Page 111 of Wicching Hour

“We’re here and we’re okay.” I met Bracken’s weary gaze. “Are we okay?”

He let out a breath and nodded slowly. “I believe my sister is dead, though.”

I flinched. “What? Why?”

He gestured around us. “Do you sense her?”

I listened intently. Declan and Robert were coming down the stairs and…that was it. There were no other thoughts in this building.

“I’d feel it, though. I’m sure I would. I was one of the three.” How could she die and me not feel it?

Declan burst in and picked me up, crushing me to him. “Thank goodness you’re all right.”

“I’m still underwater,” I reminded him.

Laughing, he gave me a quick kiss. “I’m well aware. But you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t okay there.”

“Ah, good point.” I patted his chest, a request to put me down. Robert looked like he’d been chewed on. I caught his eye. “How about you? Are you okay?”

He blew out a long breath and finally gave a nod. “I’m alive. I may never sleep again, but I’m still breathing. I heard Elizabeth cry in my head while we were dealing with the spider. I need to go make sure my family is okay.”

I nodded. “Please, go. Check on them. Bracken and I have something we need to do here.”

Robert nodded and then headed back up the stairs. Declan stayed with us, like I knew he would.

“Bracken thinks Gran is dead. I don’t sense anyone else in the house with us.” I held up a finger. “But, Cal was thinking about a hidden chamber over here.” I gestured to the side wall. I went back to the doorway, looked out into the short hall, and threw a ball of light at the ceiling. The walls were definitely off.

“This rock, dirt—whatever it is—is too thick to just be a wall. Gran may have been hidden in a compartment here. That might be why I can’t feel her.” I waved Bracken over. “We’ll do this together.”

Limping, he made his way slowly across the room. “Together, then.” He took my hand and then we put our free hands against the rough earthen wall. Our magic combined and brought down the false front.

There, cuts all over her body, was the frail form of Gran. The force of the loss hit me like a truck. My brain froze. My lungs seized. I dropped, trying to catch my breath as my real self raced through the water. When I hit the ocean surface, I heard Mom wail. She’d felt the loss of our third as strongly as I had.

Dad was in the water looking up at her, sharks circling the sailboat. I had a moment to put two and two together. The land between the house and the water was torn up, like a huge rototiller had been used. Sharks were circling the boat. That asshole Cal had sent more hellhounds at Mom, Elizabeth, and the kids.

Robert stood at the water’s edge, eyes wide, watching the distinctive dorsal fins cutting through the water around his family.

In the next moment, a strong arm scooped me up. Dad, holding both Mom and me, put us down in that foul room of death and terror. Shadow-me disappeared. Mom shrugged out of her coat and covered her mother with it.

She looked back at me, tears streaming down her face. “Arwyn?”

I went to her. We clasped hands and sang the song of the dead for Gran, asking the Goddess to take Mary into her loving embrace. Gran wasn’t perfect. No one was, but she’d worked and sacrificed her whole life to look after the Corey coven.

A phrase came to me:Whoever destroys a single soul destroys the whole world. The evil we do echoes on into eternity. All those wicches I’d seen in that vision, they’d twisted the soul of our family, heedless of those the echoes would touch, would hurt.

Gran was a hard woman because strength was needed to survive. She’d kept this family thriving when other wicche families had splintered and lost their power.

In addition to my prayers for Gran moving on, for her peaceful rest, I prayed for Mom, who now inherited the mantle. She was now the head of the Corey clan. She’d been preparing for it her whole life, but it was different when you had to do it on your own.

As our song came to an end, Mom hugged me to her. I pulled Bracken into the hug. He’d lost his sister today. Estranged or not, he’d lost another member of his family.

Mom wiped her face and turned to Dad. “Mac, can you take her for me? To her home? We need to care for her now.”

Nodding, he disappeared with Gran.

Mom squeezed my hand. “You’ll stand with me, won’t you?”

“I will,” I said.

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