“I must have been real sick to be in the hospital,” Rachel said, sounding more impressed with herself than scared. “Were you my nurse, Mom?”
“I was, and I’m very, very, very glad that you’re better,” Autumn told her, encouraging Rachel to sit back against the bed, even though she seemed to want to dance and hop around the room, her energy was so high. “Take it easy, sweetheart. I know you’re better, but let’s not overdo it yet, okay?”
“Where’s Anna?” Rachel did lie back against her bed, but her bare feet were still jiggling and wiggling, and Autumn knew it was only a matter of time before she was up again.
Trying to stave off the inevitable leap upward, Autumn handed Rachel her phone, with its drawing application open. “Here, sweetie. Look at this or something. Anna is home with Tamara, and I’m sure they’ll come see you if we’re here much longer. But I think that as soon as we hear from Eamon, we’re going to take you home.”
Rachel was drawing a picture on Autumn’s screen with her finger, her hair sticking up every which way, as she responded. “Okay! But cake first.”
There was a light knock, and Autumn hesitated just for a moment before opening the door just a crack and peeking out. The sight of Eamon standing there, looking as haggard as she felt, was such an immense relief that she slipped out of the room and threw her arms around him, hugging him hard. “I’m so glad you’re back. Rachel’s okay. She’s back to her normal self, entirely. She wants cake for breakfast, and she’s drawing pictures on my phone, and I didn’t let anyone in the room all night, just like you said. But I haven’t slept, and I need to know what’s going on. What happens next? Are you okay? You look exhausted.”
He hugged her close while she spilled out all of her words, then eased back, offering a tired smile. “You always ask so many questions at once.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He touched her cheek lightly, then dropped his hand, as though thinking better of the gesture. “I’m glad Rachel is all right.” Lifting the bag in his hand, he nodded pointedly at it. “The doll is in here.”
“I don’t want that anywhere near her,” Autumn said, taking a step back herself. “Why is it here?”
“Because we’re taking it with us to the Azores.”
“To the where?”
Eamon nodded for her to go back into the room as a few of the nurses started glancing at them from their station. “Come on. Let’s talk in here.”
They walked back into the room, and Autumn was anxious to hear the answer to her question, but when Rachel saw Eamon, all she wanted to do was chatter to him.
“Hi! I remember you. Guess what? I was really, really, really, really sick, and I’m in the hospital.” She put down the phone she’d been playing with. “But it’s okay, because I’m better now. Hey, what’s in your bag? Do you want to draw pictures with me? Are you here to visit me?”
Eamon set down the bag, nudging it out of the way, and went to sit on the edge of Rachel’s bed. “I’m here to visit you, yes. I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
“Me too!” Rachel threw her hands up in the air. “I threw up one million times.”
“That’s a lot of times.”
“It’s too many times.”
“I agree.”
As endearing as it was for Autumn to watch the two converse so naturally, she really needed to talk to Eamon. Walking over, she handed the phone back to Rachel. “Sweetie, I want you to call Tamara on my phone and tell her how you’re all better, okay? She’s been very worried about you. And Anna too. Talk to them for a little while for me.”
“Okay,” Rachel agreed easily, picking up the phone and finding Tamara’s number with ease.
As soon as her daughter was distracted, Autumn led Eamon over to the far side of the room, speaking in hushed tones. “What are the Azores, and why are we going there?”
“They’re islands in the Atlantic Ocean,” he told her. “They’re owned by Portugal. They’re supposed to be beautiful.”
“Okay…” Autumn shook her head. “Why are we going there?”
“To find a witch.”
“Eamon.” Autumn tried to keep her tone patient. “I know that brevity is your thing, but I’ve been up all night, panicked, and I need more information. Please?”
He nodded. “Sorry. I talked to my friend, Isabelle. She told me more about how curses and animation work, but she’s only a dabbling practitioner. But she told me about a woman named Nova Oliveira, a descendant from one of the Salem witches, who knows everything about the magical community in Massachusetts. Apparently, if there’s someone to help us combat this group of people, it’s her.”
“But she’s in the Azores.”
“She married into a Portuguese family, and they visit their relatives in the Azores every summer.”
Autumn blew out a breath, rubbing a hand against her forehead. “Shit. Can’t we figure something out without her?”
Eamon looked confused at her question. “Why?”
“Because I have two kids who I can’t leave here, even with Tamara, knowing what could happen while I’m gone. Because I have a job that I can’t afford to lose. Because I don’t have the money to fly to an island.” She threw up a hand, much as her daughter had moments ago. “I have a real life to worry about, Eamon. I can’t go jetting off after a witch that might help me fight the witches who want to kill me. And by the way, why are they here and why do they want to kill me?”
“Those are things I hope she can help us figure out.”
“So it’s just a hope,” Autumn said, her hands on her hips. “I’m supposed to leave my kids and my job and buy a plane ticket…on a hope that she might have the answer. Someone who hasn’t even been around the area for months?” She shook her head. “No. That’s not the solution, Eamon. I can’t do that. You can go without me, I guess, but I can’t make that work.”
