Killing Time (The Witches of Mingus Mountain #3)

18. Friends Like These

18

FRIENDS LIKE THESE

A pretty Mexican woman answered the bell Seth had just rung. Considering how strongly he felt the twinge that told him he was in the presence of a witch, he guessed she must be the de la Paz prima …or maybe the prima -in-waiting, since she looked to be only a few years older than Ruby. She was much slighter, though, and so tiny that her head didn’t even reach his shoulder.

“I am Maya de la Paz, my clan’s prima -in-waiting,” she said. “What business brings you McAllisters to the prima’s house?”

“Urgent business,” Seth replied, and Ruby nodded.

“My cousin Seth and I need to speak to both of you. It’s a matter of Wilcox treachery.”

Those dramatic words appeared to have the desired effect, because at once, Maya’s darkly arched brows pulled together, and she opened the courtyard gate a little farther to allow them entry.

“Then you must come inside, of course,” she said. “Follow me.”

Even in mid-November, flowers bloomed in colorful pots on all sides, sweet and fragrant reminders that winters were much gentler here in the south. A fountain splashed cheerfully in the center of the tiled courtyard, and Seth thought it might be the sort of place where he could happily sit down with a book and while away a few hours.

Not that he would have the luxury to do so any time soon.

The floors inside were tile as well, a warm, reddish hue that went well with the stark white walls and the dark beamed ceilings overhead. But even in here, the impression was one of light and airiness, thanks to the tall, arched windows on either side and French doors that opened both onto the courtyard and into the gardens to the rear of the sprawling house.

Maya led them to a room where a woman who appeared to be in her late forties or thereabouts was sitting in a chair, nimble fingers busy with what looked to be some sort of crocheted scarf. Seth wasn’t sure whether anyone in the woman’s clan would need such a thing when winters in Phoenix were so mild, but he supposed there must be more mountainous areas in their territory where more traditional winter gear might be necessary.

As soon as they approached, however, she set the scarf and her crochet hook in the basket that rested on the floor next to her and gazed at them with lively dark eyes. She and her daughter shared many of the same features — the longish, delicate nose, the emphatic and elegant brows, a full, rosy mouth that had no need of lipstick.

“I am Anna de la Paz,” the woman said as she rose to her feet. “I recognize you, Ruby McAllister, but I do not know who this is.”

“Seth McAllister,” he supplied.

“My cousin,” Ruby added, probably unnecessarily, since all McAllisters were cousins of some sort.

“They said it was a problem with the Wilcoxes,” Maya chimed in, and the prima’s brows rose.

“What have they done now?”

“Jasper Wilcox kidnapped me,” Ruby replied, clearly deciding there wasn’t much point in mincing words. “Seth was able to rescue me with the help of several Wilcoxes who didn’t agree with what their primus had done, but unfortunately, the woman who was assisting us seems to have fallen into their hands.”

The two de la Paz witches exchanged a glance, one that made it obvious they were less than thrilled to hear this information.

“Why would Jasper Wilcox kidnap you?” Anna asked, then added quickly so she wouldn’t seem dismissive of her guest’s ordeal, “But I am very glad to see you were able to escape without harm.”

“He thought by forcing me to bond with him, he would be able to break the curse that has hung over his clan for decades,” Ruby said. “We have our doubts that his wild scheme would have even worked, but that’s not the issue at hand right now.”

“No, that would be Jasper Wilcox’s brazen defiance of the laws we have all agreed to abide by,” Maya said. Unlike her mother, who did not appear either shocked or worried by what the primus had done, the prima -in-waiting was visibly upset, petite form almost stiff with rage.

“It is a terrible thing,” her mother agreed, although her expression remained almost too serene, given the situation. “But since your clan was able to rescue you, Ruby, I am not sure what you expect us to do.”

Now Ruby sent Seth a worried look, as though she hadn’t been anticipating this sort of reaction from the prima and didn’t know how she should respond.

