Page 49 of Her Forbidden Shifters
He smirked. “How long have you been in love with Savannah?”
I clamped my mouth shut. There was no way in the world I was ever going to divulge any such information regarding my feelings to the likes of him. As far as I was concerned, he still had something to do with Avery’s disappearance, and until I had proof otherwise, I was going to keep him an arm’s length.
“Come on,” he said, prodding me. “I answered all of your questions, why can’t you answer just one of mine?”
“Maybe because my feelings for Savannah, or the lack thereof, are really none of your business, much less have anything to do with this case,” I said. “Now, let me think. I need to figure this out so I can find your sister.”
I glanced at the time and wondered when Savannah and Jacob were going to show up. The last thing I wanted was to lose my temper in a witch’s house and have something explode. But if Noah kept insisting on breaking my much needed piece, that just might have to happen.
19
SAVANNAH
Jacob and I made a mad, desperate dash for the fire escape as the flames started chasing us down the second hallway. It was such an unusual fire. A witch had to be behind it, but even then, that didn’t make much sense. I didn’t know of a single witch that would go out of their way to risk innocent lives for the sake of some vendetta.
Whoever it was, they wanted to make sure no one came back to Avery’s apartment. The whole place was rigged. The anonymous group probably went over there after Liam and I left Noah’s place. Though it was a lot of work, it wasn’t impossible to have been done in such little time.
There was also another possibility. One that chilled my blood. Whoever was behind it might have been trying to take me down. I had gotten in the way of whatever it was they were doing in Noah’s place, to begin with. I was probably too close to figuring something out.
Something they would rather kill me than allow me to discover.
This whole mess had me wanting to think of who would want to hurt me or the people that I cared about, but I couldn’t do much processing while I was running for my life. First, Jacob and I needed to escape this hellish fire chasing us. Then we could tackle the questions.
We reached the window. I turned around and watched as the fire billowed toward us faster than before while Jacob struggled with getting the thing open.
“It’s stuck,” he said through a growl.
The fire was coming in fast. We didn’t have time to force the thing open. I turned around and conjured my magic. Once I had pulled enough energy, I tapped the window with the palm of my right hand. A pulse of energy erupted from my touch. Glass from the bottom pane shattered everywhere.
“That will have to do,” Jacob said and helped me to climb through first.
Jacob climbed out second, barely making it out before the flames lashed out at the air.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine. Let’s go,” Jacob said and started scaling the fire escape’s stairs. The metal shuddered and swayed with every move we made. The whole thing was rickety and I wouldn’t have put it past our luck for the entire thing to come lose from the building and send us and the fire escape crashing to the ground.
We had just reached the platform at the bottom of the second set of stairs as the rest of the window we just escaped from shattered, sending shards of broken glass raining down on our heads. Jacob and I covered our faces, protecting ourselves from the dangerous shrapnel.
Whoever was behind the kidnapping of my best friend was sending a very clear message. A last warning to cease our search. But I refused to back down.
Our legs moved as fast as they could carry us the rest of the way down, and once we made it to the bottom, dropping to the asphalt of a paved alleyway between the apartment building and another filled with businesses, we were finally able to take a breather.
“Jesus Christ, these people know how to make a statement,” Jacob said.
“A deadly one,” I added.
“Well, so much for that heirloom,” Jacob added. “If it was still in the apartment, it’s not anymore.”
I nodded. “We will think of something.”
“Do you think there is another coven around here? One that is underground and doesn’t care about sacred laws?” he asked, keeping his eyes on me.
I continued to gasp for breath and shook my head. “It’s possible, but I seriously doubt it. I would think my coven would have gotten word about it by now.”
Jacob turned his attention to the end of the alleyway behind me. His eyes turned stone cold. He tapped me on the arm and pointed to the end of the alley where we were headed off by more cloaked figures.
Our break, it seemed, was short-lived. Now we faced yet another challenge. Getting of the alley alive.