Autumn knew that it was exhaustion and stress, but she felt like she wanted to cry again. She didn’t know why these things kept happening to her. First, Robert’s long, brutal illness and caring for him in the worst stage of death, losing him and having to make it on her own for years, and now…now because she had gone on a run at the wrong time in the wrong place, she and her daughters were under attack by a coven of witches. And if she wanted to help fix that situation, she had to fly to an island in the middle of nowhere.
“Does she not have a cell phone?” Autumn asked, her voice too high. “Why can’t we just call her? Is she expecting us? I mean, is the right answer really to just fly over there? This is crazy, Eamon. My life is crazy, and there’s nothing I can do about it. There’s never anything I can do to stop this shit from happening to me.”
Her voice cracked on the last sentence, and she turned away from him, not wanting to dissolve in tears again but reaching the end of her rope. He said nothing, sliding his arms around her from behind and resting his cheek against her hair. Somehow, that touch calmed her enough to back her away from the emotional edge she was teetering on, and she leaned back against him, her eyes burning with exhaustion. Over the past few days, she had gotten even less sleep than she usually did, and it was catching up to her in every way. Her eyes closed, the burn growing worse for a moment, then easing as she let herself relax further and further in Eamon’s arms. He had a strange, powerful calming effect on her that she was utterly vulnerable to in that moment.
Even standing up, she began to drift as he held her, and she hardly noticed when he scooped her up in his arms and sat down in the chair beside Rachel’s bed, letting her head loll against his shoulder.
Chapter Seventeen
Eamon
Eamon knocked lightly on the doorjamb of Moira’s office, returning her welcoming smile with a tight one of his own as she finished up her phone call. When she hung up, she motioned for him to come sit across from her desk.
“Hey, come in. How are you doing?”
“Been better,” he said, cutting to the chase. “Listen, I need a loan.”
“It is about the case,” Eamon told her. “I need to fly to Sao Miguel, today, and I need to take Autumn and her two kids with me. But she has no money, and I do have money, but not the kind that lets me lay down five grand on the spot for flights and accommodations over there.”
Moira nodded. “Sure, I get it. Why don’t you just charge it to the agency though? I mean, we have case-related expense accounts for this kind of thing.”
He gave her a look. “Not for that kind of money. And…it’s not strictly necessary. I could go by myself, which I would charge to the expense account.”
“Okay, hold on,” Moira said, picking up her cell phone and making a call. “Grady? Hi, honey. No, no, lunch is still fine. I’m hoping you can lend me some money—five thousand dollars.” She paused. “No, I’m fine. It’s for Eamon. A last-minute trip he needs to go on.” Again, she paused, and Eamon shifted uncomfortably in his seat. But then she smiled. “Awww, honey. You’re so sweet. That’ll be great. Thank you. I love you. See you at one, okay?” Making kissing noises into the phone, she hung up and set it aside. “Okay, he’s wiring me the money, and I’ll just send it over to you.”
“I’ll pay him back.”
“He says consider it a gift,” Moira said. “I know you won’t, and I get that. But honestly, he’s happy for you to have it. I’m still getting used to being with a man with money and being able to do things like that when I need to. It’s a weird feeling. But handy for stuff like this!”
Eamon nodded. “I’m sorry to have to ask. But it’s important for her to go and be part of this. She can’t leave her kids though, and I wouldn’t ask her to, given the threat they’re under. It will be better if they’re as far away from here as we can get them.”
“We.”
Not understanding, Eamon just looked at her, waiting.
“You keep saying we,” Moira said. “As in, you and Autumn.”
Eamon leaned back in his chair, sighing. “Moira…don’t. You’re in love and fully on board with this new direction the clan is going, and I think that’s great. For you. I’m not looking for that. Not with Autumn, or anyone else.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m just not,” Eamon said. “And especially not with her. Yes, she’s beautiful and sweet and a hard worker and a great mom and a smart, capable, dedicated woman. But she has enough going on in her own life. Her husband died a few years ago—a terrible death. She has two kids to think about—two kids who have no business being dragged into this world that we live in, even if right now they’re not being given a choice. It’s too complicated, and it’s not happening. You’re just looking for romance everywhere.”
Moira was smiling, studying him as she leaned back against her desk chair. “Those are the most words I’ve heard you say all at once in a very long time—at least about something not related directly to a case. Methinks you doth protest too much.”
“I don’t.”
“I see the way you look at her.”
“Moira,” he warned. “I really appreciate the loan—really, really—but don’t push it. Please?” He lifted his hands, warding her off. “I’m not telling Autumn about who and what we really are. I’m not making her life any more complicated than it has to be.”
“Because you care about her.”
Eamon stood up, signaling an end to the conversation. “I have to get things ready for the trip and tell Autumn what’s going on. If I don’t see Ronan, will you tell him where I’ve gone?”
“Of course.”
“And will you all keep your ear to the ground about anything relating to a magical coven or group? Anything strange, I want to know about it right away.”
“Absolutely.”
“And watch your backs. All of you are potential targets once I disappear.”
“You got it.”
