Page 59 of Killing Time

Seth didn’t haveany idea where Ruby lived in Jerome, so he’d made his destination the big Victorian house where his brother Charles and hisprimawife had their residence, figuring that would be the safest place to land. And that was where he and theprima-in-waiting appeared, standing in the hallway just inside the front door.

At once, Ruby let go of him and looked around. “That is quite an efficient way to travel. Thank you, Seth.”

He wanted to murmur that it was nothing, but he knew for their clan, it was much more than nothing.

All the same, the only thing he could think of was Devynn driving alone on that dark highway. She’d seemed competent enough behind the wheel as she piloted the Chevy to Winslow and had learned the controls very quickly, but still….

From somewhere up ahead, he heard the sound of a chair being scooted back, and a moment later, Charles appeared in the hallway, a napkin dangling from one hand and a look of utter astonishment on his face.

Right. Caught up in the plan to rescue Ruby, Seth hadn’t really stopped to think about the hour, but it was right smack in the middle of dinnertime.

“You — you found her?” Charles said, finding his voice at last.

“Yes, he did,” Ruby said crisply. “Is Cousin Abigail in the dining room?”

“She is,” Charles replied. “You must go see her.”

It seemed that had already been Ruby’s plan, because she was walking toward the room where herprimawas waiting, heels clicking on the polished wood floors, while the two men followed a few paces behind.

Sure enough, Abigail and Charles had been eating their evening meal, with a half-carved roast chicken off to one side and bowls of various side dishes scattered along one end of the long dining table. It was strange to see theprimasitting there, since before now, Seth had only met her while she was occupying her favorite seat in the back parlor.

“You did it?” she asked, pale blue eyes widening in surprise as she addressed theprima-in-waiting.

“Seth and Devynn did,” Ruby corrected her gently. “Along with some help from a Wilcox witch and warlock.”

At once, theprimalooked over at him. “You had the assistance of some Wilcoxes?”

“We did,” he replied. “Let’s just say that not everyone in the clan was happy with Jasper’s plans for Ruby.”

“And where’s Devynn?” Charles said as he looked past them, as if he thought she would be standing somewhere in the hallway.

A nervous lump entered Seth’s throat as he once again thought of Devynn alone out there somewhere, gamely making her way toward home. “I could only transport one person. Devynn insisted on driving back by herself. But she’s goingthrough Payson, so it should take her a few more hours to get to our territory.”

“That’s good to hear,” Charles replied, but now his tone seemed almost absent, as if, once he’d addressed the issue of Devynn’s whereabouts, he no longer had any reason to worry about her.

Whereas Seth knew he wouldn’t stop worrying until the second she walked in the door. They’d already agreed that she should go straight to the bungalow, so about all he could do now was wait until she appeared.

“Maybe we should send someone out to meet her,” Ruby ventured. Although the inner voice she’d used to communicate with him had always sounded confident and no-nonsense, now that she was in the presence of herprima,something about her seemed almost hesitant, as if she knew deep down that she was a much more powerful witch but didn’t want to do or say anything that might be interpreted as laying claim to the older woman’s territory. “That’s a long drive for someone who’s never gone that way before.”

Seth had already entertained thoughts along those lines, although he wasn’t sure exactly how he would implement them, not when he had no idea where Devynn would be at any given time. Still, if he teleported to the crossroads up there in the forest where you either kept going into Payson or turned south and west toward Camp Verde….

“That doesn’t seem very practical,” Abigail said in her languid, die-away voice. “No, I think it best that we just sit tight and wait for her to arrive. How long could it be, anyway? A few hours or so?”

“A bit longer than that,” Charles replied. “I have to assume Devynn won’t be going at top speed when she’s driving in the dark on an unfamiliar road. Still, I would think she’d be here by ten o’clock or a little after at the very latest.”

No clock in the dining room, but Seth guessed it was probably a little before seven. So, three hours…maybe less, if they were really lucky…of waiting for her to get back to Jerome.

Those would be the longest three hours of his life.

“Then I’ll go and wait at my place,” he said. “She’s heading straight there, so I want to make sure I’m home when she arrives.”

“And I’ll walk with you,” Ruby announced. “My parents’ house is just partway down the block from your bungalow.” She looked over at Abigail, adding, “I assume you’ll let the elders know I’m back?”

“We will,” Charles said, answering for his wife. “But don’t you think you should wait until you can talk to them, too?”

Ruby pushed a carefully curled lock of copper-gold hair back over one shoulder. Seth had no idea exactly what the Wilcoxes had done to provide her with creature comforts while she was locked in that hotel room, but it sure looked as if they’d given her the necessities to keep herself perfectly groomed.

“We can do all that tomorrow,” she said. “I’m tired, and we’re interrupting your dinner. Now that I’m home safe, I don’t much see the urgency.”

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