Page 102 of Wicching Hour

Mom and I were in here together, our thoughts entwined.

Sybil?Gran’s voice was reedy and tentative. It was like she didn’t really believe she was hearing us.

Mom, where are you? Are you okay?

The perspective dropped and we were looking through Gran’s back window, into her darkened living room. And there she was, looking smaller and more frightened than I’d ever seen her before. Barely lit by the moonlight, she looked pale. Arms wrapped across her chest, she was visibly shivering.

My Gran, who didn’t have a frightened bone in her body, was shivering.What happened?

Tears rolled down her face.That big dog has been pacing in front of the window all day, staring, howling, whispering.She tapped her head.His voice has been in here, reminding me of every mistake I’ve ever made, highlighting every character flaw, telling me exactly how he’d already killed everyone in the family, saving me for last. The images were in my head. Each and every one of you tortured and killed.A sob escaped before she put a hand over her mouth.Are you both really there? Are you alive?

I never thought I’d see my grandmother broken.

Yes, Mom. Arwyn and I joined to find you. The demon posed as you. I picked him up and took him to Arwyn’s. We got on Robert’s boat to go find Calliope. Arwyn knew it wasn’t you. I was so worried about what we were walking into, and that damn wolf of hers yelling at me, that I didn’t notice it wasn’t really you. Arwyn did, though, and she killed it. It went out screaming, fire consuming him from the inside.

Something was niggling, trying to get my attention. It was like a mosquito buzzing near my ear and I wanted to swat it away.

What?Gran rubbed at her mouth, her fingers trembling.She killed him? How in the world did she do that?

She had?—

I tugged hard on Mom to keep her from answering.No!

FORTY-FOUR

Here Comes the Rain

We know your demon is dead, Cal. What have you done with Gran?

Gran looked outraged for a moment and then laughed, shifting into Calliope.Caught me. She glanced over her shoulder onto the floor.Currently Gran is bleeding out and powering this spell. We’ll see if you find us before she dies. Spoiler: We’re not here.With a smirk, she disappeared.

I let go of Mom’s hand, experiencing a moment of motion sickness as I was dropped back into my body.

Mom’s eyes were wide. “Arwyn.”

I nodded. “I know.”

Robert was back at the helm. Declan sat on the deck with me, his chest red. Sections of skin had burned off, but he didn’t seem like he was in pain.

“It looks worse than it is,” he said. “Your uncle dealt with the burns and used a pain-numbing spell on me, which I appreciate.”

I rubbed his leg, reassuring myself he was okay. “Can everyone hear me?” When I saw lots of nods, I said, “Okay, so, Mom and I joined to spectrally look for Gran. We went to her house. I was worried that if a demon was there, he may have hurt her.”

Elizabeth wrapped her arm around Mom’s shoulders.

“We found Gran standing in the dark of the living room, trembling, telling us about how she’d been terrorized all day by a hellhound and visions of our deaths.”

Mom stared into her hands. She’d picked up a demon and brought it to us and then believed a sorcerer who was pretending to be her mother. Something was wrong. Mom was normally far more suspicious and distrustful than this.

“It was nagging at me, though,” I continued. “Gran is Gran. She doesn’t hunch or tremble. I knew the demon had been destroyed. That only left one culprit. Sure enough, Calliope showed herself. She said she had Gran, had used her blood to power the spell joining the Three.”

“So,” Faith began, sitting beside her mother, “we need to get Cal, destroy the grimoire, and rescue Gran?”

“That about sums it up.” It was interesting how none of us wanted to use the wordkillfor Cal. There was no rehabilitation for her. She, along with the book, needed to be destroyed, but she was still our cousin, our niece.

“If I can direct your attention,” Robert called back, “we’re coming up on the first spot. I know this area well. When Bracken showed me the map, I knew exactly where he meant because I’ve often wondered why no one’s built here. It’s a large plot of land, right on the water. It never made sense to me as to why some millionaire hadn’t snapped it up and built a mansion.” He looked over his shoulder at us. “I guess we know why now.”

“Maybe we know why,” I said. “It’s one of two possibilities.” I checked Declan’s wounds again. It was hard to tell in the dark, but his chest looked a little less red.

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