Chapter 36

Crash never let go of my hand, not once in all the time it took us to get from the Isle of the Lost to the gateway to the demon fae, which he led us through, and then all the way back to Haven House. And I had no intention of letting him go either.

Not once did my fingers get sweaty or clammy, it was like his hand was an extension of my own.

Haven House was a welcome sight, even though there was a massive spider sitting just above the main door, her silver and black spider fur sticking up in all directions. If I hadn't known better, I'd have said she'd had some sleepless nights.

"Holy sheep shit, you got her!" Jinx scrambled down and flipped in the air, landing not as a spider but as a large black and silver wolf. She bounded up to me and I bent to hug her.

"Hey, Jinx."

"Listen, I'm not super mushy." She pulled back from my hug. "But who else is going to bring me manuscripts to practice my editing on?"

I laughed. "Obviously, no one."

"Exactly." She bobbed her head. "Did Ivan…"

I shook my head. "He said to…to tell you that you are a beauty…to never forget it. Or him." Perhaps I added a bit, but Jinx's tiny sob…it cut at me.

"Thank you." She shuddered. "I'm…I'll go back to guard duty." She shot a quick glance as if maybe there was hope of Ivan striding up behind us, and then she was bounding up the steps, leaping to the wall as she shifted back to her oversized spider body and clambered up toward the roof. It was a good vantage point for her to see who was coming and going down the street, and I appreciated knowing we had her up there.

Our group—all of us—shuffled inside. Exhaustion was hitting hard. Nearly twenty-four hours had passed since I'd fallen into Crash's arms on the beach.

There had been little time for discussion. We'd run, knowing that Evangeline would be behind us soon enough.

Here, now, I felt like we were at least protected by that which was familiar.

"We should set up a watch shift," Eammon grumbled as he stifled a yawn.

Crash nodded. "I have other people watching the house—dark fae who came with me—along with Jinx. We can rest here for a few hours."

I shook my head. "No. I have to tell you what I learned first. Because…because if I don't, gawd in heaven only knows when one of us is going to get scooped up again."

Gran swept into the room, her hands to her chest, Corb behind her. "Child, you made it back!"

I smiled at her. "Hi, Gran."

"We would have come too," Corb said. "But Bramble put a spell on us. Said it was so everyone here could see and hear us, but it tied us down too."

"Which is true," Suzy said. "She made it so they couldn't leave like a three-block radius."

I swallowed hard. "Damn her. Damn her to hell."

Gran gasped. "Bree, she isn't?—"

I held up my hand. "She tweaked your memories too, Gran. I'm sure of it. Penny was right. We shouldn't have trusted Bramble. Ever."

Penny snorted. "I knew it! That girl has always been trouble from the day she arrived!"

Gran slowly lowered herself to the couch. "What do you mean?"

I rubbed my head. The whole way back to Savannah I'd been trying to piece together everything I'd learned—not just from Vesuvius, but Bramble too. Because it all was tied in one messy bundle of knots.

"To the kitchen," I said.

The minute I walked through the door, my heart lurched. Although Eric was the baker of our bunch, Bridgette was the one who'd made Haven House a home, a place of warmth and welcome. I couldn't help it, I burst into tears.

Arms wrapped around me, and I was pulled onto Crash's lap as I sobbed for our friend. Lost, all because Remy had wanted to make a point. Because he'd wanted to hurt me in the worst way he could. By taking a piece of my family from me.

"Bridgette…Remy killed her," I said. "To try and force me to do as he and Evangeline wanted."

Crash's arms tightened and I looked around at my friend's faces. "I…there was nothing I could do."

Feish stood just behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. "But it wasn't your fault, Bree."

"All of you are in danger, because you are the ones I love the best," I said quietly. "They know that I would fight for you, that I would die to keep you safe."

"Don't you dare even think about it!" Penny thumped her cane into the table with such force it rattled the legs. "No one expects you to die!"

I blew out a breath. "But they know I…I can be controlled using you." I looked at each of them in turn. Thinking of how we'd found each other when we'd needed a family the most.

Crash. Kinkly. Gran. Sarge. Eammon. Penny. Feish. Eric. Suzy. Charlotte. Winnifred. Damian. Jinx. Even Alan and Corb.

I blinked and jerked to my feet. "Alan, what the hell are you doing here?" Gotta be honest, as much as I'd appreciated his help back in France, I wasn't quite sure he'd be able to get away from the creeper demons…

Then my gaze shot to the little girl's ghost behind him.

Phillipa. Phillipa, who haunted her sister.

