Page 63 of Oh, Sacred Dark
Connie frowned. “Why would they go there, though?”
“If someone had killed my loved one in a Chaos ritual, maybe I’d want to be shown where. Maybe I’d want to do the same thing to them in the same place.”
Tyler didn’t want to think about what that was. “I’ll look up the earliest flight. We can—”
“Tyler,” Archie interrupted. “The odds of that—”
“I’m not sitting here on my ass waiting for you to feel him dying! I don’t care. Even if he’s not there, maybe there’ll be some information…I can’t just stay here.”
Connie nodded and took a step forward. “Same. I can’t just…let’s just go. If he’s not there, we can return.”
Cross and Charlie agreed.
“Okay.” Archie sighed. “I can’t just leave the coven unattended after this happened, but please be careful. Tyler…”
“I’ll be careful. And we’ll get him back.”
Archie smiled tightly.
Without another word, they looked up the earliest flight to the old grounds of the Imber coven.
**********
Tyler had never felt so fucking crazy getting onto a commercial plane. He had to get through security and wait for the gate to open and board while Roman could be anywhere, with anything being done to him.
Not to mention they’d had to wait for sixteen hours until the next flight. He was shaking with the helplessness of it all.
Tyler should have listened to his gut and not waited so long to check on why Roman wasn’t responding to his messages. Should have fucking pushed when it was obvious something was wrong.
Tyler should have told Roman he loved him.
Time turned elastic, one second stretching on, and on, and on, a torture. It snapped back into place as they got to their destination, but then they had to rent a car, fill in paperwork, find the damn thing—
Every menial part of life was ridiculous and intolerable.
Finally, after an age of waiting, of trying not to think, of holding himself as still as he could, they arrived at what used to be the Imber coven.
Tyler wasn’t surprised the town was surrounded by a tall, metal fence guarded by several gates at different points. Those gates were broken and taped over, now, signs cautioning people sensitive to magic to turn away, claiming it was a restricted area.
Together, they managed to creak one of the big metal doors open just enough to get the car through.
Tyler was too worried about Roman to pay attention to much else, but it was difficult to miss how Cross had been deathly quiet since arriving, barely breathing, as though he’d shrunken in size.
“Hey. You okay?” Tyler asked him.
“Yeah. I just…I can still feel it,” Cross replied quietly.
Tyler nodded. Chaos had a way of sinking its claws into a person and not letting go.
Cross guided them to the high witch’s old house—a grand, opulent thing set apart from the rest. They tried all the doors and checked the windows, but there was no sign that anybody had been there in a long time.
“Let’s keep searching,” Connie said.
They went to the house Roman’s abuser—because calling him Roman’s Dom was ridiculous—had owned, but that was empty too. Went to the sight of the first killing, according to Cross, but there was nothing.
They looked through the ghost town, every empty corner robbing Tyler of hope.
And then, in the distance—
