I should have jumped! Except I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel—or my life—quite yet.
“Lie on the stone.” He poked me with the athame. Blood trickled between my shoulder blades.
“What st—”
Then I saw it. Right at the edge of the world, camouflaged by the roiling pewter sky and long summer grass, lay a long, flat, smooth gray rock. A perfect natural altar.
He poked me again, and I did as I was told. Rain spat in my face as he looped a zip tie around my ankles and pulled. Then he stepped back, took out his cell phone, scowled.
“No service?” I murmured. Welcome to my world. “Bummer. How will you summon worthy believers?”
Jeremy’s head lifted; his gaze turned toward the trees. Tires crunched on stone. Seconds later a Three Harbors PD cruiser appeared. Chief Deb climbed out.
I had no idea how she’d come to be here, but I was so glad she was. Jeremy was armed, but so was Deb, and as in every action movie from now until the end of the world—gun beat knife. All the time.
Then my gaze lit on Jeremy, and my hope wavered.
Why was he smiling?
*
Cassandra opened her bag and withdrew a chunk of black stone.
“What’s that?” Owen asked.
“Black obsidian.” She took out a white candle.
“You carry around scrying materials?” the fed asked.
Owen was impressed Franklin knew what they were. It made him wonder what else the guy knew.
“Never can tell.”
“Tell what?” Owen wondered.
“Exactly.”
Cassandra moved to the table, set the stone in the center. The overhead lights sparked against the obsidian like stars. She flicked them off.
“Can’t have anything reflected in the stone but what we want to see.” She motioned Raye into the chair on one side of the table then took the other. After setting the candle next to the stone, she lit it, then held out her hands. Raye took them.
“Close your eyes, and think of your sister. In a few minutes, we’ll open our eyes, look into the stone’s center.”
“And then?” Raye asked.
“Then we’ll see what we’ll see.”
“What about us?” Owen asked.
“Maybe you’ll see too.”
Cassandra and Raye closed their eyes. Bobby, Franklin, and Owen stood in a semicircle around the table, no doubt feeling as foolish as they appeared.
Owen closed his eyes and thought of Becca. Couldn’t hurt. Unfortunately all he saw was the inside of his eyelids.
Raye gasped, and Owen’s eyes snapped open. In the depths of the obsidian, smoke swirled. He leaned in. The mist cleared, leaving behind nothing but a blank, black stone.
“What did you see?” Cassandra asked.
“Nothing.” Raye lifted her gaze. “But I did hear wolves.”
“Really?”
“Didn’t you?”
Cassandra shook her head, then chewed her lip.
Owen released his pent-up breath in a rush. “What are we going to do now? Henry can’t find her. You couldn’t see anything.”
Cassandra held up a hand. “I didn’t say that I didn’t see anything.”
“You did?”
She nodded.
“Where is she? How is she?”
“I didn’t see Becca. But I did see a long, flat, raised stone.”
“A natural altar.” Raye had gone pale. “The perfect place for a sacrifice.”
*
Deb started in our direction. “What’s going on?”
“He—” I began.
Jeremy cut me. High up between my neck and collarbone—not an artery, not yet—but with my hands bound together and my arms tied down, I couldn’t heal the gash. Blood dripped onto the stone.
Chief Deb had her gun out, but she wasn’t pointing it at Jeremy, she was pointing it at the trees, which were shaking with the force of the storm.
“Who’s there?” she shouted.
I could have sworn I heard the distant howl of a wolf, and for a minute I feared Pru would leap out. Bound like this, I wouldn’t be able to heal her if she were shot. But when the sound died, I dismissed it as the wail of the wind.
Then Owen’s mother emerged from the forest. She raced at Chief Deb, arm raised. The watery, gray light of the cloud-covered sun revealed a knife—plain old butcher—but it would … butcher.
“No!” I shouted.
Chief Deb was here to save me.
“Die, wi—!” Mary shrieked.
Boom!
Mary jerked. Blood blossomed on her shirt in almost the same pattern it had made on Mistress June’s. The knife tumbled to the ground. Mary followed.
Chief Deb turned, gun still in her hands. I waited for her to shoot Jeremy. Instead, she put the gun back in her holster.
“About damn time you got here,” Jeremy said.
Chapter 27
“Do you know where a stone like that might be located?” Franklin asked.
Owen shook his head. Panic threatened. Becca had been kidnapped. Cassandra had scried for her location and seen an altar. One and one equaled— “Someone’s going to sacrifice Becca to raise Roland McHugh.”
When no one argued with him, Owen sat on the bed because his legs couldn’t support him any more. Reggie laid his head on Owen’s knee. Owen didn’t have the energy to pet him and the dog whined, concerned.
“The wolves,” Raye said.