Total pages in book: 202
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
“Boyd! Here quick!”
He looks conflicted.
“It’s okay,” I say. “I’ll come straight back.”
“You sure?” he asks.
“Go ahead,” I tell him. “I’ll do it super-fast.”
He jogs to the group of men building the makeshift outhouses.
When I get there, Cat’s van, Jared’s camper, and the other few vehicles are all parked along the fence line and the red pickup attached to the Airstream are first in the line. But as soon as I get the door open, ready to grab my suitcase, which is directly inside the door, a hand darts out from the dark space between the camper and Cat’s van and grips my wrist.
I gasp as my eyes meet the infuriated eyes of my brother’s as he wrenches my arm painfully, yanking me inside, immediately cupping my mouth with his other hand while pointing a gun at my forehead.
48
Grey
It’s not far off sunrise when I find myself in the hospital, standing over Mom. She’s unconscious, hooked up to machines, and the scents filling my senses are wrong. I don’t know much about poisons, but I know it’s what I’m smelling.
I’m infuriated. Someone did this to her. Someone put her here.
Fiery fury invades every cell in my body, the fire biting behind my eyes suggesting I’m pulling coven gifts into me to tell me that this isn’t just poison in her system, but spelled poison. I somehow know for a fact she won’t wake until it’s out of her system. I dial Dani so I can find out how to discern what it is, but the call drops. My phone has no signal.
A nurse comes in and bumps into me.
“Oh, sorry!” she whispers, palming her chest as she lets out a breath while gripping my forearm to steady herself. From just that touch I’m immediately bursting with knowledge about her, with things I don’t fucking need to know.
How she’s been stressing out about the fact she can’t make her mortgage payment next week. Because her husband walked out on her three weeks ago and cleaned out their bank accounts. She’s glad he’s gone – good riddance because he was an abusive asshole but she’s fretting about her cashflow. She’s also plagued by guilt that frequently keeps her up at night for stealing someone’s wallet in a nightclub bathroom fifteen years ago.
I further know she has no information about Mom, that she and the ER doc on duty are baffled by Mom’s condition and are planning to run more tests in a few hours as well as call in a specialist.
I lift the landline phone beside the hospital bed and there’s no dial tone.
An older nurse pokes her head in, giving me a once-over and eyeing her stunned colleague, who is standing here staring at me. The other nurse is about to reprimand us both, me for being here at this hour, the younger nurse for standing here gawking at me. But I put my index finger to my mouth as the heat keeps pulsing behind my eyes as I flick my fingers in a go away gesture. The older one goes away, but the younger one continues to stare.
“This is my mom,” I quietly say. “If you have nothing to do for her right now, why don’t you go on and look in on your other patients?”
She blinks off her daze, turns, and leaves the room without replying.
Bailey is snoring softly, looking uncomfortable in that chair with her feet propped on the rails beside Mom’s hospital bed. I leave the room and am ready to dial Riley but still… no signal.
“Grey?” Rye rushes in, a disheveled-looking Erica trailing. “How’s Carrie? Any change?”
“I need to know how to get this shit out of her body like how Erica pulled the negativity out of the village that night. She smells like a bunch of things. A weird flower mostly. Don’t know the name of it but somehow I do know it’s poison.”
Who the fuck would poison Carrie Blackwood and why? Wyatt Meadows? Is that possible?
Rye is in jeans and a tee, but Erica is wearing what looks like a nightgown with her mate’s sweatshirt on top. Sandals on her feet.
“Hey,” she whispers. “You’re okay. It’s gonna be okay.” She touches my arm.
“I was just about to call you. My phone wouldn’t connect.” I glance at it. “No signal. Landline won’t work.”
She gives me a knowing nod. “You’re so honed into magic right now that you’re throwing signals like crazy so nobody’s phone for a few miles around will be working. You’re pulling coven magic; I can feel you pulling mine, which is a little scary, Greyson. Riley set an alarm to wake him so he could come back and meet up with you, but a minute before it went off, we both bolted straight up at the same instant. I felt your energy swirling and Riley felt something in your pack connection letting us know you need us. Take my hands and breathe slowly and deeply.”