The water begins to spin and glow. Inside the bowl, he can clearly see a red car racing down a dark road. An explosion fills the night sky behind the car, and Reese hears her moan of pain. He feels her thoughts.
The throbbing is worse; Ariana knows if they find her this time, she will not survive. With her foot on the pedal, she drives at breakneck speed. When the explosion occurs from the house, she knows they have arrived. She smiles; the web spell will delay them. She purposely placed it inside of the body and the moment they touched her, it detonated. The spell creates a web of light, trapping any darkness inside. The roar of outrage echoes through the night and another wave of pain assaults her.
Her body is covered in sweat, and she is trembling, but she can’t stop. Ariana realizes her vision is blurry. Reese watches as her car begins to sway on the road. When the form appears in the middle of the road, she screams and jerks the car to the right, causing it to flip multiple times before coming to a stop. The Dark Fae runs to the car and rips open the door to find it is empty.
Reese watches and smiles as he beats on the car in frustration. Reese knows where she is now. He picks up the bowl and dumps the water. Wiping it clean, he makes sure to leave no trace of his vision. Time to go see the Queen, he thinks with a grim smile. Reese is so intent on his destination that he does not notice the shadow following him.
Chapter 9
Katie closed her cafe to take a few days off after her visit with the Fae. When she was a little girl, her Granny used to tell her stories of the Fae. When she was five, she believed totally in the little people. She would leave small offerings for them, in hope that she would see one. They never showed themselves, but they loved her sweets, and anything sparkly. Granny taught her how to bake bread from scratch and it was at her Granny’s side that she learned to love the art of baking.
When she grew older, she discovered that her Granny was considered odd. She would often wear her jacket backwards, “to ward off the naughty fairies.” She would make Katie and Anya carry something iron in their pockets, a safety pin or nail. “The iron is the best way to protect yourself,” she would say. Sometimes she would slip a piece of day-old bread in her pocket, “So ya don’t get carted off, my dearies,” she would reassure them. As a teenager, she helped work in the garden and spent many afternoons tending the herb garden. Now as she sinks her hands into the soil to plant the daisies she bought, she feels closer to her Grandmother again.
Katie pushes the spade deep into the rich black soil and turns the dirt when she feels the steel blade hit something hard. “Rocks, always, more rocks,” she whispers and shoves her hand into the hole and feels something metallic and flat. “What could that be?” she asks and starts to dig it up. When a breeze blows her hair back from her face, Katie’s senses begin tingling. Pausing she listens to the sound of the birds and the wind, but she knows that things are always more than they appear. Her hands begin shaking and she holds tightly to the spade. She drops the daisy into the hole and makes a mental note to find out what it is buried here; later.
Rising slowly, she dusts her pants off and puts the spade into her back pocket. She looks around her garden, smiling in satisfaction and she starts to clean up her mess. She lifts the water sprinkler and begins to give each flower a drink.
“Isn’t it a bit early for planting flowers, Katie?” Anya asks walking around the corner of the house.
Katie squeals, “Anya! Oh, my Jesus, you scared me!”
Anya holds up her hands, and laughs, “Sorry, Katie. You have nothing to fear from me.”
Katie snatches the watering can, and hurries to the house to turn on the water. “I know that, Anya. It makes me feel closer to Granny to work in this garden. She loved it so.” When Katie turns, she finds Anya right behind her. Face to face now, Katie whispers, “Lord, you move fast!”
Anya leans in and traces a finger down her cheek and her eyes drop to Katie’s mouth. Her lips curl into a smile, “You have dirt on your face, pretty Katie.” Her stomach drops and she knows, she is found.
“Gardening is dirty work, Anya,” Katie says as she stabs her friend in the chest, with the iron spade.
Anya’s scream of rage turns to a roar of hatred, as he is forced to drop the glamour spell. Katie runs to the house and flies through the door just as Colin finishes healing his chest wound.
He lunges for Katie, but she makes it safely inside and slams the door. “Oh, God. He shouldn’t be able to get inside?” Katie tells herself as she races to the small hole in the front wall of the house. A braided rope goes down the wall on the front porch and traces to a small iron bell. “But just in case,” Katie pulls the bell and is rewarded with a scream of pain!
With a powerful kick, Colin smashes the door open and tries to walk through. Katie screams and backs to the far wall, as her eyes are drawn to the metal cross hanging above the door. He can’t enter with the iron above the door!
“You will suffer now, pretty Katie!” He snarls as he tries to enter the house. A