He didn’t know for sure, either, but he thought he had better step in. “We were hoping you might provide some assistance. Jasper moved against the McAllisters this time, but there’s no saying that he might not try the same thing with your clan at some point.”

“I very much doubt that,” Anna de la Paz said. She still appeared mostly unmoved by their story, despite ramifications that Seth thought should be obvious. “Our territories don’t border one another’s, and he would be a fool to do anything to provoke us when he cannot easily retreat to his own lands. Also,” she added, now smiling slightly, “he would have no reason to do the same thing to my Maya here, for she has been married these past two years.”

Yes, that was a wide gold band on the prima -in-waiting’s tiny hand, looking almost too big for her slender finger.

A bonded and married prima -in-waiting certainly wouldn’t work for Jasper’s supposed needs.

“But he’s still holding my friend captive,” Seth protested. While he thought “friend” was far too casual a word to describe his relationship with Devynn, he wasn’t quite brave enough to say “lover”…and “girlfriend” sounded oddly juvenile and far too insipid a word for the connection they shared.

Whatever term he used, he knew he would do whatever he must to set her free.

“That is terrible,” Anna agreed. “However, if she was not his prey, I doubt he will do anything except keep her for a while and then let her go. Even Jasper Wilcox knows better than to attract the attention of the authorities by holding a woman hostage in his home…or worse.”

Seth wished he could believe that. But he’d seen Jasper’s house for himself, had seen how big it was, how it sat on almost an acre and was surrounded by trees, so it would be difficult for anyone except the nosiest neighbor to see what was happening inside.

And although he couldn’t say he knew anything about how the Wilcoxes interacted with the local police, he had to believe the authorities generally looked the other way when it came to any skullduggery the clan might be up to. They possessed far too much power and money to be held to the same rules as the rest of the population.

These arguments flashed through his mind, but, looking at Anna de la Paz’s calm but also implacable expression, he realized with a sinking sensation in his gut that saying them out loud wouldn’t do any good. The prima knew she and her own were safe from the depredations of the Wilcoxes — McAllister lands made a sort of buffer zone in between the clans — and besides, the de la Pazes were far larger and stronger than the McAllisters, and not a clan Jasper would want to face in a head-on confrontation.

“Mama, Jasper Wilcox is holding a woman against her will,” Maya said, her voice now pleading. “We can’t just stand by and do nothing.”

Now the older woman’s full lips pressed together. “It is unfortunate,” she replied. “And I can speak to some of our clan’s elder members, just to see what advice they might offer. But I fear they will have the same view of the situation. What has happened to your friend is terrible, and yet I think they also will not want to drag our entire clan into a dispute that has nothing to do with us.”

The prima -in-waiting crossed her arms. “And what if we need the help of the McAllisters one day? Do you think they will be eager to lend their assistance after we turned our backs on them when they came asking for help?”

“I have not said that is definitely what will happen,” Anna said, and her gaze flickered toward Ruby for a moment before returning to her daughter. “This matter needs more discussion.” A pause, and she added, voice calm and precise, “I have no wish to give offense here, but the McAllisters are not a strong or a large clan. I do not think any of us can imagine the day when we would be in such dire need of their help.”

Although Seth might have understood those truths deep down, he didn’t much like hearing them spoken aloud by the de la Paz prima. Next to him, Ruby narrowed her eyes, although he could somehow sense she’d also realized that offering more protests wasn’t going to do any good.

“Then we’re sorry to have disturbed you,” she said. “I truly hope what you’ve said is true and that you’ll never need to look outward for any help. If that day ever arrives, I suppose I’ll have to also hope that I might show you more compassion than you’ve shown us today.”

Having delivered those words, she turned and began stalking toward the front door. Not sure what he should do, Seth followed after a brief pause, since he knew that, as the prima -in-waiting, Ruby was the one to make the decision as to whether their audience was over.

Or at least, she had more sway here than he did, since he was just a regular member of their clan and no one with any real standing.

Anna said no word to try to stop them, but just as they opened the front door and were about to step into the courtyard, Maya appeared directly behind them, her expression one of worry and dismay.

