Page 2 of Killing Time

Yes, that would be a probable side effect of their joining, but I knew Jasper’s real motive was much more clear-cut. Hisfamily had suffered through nearly eighty years of the curse that doomed the wives of itsprimusesto an early death and ensured they would have one son and no more, and he was ready to be done with it.

“This is terrible,” the other elder said. His hair was iron gray rather than white, and he had brown eyes, a rarity in this family of blond and blue-eyed people. Sure, there were exceptions, like my friend Bellamy’s flaming red hair and Seth’s mid-brown locks, but still, they tended to be fair.

“Yes,” Charles said. “But standing here and wringing our hands isn’t going to change anything. We need to go talk to Abigail and let her know what has happened.”

Privately, I didn’t think the pale, fragileprimaof the clan was going to be able to help much, but I held my tongue. It was customary to let the head of the family know what was going on, even if the means of fixing the problem might fall on others more capable of dealing with it.

Although Seth could have blinked the two of us to the house on Paradise Lane, we fell in with the rest of the group to trudge our way back up the hill. Somehow, the town felt even more desolate than it had when we’d appeared here less than an hour earlier, and had met Charles and gotten some more period-appropriate clothing from his general store, but I knew that was just my imagination playing tricks on me.

Still, it was awful to see so many boarded-up windows, so many storefronts that had been saloons and shops and restaurants. Not all of them were gone, though — I thought I spied a reassuring stream of smoke coming up from the English Kitchen as we passed Jerome Street — but the Jerome of 1947 definitely wasn’t the boom town it had been in 1926.

Seth’s hand slipped into mine as we walked, and that made me feel a little better. The changes in the town must have been much more terrible for him, since it was the place where he’dbeen born and had spent all his life, but you’d never guess that by looking at him. No, his head was up and his jaw set, and I knew he intended to do whatever it took to get the clan’sprima-in-waiting back.

What exactly that would be, I had no idea. At least when we were stuck in 1884, we’d had the unexpected assistance of Jeremiah Wilcox, theprimusof the clan at that time, and might not have gotten away at all if it hadn’t been for his guidance.

I kind of doubted Jasper would be so helpful.

Charles took the lead as we approached the house he shared with Abigail, a big, beautiful Victorian painted white with green shutters. It had a similar color scheme in my own time, and something about seeing it made me feel a bit better, a piece of continuity in the little town that wouldn’t be denied.

All of us walked up the front steps and followed him into the back parlor, which was where theprimahad been sitting when we met with her only a half hour earlier. As far as I could tell, she hadn’t moved at all, and was sitting in the same armchair near the window so she could get a little sunlight without having to go outside.

To me, she looked like she needed a good dose of Vitamin D — and maybe a Vitamin B cocktail as well — but I didn’t know whether such treatment would be enough to make her less sickly and pale.

She stirred as we approached, though, and sat up a little straighter in her chair. “What’s happened?” she asked, her tone sharp with worry.

She must have seen something in our expressions. A strongprimamight have been able to detect the presence of the Wilcoxes in town, but it didn’t appear as if Abigail was powerful enough for that.

Charles glanced at the elders. They nodded at him, as though giving permission for him to be the one to speak. It was probablya delicate balancing act, trying to figure out who had precedence when dealing with theprima’sconsort and the clan elders.

He went over to his wife and took her hand in his. Seeing them together only emphasized how much Abigail had declined over the twenty years since I’d last seen her. Although Charles had aged as well, with lines on his face and silver in his hair that definitely hadn’t been there in 1926, he still seemed strong and sturdy enough, while in contrast, theprimalooked so fragile he could break her over his knee.

“Bad news, I fear,” he said. “From what we can tell, Jasper and several of the Wilcox warlocks grabbed Ruby while she was down at the overlook just past the Flatiron and took her away with them.”

Abigail couldn’t go any paler than she already was, but something about her still seemed to contract in that moment, the little energy she possessed drained somehow.

“That’s not possible,” she replied, her voice a mere husk of a whisper. “The wards would have kept them out.”

The gray-haired elder spoke up then. “It seems our wards weren’t sufficient to prevent them from entering the town limits. As far as I can tell, they probably drew on the power of the day to ensure they would have the strength they needed to break past the wards.”

Power of the day?I sent a puzzled glance up at Seth…and then realization dawned. I’d noticed a couple of forlorn-looking jack-o-lanterns sitting on several front porches, but I hadn’t paid them much note, since decorations were often set out before Halloween and lingered afterward for a few days.

Well, unless the javelinas got them. I’d heard a few stories during my time in Jerome about how those pig-like relatives of peccaries just loved to munch on pumpkins.

Today was Halloween. For the McAllisters, it was a sacred day where they honored their ancestors, whereas for usWilcoxes, we treated the holiday much more like civilians would, with costumes and parties and trick-or-treating.

It seemed as though Jasper Wilcox might have borrowed a trick from the McAllisters’ book. I didn’t find it too hard to believe that he might have called onprimusesfrom the past to lend him the additional power needed to break through the wards the elders had set on Jerome to protect it from any witchy enemies.

“Does that mean Jasper plans to bind himself to Ruby tonight?” Seth asked, his tone urgent.

If that was the case, we didn’t have much time.

“I’m not sure,” the elder said slowly. “Today’s magic isn’t connected with the sort of dark forces that Jasper would require to bend theprima-in-waiting to his will. The nonmagical part of the population views Samhain that way, but it is far more a time for communing with the spirits.”

Well, I doubted Jasper had stolen Ruby so he could have a séance with her.

Everyone looked confounded, so I thought I’d better speak up. At least now Abigail and Charles knew I was a witch, so I didn’t have to hide that truth from them.

As far as being half Wilcox —

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