Page 8 of Killing Time

“To moving forward, even if it wasn’t as far as we’d hoped,” he said, and Devynn nodded.

“To forward motion,” she responded, and they touched their wine glasses before taking their first sip.

This wine had been listed as a Bordeaux, and it was very good. Maybe not quite as good as some of the vintages they’ddrunk in Flagstaff, but then again, the Copper Café was a small establishment in a small town, and Seth supposed he should just be happy that they’d had any wine on the menu at all.

Devynn sent a brief glance around the room. Although several other couples had entered the restaurant since the two of them had been seated, the newcomers had chosen booths near the front window, which meant no one was around to overhear what they were saying.

“So…what do you think our next step should be?” she asked, and he shook his head.

“I honestly don’t know,” he replied. “I’d love to drive up to Flagstaff and grab Ruby and make a run for it, but I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”

“Probably not,” Devynn agreed, and went silent for a moment as she took a contemplative sip of her wine. “But I have an idea.”

This comment made him perk up a little. He’d known for a long while that Devynn was intelligent, probably smarter than any other girl he’d ever met…but he also believed the conundrum they were facing was so knotty that he wasn’t sure any of them could find a way through it.

“What idea?”

“You know how the amulet amplifies your power so you can teleport both of us, rather than just yourself?”

Seth nodded, not sure where she was going with this. “Yes. And…?”

She smiled a little. “Well, if that’s what it does — strengthen our witchy powers — then why can’t I make it amplify my gift for hiding my witch nature so it extends to you as well? If I can make it work, then that means the two of us will be able to walk right into Wilcox territory, and no one will know anything except that we seem like a couple of regular people who’ve gone there to sightsee or whatever. We can stay in Flagstaff as long as we needto so we can get the lay of the land and figure out a way to bust Ruby out of there.”

Although he knew they should be cautious, he couldn’t prevent the stir of excitement that went through him as he listened to her suggestion. While he guessed the Wilcoxes had just as many wards in place to protect their territory from interloper witches as the McAllisters did, all those wards were based on detecting individuals with magical powers. If Devynn managed to hide those powers, make it seem as if they didn’t exist at all, then they should be able to waltz right into Flagstaff with no one the wiser.

“That could work,” he said cautiously but had to stop there, as the waiter had come back with their steaks. A few minutes were wasted as the man asked if they needed anything else and whether they wanted chives on their baked potatoes or sauce for their steaks, but eventually he left and they were able to return to their conversation.

“I know it will work,” Devynn said. “After all, I spent several weeks here, and no one in your clan guessed anything was off about me. And I also used to play with my talent a little back when I was in high school, turning it off and on and seeing whether any of my Wilcox cousins noticed. I’m pretty sure it hides my talents from everybody.”

After delivering that comment, she picked up the extra-sharp knife the waiter had provided and cut a few pieces of steak. Seth did the same, mostly because he didn’t want his meal to grow cold while he pondered what she’d just told him.

They could go into Wilcox territory. This time, they wouldn’t have Jeremiah to protect them, but that wouldn’t matter because the special gift Devynn had inherited from the Rowe side of her family would ensure they went undetected.

Well, her gift, along with the amulet giving them a much-needed boost.

“And once we’re there, we shouldn’t have too hard a time finding Jasper,” Seth said. “After all, we’ve already been to theprimus’shouse.”

Devynn had been in the middle of eating a piece of steak when he made that comment, so she had to finish chewing before she could reply.

“I’m not so sure about that,” she said. “The Wilcoxes aren’t like the McAllisters. The leaders of their clan have changed houses a lot. Damon — Connor’s brother — had a big house out in Fort Valley that he bought not too long after he started teaching at Northern Pines University.”

Seth raised an eyebrow at that revelation. “You had aprimuswho worked?”

A hint of a smile touched Devynn’s mouth as she set down her fork and reached for her glass of wine. “Well, not because he had to. The house was worth over a million dollars, and he bought it for cash.”

A million dollars? Seth wasn’t sure he could fathom such a number, especially when it was spent on a house and not a castle…or a battleship…or whatever other items might be worthy of such an outrageous sum.

“Then…why did he work?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. He died several years before I was even born. But it sounds like he was the sort of person who needed people to admire him, and it wasn’t enough to have just the Wilcoxes as his willing servants. No, he wanted to have a bunch of students under his thumb — and the faculty and the administration as well, from what I’ve heard. And he was brilliant, no matter what you wanted to say about his other qualities. Anyway,” she added, her expression brightening, “his house was brand-new when he bought it, and Connor and Angela ended up selling it and buying a place in ForestHighlands, which is sort of at the top of 89A as you’re going through the forests above Oak Creek.”

“What’s 89A?” Back in his time, there’d been a road named 79 that went over Mingus to Prescott — the same route his brother had taken to move his jugs of moonshine — but he supposed quite a few things had changed in the intervening years.

“It’s the highway that goes through Sedona and up through Oak Creek Canyon into Flagstaff,” Devynn said. “And actually, it’s what we drove down from Jerome to get here. I didn’t see any signs, though, but then again, I wasn’t really looking.”

“We’ll need to get a map of the area tomorrow,” Seth replied. “I’m sure one of the gas stations here in Cottonwood probably sells them.”

She nodded. “Here’s hoping. Maybe we could ask the waiter? I suppose it wouldn’t be too strange a question coming from some tourists.”

---