Be right out.
Once I rolled out of bed, I settled Aspen in his bassinet. Then I brushed my teeth, combing back the wayward strands of auburn clumped around the top of my head like a scraggly crown. When I made it into the living room, Lynx had his arm around Hazel. Saros stood with his hands down at his sides, eyes apologetic.
“What’s going on?” I asked, bouncing Aspen with each step.
Saros took a deep breath, folding his hands into his pockets. “We wanted to come by and tell you that the evidence has concluded that Acacia was behind your sister’s disappearance.”
“So the case is closed, Acacia was behind the missing witches?”
“No. Unfortunately, from what we were finally able to recover from the warded files, she was looking into the other disappearances, which leads us to believe she didn’t have anything to do with them,” he sighed, brows furrowed a moment before softening. “The good news is that we believe your family is no longer in any danger.”
Hazel’s fists were clenched at her sides. If that was all they’d come and said, why was my sister still so upset? “That’s not the only reason you’re here, is it?”
“No,” Lynx said, hand braced on her shoulder. “We’re also here to give you both a heads up that there’s about to be an arrest in regard to Acacia’s murder.”
“Who was it?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter because they’re wrong. There’s no way they could do that,” Hazel protested, her brown eyes edged in anger.Hurt.
Confusion washed through me. Why was my sister so hell-bent that they were wrong?
To me it felt like a huge weight had been lifted to know she wasn’t in any danger.
Thatweweren’t in any danger.
Lynx kept his arm on her shoulder until she knocked it away, seemingly pissed that he was trying to calm her. “Unfortunately, the evidence says otherwise.”
“What evidence?” I asked.
“The vials we collected at the scene. They were a match for the ones that were being given out at the blackout bash—the full moon formula. They had been tampered with,” Saros replied, looking over at Hazel who cut him a glare, as if to remind him she still didn’t believe what he was saying. “We found traces of a rare form of blue nightshade. Only she and one other person on the street ordered from the same potions mistress. The same person who grows blue nightshade.”
“Who are they arresting?” I repeated, regretting that I’d not been the one to answer the door.
Something was flitting at the back of my mind… Who had I recently talked to about a potions mistress?
Just as Saros opened his mouth to say more, the banshee alarms blared outside.
It was happeningnow.
Hazel and I rushed to the window to see what was happening, and a trail of unmarked SUVs came into view.
The noisy parade of oversized black SUVs rolled down Starry Night Lane.
One after another, they drove up Blessed Crescent, curving around its main drag. Car doors popped and swung open; dozens of boots hit the concrete. Witches wearing black leather cuffs and vests with SNO-OPS across the back began filing in, moving up the long, paved driveway.
The Supernatural Neighborhood Order had come to collect their prize.
The neighbors creaked their doors open in their pajamas, squinting to see what was going on. Everyone was in the cul-de-sac aside from the four watching from number 13’s window.
That information was filed away for later.
The agent in the gray suit remained back, watching his team knock on the door. Fitzgerald Wells opened it with a smile. His wife, Aurora, a few paces behind him, paling. Unaware of the twenty or so agents gathered around the perimeter, Fitzgerald welcomed them into number 5 Blessed Crescent, and the door shut itself behind them.
The neighbors waited outside, murmuring to each other, eyes now wide. When number 5’s door opened on its own, a hush came over the crowd. Fitzgerald and Aurora Wells stepped out on the porch with their hands bound, heads held high.
She didn’t frown when they arrested her. She didn’t frown when she noticed the others' stares, but when her gaze rose to find Atticus and Chrysanthemum watching from their windows, her lips turned down.
They were taken to the first few SUVs, where they were separated and shoved into the back seat, and the man in the gray suit climbed into the one holding Fitzgerald.