“I am so sorry about that,” she said, even as she shut the door so they could be alone in the sheltered space. “I understand why my mother doesn’t want to make trouble with the Wilcoxes, but maybe the family members she consults with will decide we do need to provide some kind of help.”

Ruby lifted one perfectly penciled brow. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

Some women might have looked away. Maya de la Paz, however, only lifted her chin and met the other prima -in-waiting’s gaze as squarely as she could, given the difference in their heights.

“I’m afraid I don’t,” she said. “But we still don’t know for sure what the elder relatives in my clan will say.”

“It’s all right,” Seth replied, an utter lie. Like Ruby, he didn’t see the point in holding out hope that the senior members of the de la Paz clan might talk some sense into Anna.

But Maya looked so distressed that he’d thought he needed to say something to let her know they didn’t consider any of this to be her fault.

“No, it’s not all right,” she said. “Unfortunately, I can’t do very much to go behind my mother’s back.”

Ruby reached over to put a friendly hand on her fellow prima -in-waiting’s arm. “We wouldn’t expect you to do that. I suppose I just hoped that she would understand Jasper Wilcox is a danger to all of us, and not just the McAllisters.”

“She should have,” Maya agreed. “But because things have been quiet for so long, I don’t think she wants to do anything that would upset the balance.”

“Because appeasing villains always works out so well,” Ruby said with a curl of her bright red lip, and Maya appeared even more troubled.

Seth had the impression there had been more significance to his cousin’s words than he immediately recognized, but he thought it best not to dive into that subject too deeply, not when they had more pressing matters to manage. “We’ll figure this out,” he said. “It would have helped to know that the de la Pazes would be there to support us, but we’ll come up with something.”

“Yes, we will,” Ruby said. She sounded supremely confident, but he’d already come to realize that was just how she operated.

For all he knew, she’d cultivated that air of confidence, of believing there was a solution to every problem, because she’d realized early on that she would probably be fairly young when she had to take over from Abigail. No settling in comfortably as prima as a woman in her forties or even fifties, someone who’d already raised a family and knew something of the world and how it worked, but rather the understanding that she might have to step in as the head of the clan at any moment.

Maya now looked almost hopeful, as though some of the other prima -in-waiting’s assurance had rubbed off on her. “You really think so?”

“We do,” Ruby said. “And there’s still a chance your clan might come to the rescue. But we’ve taken up enough of your time. Now Seth and I need to get back to Jerome so we can plan.”

“It is a long drive,” Maya agreed, and now Seth found himself smiling for the first time since they’d come to Phoenix.

“Oh, we didn’t drive,” he said.

Ruby grinned as well, and came over and slipped her arms around his waist. “It was nice seeing you, Maya,” she told the other woman. “Just remember that we McAllisters always have a few tricks up our sleeve.”

And then they blinked away.

“Well, that was a waste of time,” Ruby grumped as soon as they materialized in Seth’s living room.

He was inclined to agree. “They definitely weren’t all that helpful,” he responded. “Or at least, Anna wasn’t. I think if Maya was running the clan, things would have been a lot different.”

“I think you’re right.” Ruby put her hands on her hips and glanced around the room, although nothing had changed in the twenty minutes or so they’d been gone. The little sketch she’d made of Anna de la Paz’s gracious Spanish-style house still sat on the dining room table, and because he’d left the kitchen window open, a cool breeze caught at the blue striped curtains that hung there. “Well, we can scratch the de la Pazes off the list, because I know those ‘discussions’ with their elders aren’t going to amount to a hill of beans. What else do we have going for us?”

As far as Seth was concerned, not a whole hell of a lot. His ability to teleport wouldn’t get him very far in a place that he knew must be protected against incursions by strange warlocks.

And even though he knew she would be willing to lend her strength to his, he didn’t dare take Ruby with him. He was desperate to get Devynn back, sure, but letting the prima -in-waiting fall into Jasper’s hands again wasn’t even an option.

