Page 359 of Castings & Curses

She watched TV.

No… this was… off.

Where were the cops?

What had they come here to find?

Her phone buzzed and she gave it a cursory glance. Then, she looked at it again.

Devi?

Something’s going down in the swamp. Felt your magic. Please be safe.

What the hell?

She sat back in her seat, irritation warring with worry. This…this was what she said after seven fucking years?

Then her stomach dropped.

Was she in trouble?

Her heart raced and she struggled to get her emotions under control.

Devi was back?

And at the swamp, no less?

She hadn’t sensed her yet, but she hadn’t been trying either.

Parking the car, she got out, her feet loud on the pebbled ground. She remembered when they’d snuck out here as teenagers to put the rocks down so their cars didn’t keep getting stuck in the mud. She and Devi had laughed and gotten tangled up in each other more than once that night.

Just the thought of her made her pulse quicken, but then she forced herself to shake it off. They’d each made their choice and they were going to have to live with it. If she was here, it had to do with work and that made her nervous.

The tree line was dark with unknown menace and it made her skin crawl. Dark magic fairly drenched the place and it made her want to take a shower. What the hell was going on around here?

“Kendall? Devi?” Kate called out, her voice jarring her amid the silence.

The only sounds were the chirping cicada’s and the wind whispering through the trees.

Her fingertips tingled as she made her way toward the rave site just a little way beyond the parking area. They’d cleared the land just enough to have bonfires and have some fun, but not enough to take away from the nature beauty of the swamp.

Eyes adjusting to the dark, she carefully made her way between the brush, taking care not to make any noise.

What she saw made her freeze in her tracks.

CHAPTER9

What must have beenminutes felt like hours as Devi stumbled around in the brush. They still hadn’t apprehended anything but a shrub and a moss-covered log that Devi could have sworn was staring at her. Vines slid across the ground, and plants brushed against her, like they were taking a taste.

Goddess, but she hated this part of the swamp.

She came here as a teen, just to prove she could. But damn, she never remembered it being this creepy before. And why hadn’t they driven around to find the parking area they’d built as kids for the raves?

“Better to go in the back way,” was all Cappelli had said. “The team will probably do the same.”

Except she hadn’t seen a sign of them.

Not one.

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