Well, crap.

He snorted. "I followed you! Don't you know the creeper demons are on your tail? No, you wouldn't know that, because they are hiding in the shadows, as per their contracts! It was the best I could do."

My mouth dropped open. I might have spluttered. Eric poured a cup of tea for me, doused it with whiskey, and shoved it into my hand. "Snap it back. It'll help."

I did as I was told. There was maybe a teaspoon of tea with the double shot of whiskey. Perfect as far as I was concerned. "Who can see Alan?"

Eric lifted his hand, and of course Gran and Corb could see him. Damian, too.

"Why are you surprised to see me?" Alan barked.

"I'm more surprised to see Phillipa, actually," I said. "Because she only haunts her sister, isn't that right?"

Phillipa nodded. "She followed you here. She knows where you are."

Of course she did. I put the teacup on the table, noting how steady my hand was—go me. "It's morning here. How many days until the dark moon?"

"It happens tonight," Penny said. "Time moves strangely in the dark fae paths, you know that."

I looked at Crash, who gave me a slow nod. "Truth. I thought that the longer we took in there, the better chance we had of getting through this."

"I'm going to tell you everything I know. No interrupting. Questions at the end," I said. On the way through the dark fae paths, I hadn't said a word about this, for fear of who might be listening in the shadows.

Everyone nodded, including Alan and Phillipa.

"The spell that Evangeline is attempting…it is the third time the spell has been attempted. The first witch to try to cast the spell was Gran's grandmother, the year that Evangeline was turned into a vampire and Robert was killed." When I said his name, I felt everyone tense and look around the room, but they stayed silent. "The second was what caused Hurricane Katrina in NOLA. Gran was there. Bramble was there, with the same wand that our great-great grandmother had used. I think maybe it was a test to see if it would work, and it did. The third attempt will be Bramble again. She has been manipulating everyone, changing memories, wiping the past so we would believe she's on our side. But that's the least important part of all of this. A spell of this size, cast incorrectly with the intent that Evangeline wants…will tear the walls down between our world and that of the demons. It will be destruction of everything we know."

Damian groaned and closed his eyes. "Gods, no."

I kept plowing ahead. "I think that's why Stavros was killed. I think maybe he knew what was going on, and like you, Damian, he would have tried to stop it. I spoke with the ghost of the man who created the spell three hundred years ago, Vesuvius. Alan found him. Anyway, Vesuvius told me what must be done to cast the spell correctly. It can only be cast correctly one time, and then it can no longer be used, a one and done sort of deal." I pulled the wand out from my pocket, and gasps slipped from them all. "This is the wand that Bramble had. It is the wand that our great-great grandmother used. And it's the wand I will use tonight to cast the spell correctly. If I do that, there will be no tear between the realms. No demons. No vampires."

It sounded…easy when I said it like that.

"What's the catch?" Sarge asked. "What aren't you telling us? What does the spell do?"

I shrugged and held my cup out to Eric, who filled it with another swig of whiskey. "I'm absolute ducking shit at spell casting. I have witch blood, sure, but…it could still be a mess. And the spell is powerful, but it's not dangerous to me. It's not dangerous to anyone when cast right."

A mess meaning our entire world would be ripped apart at the seams. Evangeline and Bramble would win.

Crash had been quiet through all this. "You aren't going alone. Not this time. Not ever again."

I smiled up at him, knowing he meant every word. "I will be glad for the company, but you can't actually help me. Not even Penny or Gran can help me with the spell."

"Maybe not, but we can keep you safe," Kinkly said. "We can surround you, while you do the spell. Because you know they'll try and make you mess up."

I want to say that I stayed all tough and strong and my eyes didn't water. But damn it, they leaked more than a little. "I don't want any of you to be hurt or be used against me. Because this world…it isn't a world I want to be in without any of you. We've already lost Bridgette and Ivan…" I bit the inside of my cheek and sucked in a slow breath.

Eammon limped over to me and held out his hand. I took it and he tugged me down, so I was at eye level with him. "This world is lucky to have you, Breena O'Rylee, and you bring so much heart to a place where we needed it. And you're right, some of us might get hurt. We might even find ourselves with Bridgette and Ivan before the night is over, but it is our place to guard this world too. Not just yours, lass."

I looked at each of them in turn, seeing their strength. More than that, I saw the love that they had for one another, not just for me. They would fight for each other.

Again, I looked at Crash. His eyes had never left my face, and in them I saw the trust and belief I needed to say four little words.

"I have a plan."