by Ivy Sinclair
Riley gently set me on my feet, and then opened the back door. I crawled inside and found the nearest chair. Riley made sure I was completely inside, and then shut the door behind me. He slid into the passenger seat next to Klein.
I wanted to close my eyes, but I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to be able to sleep again.
CHAPTER TWELVE – RILEY
I had never been so scared in my life. When I located the people in the field and saw the demons descend into their bodies and possess them, I thought for sure all was lost. But that didn’t stop my feet from moving forward to try to find Paige.
They had been so enrapt with the idea of seeing their Goddess finally possess her vessel that not one of them stopped me when I closed in on the circle. That was unusual, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there had been something wrong that I was missing.
“How did you know it was the necklace?” Paige’s weary voice traveled to my ears. I swiveled my seat around to face her. It was a modification that I had made to the van that often came in handy.
“It was the only thing that made sense,” I said. “I noticed that you seemed reluctant to discuss leaving the farm whenever I brought it up, and then you started to talk about wanting to end everything. Abigail gave you that necklace. It made sense that she could also use it to control you.”
“It was Fernando actually,” she said. “He used blood magic to lock the spell in. I think I might have been able to resist until he did that.”
“Blood is powerful. Demon blood is second only to an angel’s,” I said. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Abigail said that the demon plague was wiping them out. The demons that possessed the humans back there were sick,” Paige said.
Now I understood why they hadn’t attacked me when I intervened. They had been weakened. “Well, it’s a win in our favor, and I’ll take it.”
“I like winning,” Klein said. “But next time, if we can win without me having to take one for the team that would be awesome.”
“How’s your head?” I asked. I felt slightly bad that once I went after Paige, I had forgotten about Klein’s injury altogether.
“I used some of that extra strength powder from the Morlen root that you store in the back for emergencies. I’m all good,” Klein said.
Morlen root also had the side effect of causing hallucinations. I was starting to wonder if letting him drive had been the best idea.
“You saw Eva, right? She looked right at you. She looked like she recognized you, and she said something to you but I couldn’t hear it,” Paige said.
I shook my head. “I saw her, but she didn’t even look in my direction. She was entirely focused on you.”
Paige frowned. “She said something to you, Riley. For a second, your eyes glowed red just like a demon’s.”
“Eva wanted you, not me,” I persisted. I felt a sense of unease in my stomach.
“So you don’t believe me. Again,” she said flatly.
“You were under a spell that made you amenable to possession by an ancient goddess. Your mind was being manipulated. You weren’t thinking clearly. I believe that you believe what you saw, but that’s not what happened. I’d remember.”
Paige looked away from me then. I saw her hand go to her throat, but now there was nothing there. “What about Bruno? Won’t he be able to find me now?”
“We’re hours away from where he attacked you,” I said. “The trail will have gone cold. We’ve got a head start on him, and we’re going to stick with the back roads. The spell that keeps this van invisible should protect you from his eyes as well. As long as we don’t do anything that draws attention to us, we should be able to travel under the radar.”
“Where are we going?”
“We know that the last place the Protector was seen was somewhere in the Pacific Northwest,” I said.
“Well, that certainly narrows things down,” Paige said sarcastically.
I could tell that she was frustrated with me. I wondered if this was going to be our relationship. Hot then cold. Hot then cold again. But she was safe, and she was still Paige. It had been a close call back at the farm, but we found a way through it. As long as that was the case, I could deal with her being pissed off at me.
“One thing at a time, babe,” I said. I reached out and took her hand. I squeezed it, and a moment later she squeezed it back. Then I smiled at her. “Let’s take the small victories, okay? I’m glad that you are alright. You had me worried.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not sure what’s happening, Riley, but for a minute there when I touched that area of your back where your tattoo is I felt so powerful. I felt like I could do almost anything.”
I had no idea what to say about that. “Maybe it isn’t all Eva. You’ve been so sure all this time that the magic you are accessing is hers that maybe you’ve missed that you’ve been finding a way to develop those skills on your own.”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” she replied. “There’s something about the two of us together that fits and makes sense. And when I feel that, I can feel the magic.”
There was something I been meaning to give her, and now finally seemed like the right time. I took the item I had been holding for her out of my pocket and pressed it into the palm of her hand.
Paige looked at the small piece of metal in her hand. Her other hand went to her mouth, and she gasped. I saw the tears forming in her eyes as she held it up to look at it in the light. “My locket. I didn’t think I’d ever see this again.”
“Alice gave it to me. She thought that you might want it back. Although she also mentioned that you owe her some kind of magical knife.”
Paige’s face flushed. “I feel bad about the fact that I stole that from her.”
I reached out and touched her knee. “It’s okay. That was a long time ago. And I’ll do whatever you need me to do to help you access your magic. I imagine that will come in mighty handy before this is all done. It’s you and me. Always.”
She smiled at me then, and I felt a wave of relief. I had finally said the right thing. I figured that statistically it was bound to happen sooner or later.
“Where do I fit into that equation?” Klein asked.
“Every good super duo needs a chauffeur or butler sidekick,” I chuckled.
Paige laughed with me, and I heard Klein mutter something that I figured I wasn’t meant to hear. Then her eyes flashed over my shoulder, and her jaw went slack.
“Riley?” She started to point behind me.
“Oh, shit!” Klein exclaimed as he hit the brakes and yanked the steering wheel to the left.
I whirled around in my seat and saw what everyone else had already seen.
Proctor smiled as he stood calmly in the middle of the road not ten feet away from the van. Klein was yelling as the van hit the ditch at an angle, and I felt the shift in balance as he lost control. As the van started to flip, I heard Paige scream. Then the world exploded.
To be continued…
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About Ivy Sinclair
Ivy Sinclair cut her romance teeth on classics like Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, An Affair to Remember, and Sabrina. She is a firm believer in true love, a happily ever after ending, and the medicinal use of chocolate to cure any ailment of the heart. Ivy's guilty pleasures include sushi, endless Starbucks lattes, and wine. Readers of Ivy's stories can expect smoldering sweet stories of romance that tug at the heartstrings.
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Other titles by Ivy Sinclar:
Where My Heart Breaks
Bittersweet Junction
Grounded By You
Protect Her: Part One
Protect Her: Part Two
Protect Her: Part Three
Protect Her: Part Four