His hand went to his breast pocket, where the heavy bronze amulet had rested all this time. Obviously, Ruby hadn’t been present when he’d shown the artifact to Abigail and the elders, so she had no idea he had such a thing in his possession.

Right now — despite the way the prima had called it an “abomination” — Seth thought it might be their best chance at success.

Especially since the de la Paz prima had refused to help them. Oh, sure, she’d made a few noises about consulting with other members of her clan, but Seth knew their assistance was never going to materialize.

“I have this,” he said as he pulled out the amulet and laid it on the table next to Ruby’s sketch.

Surprise flickered in her clear blue eyes, but she didn’t reach out to touch the amulet, and instead only stood there so she could stare down at it for a moment.

“What is that? I can tell it’s powerful, but — ”

Not for the first time, he realized how much more extensive Ruby’s abilities were than his. She hadn’t even inherited the true prima power yet, but she still could feel the energy emanating from the amulet, something Seth couldn’t really do even though he tapped into the thing every time he needed to teleport with someone riding along.

“We found it when we were back in 1884,” he said. “A warlock with a traveling show was using it to amplify his powers and allow him to do all sorts of amazing tricks.”

“He was using magic in public?” Ruby asked, aghast, and Seth nodded.

“Yes, Devynn and I weren’t too happy about that, either, and that’s why we confiscated it. He was putting the entire witch community at risk.”

Even though their reasons for taking the amulet had been sound enough, he still couldn’t help feeling just a bit guilty for confiscating the one thing that had allowed Lawrence Pratt some measure of success. But even a warlock with little power should have understood the risks he was taking, and in the end, they hadn’t had much choice.

And since the amulet had helped him and Devynn a great deal, he couldn’t be too regretful about keeping it in their possession.

Ruby nodded and at last picked up the amulet, weighing it in her hand. “So, that’s what it does? Strengthens whatever power you might have?”

“Yes,” Seth replied. “That’s why I can take you with me when I teleport. Without the amulet, I can only send myself and up to around forty pounds of whatever I’m carrying.”

She gazed down at the amulet for a moment, eyes narrowing a little as she appeared to take in all the various runes and sigils engraved into its surface. “So, it amplifies just one person’s powers at a time?”

“As far as we can tell,” he said. “When Devynn was carrying it, she used it to hide both our witch powers, which was why we were able to walk openly in Wilcox territory for several days. But when I needed it to teleport you out of that hotel room, she gave the amulet to me.”

“Good thing, I suppose,” Ruby observed. “Or otherwise, it might have fallen into Jasper Wilcox’s hands.”

An unpleasant eventuality Seth had already considered. But even though he was very glad that Jasper didn’t have the amulet, he still thought the price of keeping it in McAllister control had been far too high.

A brief nod, and he said, “Anyway, while it’s useful, there are limits to what it can do. It’s not as if I can snap my fingers and have it deliver Devynn to me.” He paused there and sent Ruby a curious look. “What is your power, anyway?”

She seemed almost amused, her mouth curving in a half-smile as she said, “I can call out to the clan with my mind, like I did the day when Jasper kidnapped me. But I’m also very good with protective magic. Ever since I came into my magic a month or so after my eleventh birthday, I’ve helped the elders lay down the wards we use to keep Jerome safe.”

Wards that hadn’t done a very good job the day Jasper had come here. Then again, Seth was pretty sure no one had thought the Wilcox primus would be so brazen as to actually set foot on McAllister land. No, the wards existed mainly to make sure the regular rank-and-file Wilcox witches and warlocks didn’t take it into their heads that it might be fun to try to infiltrate their rivals’ home territory.

But while such magic was useful and necessary, it wasn’t anything that might help with getting Devynn back…even if he was willing to take such a risk as having Ruby return to Wilcox territory, which he absolutely was not.

There had to be some other way.

“How much do you know about the McAllisters’ various gifts?” he asked next.

Surely someone must possess the kind of magic that would be useful in such a situation, whether turning invisible or throwing fireballs or anything else that might give them an advantage over the Wilcox witches and warlocks.

