Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“It’s different. You did it to save a life, I’m certain of it. But for me, I got Kathy killed. That’s on me,” I said, feeling the weight of the guilt settle over me. “I should have—”
“You should have what?” he asked harshly, his voice sharp, taking hold of my hands, not letting me cover my face. “Tell me.”
I tried to pull free, but he wasn’t letting go.
“Stop,” he ordered as I stared down at the grass between my folded legs. “Look at me.”
But how could I?
“Xan.” His voice was low and gravelly.
I lifted my eyes.
“If questioned,” Lorne began, “Kathy would have said she was a witch. You’ve told me again and again that if people say what they are, magically speaking, then they are. It was like Elen said—if questioned and the answer was yes, the demon took her at her word.”
I tipped my head up then, still holding his gaze.
“People always say, Oh, if I hadn’t done this, or, Oh, if I had only been home…but guess what? The only person responsible for ending a life is the one who did it. Nott would have died either way, yes?”
I nodded because that was the truth. Thero had alluded to it herself. As soon as Nott was taken, the outcome was already set.
“Whether she told the demon everything or nothing, she was dead.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Sorry?”
“Yes,” I said, louder that time.
He gave my hands a gentle squeeze, then let go. “So both of them, Kathy and Nott, are not your fault. And then you saved Lynette.”
“We saved Lynette.”
“It was you, but that’s fine. The point is, she’s okay, the kids at home are okay. You need to start celebrating your wins.”
I searched his eyes, his face, and found only resoluteness there. “And now? Please explain what you want me to do with the wards.”
“I will, but get up so we can get back to the cottage. I don’t like leaving the kids in there alone with our cat. What if he gets peckish?” He stood up.
I chuckled and lifted my hands to him. He had to basically drag me to my feet, but when he draped an arm around me as we started back across the field—retrieving the rifle he’d left in the grass, breaking contact only for as long as it took to lean over and get it—I felt the happiness of being beside him. No matter what was happening anywhere else, between us there was an electric, sustaining energy. He was absolutely the best thing for me.
“Start talking,” I ordered him.
“Like I said, or more importantly, like Elen did, the land can kill the demon. So we just have to lure it on.”
“You make that sound so easy,” I said as we arrived at the pond, and I went first, jumping from one stepstone to the other. Once on the other side, he was back beside me, and he took my hand again, leading me home.
“Well, I’m less worried about that at the moment and more about finding the demon.”
“What do you mean?” When he didn’t answer, I turned to look at him. “Lorne?”
“I never in a million years thought I would say that I was worried about finding a demon,” he said, shaking his head. “My life has gotten so strange since I met you.”
I wasn’t sure what to say.
“Strange in a good way,” he rumbled, drawing me into his arms, hugging me.
I really needed that hug.
Once we were walking again, he asked if Shelby could find the demon since she was clairvoyant. Did I think that possible?
“I would be concerned about having her interact with a demon. She had trouble in the cemetery, and though that charm I gave her is ghost-proof, a demon might be more than she, or it, can handle.”
“Yeah, that was stupid. I don’t wanna put her in danger. I mean, I don’t want you in danger either.”
“Well, I will be. There’s no getting around that,” I said flatly. “Both of us will, but we can’t run it out of town and send it to another.”
“That wouldn’t be very heroic of us,” he teased me.
“No, it wouldn’t,” I said, leaning on him as we walked. “I keep thinking it would be so helpful if we knew precisely what kind of demon it was. I really hope Father Dennis’s friends come through.”
“In the meantime, we have to come up with some places to look,” he said as we reached the greenhouse. “And exhausted or not, we’re gonna have to try and narrow it down tonight.”
He opened the door for me, and I stepped inside, slipping out of my clogs and picking up the bag of casting herbs I’d made for Shelby. All the windows in the sunroom were open, as they’d been when we left, but the breeze no longer stung as it had when I was with Elen, having returned to a normal, gentle summer breeze, rolling indolently through the house.