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)
“No, we’ll put ’em in the incinerator. Once they’re ashes, then they’ll be safe. I wanna make sure. And I was going to report it anyway.”
“I appreciate that.”
“And hey, speaking of, Carmella found something else in the trash that she thinks Tanner stole from Amanda Sterling’s office. She remembers seeing it there when she and her husband bought their house earlier this year. It’s like a little, I dunno, like a—”
“Broom?” Lorne asked him.
“Yeah,” Mal said, smiling brightly. “Like a baby broom with dried plants all over it.”
“It’s called a besom,” Lorne told him, “and Amanda was missing it.”
“I’m so sorry, but if you would let her know that Carmella has it in her truck, and she’ll run it over there tomorrow.”
“I will,” Lorne said with a long sigh, as relieved as I was to know Mal was himself.
“That’s weird, don’t you think? Stealing something like that?” Mal mused, looking at me.
“Weird and a bit creepy,” I assured him.
“Agreed. That’ll teach me to listen to Pace when he makes recommendations on people to give a job to.”
“Oh? He’s the one who suggested you hire Tanner?”
“Yeah, and get this. Tanner convinced Pace to sell Haskell Manor to Abundant Life, but it turns out Pastor Wilkins never wanted that deal. They can barely fill up the one-room building they have now.”
“It was probably Tanner who wanted the building,” Lorne proposed.
“Yeah. Looking back on it, I knew better. I had a weird feeling in my gut from the first time I met the guy that I ignored. I should have listened to the little voice, ya know?”
He should have. Always. I was amazed at how many moments of warning most people missed simply second-guessing themselves.
“You should never do that,” I cautioned him.
“Which I’ll know for next time.”
“I wonder if Pace will still turn it into a bed-and-breakfast now,” Lorne mused.
“I dunno,” Mal said. “Time will tell, I guess, but either way, I think blessing the place is a waste of time until there’s a plan for the space.”
“Sorry?”
“Earlier today when I came by and saw the state of the plants, I asked Father Dennis if he’d be around later to let me into the church before evening Mass, and he told me he had an appointment with Pace to go out to the manor this afternoon and give it a blessing. He got volunteers to help him move all the plants into the rectory for me before he left.”
“So Father Dennis went out to Haskell Manor?”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks, Mal,” Lorne told him. “You’ve been a lifesaver.”
He looked at Lorne oddly. “A lifesaver?”
“Oh yes, without question,” he stated, gripping Mal’s shoulder tight for a moment, squeezing, then letting go. “Love to have you over for dinner soon.”
Mal’s smile was wide. “You tell me when, and I’ll be there.”
“Good,” Lorne said, grabbing my hand. “Let’s go.”
Halfway to his Jeep, I said, “What are we going to do now that the man who was supposed to tell us what we’re up against could, in fact, already be in the clutches of a demon?”
Lorne shook his head, opening the door for me. “We were being stupid.”
Once I got in and he shut the door, he jogged around the front of the car and got in. He was fast pulling out of the parking lot and getting us on the road.
“Care to elaborate?”
“It was never about fighting the demon, not in a traditional sense. We need to listen to what Elen told us to do.”
“I don’t remember her saying anything.”
“Yes, you do,” he assured me. “First, she told us to blind the demon with all it seeks.”
“Meaning?”
“It came through the rift and was immediately attacked. What would it want more than anything here?”
I had to think.
“What do we all need first? Exactly what we gave those kids last night.”
“Yes,” I agreed, taking a breath, following his lead. “They needed safety, and so would the demon.”
“That’s right.”
“The demon’s been hunting everyone it thought could hurt it, and now it knows I’m the greatest obstacle to its continued well-being.”
“Correct. And because of that, we’re going to talk up your family land to it at the first opportunity.”
“Why?”
“Listen, we only have two things on our side at the moment: first, that the demon doesn’t know you’re a branded witch, and second, that it might not know there’s a huge rift on Corvus.”
“And you’re thinking what?”
“That it would want, more than anything, for you to no longer pose a threat, and then he’d want to gain control of the rift.”
“Why? So it can get across a legion of its nearest and dearest?”
“No,” he replied flatly. “So that it can make sure nothing else, and especially no gods, can ever cross through and end it.”
I shivered hard.
“It’s gonna be okay,” he promised. “I’m counting on us.”
“So am I.”
THIRTEEN
Lorne got us across town very quickly, and then we were out by a narrow part of the river, driving alongside it and then over a small bridge toward Haskell Manor. There was a long brick drive, under the canopy of tall elms, that I’d always thought was beautiful.