Page 77 of Killing Time

“I’m not sure,” she said after she’d let go and taken a step back. “But we know that Jasper really doesn’t need Devynn for anything. He could let her go any time he wanted. Honestly, I have a feeling he’s holding on to her out of spite more than anything else.”

Seth had been trying to tell himself that as well.

Or possibly not spite, exactly, but realizing that Devynn was a Wilcox and therefore needed to stay in her clan’s territory.

Ruby continued to watch him with sympathetic eyes, and Seth knew he had to tell her the truth. He’d been hiding it from his brother and theprimaand the elders, but theprima-in-waiting was an entirely different matter. She could have safely sat on the sidelines once she was rescued and yet had continued to provide whatever assistance she could.

“There’s something else,” he said, and she lifted an eyebrow.

“Is it something complicated? Because if it is, I think I’d like a glass of water first. All this back and forth has made me kind of thirsty.”

He couldn’t help chuckling at the request. There was just something about his cousin that made everything seem a little more no-nonsense and practical, a quality that allowed him to push his worries aside for a few minutes.

“I think I can arrange that.”

The time he’d already spent here with Devynn had let him learn the new layout of the kitchen and what was stored where, so it didn’t take him very long to fetch a couple of glasses and fill them with water from the tap. Once he was done, he handed one of them to Ruby, who went into the living room so she could sit down on the sofa there.

She sipped from the tumbler, then said, “All right — what’s this ‘something else’?”

He took a seat on one of the chairs that faced the couch and swallowed some water as well. “Devynn…her last name is Rowe, but her mother is a Wilcox.”

Maybe just the briefest flash of astonishment in Ruby’s clear, sky-colored eyes, and she said, “I suppose that does put a different complexion on things. Do you think Jasper knows?”

“You knew I was a McAllister when you sensed me at La Posada.”

“True.” Ruby sipped some more water, her expression now thoughtful. “So, it probably makes sense that Jasper would alsobe able to know that Devynn was one of his own, even if he couldn’t recognize her because she’s not from his time. But that makes her pretty safe, doesn’t it? That is, I don’t think even Jasper Wilcox would harm one of his own.”

“That’s what I’ve been hoping and telling myself,” Seth replied. “But I still want to do whatever I can to get her out of there.”

“Of course you do.” Theprima-in-waiting went quiet then, her quick mind clearly picking away at the problem and trying to see if it could come up with some kind of solution to their current conundrum. Then she shook her head. “It’s tricky, because even if we went directly to Jasper and asked him to pretty-please let Devynn go, he’d want to know why we were so concerned about the fate of a Wilcox witch. I get the feeling that the situation is very different in the future, but that doesn’t really help us now.”

No, it didn’t.

Ruby released a breath, worry still obvious in her fresh, pretty features. “You’re probably not going to like what I have to say.”

“If it’s ‘give up,’ then no, I don’t like that idea at all.”

Her mouth pursed. “Nothing quite so drastic. However, Jasper is probably still all riled up, thanks to the way you got me out of La Posada. It just seems smart to give him a little time to cool down. Once we’re past the dark of the moon, then he’ll realize his plans have come to nothing, and he might be a bit more willing to see reason.”

“So…what, just sit and wait it out?”

The idea was utterly incomprehensible to him. How could he sit here in Jerome and do nothing while the woman he loved was being held by an evil warlock?

“I know it’s the last thing you wanted to hear,” Ruby said, sympathy clear in her big blue eyes. “And honestly, I understandwhy you want to go charging into Wilcox territory and get your girlfriend out of there. But I think that would just make matters worse.”

“Are you speaking as theprima-in-waiting?” he asked, and she grinned.

“Well, I have been working at being a little more level-headed about this sort of thing and not flying off the handle the way my mother used to chide me for. It’s kind of hard to know that one day the fate of the entire clan will be in my hands.”

She spoke simply, and obviously hadn’t said those words as a bid for sympathy or anything close. All the same, Seth thought this was the first time he’d really stopped to consider what being theprima-in-waiting truly meant. It wasn’t just about finding a consort or being ready to step in whenever theprimamoved on to the next world.

It was all about readying yourself mentally for bearing all the responsibility of your clan, of doing the necessary training in your spirit and your soul so you’d be ready whenever the time to answer the call finally arrived.

He wasn’t sure if he would have been so calm about the whole thing had their situations been reversed.

But she was being thoughtful and deliberate. She’d looked at the problem the way aprimamight and advised being measured in their response.

Since he didn’t know what else to do, he figured he’d better follow that advice.

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