Page 54 of Killing Time

“That sounds like something Jasper would do,” Lana remarked. “He always has been a singular combination of daring and cautious at the same time. Still, there’s not a warding spell anyone in this clan can cast — including Jasper — that I can’t bypass if necessary. What else?”

While her words allowed me to be cautiously optimistic, we all had to pause there for a moment as the waiter came back with our drinks and asked if we wanted to order food. Because none of us had even glanced at a menu, we told him we neededsome more time, and he nodded and said he’d check back in ten minutes or so.

“We think someone must have teleported her into the room to avoid notice,” Seth said.

“That would have been our cousin Matthias,” Adam said. “He’s the only one in our clan with that particular gift, and he’s always been part of Jasper’s inner circle.”

“One of his lackeys, you mean,” Lana responded before taking a sip of her Manhattan.

For someone who was supposedly madly in love with Jasper Wilcox, she certainly didn’t seem to have a very flattering view of the people he surrounded himself with. Then again, you could care for someone and still allow yourself to see all their warts and flaws.

So far, I hadn’t seen many in Seth, but that was only because he was superior in every possible way.

“Whatever you want to call him, Matthias is the only person who could have hidden Ruby in that room without anyone seeing him,” Adam said. “Whoever else is watching her, they have to come and go like an ordinary person.”

“Ruby said it was a man and a woman who took turns,” Seth said, and Lana tilted her head, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

“‘Ruby said’?” she repeated. “You actually spoke with her? How?”

“I heard her in here,” he replied, pointing at his temple. “That’s how I know she was taken to her current hiding place after being in the Wilcox cabin for one night, and also that it sounds as if several different people are watching over her.”

Lana picked up her Manhattan again. “Wherever that is. I suppose you’re just being cautious.” A sip of the cocktail, and she added, “But still, if Jasper isn’t there, it should be easier to spirit her away. And once you do so, I would recommend taking analternate route home. The last thing you want is to have to drive her right back through Flagstaff. I’m afraid ourprimuswould probably be able to sniff her out.”

“They can take Highway 87 to Payson,” Adam said, then directed his next words directly to Seth and me. “That’ll get you safely back into McAllister territory.”

Right. My family had driven that way one time, heading south out of Winslow so we could go to Payson and have lunch, and then coming down into Camp Verde, where we picked up the northbound I-17 and completed the circle. In my world, such an outing wasn’t a big deal, since no one really cared how many Wilcoxes were going into McAllister territory or vice versa.

But in 1947, the highway would give us the escape route we so desperately needed. Seth had told me he’d been able to transport himself nearly a hundred miles, but I had no idea whether he could replicate such a feat when carrying another person.

Or two,I thought, but I pushed the notion away at once. As much as I would have liked to think that Seth could carry both of us, doing so would have strained his powers to the limit even with the amulet helping out.

No, I’d have to drive the getaway car…and hope like hell that Jasper wouldn’t concern himself with small fry like me.

Seth was looking confused — I had a feeling the highway had been built sometime after 1926 — but if he had any questions, he’d apparently decided to hold on to them until the two of us could talk in private.

“So, she’s in Winslow,” Lana said, and Adam frowned, seeming to realize he’d given away something of Ruby’s position merely by mentioning how we could get her back into McAllister territory with the least amount of fuss. “One of our ranches that way?”

He gave a noncommittal shrug. “Somewhere around there. But we can stop pussyfooting around if you agree to help us.”

Lana went silent for a moment as she swirled some of the ice in her glass. “Oh, I’ll help you. This whole thing is ridiculous, and I told Jasper if he attempted something like it, he’d be risking a full-out clan war. That’s the absolute last thing he should be doing, not when we’re all just trying to get on with our lives now that the war is over.”

Had any Wilcox sons been lost in that fight? I couldn’t be sure, since it was all ancient history to me. Somehow, though, I guessed Jasper had done what he could to keep any Wilcox warlocks from being sent overseas. I’d never heard that the men in my clan had resisted the draft, probably understanding that to do so would only invite some very unwelcome scrutiny from the U.S. government, which was the last thing any of them could afford. That didn’t mean they might not have all ended up in safe positions stateside, well out of harm’s way.

However, I thought I could see why Lana wanted things to remain on an even keel.

“I don’t know if we’d go to war,” Seth said. “There’s a lot more of you than there are of us.”

It was such an obvious fact that he’d probably decided there wasn’t much problem in pointing it out once again.

“There are,” Lana said without even a blink. “But there are also a great many people in the de la Paz clan, and if theirprimashould decide that Jasper has given himself an unfair advantage….”

She didn’t complete the sentence; not that there was much reason for her to do so. I hadn’t thought of that angle, but I realized she was right. As long as everyone stayed in their own lanes, then the three Arizona clans would maintain the uneasy peace that had existed for so many years.

What Jasper had just done…well, it was sort of like firing those first shots at Fort Sumter, the ones that had started the Civil War.

“Well, the easy way to avoid all that unpleasantness is to free Ruby and get her back to Jerome,” Adam said calmly. “At that point, if the McAllisters want to firm up their alliance with the de la Paz clan to ensure nothing like this ever happens again, I’m all for it. But I’d rather get down to the nuts and bolts of what needs to be done.”

Lana gazed at her cousin for a moment, as if taking his measure all over again, even though they must have known one another their entire lives. The hair and the lipstick and the dress made her seem quite mature, but I guessed she couldn’t be much older than twenty-five or twenty-six at the most, thus giving Adam a few years on her.

---