…
Van’s car was a tiny, ancient two door Ford with no bumper and huge burn holes in the seats. We’d elected—okay, it was my choice—to take her car and leave Kelly’s behind. The less I drove it, the more of a chance of it being returned in one piece. The demon grumbled from the back, where it had wedged Jax’s large body. There was a smell, too. I couldn’t quite place it, but it reminded me of the old cheese in the back of our fridge.
I shifted and leaned to my right. “So where exactly are we going?”
“Duh.” Van rolled her eyes. “To get the stone, remember?”
Between her and the demon in the backseat, I was going to lose my mind. “And where would that be, exactly?”
“Not far from here.”
“You said it was protected. By magic,” Azi said. “How do you mean? What type of magic?”
“If you’re subtly asking if you can steal it out from under me as soon as I’m not looking, then the answer is no. Only I can remove it.”
Azi gave a soft chuckle then leaned between our two seats. To Van, it said, “I’m fairly certain I could remove you.”
“Okay,” I snapped and pushed Jax’s body into the back. “No one is stealing anything or removing anyone. Can we at least try to keep this civil?”
With a slight huff, Van stepped harder on the gas and sent the small car surging forward.
We drove the rest of the way—about an hour and change—in silence and without bloodshed. When the car finally stopped, we were in the parking lot of the Pennington State Park. It was just after three in the afternoon, and the sun had long since ducked behind the clouds, making the chill in the air more prominent.
Azi extracted Jax’s body from the backseat with a grumble. “Now what?”
“Now…” Van closed her own door. She pocketed the keys and pulled out her cell. With a quick glance at the screen, she sighed. “We have to wait.”
“Wait?” I was confused, not to mention annoyed. We didn’t exactly have an abundance of time to play with. “Wait for what? You said the stone was here.”
“Technically, I didn’t say that.” The grin Van flashed was mischievous, but if the expression of fury on Jax’s face was any indication, the demon wasn’t amused.
“Van,” I warned, and I grabbed a handful of Jax’s shirt. I yanked back as hard as I could. I did manage to move his body, but the demon held its ground.
“Relax.” She waved her hand in the direction of the main trail. “The stone itself isn’t here, but the key to unlocking it is.”
“All right,” Azi said. I could hear the skepticism in Jax’s voice. “Then let’s stop wasting time and get it.”
“Yeah. See, there’s a little catch.”
“Catch?” If she wasn’t careful, I wouldn’t be able to spare her Azi’s wrath—not to mention my own.
“I told you, the stone is protected by magic—that includes the stone itself and all ways to get the stone. We can retrieve the key tonight, after dark, but the stone can only be removed on the first day of the full moon.” I started to protest, but she held up her hand. “The full moon is in less than two days.”
I glanced back at the gate, at the sign with the hours and cringed. “They close at dusk.”
“Then we should probably get in there and find a place to lay low for a while.”
…
Van had taped a sign to her car window stating that it had broken down and that she’d return in the morning with a tow truck. After that we hunkered down in the Out of Order bathrooms at the other end of the park. The sun was almost down, and Azi was restless, pacing from one end of the bathroom to the other. Not that I could blame it. I felt the same way.
As if the smell wasn’t bad enough, being cooped up with Azi and Van was more than enough to send me binge drinking for a year. It was a constant back and forth of barely veiled threats.
“So when it’s dark, then what?” The silence was starting to get to me, the tension in the small space thick enough to smother what little patience I had left. Van was acting strangely. She kept sneaking glances at Azi and me when she thought we weren’t looking. I started wondering if maybe she planned on screwing me over. “How do we get the key?”
She hesitated, and I saw it. An unmistakable flinch. “The key should be fairly easy to retrieve. It’s in a hollowed out tree just north of here.”
I wasn’t the only one who saw it. Azi growled and grabbed the witch by the front of the shirt, spinning her back against the closed stall door. The sound echoed in the small space and made me cringe just a little. “What are you hiding?”
Van’s face paled. Her mouth fell open, and her shoulders shook with a sob. She twisted her head in my direction. “Sam…”
“Don’t look to me for help. Azi is right. You’re hiding something,” I said, doing my best to keep calm. I was furious that she’d lied about something, but I was also worried about what the demon would do. It was livid, barely refraining from tearing her head from her shoulders.
“I’m—”