Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
‘Because your own are crap?’
‘Yes.’ Looking tired, Paisley chugged back some of her drink. ‘This conversation is much too deep for a Monday morning.’
‘It’s afternoon.’
‘Doesn’t feel like it.’ She scratched her head. ‘I saw your old in-laws last night. I fear I may have given away how pissed I am at them for the stuff they said to Ripper. Because whatever they saw on my face made them wince.’
‘At least they’ve chosen to take note of his warning.’ The Reeds had kept their distance from both Ripper and Emberlyn since their appearance at his lake house.
Paisley raised her mug as if to honor the gods or something. ‘May the idiots continue to heed it.’
‘We can but hope.’
‘Ah, here comes your dude now.’
Flicking her gaze to the window, Emberlyn noticed Ripper striding toward the hub. Her scalp prickled at the hardness in his expression. Something wasn’t right. So the moment he stalked inside, she immediately asked, ‘What is it?’
There were times she’d catch him with a hard look on his face, but then he’d see her and it would soften. Today, it didn’t. His gaze was flinty and unreadable.
‘I need your input on something,’ he told her, very little inflection in his voice. ‘Can the others cover for you?’
‘We’ll hold the fort, no problem,’ Paisley assured him.
Emberlyn grabbed her purse from under the counter, hung the strap over her shoulder and crossed to him. ‘I thought you were hunting in Bloodhill. Did something happen? Is someone hurt?’
‘Nothing like that.’ Taking possession of her hand, he led her outside. ‘I want to show you something, and then I want to know if you can tell me what exactly it is.’
An oddly phrased request, but . . . ‘Okay.’
He gave her hand an appreciative squeeze. ‘We’ll stop off at your place on the way. You’re going to need different shoes.’
She felt her brow furrow. ‘Why?’
‘Because you’ll end up with blisters upon blisters if you walk through Bloodhill in high heels.’
She stiffened. ‘We’re going to Bloodhill?’
He nodded, the set of his mouth grim. ‘I wouldn’t take you into that level of danger if I didn’t need you there, baby. Some magick-related advice is much needed, and you’re the only witch I trust. Nothing will happen to you there – I wouldn’t allow it.’
‘I’m not afraid to go to Bloodhill; I’m just surprised.’ And mighty curious as to what he wanted her to take a look at.
They drove to the manor in his truck. Inside the house, she pulled on clothes fit for hiking in this weather – a tee, pants, boots – and nabbed her sunglasses. Then they were on the move again.
After he’d parked at a spot near the fringe of the woods, he led her into the forest. There was a lot of skirting trees, dodging mossy rocks, wading through shrubbery and ducking to avoid low-hanging branches before they finally reached his clan members.
Emberlyn was about to say a quick hey to them, but then a macabre display snagged her attention. ‘Well, hell.’
‘Ignore the pile, if you can,’ said Ripper, ushering her toward it with a hand on her back. ‘I need to know what these are.’ He pointed at two markings on the tree.
Moving in for a closer look, Emberlyn pushed her sunglasses upward and settled them in her hair. ‘These are sigils.’ Hovering a hand over each one, she read the magick there . . . and felt her mouth tighten.
‘What are sigils?’ asked Logan as the others gathered around.
‘They’re basically a written intent.’ Seeing the looks of blank incomprehension sent her way, she went on: ‘Generally, they’re positive – it’s about manifesting goals, protecting yourself, stuff like that. To condense the intent, the sentence is simplified, vowels and repeated consonants are dropped and the remaining letters are scattered and overlapped until they form a single symbol. Magick is then embedded in it, thereby activating it.’
Ripper folded his arms. ‘You said sigils are typically positive. Does that apply to these?’
‘No. Each has a different intent. One is to attract Rabid. The other is to make them sleep. Basically . . . they together make a trap.’
Ripper’s eyes darkened and went slitted. ‘So a witch is drawing them here and then making them vulnerable so they’ll be easily captured.’
She dipped her chin. ‘Seems that way.’
Logan spat a curse. ‘At least now we know how they’re doing it. I couldn’t picture a witch hiking through Bloodhill to seek out Rabid. Using these sigils, they pretty much cast out a net.’
‘And in doing so, they’ve risked Rabid packs coming across others,’ Kerr pointed out. ‘You know what often happens in those circumstances.’
‘They fight,’ Ripper clipped, the veins in his neck corded. ‘Which means that the scent of death here might not only be coming from the animal remains over there.’
‘Fuck,’ Crew bit off. ‘The witch behind this needs killing. Reena . . . she won’t issue a fatal punishment. We need to ID the culprit before she does.’ He looked at Emberlyn. ‘How long have the sigils been there?’