Page 57 of Killing Time

As far as I could tell, she hadn’t done anything at all, but I had to admit that I didn’t know much about this kind of magic.

“Did Jasper put them there?” I asked.

“Some,” she replied, her expression still almost distracted, as if she was focused on something far beyond this space.

Maybe she was. Or at least, even though I knew Ruby’s comfortable prison was located only a few yards from where we stood, I wondered if part of those spells reached out into a different plane from the one we occupied, manipulating an entirely separate form of energy.

Well, I could worry about the theory of it all once we were safely away from here.

“The rest I think were placed by my cousin Mary,” Lana went on. “She’s also good at this sort of thing. But she’s not so good that I can’t undo what she’s done.”

And thank God for that. Once again, I thought of how much trust we were putting in Lana Wilcox, of how she could have been bullshitting us the whole time and only laying a trap that we’d walked right into.

If that had been the case, we would be pretty much sitting ducks right now. It wasn’t as if Jasper and his goon squad couldn’t have just waltzed in and grabbed us as we stood there.

That didn’t happen, though. After a few more minutes, Lana looked over at us again.

“We’re almost there,” she said. “But at this point, I think it’s better if we wait for Adam to get here before I unravel the final spell. Once all the wards are gone, we’re going to want to hurry in there right away so you can get Ruby, Seth. I’ll just feel better if we have Adam here as reinforcement.”

For what, I wasn’t sure, since his particular magical gift wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that would be of much use in a confrontation with Jasper Wilcox.

On the other hand, Adam was tall and well-built enough, if not quite as muscular as Seth, and I supposed he could provide some additional physical protection if nothing else.

To my relief, though, he appeared only about ten minutes after that, arriving earlier than we’d expected.

“I made good time,” he told us as he approached.

“But you didn’t leave work early,” Lana replied, something in her tone almost warning, and at once, he shook his head.

“Of course not,” he said. “I know better than to attract attention like that.”

His reply, although not sufficient to make me relax all the way, still was something of a relief. Even in his eagerness to get to Winslow, he hadn’t done anything that would attract attention.

“Then let’s do this,” Lana said, her tone firm, confident.

I glanced over at Seth. His jaw was tense, but he looked ready to go. And since I’d placed the amulet in his jacket pocket on the drive over here, I knew his powers were as boosted as they could possibly be.

Although I understood that he was the one who needed to carry the amulet, I had to admit I felt almost naked now that I knew I no longer had it with me. Right now, we were standing so close that its field of effect still would have boosted my power-hiding talent, but I didn’t think I needed it now, not when Lana and Adam already knew exactly what Seth and I were.

“She knows we’re here,” he said then, and I knew he must be speaking of Ruby, who’d probably reached out to him telepathically just as she had the day before.

“Good,” Lana replied, looking unfazed by this revelation. “Then tell her to get ready, that I’m about to pull the thread on this final spell, and that afterward, she has to go with you.”

That was the plan. Ruby absolutely had to be the first order of business here…even though I hated the idea of being left behind.

You’re not being left,I scolded myself.You’ll have Adam and Lana here, and they’ll make sure you get in your car and drive off to Payson. A half-hour from now, you’ll be safe in McAllister territory, even though it’s going to take much longer to get to Jerome.

If the gods smiled on us, of course.

Face taut and unsmiling, Seth nodded. “She’s ready.”

Well, that made one of us.

However, I didn’t say anything. At this point, I was largely superfluous. They didn’t need me to take down those warding spells, or to blink Ruby out of here…or even to provide some muscle in case some Wilcox warlocks actually did show up.

No, my main reason for being here was to drive away so Seth’s big Chevy wouldn’t get left behind at the scene of the crime.

I knew if I said any of this aloud, Seth would be quick to contradict me and say I’d been a vital part of the plan, that if I hadn’t managed to keep us undetected in Wilcox territory for so long, none of this would have been possible.

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