suddenly, the world shifted. Things went blurry, and I got dizzy. I would have fallen if not for Jackie. She held onto me, keeping me upright, and when everything stopped moving, she set me away from her. Except that she wasn't Jackie anymore.
Silas stood before me, and we were back at that damn log palace! In his bedroom!
“Fuck!” I hissed as I backed further away from him. “What the actual fuck?”