“I don’t have everyone’s talents memorized,” Ruby said, still smiling slightly. “But I know enough to tell you that we don’t have anyone in our clan who would really be able to help with something like this. Our gifts tend to be smaller, not that showy.”

Which was what he’d feared he might hear. Even in his own time, his talent for translocation…teleportation, whatever you wanted to call it…had been unusual among his clan. The McAllisters had far more weather workers or those who could encourage plants to grow, ensuring there was always plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables from their gardens to keep them well supplied. And there had been people like his cousin Lester, who could build a house from the ground up without needing a single blueprint or any other kind of plan, or Sarah, whose potions had often supplemented Helen’s healing gifts.

All useful in their own ways, he supposed, but nothing that would allow them to mount a full-on assault against the Wilcoxes.

“Then what are we supposed to do?” he demanded, and Ruby came over and gave him a quick hug, just enough to show that she truly did care about their predicament, even though she had been rescued and wasn’t in any immediate danger any longer.

“I’m not sure,” she said after she’d let go and taken a step back. “But we know that Jasper really doesn’t need Devynn for anything. He could let her go any time he wanted. Honestly, I have a feeling he’s holding on to her out of spite more than anything else.”

Seth had been trying to tell himself that as well.

Or possibly not spite, exactly, but realizing that Devynn was a Wilcox and therefore needed to stay in her clan’s territory.

Ruby continued to watch him with sympathetic eyes, and Seth knew he had to tell her the truth. He’d been hiding it from his brother and the prima and the elders, but the prima -in-waiting was an entirely different matter. She could have safely sat on the sidelines once she was rescued and yet had continued to provide whatever assistance she could.

“There’s something else,” he said, and she lifted an eyebrow.

“Is it something complicated? Because if it is, I think I’d like a glass of water first. All this back and forth has made me kind of thirsty.”

He couldn’t help chuckling at the request. There was just something about his cousin that made everything seem a little more no-nonsense and practical, a quality that allowed him to push his worries aside for a few minutes.

“I think I can arrange that.”

The time he’d already spent here with Devynn had let him learn the new layout of the kitchen and what was stored where, so it didn’t take him very long to fetch a couple of glasses and fill them with water from the tap. Once he was done, he handed one of them to Ruby, who went into the living room so she could sit down on the sofa there.

She sipped from the tumbler, then said, “All right — what’s this ‘something else’?”

He took a seat on one of the chairs that faced the couch and swallowed some water as well. “Devynn…her last name is Rowe, but her mother is a Wilcox.”

Maybe just the briefest flash of astonishment in Ruby’s clear, sky-colored eyes, and she said, “I suppose that does put a different complexion on things. Do you think Jasper knows?”

“You knew I was a McAllister when you sensed me at La Posada.”

“True.” Ruby sipped some more water, her expression now thoughtful. “So, it probably makes sense that Jasper would also be able to know that Devynn was one of his own, even if he couldn’t recognize her because she’s not from his time. But that makes her pretty safe, doesn’t it? That is, I don’t think even Jasper Wilcox would harm one of his own.”

“That’s what I’ve been hoping and telling myself,” Seth replied. “But I still want to do whatever I can to get her out of there.”

“Of course you do.” The prima -in-waiting went quiet then, her quick mind clearly picking away at the problem and trying to see if it could come up with some kind of solution to their current conundrum. Then she shook her head. “It’s tricky, because even if we went directly to Jasper and asked him to pretty-please let Devynn go, he’d want to know why we were so concerned about the fate of a Wilcox witch. I get the feeling that the situation is very different in the future, but that doesn’t really help us now.”

No, it didn’t.

Ruby released a breath, worry still obvious in her fresh, pretty features. “You’re probably not going to like what I have to say.”

“If it’s ‘give up,’ then no, I don’t like that idea at all.”

Her mouth pursed. “Nothing quite so drastic. However, Jasper is probably still all riled up, thanks to the way you got me out of La Posada. It just seems smart to give him a little time to cool down. Once we’re past the dark of the moon, then he’ll realize his plans have come to nothing, and he might be a bit more willing to see reason.”

