Page 16 of Killing Time

Now all he had to do was make this work so he could see the town’s success for himself.

They paused on the front porch so Helen could knock, signaling to Seth that even the elders weren’t allowed to come and go freely from theprima’shouse. But Charles answered the door soon enough, and looked out at them as unsmiling as ever.

“Come inside. We’re all gathered in the back parlor.”

As the three of them followed him to the rear of the house, Seth couldn’t help wondering if they even used most of the other rooms in the place. According to what Helen had told them, probably not.

Which was a shame. A big, beautiful home like this should have had lots of happy people living there. Come to think of it, he still hadn’t met his nephew Arthur, and wondered if this might finally be his opportunity to do so.

No sign of the boy at all as they moved through the house, making Seth wonder if Charles and Abigail’s son had been sent off to play with some of his cousins so there wasn’t any chance of him hanging around and listening to what they said. While Seth had no reason to believe that Arthur would be the same kind of eavesdropper that Jeremiah’s son Jacob had been, that didn’tmean a bored kid still might not want to hang around and listen to what the adults were saying.

Abigail sat in the same armchair that appeared to be her permanent perch, with Josiah and Gilbert standing nearby. Although the room had a sofa and several more chairs placed artfully in the space, theprimadidn’t seem inclined to ask anyone to sit.

“Now that we’re all here,” she said, sounding fretful and tired, and somewhat annoyed that Seth and Devynn had asked for this meeting at all, “you can tell us what this is about. You must know that the elders and I have already been working on a plan to free Ruby from the clutches of the Wilcoxes.”

Maybe they were. Still, Seth guessed that whatever they’d come up with wouldn’t be nearly as solid as the scheme he and Devynn had put together.

“Of course you have,” he said politely. “But Devynn and I realized there might be a way to get one of her gifts to work for us.”

“Time travel?” Charles said, his tone bordering on scornful. “It doesn’t seem as if that’s worked out too well for you so far.”

Seth bristled, but Devynn didn’t look too annoyed by his brother’s remark. “No, not that one. I also have a gift that seems to exist only in my father’s clan. It allows me to hide my witch nature from other witches and warlocks, which means I’ll be able to slip into Wilcox territory with no one the wiser.”

The elders exchanged glances, but Seth could tell they didn’t look overly impressed by this piece of information.

“That may well be,” Gilbert said. “But surely you don’t think that you, as a woman alone, can go into Wilcox territory and possibly hope to be successful.”

Devynn’s eyes narrowed slightly, and Seth had a feeling she wasn’t too happy with Gilbert and his condescending views ofher ability to succeed without some kind of male help. When she spoke, though, her tone was even enough.

“That wasn’t our plan,” she replied. “Seth will be going with me. When we were in the past, we came across an amulet that helps us boost our abilities, and I know it can help me extend my gift to him so neither of us will be detectable by the Wilcoxes as anything except a couple of regular tourists.”

“What amulet?” Charles asked, his voice and expression now openly suspicious.

Devynn reached into the pocket of the green dress she was wearing and pulled out the amulet they’d taken from “Lorenzo the Magnificent” — aka, Lawrence Pratt from Duluth, Minnesota — and let the lozenge-shaped piece of bronze dangle from her fingers.

The light from the fire caught the garnet embedded in the metal, making it glow like a baleful, bloody eye.

Abigail sucked in a breath. “That thing is an abomination!”

Seth stared back at her, startled by the vehemence in her tone. “What do you mean? It’s worked perfectly for us.”

All right, not perfectly, or they’d be in the twenty-first century exploring local wineries or doing something equally amusing rather than standing here and arguing with his sickly cousin, but still.

Gilbert took a step forward, saying, “The kind of magic used to make that thing has been banned for centuries. In those dark times, a witch or warlock would pour some of their life energy into those amulets to power them, to allow them to grant that power to whoever held the talisman. The practice was banned after a number of magical folk lost their lives because they drew too much life force from themselves, causing them to waste away and die.”

Definitely not a pretty story. He glanced over at Devynn, who looked a little paler than she had a moment earlier but whosechin was still lifted, telling him she had no intention of giving up the one item that might provide them with something of an edge.

“That’s terrible to hear,” she said, her voice calm. “But those past tragedies don’t have anything to do with us. We didn’t ask those people to give up their lives. Here and now, though, the amulet gives us an advantage we desperately need.” She paused there, and her clear, blue-gray eyes took on a glitter that Seth knew signaled trouble for anyone who might try to get in her way. “But Seth and I are happy to step aside if you tell us what your plan is, and how it would work better than the two of us using the amulet to investigate undetected in Wilcox territory.”

The three elders looked at one another, and then at Abigail, who seemed distinctly uncomfortable to be made the center of attention.

She cleared her throat. “Well, you see — ”

“What she’s trying to say,” Charles cut in, “is that we’re only in the beginning stages of our plan. We’d thought that we might reach out to several of the nonmagical folk in Jerome who know what we are and then see if they would be willing to go into Flagstaff and do some reconnoitering for us.”

Seth could only stare at his brother. “You mean you’ve told the civilians that the McAllister clan are all witches and warlocks? That’s insane!”

Abigail made a sputtering noise, but Helen stepped in, saying smoothly, “As the population here dwindled, it became something of a necessity. But these are all people we trust with our very lives, and we know they would never betray us.”

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