Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“Eww,” I say, though I agree with him. “It’s been like twenty years since you last saw her. I don’t think you’d say the same if you went to the nursing home hoping for a wild night.”
The humor fades off Nik’s face. He went to the faery realm and didn’t realize just how much time passed here until he came back hoping to find Estelle alive and well. I know he still feels guilty about it.
“Can you imagine the look on the nurses’ faces?” He laughs. “I wonder if she still had her teeth at the end.”
“Okay, there was a line and you just crossed it.” I shake my head and laugh.
“Hey, I’d say don’t knock it ‘till you tried it but you don’t have a—” He cuts off with a jump when Hunter springs to his feet and barks, running through the house. Ethan springs to his feet and I get up, dropping my fork onto my plate with a clatter.
We make it to the front porch just in time to see something crash against the warding I cast around the house. It causes the magic to ripple, lighting up for just a split second.
“Wait!” I say and throw out my hand, catching Ethan before he can jump off the porch. Hunter shadows forward but doesn’t go far. “This feels like a set up.”
“It probably is,” Ethan growls, eyes narrowed as he looks out at the country road. There’s an overgrown pasture across the street that housed cows once upon a time. It’s overgrown and full of tall weeds that have wound their way around the old, rusted barbed-wire fence. It’s a decent hiding spot but is hard to move through since it’s so thick with growth.
And right now I feel like something is there, watching us.
“And I’m going to find who set it up and kill them,” Ethan finishes and takes another step forward.
“You’re not even wearing shoes,” I rush out as nerves creep down my back. The instant fight-or-flight feeling is something I’m used to from dealing with spirits. But this is different in a weird way. The air is buzzing with neutral electricity, ready to be directed in one way or another. Everything inside me is telling me to get back into the house, close the curtains, and light a protection candle. Why? I don’t know, yet something about this is familiar.
“Let’s go back in,” Nik says, voice a little shaky. He opens the front door and steps inside, holding the door open for us.
“Yeah,” I agree and shift my gaze to Hunter, telling him to go check the barn and make sure the animals are okay. He bounds forward, shadowing around the porch so fast he’s just a dark blur in the night.
Ethan looks around once more, then relents and comes inside with us. Nik sweeps one hand out, whispering an incantation. Sparkly gray fog covers the stained-glass window on the front door.
“You felt that, right?” he asks me, and I nod.
“Yeah. It was like…like…something bad was about to happen.”
“Exactly.” He takes a few steps away from the front door. “Is it a demon?”
“No,” I say, though I’m not certain. “It was more like a shift in energy. I’ve felt it before.” I close my eyes in a long blink, trying to think back. “The Ley line,” I start. “It has a similar feeling. The energy is there but it’s not good or bad until you direct it one way or another.”
“I’m going back out there,” Ethan says, walking quickly through the house to get his shoes and his gun.
“No,” I say firmly, and Ethan turns around, shooting an annoyed look at me.
“Anora, something is out there.”
“I know.” I bite my lip and look behind me. “And I can’t explain it, but I have a really strong feeling it wants us to react. If it was going to hurt us, it would have tried.” I can sense Hunter and he lets me know there’s nothing in our yard that poses a threat. “Because if it did, it wouldn’t have gotten through,” I mumble out loud.
“What?” Ethan asks, retrieving a gun he has hidden in the library.
“I just recast that warding,” I start and sweep my hand out in front of me, pulling down the blinds in the dining room. I lack the finesse to gracefully draw the blinds telekinetically and they flop down, but it gets the job done. “If something was trying to hurt me, it would have gotten burned when it crossed over. But that was like poking the line of protection with a stick. It was enough to get our attention.”
“Fuck,” Ethan huffs and clicks the safety off his gun.
“It’s trying to draw you out.” Nik crosses his arms over his chest. “First the fake evidence and now this?” He raises his eyebrows. “I don’t see how they can be connected, but it’s too much of a coincidence for them not to be.”