Whether or not she believed that Nick had at one point in time harmed her, her mother and father clearly believed it. Tears welled as she imagined how worried they must be. And what if they tried to reopen the portal? She had cast so many different hexes at it, she was positive if they tried to use it again, something terrible would happen. Her hands shook as she fumbled with her garters. It might even kill them.
“No!” she cried, dropping to the floor in the laundry room. Her cousin banged open the door, narrowly missing her.
“What is it?” He looked as distraught as she felt.
“I-I- we have to go before they try to do something to find me. Oh, Cousin Dexter, I don’t know what I’ll do if they get hurt because of me.”
He helped her up and pulled her down the hall. “Ah, bugger. This was a mistake letting you have a visit. Back ten minutes after you left. What a crock… I should have sent you packing the moment you arrived.”
“You should have told me the moment I arrived,” she retorted, pacing in circles as he pounded the elevator button.
“I did. I said your mother would be beside herself. In fact, I think I said she’d be mad with terror.”
The night before she’d thought the lift was miraculously fast. Now she tapped her foot anxiously, brimming to burst through the doors and into Dexter’s automobile. At least that was fast. They’d be to the house in no time. In the car, she fumbled with her safety harness until Dexter clipped it closed for her. She realized she was holding her breath and let it out in a slow, quiet gust as they pulled out of the building and eased around the corner. She promptly held it again when Dexter wedged them into a massive lineup of other cars.
“What is this?” she wailed.
“Morning traffic,” he said in a clipped tone. Was he also having trouble breathing? He looked over at her and visibly forced himself to relax. “Listen. We don’t know what’s happening back then. It could be nothing. For all we know you’ve only been gone a day or two and your mum overreacted with the letter.”
She forced her hands to unclench and steadied her breathing. “Perhaps. Perhaps they thought I went with Owen.”
“Who’s Owen now?” Dexter looked utterly lost. The traffic inched ahead and Ariana leaned forward, trying to make everyone move faster.
“My dearest friend.” She stopped herself from saying cousin. A cousin was someone you didn’t choose. Friends were the ones you chose. She should have chosen Owen when he really needed her. Whether he shunned her or not for ruining his happiness, she should have followed along behind him all the way to Moldavia. She wouldn’t have let those wretches kick him out. “Kostya’s son. He ran away the same day I left.”
“That’s lovely. You two are quite the pair. So, his parents are sick with worry as well.”
“You don’t know anything about it. You’re only taking sides because you’re a grown up.”
“You’re a grown up, too, Ariana. You own a home, you live with a man, you have… employees or followers or whatever they call themselves. Stop thinking of yourself as a victim in all this when it’s all your own creation.”
Tears burned her eyes but she refused to let them fall. He was right. There was no more fight left in her. She sat in silence as they slowly crept along the road, finally pulling onto a less populated lane. She knew they were close when she recognized a park and sat so far forward her nose almost touched the windshield. Dexter muttered what sounded like curses to himself as they rolled past a huge glass and steel building.
“Bloody hell,” he said aloud, stopping with a jolt in front of the massive center’s elaborate courtyard.
She bumped her forehead against the windshield and sat back, turning to see Dexter gripping the steering wheel, his whole body shaking.
“Why did you stop?” she asked. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t we going to the house?”
He pointed with a trembling hand. “This— this is the house. It’s not— it’s a shopping mall.”
She flung open the door, nearly breaking her shoulder when the seat belt locked up as she tried to throw herself toward the wicked building that stood in the place of her home. This had to be a nightmare. Surely the pain in her shoulder should be waking her up. Dexter pulled her back into the car and tried to calm his heaving breath.
“It’s a shopping mall,” he repeated, as if he was out of his mind.
Maybe he was. Ariana felt as if she might be going mad herself as she stared at the smoothly paved courtyard leading up to cold, uninviting glass doors. The place was clearly not open yet, but she could still see lights beyond the doors. Signs she couldn’t make out. She swept her gaze to the left where there should have been a vast lawn leading to tall hedges. Now it was all black with white painted lines.
“Parking lot,” Dexter said, following her gaze. “Oh, dear God, I have