“So…what, just sit and wait it out?”

The idea was utterly incomprehensible to him. How could he sit here in Jerome and do nothing while the woman he loved was being held by an evil warlock?

“I know it’s the last thing you wanted to hear,” Ruby said, sympathy clear in her big blue eyes. “And honestly, I understand why you want to go charging into Wilcox territory and get your girlfriend out of there. But I think that would just make matters worse.”

“Are you speaking as the prima -in-waiting?” he asked, and she grinned.

“Well, I have been working at being a little more level-headed about this sort of thing and not flying off the handle the way my mother used to chide me for. It’s kind of hard to know that one day the fate of the entire clan will be in my hands.”

She spoke simply, and obviously hadn’t said those words as a bid for sympathy or anything close. All the same, Seth thought this was the first time he’d really stopped to consider what being the prima -in-waiting truly meant. It wasn’t just about finding a consort or being ready to step in whenever the prima moved on to the next world.

It was all about readying yourself mentally for bearing all the responsibility of your clan, of doing the necessary training in your spirit and your soul so you’d be ready whenever the time to answer the call finally arrived.

He wasn’t sure if he would have been so calm about the whole thing had their situations been reversed.

But she was being thoughtful and deliberate. She’d looked at the problem the way a prima might and advised being measured in their response.

Since he didn’t know what else to do, he figured he’d better follow that advice.

Even if he hated it.

The next day passed with excruciating slowness, as did the one after that. Ruby didn’t seem to have mentioned anything to the prima or the elders about their little trip to Phoenix to ask for the de la Pazes’ aid, because none of them said anything to Seth, and he never heard that Anna de la Paz had contacted the McAllister elders to complain about the way their prima -in-waiting had apparently gone over their heads with her problem.

His brother had also been very quiet. Charles only seemed distantly sympathetic to Devynn’s situation, and Seth did his best not to be too angry with his brother for his apparent indifference.

After all, Charles had his own problems to deal with.

The night of the dark moon finally came around, and Seth told himself this was when things would change at last, when Jasper would finally acknowledge to himself that all his plans had been for naught and there was no reason in the world for him to keep Devynn in Flagstaff any longer. Seth knew she had to be there, since multiple McAllister cousins in Payson had gone over every inch of the roads in and out of their town and hadn’t found a single sign of her or the Stylemaster she’d been driving when she disappeared.

His cousin Louise had invited him over for dinner that night, and he had to admit that it helped somewhat to be there with her and Ruby and her little sister Barbara, who looked around twelve — Louise’s husband Ralph had passed away several years earlier in a tragic crash on 89A — and to listen to them talk about simple things like their plans to decorate for the holidays and whether to go up on Mingus to cut down a tree or whether to buy it from a lot down in Cottonwood.

However, hearing about their Yule plans was still painful, just because he couldn’t know for sure whether Jasper was going to do the right thing or whether he planned to keep Devynn forever. After all, she was a Wilcox, and witches were supposed to stay with their clans.

But just as Louise set a gorgeous lattice-top apple pie down on the table and began to ask whether Seth would like ice cream or whipped cream on top, Ruby sat up straight, eyes wide, hands flat on the tabletop.

“A Wilcox has just crossed the wards!”

“Jasper?” Seth demanded, already beginning to push his chair back so he could rise from the table.

Ruby shook her head, even as her little sister Barbara looked on wide-eyed. “It doesn’t feel like him. Whoever it is, they’re in a car. They should pass by here any moment now.”

“I’ll go tell the elders — ”Louise began, but Ruby cut her off.

“I don’t think that’s necessary. Seth, let’s you and I go meet him.”

Now mystified, Seth could only dip his head in acknowledgment and follow the prima -in-waiting outside. While he thought Ruby wasn’t exactly psychic in the way most people thought of the word, he’d also come to realize that her witchy senses were far more highly attuned than those of anyone he’d ever met.

And that meant he needed to follow her lead.

