Uncle Timothy smiled so hard I heard his jaw pop. “I’d like to see you try and make me leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I want to help Saffie adjust to her new role…it is…unnerving at times.” Paulina smiled and her dark eyes sparkled. “Plus, Albert is here now.”
“That’s just logic right there.” Braison grinned down at his black mastiff puppy that was almost as long as the couch. “But we also have Lennox and Warner, too. Right?”
“Yep,” Henley answered for me. “They’re out getting the school ready now but Tenn told them they can stay.”
Easton perked back up. “Oh right. When does school start back up here?”
“Monday,” Uncle Timothy said in that rough voice I knew so well. “Campus opens tomorrow for students to begin returning.”
Hunter nodded and rubbed his hands together. “Devon and I are ready to assist with their return.”
“More importantly, Eden is safe thanks to Hope finding our mother’s spell. So the students will be secure. We shouldn’t have any concerns here at home. Which is why I feel confident in sending you all out to some of our current demon hot spots. So eat. Sleep. Tomorrow you’re hunting. Got it?” I waited until they all nodded. “All right. Dismissed.”
A timer in the kitchen blared through the room.
Emersyn gasped and jumped to her feet. “Perfect timing! The lasagna is done. Come on, y’all. Dinner time.”
No one hesitated a second. They all leapt to their feet and rushed to the kitchen. I watched them all go…except for Tegan. Who still hadn’t moved. My Coven-mates weren’t the only ones worried about her. I was too…but I wasn’t sure I was the one who could get through to her right now. We were too much of the same person sometimes. I needed someone who had practice getting into her head, and getting her out of her head. Without sounding like a hypocrite.
I needed Hope.
But my sister was still in London with Lancaster.
I slipped out the front door to the balcony and then moved to stand just on the other side of the window from Tegan. Yet even with me in her line of sight she was a statue. She was spiraling. I cursed and paced the porch. I told myself, I promised myself, I would not call my sister back from her vacation with Jackson. I told myself we could handle anything that came our way for two weeks without them. The demon problem wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
But I hadn’t accounted for a Tegan I couldn’t help.
I knew what I meant to my soulmate, and how important I was to her…but I also knew that I wasn’t the help she needed. I knew she needed her best friend. The two of them were the best problem solvers I’d ever met. If Tegan was going to figure out a way to get Saffie back, then she was going to need Hope there to help her.
I cursed again as I pulled out my phone and dialed Hope’s number.
It rang six times before she answered. “Haven?”
“Hope, hi – shit, were you asleep?”
She cleared her throat. “Yeah, it’s like one in the morning here—”
“Shit. Shit. I’m sorry. Sorry. I can call—”
“Now, Haven. You called me now. What’s going on?” Her voice grew clearer with every word. “Talk to me. You sound terrible.”
I groaned and cursed. “I’m sorry—”
“Don’t be. Just start talking.”
“I need you home, Hope.”
There was a beat of silence, then she whispered, “Tegan?”
“Yeah.”
“I knew it. Damn it. How many fingernails does she have left?”
My breath left me in a rush. I’d made the right call. “She’s working on her last now.”
Hope cursed violently. “Okay. All right. Tomorrow is Jackson’s grandmother’s birthday. There’s a big party and I promised we’d be there.”
Shit. “It’s okay. It’s not an emergency. I just…I know her. She’s trying to solve this riddle and she needs you.”
“Listen, bring her up to my room. Sit her under my mood lanterns and watch those to know if we have to take drastic actions. Put on some Tom Petty or the Eagles and shove pizza under her face. Then give her milkshakes. Even if you have to pry her mouth open. That should buy me a day. When the party is over, she can portal us back home. That work?”
“Okay. Okay. I’ll try that.” I sighed and stared at Tegan through the window. “She hasn’t spoken a single word today at all.”
“We have to get Saffie back before she tortures herself into a straight jacket.”
“We’re working on it, but with her not telling me what’s in her head, I’m not sure what we’re missing.” I cursed and pushed my hair back. “I know this face. She’s scheming but something isn’t adding up for her and you’re the only one who thinks like she does.”
“I’ll be home in twenty-four hours. I promise.”
Chapter Six
Saffie
The second my feet hit the vines of the tunnel, I spun and slammed my palm into the wall. Green light burst from under my touch. Flowers and vines spread left and right. The image of Riah’s stupid fake friendly smile from that night we met all those years ago lingered in my mind like a hideous shadow.
All these years.
No, stop it. He’s not worth your tears. You have to get home.
But as the tunnel opened up under my hand, I realized I didn’t have a home. My home in Salem had not survived the centuries. The theme park had been my curse, not a home. My mother had joined the crones. Uncle Leyka had…well, I wasn’t really sure where he’d gone. Landreia’s house had been my home for a couple weeks but going back there now felt wrong. I felt like an imposter.
An empty, hollow ache filled my chest and tears burned in the backs of my eyes. I didn’t have a home because the Seelie fae had stolen it from me. They stole my life from me. They stole everything from me. And just when I was finally free, finally within reach of getting something of myself back, they swept it out from under me. Riah swept it out from under me.
I thought I’d been mistaken, hallucinating that night on the wharf when I landed in Salem but now I knew I wasn’t. He’d been trying to take me right then and there. I screamed and pushed my magic into the tunnel wall, forcing it open faster. He may have won the battle but I was damn well going to win the war. I waited three hundred and twenty-seven years for freedom. I wasn’t going to give that up without a fight.
No matter how pretty his stupid face was.
I wasn’t going to fall for his charm a third time. I was going to find my way back to The Coven and then I was going to have my vengeance. I was going to sing my song of revenge and they were going to hear it.
The second the tunnel opened far enough, I dove through…and my bare feet hit cold cobblestone.
The sound of engines filled the air and, in the distance, the ominous blaring of alarms sent a cold chill down my spine. My wet hair clung to my body and coiled around my arms. My dress was heavy and trailing the ground behind me. A cold breeze swept up from behind me and I shivered so hard my bones rattled. I glanced left and right and my heart sank. I had no idea where I was, but I had not caught up with time yet. I seemed to be in the middle of a village that’d been destroyed. The stone walls were crumbling and missing ceilings, windows were shattered, and doors were blown off their hinges.