The man Balin waved a hand at the driver. “Go—before we have to shoot the bystanders.” He slammed the door shut and stalked toward one of the black Land Rovers parked behind the hearse.
As the vehicles pulled away, Jax saw Billy Ramirez running down the street from his house in bare feet, wearing Lord of the Rings pajamas. He was looking at the glow in the sky until he spotted the crumpled form in front of Mrs. Unger’s, then he diverted to cross the street, cutting in front of the hearse. The driver cursed, turning the wheel and barely missing him.
“Billy, look out,” Jax yelled, pressing his face against the window.
Billy saw him and shouted, “Jax, what are you doing in there? Jax!”
The hearse passed him and picked up speed.
“Where are you taking us?” Jax growled at the two men in front, summoning his talent and reaching over the seats to put his hand on one of them.
The guy beside the driver grabbed his wrist and turned around. Jax found himself facing the man who’d offered to take him out back. “Your magic won’t work on me, inquisitor.” His fingers tightened on Jax’s arm. “My brother may have promised your liege lady he’d bring you along, but no one said you had to arrive with all your teeth.” This guy was younger than the man with the gasoline can, but his eyes were the same cold, dark color, and he had a vicious smile. He shoved Jax backward and cranked up a glass partition between the passenger compartment and the front seats.
Jax stumbled into Tegan, who pushed him away. He pushed her back. “You sold me out!” he yelled. “You sold out my friends! Why? What did I ever do to you?”
“We sold some Kin girl to one of her own kind,” Tegan yelled back. “It’s got nothing to do with you. It wasn’t supposed to hurt anybody.”
“Oh, yeah?” Jax dragged her to the window of the hearse. “Do you see that glow in the sky? That’s my friend’s house on fire. Her kids are trapped inside, and my guardian’s trying to get them out.” He shook Tegan. “You did that, didn’t you? How else did they know to pick her house?”
Tegan wrenched herself loose. “You said there was a security shield in town. I found it. I didn’t know they were going to set her house on fire.” Her face was flushed. “We’re not killers.”
“Really? Your dad showed Terrance how to get into Grunsday so he could kidnap kids and kill them when he was done with them. And you sicced these maniacs on Melinda so they could kill her family.”
“Shut up!” Tegan hissed.
“But you messed up, didn’t you? You did such a good job, they want to keep you.”
“Dad and Tommy’ll come for me.” Tegan retreated across the hearse from Jax and huddled in the opposite corner of the U-shaped bench seat.
“What’d you do it for?” Jax asked bitterly.
“Money.”
“A garbage bag full of cash wasn’t enough?”
“Dad lost that at the horse races,” Tegan said. “And he owed more.”
Jax’s heart sank into his stomach. He should have known when they took the cash from his household kitty that the Donovans couldn’t hang on to money. They were always going to be scavenging for more. I led them to Evangeline.
Tegan confirmed it. “Tommy thought you had the scent of someone powerful on you, so we came to check it out, and I smelled Kin next door. High-ranking Kin. Dad knew about these people who were searching for a high-ranking Kin girl and—” Suddenly, Tegan broke off and glared at him. “Stop it,” she said through clenched teeth.
Jax hadn’t even realized he was using his talent on her. But he wasn’t going to let her go now that he had her. “Who are these people?” They had to be the ones Riley had mentioned, the people his dad had briefly worked for and then betrayed.
The ones searching for an Emrys heir to break the Eighth-Day Spell.
Tegan shook her head furiously, fighting his interrogation, but couldn’t stop herself from answering. “Dad knew a guy who knew a guy who knew about ’em. They’re vassals to some Kin liege.” She looked him up and down with disgust. “Like you are. What’d ya do something so stupid for? I can smell the oath on you. Transitioners aren’t supposed to swear to Kin! We’ve got eight days to their one. Why would you put yourself under one of them?”
“You’d have to care about somebody other than yourself to understand,” Jax retorted.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Tegan said.
No. Jax had seen the surprised look on Donovan’s face when he fell. None of it was supposed to happen, and it was Jax’s fault it had. He’d been too cowardly to tell Riley about the Donovans, and now Evangeline had fallen into the hands of enemies, and Melinda . . .
Remembering how quickly the sirens had sounded, Jax tried to convince himself that Riley or one of the Crandalls had called 911 in the first possible instant. But any neighbor might have made that call after midnight on Thursday. For all Jax knew, Riley and Melinda were dead, along with her family. Jax had not only been irresponsible, he’d been a liability to everyone. He was painfully aware that Evangeline had taken him as a vassal to protect him, not because she believed he could protect her.
He twisted around to look at the casket.
“She doesn’t feel it, you know.”
Jax turned a resentful glare on Tegan, who added, “It’ll be like a second or two before they let her out. She won’t feel the time passing.”
“You don’t know what she feels,” Jax said. “So just shut up.” Maybe it would be only a second of terror for Evangeline inside that coffin, but it was a second that would last for seven days. She was living it now—and would still be living it an hour from now, and a day from now, and a week from now.
Jax couldn’t save her from that endless moment or end it any quicker for her.
They drove all night and into the next morning, crossing into Ohio. It was past noon when the hearse and the following Land Rovers pulled up in front of an isolated farmhouse. They were met by a wiry woman with a face like a mean little terrier, who opened the door of the hearse. “Hands behind your heads,” she said. “Keep your mouths shut and walk single file to the door.”
Jax climbed out behind Tegan. He put his hands on his head, but instead of following instructions, he headed for the back of the hearse, where men were unloading the casket. The terrier-faced woman grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back, trying to dislocate his arm or possibly rip it off. He gasped in pain and struggled to get free.
A sharp whistle preceded a shout. “Let him go.”
Jax staggered as the woman released him and received an unexpected hand of assistance from the older Balin. “Take it easy, Aubrey,” he said. “We’re not going to harm your liege.”
“Harm her?” Jax repeated. He watched as the casket was carried into the house. “You threatened to burn her alive. You threw her into a coffin!”
“No one will harm her now that she’s in our custody,” Balin amended.
“What do you want with her?” Jax threw as much talent as he knew how to muster into that question. He had no honor blade, and there was no time for meditation, but he was seething with anger and that might help.
It was like hurling magic at a blank wall. Balin didn’t even twitch. He answered Jax’s question with one of his own. “Where does your loyalty lie? With your liege or with the person you were living with?”
“With her.” If Jax had to choose between Evangeline and Riley, he would choose Evangeline. Riley would want him to choose Evangeline.
“Who is he?” Balin asked. “What’s his name?”
It took two beats of the heart for Jax to find an answer. “He had an arrangement with my liege. If she wants to tell you his name, she will. But I can’t answer without instruction.”