Page 40 of Shadow Scorching

“That’s a good question,” Carson said. “Maybe because the majority of witches can learn how to banish a demon, so they’re considered adversaries?”

“But why now? Why would they start moving at this point?” I froze. “Unless…could there be other attacks that we don’t know about?”

Dante appeared in the archway, dressed in jeans and a sweater. “Well, what’s the news?”

“I’m talking to Carson,” I said, holding the phone away from my mouth. “Carson, see if you can find any other serious incidents at the academies.”

“Sure thing. Are we meeting tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I was going to call all of you. Meet us at the office at six tomorrow night. We’ll be heading over to Michael’s tomorrow evening. Penn’s going to attempt an exorcism and we need all hands on deck.”

“I’ll be there, for sure,” Carson said, sounding worried. “She’s going to be in danger, isn’t she?”

“Unfortunately, yes. That’s why weallneed to be there.”

“I’ll be there, all right,” Carson said. “Now, I’ll get to work on this research. Call me if you need anything else.”

As I hung up, Dante turned up the sound on the TV. The injuries were up to forty-two, and the deaths were standing at six now. And still, they had no clue how the explosion had happened, or who was responsible.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Twenty minutes later,he turned off the TV.

Dante tossed down the remote. “We were going to contact Jet,” he said, after a moment.

“That’s right. With what happened to Terri this morning, and the explosion, I totally spaced it out. Okay, let me open the app.”

I opened my phone and looked at my messages. Jet had written back to me, after I sent him my What-The-App name, and said he’d talk to me over there. I noticed another man had swiped on my profile, but when I checked his profile, the leer on his face made me cringe. I read his introduction and decided that he was looking for a maid. I swiped left on him, blocking him from contacting me.

At that moment, my WTA notified me that I had a message. I opened it to find not one, but three messages, all from Jet.

i wanted you to wake up to a message this morning that will make you smile. you’re so beautiful, estelle, and i can’t wait till we get to meet.

i haven’t heard from you yet. are you all right, my queen? did you eat a good breakfast? i’m counting the minutes till you answer.

my queen, i hope you’re well. please, message me as soon as you see this. i’m all aflutter waiting to hear from you.

“Wow, he’s really love-bombing you,” Dante said. “What are you going to do if he wants to video-chat with you?”

I couldn’t let Jet see me, but then it occurred to me that Carson might be able to help. “Carson knows how to use AI. I would never do this unless it was to catch a criminal, and scammersarecriminals. I’ll ask Carson if he can use the stock photo I bought and make some sort of video out of it. If we make it a few seconds long, I can say my video cut out after just a couple minutes.”

“That’s a good idea. But you’d better answer him back right now,” Dante said.

I tried to decide how to answer.

you make me blush with your compliments, but i appreciate it. sometimes i get so lonely. i can hardly wait until we meet. i’m off to yoga class—it helps keep me young. then i’ll go shopping. retail therapy always helps. i’m waiting to hear from you.

“How does that sound?”

Dante stared at it. “Awkward…at least to me. But I doubt if he’ll notice. He’s focused on reeling you in.” He paused as his phone rang. He glanced at Caller ID. “It’s Tilly. I’ll put her on speaker, but keep quiet, okay?”

“You’ve got it.”

He answered, the put her on speaker-phone. “Hey, Auntie. How are you?”

“Not entirely happy with the weather, but we’ve survived far worse. I wanted to check on you. I have the feeling you were upset the other night with me. And I want to apologize to your friend Kyann for being so short.” She sounded a little shaky.

I grabbed my phone and brought up a fresh note, quickly texting:ask her if she’s okay, she sounds a little winded.Afterfinding Terri flat on her back, I was determined to pay more attention to the people in my life.

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