“My name is Scout.” I stood straighter, my eyes drifting to Emma, who remained under Mama Moon’s control. I was torn where she was concerned. Was she really my sister? It seemed like a surreal possibility, and yet when I searched my heart, it felt true. As for Ezekiel, my emotions were running rampant and I couldn’t contain them. My brain felt as if it was about to overload. While I needed to think, I was completely out of time.
“I’m not asking you to set her free,” Ezekiel implored Mama Moon. “She’s done wrong. It’s not her fault, though. She was taken against her will, turned—”
“That might’ve been true weeks ago,” Mama Moon cut in. “She still knows right from wrong.” She gave Emma another jolt. “She knows that she picked the wrong team. She was looking for the Archimage, for crying out loud. Do you know what sort of trouble she could’ve wrought with that book?”
Ezekiel held up his hands in a placating manner. “Give me a chance to turn her back to what she once was.”
“You can’t change someone if they’re evil,” Sami said. She was paler than usual, dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. “She’s evil. She wants a book that doesn’t even exist anymore.”
Emma jolted, her eyes snapping open. “What are you saying?”
“The book.” Sami’s tone was soft, reasonable. “It’s been gone for fifteen years.”
“No.” Emma vehemently shook her head, ignoring the way Mama Moon gripped her hair. “Nobody would destroy that book. It’s too powerful.”
“It wasn’t technically destroyed,” Sami replied, her eyes flashing darker than normal, “but it’s still gone, and there’s no way you can ever retrieve it.”
That was when I really absorbed what she was saying. Zoe said the book was absorbed fifteen years before. Sami was fourteen. If the timelines overlapped even a bit, then part of that book had gone into Sami, which was only one of the reasons she was so powerful.
As if reading my mind, Sami held my gaze, a small dose of fear permeating from her before she brutally shoved it aside. I simply smiled at her. I would die before sharing that secret.
“We’ll take Emma into custody,” I said decisively. “’We’ being us Spells Angels.” I fixed Ezekiel with a hard look. “She’s not going to you. I don’t care who you claim to be.”
“I’m your grandfather,” he promised. “I’m not lying.”
“We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?”
Twenty-Nine
The battlefield was littered with bodies when we emerged into the waning eclipse, the sun forcing its way through the darkness. We used the same ropes that had bound Rafael to tie Emma’s hands behind her back and I added a bit of extra magic to the mix ... just in case.
Emma was morose, continuously shooting dark looks toward Ezekiel. It was obvious, even though she didn’t say as much, that she remembered him. How they were separated, why he didn’t come for her, those were questions that would have to be answered after cleanup was finished here.
“Sami!”
Aric caught sight of his offspring first, breaking away from the group and racing toward her.
Even though she’d been a total badass in the battle, Sami turned into a crying little girl at the sight of her father. “Daddy!” She raced toward him with abandon, letting him sweep her into his arms.
I cast a glance at Rafael and found him smiling. Despite being held captive for two days straight, he looked none the worse for wear. Not only that, he found true joy in watching the child reunited with her father. That made me glance down and smile. It was one of the only things bringing me joy right now.
“Scout?”
I jerked up my head at the sound of Gunner’s voice and hurried toward him, realizing — with a bit of shame — that I had a lot more to be happy about than I pretended. Yes, my life had just been turned upside down, but I had so much to live for.
“Hey.” I let him pull me to him, burying my face in his chest. I never doubted he was okay, but it felt good to have my intuition reinforced.
“I was worried about you,” he whispered into my hair, clutching me against his broad chest. “I lost track of you when you took off toward the creek. How did you end up in the woods?”
I pulled back and offered up a hollow laugh. “Blame the little mage.” I inclined my head toward Sami, who was busy trying to extricate herself from her father’s crushing embrace. “She appeared out of nowhere and went on a rampage.”
Zoe stood a few feet away from her husband and daughter, watching the tender scene with a grimace. “Did she kill anybody?”
I wasn’t sure what answer would make her feel better, but I went with the truth. “A couple of vampires.”
Zoe didn’t appear disappointed at the news. “Okay.”
“She was a total badass,” I added, mostly because I felt the need to stand up for the kid. She had saved me a few times after all. “Your training shone through, and brightly.”
Zoe merely nodded as Sami slowly shifted her gaze to her mother. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?” The girl’s voice was piteous.
“Big trouble,” Zoe confirmed. “I mean huge trouble. You know those old television shows I like to watch? I’m going to make you watch all of them.”
Sami’s expression morphed into one of abject horror. “Not the one about the facts of life.”
Zoe nodded grimly. “And Family Ties. And Growing Pains. And The Golden Girls.”
Sami’s mouth dropped open. “Not the old ladies. That’s just mean.”
“Daddy has some old westerns for you to watch as well,” Zoe added. “If you think Cheers is bad, just wait until he makes you watch Bonanza.”
“Oh, man.” Sami turned her imploring eyes to Aric. “I’m okay. I shouldn’t be punished.”
Aric stared hard at his child for a long beat, his lips slowly curving. “Just wait until I introduce you to Hoss.”
I was amused, despite myself. When
