Page 73 of Killing Time

The words were flat, and definitely not a question.

All the same, I thought I had better try to bluff my way through this.

“Why in the world would you say that?”

He smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant expression, not much more than a baring of teeth, and I somehow managed to hold back a shudder.

“I assume you were trying to jump ahead to midnight so you could slip out under cover of darkness.”

Assume? Wasn’t that what I’d just done? It sure as hell wasn’t late morning anymore, not with the gloom I’d glimpsed outside, the kind of night heavy with clouds and not a hint of a moon.

I didn’t reply, and to my surprise, he let go of my arm, his smile now widening.

“It seems, my not-quite-Wilcox interloper, that you miscalculated. Three days have passed since you disappeared — three days that have given me a good deal of time to think.”

“Three days?” I repeated, knowing the words had come out as an unfortunate squeak.

How could it have been three days? I’d only wanted to jump ahead twelve hours.

Then again, since when had my intentions mattered a single bit when it came to using my worthless talent? It always seemed to do exactly what it wanted no matter what my own wishes on the subject might have been.

Three days. Seth must be going crazy with worry. For just a second, I wondered why he hadn’t come to rescue me, but then I realized there was no way he could have managed such a feat on his own. His gift of teleportation was very useful, true, and yet it still wouldn’t have allowed him to enter a place as protected as Jasper Wilcox’s house. He would have been caught the second he arrived.

“Yes, three days.” Jasper paused there, and although the unpleasant smile had finally disappeared, something in the way he inspected me then made worry start to churn away in my gut. “I suppose you think you know why I kidnapped Ruby McAllister.”

I stared up at him, wondering what the hell kind of game he was playing now. “You were going to bind yourself to her at the dark of the moon in the hope that doing so would break the curse.”

He chuckled. “I suppose I can see why you might think that.” Another pause, and again, that uneasy acid stirred in my stomach. “But no, that was not my plan. Or rather, although I had every intention of breaking the curse, I had no desire to bind myself to an insipid McAllister witch. Instead, she was to be my sacrifice, a gift I offered to the spirit of Nizhoni to show that I hadn’t inherited the weaknesses of my forebears and could do what needed to be done to remove the pall of darkness that has lain over this clan for far too long.”

My veins felt as if they’d been pumped full of the snow that fell outside.

Sacrifice? Was he insane?

Maybe not insane in any way that was covered in the DSM-V. But certainly driven mad by the need to get rid of the Wilcox curse.

Before I could say anything in response, though, he went on, “After you disappeared with no indication of where you could have gone, I cast many spells on this house, and I realized you were still here, in some odd way. And that was when it came to me.”

Although I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer, I couldn’t quite stop myself from asking, “What came to you?”

“That I had a strong witch already under this roof. A witch no one would ever miss.”

His dark eyes glinted at me, nothing more than two shiny, soulless pieces of night under those black brows.

“The dark of the moon is in an hour and a half. You will take Ruby McAllister’s place on the table of sacrifice…and the curse will be lifted forever.”

18

FRIENDS LIKE THESE

A pretty Mexicanwoman answered the bell Seth had just rung. Considering how strongly he felt the twinge that told him he was in the presence of a witch, he guessed she must be the de la Pazprima…or maybe theprima-in-waiting, since she looked to be only a few years older than Ruby. She was much slighter, though, and so tiny that her head didn’t even reach his shoulder.

“I am Maya de la Paz, my clan’sprima-in-waiting,” she said. “What business brings you McAllisters to theprima’shouse?”

“Urgent business,” Seth replied, and Ruby nodded.

“My cousin Seth and I need to speak to both of you. It’s a matter of Wilcox treachery.”

Those dramatic words appeared to have the desired effect, because at once, Maya’s darkly arched brows pulled together, and she opened the courtyard gate a little farther to allow them entry.

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