Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 73252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
My heart jumps. “Claire.” My brothers follow my gaze. “Stay here,” I tell them. Then I run, darting into the street in front of an oncoming car. The driver slams on the brakes and lays on the horn. I barely hear it. I reach the other side. The girl turns.
I stop a few feet away, still not completely sure. But she looks at me like she knows me. “Florence?”
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
“Yeah,” I rush out, staring at this girl. “Claire You’re Claire Bellamy.”
“He warned me you’d be here,” Claire says, pulling her arms tighter around herself. “But my mom says you’re safe.”
“My mom talks to me in dreams too,” I tell her. Then I realize she has no idea I’ve read any of her therapy notes. “I’m here to take you home.” Judging by the way her expression immediately changes, that was probably the wrong thing to say. “My family—the Blackwoods—they were friends with your mother’s family,” I continue. “I only recently found out about them myself.” I can feel myself making this worse. I take a breath and start over.
“My name is Florence Malus. But my friends call me Wren. I live in North Carolina with my husband.” I decide to leave out the part where my husband is a vampire. For now. I have no idea what the Order taught Claire about vampires, and this conversation is already going badly enough.
“And like you, I’m a witch.”
“I’m not a witch,” Claire says. But there’s enough uncertainty in her face to tell me she doesn’t fully believe that anymore.
“You’ve been casting spells accidentally, haven’t you?” I ask. “Things have happened around you that you can’t explain. And your mom has been talking to you through dreams.”
Her eyes widen. “How do you know that?”
“Because the same thing happened to me.” I hold out my hand and summon a thin strand of energy between my fingers. Claire stares. “I didn’t know what I was either,” I tell her. “Not really. My adoptive family at least knew magic existed, but I didn’t know who my real family was until recently.”
“You were adopted too?”
“I was.” I extinguish the little strand of magic. “And it was only recently that I learned who my biological family was. While I was trying to figure all of that out, I came across you.” It isn’t exactly the truth. But it isn’t exactly a lie either. “I know this is a lot,” I continue. “But I need you to come with me because we’re not safe here. That woman who pretended to be your teacher? She’s after you.” I swallow. “And she’s after me too.”
Claire slowly shakes her head. “Why?”
“It’s complicated.” Thank God I became a demon hunter instead of a social worker, because I am absolutely not killing this conversation. “But I can help you get home to your family,” I say. “The Bellamys and the Blackwoods are from the same town in Connecticut.”
“Why would you help me?”
“Because I know what it feels like to be in your position.” I take one careful step closer. For half a second, I consider casting a sleep spell on her and dealing with the consequences later. But I’ve never cast one on another witch. If it doesn’t work—or only half works—that definitely isn’t going to build trust. “And ten years ago, when I was your age, I would’ve given anything for someone to come help me.” I wait a beat. “And now someone is helping me, and I’m still having a hard time trusting her.” The words come out before I can stop them. Apparently I’m rambling now. “But the woman who came to see you—Vivian is her real name—she wants both of us because of our powers.”
“I knew there was something wrong with her,” Claire says. The relief in her voice makes it clear she needed someone to validate that. “She was lying.”
“Yeah.”
Claire takes another small step toward me. “I could feel it.”
“Because you’re a witch,” I say.
Her expression tightens again.
“And I mean that in a good way,” I quickly add. “You were born with powers. They come from your mother’s side of the family.”
“You’ll really take me to them?”
“Yes.” I nod. “In New Haven.” That gets her attention. Knowing the exact city seems to earn me another tiny piece of trust. But a bad feeling starts growing deep in my chest. A desperate need to get out of here. The hunters in the parking lot won’t stay asleep forever. And we need to be long gone before they wake up. Not because we couldn’t take them again. But because next time they could bring backup.
Or involve more police.
Xavier probably has enough connections to get me out of jail almost anywhere, but Claire is a minor. That complicates everything.
“My brothers are with me,” I tell her. “And I have a plane waiting.”
“To Connecticut?” she asks.