Eamon nodded, shoving his hands in the pockets of his midnight-washed jeans. “Good. Okay. Thanks. I appreciate all of it, and I’ll get you the money back.”
Standing up too, Moira rounded her desk and gave him a friendly hug. “Don’t worry about it. Just do me one favor, Eamon. While you’re over there—keep an open mind. Okay?”
He said nothing, just tugging on one of her curls before he slipped from her office and hurried to his own to pack a few things he would need while traveling. Despite the mission that they would be on in the Azores, he was excited to go see the reputedly gorgeous islands. And he had to admit that one of the reasons he was making sure that Autumn would get to go with him was because he just wanted her there. He wanted to see her see the islands in all of their majesty, and he wanted to see her take a break for a little while.
Though he’d only known her for one day, he knew very well that she had been under immense pressure for years, and that the only time she ever took for herself was the time she spent running.
Now that was ruined for her too, and she needed to get away. She needed to feel safe, to feel protected, and to feel free again.
Maybe it wasn’t necessary for her to be there when he talked to Nova, but it was necessary for her to catch her breath. And he couldn’t wait to tell her that all four of them were going.
It was her potential excitement that he dwelled on as he made his way back to her house to deliver the news and not Moira’s uncomfortably accurate assessment that he was getting attached to this woman very quickly. He didn’t want to think about the fact that Autumn might be the person who was just right for him, because he wasn’t going to be selfish enough to turn her world any further upside down than it already was. If he ignored how he was feeling, then maybe, just maybe, that would be a little bit easier.
Chapter Eighteen
Autumn
Getting the girls settled back in at the safehouse that Ronan had set up was, thankfully, easy. It was as though Rachel had never been sick at all, and as soon as they arrived at the house, she went bounding into the room where Anna had put her things, ready to spill all the dramatic details of her night in the hospital and then initiating a highly nuanced game of nurse and patient. The two girls had always played well together, and as Autumn thanked Tamara profusely, sent her home to rest, and then made herself a cup of tea, she was grateful that her girls were friends as well as sisters.
It would give her a chance to sit down at the kitchen table and figure out what was supposed to happen next. Someone from Connolly Security had been kind enough to stock the house with basic groceries—including tea—and that was no small blessing. The house was clean and in good shape, had all the basic comforts, and would certainly do for a few days while they tried to figure out where to go next. It wasn’t home, but it would work.
Beyond that, Autumn was lost as to what she was supposed to do now. She was scheduled to work tomorrow, but she didn’t see how she could leave the girls, knowing that one of them had been directly targeted and that they were all under threat of further attacks. Attacks from witches. She couldn’t just leave them, but she couldn’t afford to miss her shift either. There were bills coming up soon, and working in the ER meant that her supervisors did not look kindly on people who missed shifts or asked to be scheduled off without notice. They needed everybody they could get in the ER, and if she couldn’t show up, they would find someone to replace her.
Her headache was growing again, and she pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to ease the pressure. Then she reached for the bag of things that Tamara had packed for her, which included her laptop. Pulling out the small computer, she opened it up, wiped it off, signed in, and, with a deep breath, opened an internet browser. It was time for her to start learning more about what was behind the threat on her family, and even if she didn’t have any clue how to begin researching witchcraft, she had to try. She couldn’t just sit and wait for Eamon to get her answers.
Autumn had been browsing f
or about half an hour when there was a knock at her door. For a moment, she froze, then she remembered that she was out in the middle of nowhere, in a safe house that only the Connolly agents knew about. It was probably Eamon. It had to be Eamon.
Then her phone dinged.
Sorry. I should have told you I was coming by so you wouldn’t be startled. It’s just me at the door.
She smiled slightly, grateful for the text, and got up, walking over to the door and letting Eamon inside. “Hi.”
“Hey. Have you gotten any sleep yet?”
Autumn shook her head. “No. Can’t shut my mind off. I’ve been researching.”
He nodded, then he took a deep breath, like he was bracing himself for something. That “something” involved him pushing several plane tickets at her and talking faster than she’d ever heard him talk before.
“I’ve bought four plane tickets to the Azores. The plane leaves this evening. You don’t owe me any money, and we’re not leaving the girls behind. All of us are going so that we can get Nova to help us figure out what kind of magic we’re up against, and I know that you’ll have a million reasons why you shouldn’t, couldn’t, and wouldn’t go, but please come. Please.”
Astonished, Autumn stared at the tickets, one with her name, one with Anna’s, and one with Rachel’s. “Eamon …”
“It will be safer for them,” he said quickly. “The further away they are, the less chance there is of them getting attacked again. Putting an ocean between them and the woods by your house wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
It was a persuasive argument, but Autumn still didn’t know what to say. The money that he must have spent to get these tickets—tickets that would surely be nonrefundable, so if she decided not to go they would be wasted—was not insignificant. Why? Why was it so important to him?
She looked up at him, and it was as though he could read the question in her eyes.
“I want you there,” he said quietly. “To keep you safe. To keep you near. To keep the girls safe. And because I know it’s important for you to be involved. I could go do it myself, but I would be worried about you all the time back here. Even if I left someone to watch you.”
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