A figure lay crumpled in the middle of the lawn, red hair fanning around her head and her bare knees tucked to her chest. Holly.
I col apsed in the grass beside her. I didn’t see any blood, any injury, but the way she was lying could have covered it. I groped for her throat.
“She has a pulse,” I said as Caleb dropped to his knees beside me.
He reached for her shoulder and her eyes fluttered open.
He reached for her shoulder and her eyes fluttered open.
She gasped, her hands jerking toward her chest as if she were pul ing a sheet over herself.
“Caleb?” She blinked, sitting up. “And Alex? Okay, guys, real y, I don’t need nursemaids. I’m fine. I—” She stopped and looked around for the first time. “Uh, why am I outside?”
I shared a glance with Caleb before saying, “You don’t remember coming out here?”
“No.” She frowned. “Should I? Was I sleepwalking?”
Good question. I hoped that was it, but the sinking feeling in my stomach was pretty sure nothing as mundane as sleepwalking could explain what had happened.
“Let’s get you inside and see if we can’t work this out,”
Caleb said, helping Hol y to her feet.
She wore only an oversized T-shirt, and she smoothed it self-consciously where the hem hit high on her thighs.
Caleb and I shepherded her past Falin and through the front door, and then settled her onto the couch. While Caleb fetched her a drink, I retrieved my phone.
Tamara’s phone went to voice mail the first time I cal ed. I hung up and tried again. This time she picked up on the fourth ring.
“Alex, it’s four thirty in the morning. You better have a good reason for getting me out of bed.”
Unfortunately, I did.
“Tam, can you get over here. I think Hol y’s been spel ed.”
Tamara lived only a few streets away—almost al the practicing witches in Nekros lived in the Glen—so her car rol ed into the driveway less than fifteen minutes later. By then, Caleb had run a ful diagnostic on the house wards and traced al the magical signatures. Hol y had been the one who disabled the wards, and no one had entered the house and no unfamiliar magic had brushed the wards before she’d taken them down.
I’d paced around the living room until Hol y complained I’d paced around the living room until Hol y complained that I was making her dizzy. Then I set about gathering the spel ed disks, a task complicated by the fact that I’d released my grave-sight and deep shadows clung everywhere despite al the lights that I’d turned on in the house. Falin had disappeared by the time I got off the phone with Tamara. Hol y said he’d asked for a first-aid kit and retreated to my loft. I didn’t want to leave Hol y and Caleb, so I hoped he’d be okay on his own. I planned to check on him soon.
Tamara’s loud knock sounded just as I shoved the broom under the couch, searching for any disks that had rol ed away. Hol y and Caleb jumped to their feet, rushing for the door. I started to rise, but the broom hit something larger than a spel ed disk. I swished the broom to the side, knocking the object out from under the couch. Then I yelped, jumping back.
Caleb and Hol y whirled around at the sound, and Tamara stopped, her foot hanging in the air where she’d been stepping through the open doorway. My heart crashed hard as I stared at the raven I’d exposed. I lifted my broom like a basebal bat, but the raven only lay in a crumpled heap. It was the one Caleb had doused with the spel , and its chest lifted in slow, labored breaths, but it was otherwise stil .
“Oh, eew,” Hol y said, and then she ran into the kitchen.
She emerged a moment later with the large strainer Caleb had used for last night’s spaghetti. She tossed it over the bird and then piled magazines from the coffee table on top to weigh the strainer down. “There.”
“What is going on?” Tamara asked, her eyes taking in the chaos.
Caleb and I had both frozen at the sight of the raven, and even now, with the bird trapped under the strainer, I hadn’t lowered the broom. I took a deep breath and pried my fingers off the wooden handle. Then I sagged into the closest chair, feeling as if my bones had melted into closest chair, feeling as if my bones had melted into something not completely solid.
Caleb and I fil ed Tamara in on the happenings of the night, not taking turns so much as interrupting each other.
Hol y joined in once we got to the end and related how we’d found her on the lawn. After we’d finished, silence fil ed the room.
“Have you cal ed the police?” Tamara asked after several minutes had passed.
Caleb shook his head. “I don’t know that we should get them involved.”