Bronwyn made a soft, snuffling sound. Fennel sat down beside her, his tail wrapped around her wrist, green eyes glowing gold.
“Lila told me once that she was considered the most powerful earth witch in the Lennox lineage, which very likely made her the most powerful earth witch in this world. And yet, she believed your power had eclipsed hers when you were barely a child. That when you finally found your soil and gave yourself fully to it, you would do things she’d only dreamed possible.”
Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. “She was just a proud mom.”
“Yes.” Margaux slid all the way back to the floor, her strength gone. “A proud mom who understood her daughter’s worth.”
“Betty, it’s lonely out here.” Desmond’s voice, deep and unhinged, slithered through the small house. “Come outside and play with me.”
“Eww. Why’d he’d have to make it so weird?” I asked, sniffling.
“He’s always been weird,” she replied. “Creepy little bastard.”
“Hearing you call Desmond Mace a creepy little bastard might actually be the most surreal part of all of this,” I said.
“Truth’s the truth,” she murmured.
“NowI see why you and Mom got along.”
“I loved her,” she said simply. “She was my friend. As you well know, I don’t have many.”
“Betty, come out here. I won’t hurt you.” Desmond laughed. and the house shuddered.
In the moonlight streaming through the window, I saw her eyes slide shut. “He doesn’t own this property. This isn’t his soil. As far as I know, he only chose this spot because he knew you’d been attacked here and assumed it would be the last place you’d look.”
“What? How did he know that?”
She smiled. “I may have told him.”
“Margaux, what the hell? I wouldn’t have found this place on my own.”
“And yet you did.”
“Withhelp.”
“Whichyoufound.”
I threw up my hands. “When did you do all this? You were knocked out.”
Her eyes opened a crack. “Not the whole time. And when I fully awoke, the spell had been broken—by Desmond or maybe I hadn’t performed it properly, I don’t know. It’s taken me all this time to renew it. My strength is … not good.” She closed them again.
“If I have to come in there and drag you out, I won’t leave anyone else alive,” Desmond yelled.
“Don’t you dare die on me, Margaux.” I dropped my tote on the floor beside her still form. “Fennel, stay with them for as long as you can, but don’t get caught. And don’t let Cecil get caught, either.”
“Meow?”
We might not speak the same language, but I knew exactly what he was asking. “Margaux’s right. I have to face him. It’s the only way we’re getting out of here.”
I left the room and slogged my way to the living room through an atmosphere as thick as mud. My knees were watery, and my hands shook. I’d been scared for my life before—recently, in fact—but I never got used to it.
Margaux’s words spun through my head.“A proud mom who understood her daughter’s worth.”
The front door hung by a single hinge. I stared through the crooked doorway and into the overgrown yard and the fields surrounding the house. Everything was withered and dry and dead.
But the soil beneath it was alive. It didn’t belong to Desmond or me, which meant we’d be on equal footing with it.
I blew out a nervous breath and peered out—right, front, left.
