Page 66 of Killing Time

“Are you going to starve me?” I asked, even as I guessed that probably wasn’t the best delaying tactic I could have come up with.

Still, despite everything, I was hungry.

“Some food will be sent up,” he said, and although he didn’t say “eventually,” I got the impression that feeding me wasn’t high on his list of priorities.

“Fine,” I said blithely, and walked out of the kitchen and headed toward the stairs.

My back muscles wanted to cringe the whole time, since I wouldn’t have put it past him to hit me with some sort of magical blast as I was moving away, but it seemed he’d decided I wasn’t worth the effort, not when I was meekly following his orders.

I walked up the stairs and went into the room where I’d awoken a half hour earlier, then closed the door behind me.

My fingers gave the knob an experimental twist, confirming my suspicions.

It had locked behind me…and I was pretty sure Jasper wasn’t going to let me out again anytime soon.

16

THE LADY VANISHED

Daylight bled around the curtains,telling Seth he could finally abandon his hopeless attempts at trying to sleep and get up at last. He sat upright and rubbed his eyes…and then stared down at the empty spot in the bed next to him.

She’d never come home.

Around midnight, he’d decided he couldn’t take the waiting anymore and had gone down to his cousin Helen’s house and knocked on the door. As the clan healer — and now as one of its elders — she had plenty of experience being woken up at all hours. And although she’d seemed surprised to see him, she’d still told him to sit down and that she’d make a couple of phone calls.

Those calls had been to her son-in-law and a few others in Payson. While another tense hour passed, they waited to see if those searchers had discovered any sign of Devynn on Highway 87 between Winslow and the crossroads.

And then…nothing.

“The roads are clear,” Helen had told him after she hung up the phone. “Ed and the others didn’t find Devynn’s car or any sort of wreckage to show there was an accident. They’ll go backafter it’s light to see if there’s something they might have missed. It’s pretty dark, with not much of a moon.”

No, there wouldn’t be, not with the dark of the moon approaching in a few more days.

Afterward, there hadn’t been much he could do except return to his house and try to get some sleep. He’d been up pretty much every hour on the hour, startling at every sound, but none of those noises had been Devynn arriving, apologetic about getting lost and causing so much worry.

And now it was day — six-twenty, to be precise — so he could get out of this damned empty bed and fix some coffee, take a shower.

He did all of those things, feeling like a marionette whose strings were being pulled by some unseen entity. His one solace was that Helen had reassured him she’d be over early, and they could go to the elders and ask for their input.

Sure enough, his cousin was at his door at a little past eight, looking much more chipper than he felt. Well, even though he’d woken her up in the middle of the night, she’d probably slept a lot better than he had.

“I phoned Gilbert,” she said as Seth welcomed her into the bungalow. “He knows the situation and will reach out to Charles and Abigail when it’s a little later. Ourprimadoesn’t like to be disturbed before nine at the very earliest.”

Of course she didn’t. As far as Seth had been able to tell, the McAllisterprimadidn’t appear to be much good for anything. She was only a figurehead and nothing more.

“We should probably have Ruby at the meeting, too,” he said. “I’m sure the other elders will want to hear everything about what happened to her.”

“Yes, I stopped by Louise’s to check in before I came here. Ruby was already up and eating a pancake breakfast, so I’m sure she’ll be ready when it’s time to go up to theprima’shouse.”Helen paused there and looked him over with a critical eye. “You seem a bit peaked, Seth. How about we go down to my place and I make you some eggs and bacon? You look like you could use a decent meal.”

He probably could. Although food was about the last thing on his mind right then, he realized he had better eat.

And his cousin Helen always had been a good cook.

“Sure,” he said, although he knew he’d partly agreed simply because going to her house for breakfast would use up a little time until it was a socially acceptable hour to walk up to theprima’shome.

Helen’s husband Calum wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “He’s moved on to carpentry and is working on a project down in Cottonwood,” she said to explain his absence, and Seth nodded.

Calum was one of the lucky ones, since he had a talent he could easily transfer to another line of work, something that would still allow him to stay close to home. Most of the miners who used to work at the United Verde probably hadn’t made such an easy transition.

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