“Thanks,” Jack mutters. Then he adds, “What did they look like?”
The guy squints into the distance as though he has trouble remembering. “There was a man and a woman, I saw that much. Can’t tell you what they looked like, but the guy had red hair.”
“Red hair?” The words fly out of my mouth before I can stop myself. “Are you sure?”
He peers inside the car as though noticing me for the first time. “Yep. He wasn’t wearing a hat.” He shakes his head in derision. “Outsiders, I bet.”
“Thanks for the heads-up,” Jack says.
We wait until we’re safely inside the hangar to speak.
“It’s Alice and Cameron,” I blurt out the moment the doors shut behind us. “It must be.”
“Cameron?” Jack asks. “Your ex?”
“Yeah.” I punch the side of the car, frustration and anger boiling over. Immediately, I regret it, because my knuckles hurt like a bitch. But I can’t believe Alice did this to me. I used to think I’d marry the guy, and he dumped me the moment my coven decided I was too much of an embarrassment for them.
I turn to face Jack, cradling my aching hand in my other palm. “She sold me out,” I cry. “She toldCameron, and they’ve come to—”
My voice breaks, and I crouch on the floor, unable to remain standing. This is exactly what I’d been afraid of. Alice told the coven that I’m practicing magic, and they sent her and Cameron out here to investigate. Of all the people she could have picked as her companion, she chose the one whose presence would cut me up the most.
Gods, what if it’s not even Alice?
I rock back on my heels and nearly land on my ass on the dusty hangar floor. Cameron is the only redhead in our coven, sure, but the security guard didn’t mention anything about the woman. It might be someone else entirely. I mean—what if Alice blabbed about my magic use by accident, and the coven sent one of my cousins along with Cameron to make sure I’m contained?
I can’t believe my sister would betray me so completely. She was in tears when she called to say that the family forced her to banish me from her house. And she sent along that healing spell when I broke my arm. Would she have done that if she was going to come after me?
Jack crouches in front of me, his brow furrowed in worry. “Hey, it’s okay. We’ll do a sweep of the hangar and see if they left any surprises, then ditch whatever is in those boxes as we’re flying over the forest. We could even make a detour in the wrong direction for a little bit if you’d like. I can call in a panoramic flight or something.”
He stands and offers me his hand. I take it, and he pulls me up, then wraps his strong arms around me. My heartbeat is still erratic, and I know it won’t be so easy to ditch the witches if they’re really here, but Jack’s hug apparently has a magical soothing quality. I manage to drag in a full breath, and the hangar stop spinning around me.
“This is really bad,” I mutter against his jacket. “Cameron is a cold bastard.”
“We’ll protect you.”
I lean back to look him in the eyes. “It’s not me I’m worried about! If they find out there are sea dragons in the village, you could all be in danger.”
He gives a tight shrug. “Then we’ll remove the threat.”
“What—you mean to kill them?”
It’s a horrifying thought. Would the dragons kill my former coven members? And do I want them to? It would all depend on what the witches came here to do. If they only wanted to check that I’m not running around Alaska, casting spells here and there, they wouldn’t present much of a threat. But if they came to hurt the villagers or me… The dragons would protect their own.
I hope we’re not on the brink of another war. So long as sea dragons remain hidden, the witches won’t hunt them. It’s imperative to protect that peace.
“We have to warn your clan.” I step away from Jack and walk to the remaining boxes containing my belongings that Alice sent me. “They need to stay human-shaped at all times.”
Jack gives me a terse nod. “They won’t like it, but I guess there’s no getting around that.”
It’s a conversation I’m not looking forward to. I feel like I’ve just built up some goodwill when I healed Maya, and now I’m going to burn through all of that by telling them my family is out to get me.
“Maybe I should stay here and confront them.” I pry open the first box of my old stuff, take off my damper bracelets, and dig into it. “I’ll tell them the box with the tracker that we took back to Amber Bay was stolen by some hillbillies or something, and they won’t have a reason to even approach the village.”
“Absolutely not,” Jack snaps. “You’re not setting yourself up as bait. And we don’t know for sure that they won’t come anyway—you told your sister you were working in a remote community, right?”
Oh, yeah. Shit, this is an impossible situation.
I root through the first box but don’t find anything. Strange. I move on to the second one, but a niggling feeling has me turning back to the first. It’s weird, like a little voice in my head whispering that I really need to take that first box with me wherever I go.