Neither of them bothered to grab a jacket on their way out, even though the night air was cold and could dip well below freezing later on. Instead, they hurried up to Hull Avenue just as a big green-painted Buick began to pass them by.

The car looked familiar, and Seth found himself frowning.

Where had he seen that Buick before?

The question answered itself a second later, as whoever was driving immediately pulled over to the curb and put the vehicle in park. The door opened, and a tall, dark-haired man stepped out.

No, not Jasper Wilcox, but someone Seth recognized at once.

Adam Wilcox.

“What in the world are you doing here?” he asked, and the other man’s mouth tightened.

“You have to get Devynn out of there,” Adam replied, and Ruby frowned in confusion.

“Why? Surely Jasper wouldn’t hurt one of his own.”

The Wilcox warlock made an impatient gesture with one hand. “He’s lost his goddamn mind. He thinks if he sacrifices a sufficiently powerful witch, then the curse will be broken.”

Sacrifice? What the hell?

“Oh, Goddess,” Ruby said, and although her hand didn’t exactly creep to her throat, she still had turned pale, expression utterly shocked. “We had it all wrong, Seth. Jasper didn’t want to bond with me — he wanted to sacrifice me.”

“And he’s going to do the same to Devynn in a couple of hours if we don’t do something,” Adam said. He now seemed almost relieved, as though he’d been worried that he might have to explain the situation further and waste valuable time.

The altar in the basement…the long table with its covering of black cloth….

“Oh, we’ll do something all right,” Seth said grimly. “Or rather, I’m going to do something. Does anyone know you’re here, Adam?”

“Only Lana,” he replied. “But we’re in this together — she’s the reason I knew anything about Jasper’s plans in the first place. He told her what he wanted to do, that once the curse was broken, she could look forward to being his consort.”

And how did Lana feel about that? True, it sounded as though she’d had feelings for the primus, but could she really allow herself to continue to care for him when he’d just shown he was capable of cold-blooded murder?

Ruby’s full mouth twisted in distaste, and Seth couldn’t really blame her for the reaction. He still couldn’t make himself understand why any woman — even a Wilcox witch — would think that being the primus;s consort was a remotely good idea.

“And as soon as she left Jasper’s house, Lana came and told me what he had planned,” Adam continued. “She put every spell of protection and secrecy and stealth she could think of on me and my car so I could drive down here and tell you what was happening.”

Well, if Lana had done that, then maybe she wasn’t quite as keen on being the primus’s next wife as she used to be.

“That explains why I didn’t sense you until you were much closer than you should have gotten before the wards went crazy,” Ruby said. If she was at all disconcerted that a Wilcox — even one strengthened by a variety of protective enchantments — had driven past all the barriers she and the elders had put up, she didn’t show it. “So…how much time do we have?”

Adam replied right away, “Utter dark of the moon is at twenty minutes past one.”

A glance at his watch told Seth the hour was now a little before nine in the evening. “That’s not so bad,” he said. “Even with having to drive back up to Flagstaff, we should still get there a few hours early.”

“We’re going to need all that time,” Adam said grimly. “Lana told me she’ll need to put as many protective spells on you as possible so you’ll have even a chance of getting into Jasper’s house without being detected.”

Although this sounded like a good idea, Seth couldn’t help hesitating.

“And you’re sure she’s really on our side, that this isn’t some sort of trap?”

Surprisingly, Adam only grinned. “Remember, I know when people are lying to me. She’s sincere in wanting to help. I think her feelings about Jasper suffered a sea change once she learned what he was planning, what he’s capable of. Now she only wants to get Devynn out of there.”

A glance over at Ruby told Seth that she seemed to believe what Adam Wilcox was saying, because she inclined her head ever so slightly, as if to show that she didn’t harbor any doubts as to the truth of his words. Even though she didn’t have Adam’s exact gift, her instincts were still probably heightened by the burgeoning prima power she carried within her, and therefore she would have a better read on someone’s character than most people.

All right, then.

Now or never.

Seth’s jaw clenched. “Let’s get Devynn away from that son of a bitch.”