“Gwendolyn,” he said, raising his voice.
A door opened. Someone sniffled.
“Our guest seems to have fainted,” Kincaid said. “I need your assistance.”
A pause. What were they doing?What?The urge to look was so strong, she could barely keep her eyes shut.
Hands snaked under her arms, and it was only because she’d braced herself for the possibility that she managed not to react. Another pair of hands grabbed her around the ankles, fortunately touching sock and not skin. They lifted her off the floor and carried her down the hall for a few paces until Kincaid said “here,” and they took a left turn into a room.
They set her down on something with give, probably a bed. Two sets of footsteps, thesnickof a softly closed door, then silence. She risked opening her eyes and saw that both wizards had indeed exited the room.
And what did she learn? They said nothing incriminating, made no revealing statements about evil intentions. Perhaps they really were what they appeared.
She pressed her face against the pillow, making it damp with her tears. And then it occurred to her: They hadn’t simply said nothing incriminating. They’d said practically nothing at all.
Wasn’t that odd? Wouldn’t people say all sorts of things if somebody fainted? What if Kincaid suspected she was still conscious and put his finger to his mouth to keep Crawford quiet—Crawford, who didn’t know what tale he’d been spinning about Hartgrave?
OK, yes, it was odd, but that still seemed a bit thin for a decision this important. She needed something more.Think.
She breathed in and out at a slow, deliberate pace, pushing down the frenetic adrenaline, clearing her mind of everything but Hartgrave and Kincaid. Which of the two should she—did she—trust? If the men were in a fight right now, which one would she help?
And just like that, she knew the answer. One man was smooth and calm, the other sharp-edged and stormy. Which of the two was more likely to pull off a complex fabrication requiring multiple lies, not simply omissions?
She let anger and fear kick the adrenaline back into high production. Now she needed it.
She tiptoed to the window, pushed it up and pressed her hands against the spell just beyond, the one creating a barrier around the house. The second it fizzled to nothing, she climbed out and dashed across the lawn.
Electric light smothered the darkness, and thewhoop-whoop-whoopof the motion-detector alarm went off inside, but she was nearly to the fence. Just beyond stood the forest.
The next moment, she ran headlong into an invisible barrier. She yelped, propelled backward by the force of impact.
“Leaving so soon?”
A cold, familiar voice. She got herself turned around on her hands and knees, finding the woman with the short, dark hair. Shaw.
“Oi! Tell him I’ve got her,” Shaw said, which befuddled Emily for half a second until she saw the wizard’s cell-phone earpiece.
When did they arrange this backup plan in case she made a run for it—while she fetched water for the maybe-or-maybe-not dying wizard?
She scrambled to her feet, hoping this meant she’d made the right choice. Too late for a change of heart, in any case. She thrust her hands back, vaporizing the barrier behind her.
“Not this time,” Shaw hissed. Whipcrack quick, magic caught Emily around her waist and held her fast.
But she was angry. Very angry. With a glancing touch of her fingers, the obstruction vanished and she loped backward toward freedom, hands up, melting Shaw’s attack spells.
Then magic pulled her feet out from under her, like a lasso, and she fell hard on her stomach. Grass poked her in the face as she gasped for air.
“Hah! Nice,” Shaw cackled.
“Not exactly difficult,” said Crawford, a markedly different Crawford than the sobbing, sniffling wreck she’d been shortly before.
Emily flopped onto her side and scrabbled for the magic binding her ankles. “What, no tears? Is the show over?”
Crawford, red hair undulating in the breeze, gave a short laugh. “You seemed to believe it at the time.”
Either the man wasn’t really dead, or these people didn’t even care about their own. Oh, she’d definitely made the right choice.
Shaw, lips twisted in a feral grin, circled her. “Let her go and we’ll catch her again, yeah?”
