Chapter Twenty-One
“You can’t stay here,” Flo said once they’d landed. “Others will answer the call as soon as they sense your presence.”
Payton hurried to the window to peer out.
Sure enough, people were stopping in their tracks and lifting their heads like hounds scenting a rabbit.
The few she knew to be wolf shifters registered her magical pheromones first, and she met the conflicted eyes of Rowan’s brother, Bohdan.
Although crazy about another woman, he would find it difficult to fight the allure.
“Yeah, I gotta go.” She kissed Flo’s cheek. “I’ll call you as soon as I get to Dailey’s cabin.”
“I’ll go, too. There’s still a little witchcraft left in these old bones. No one will touch my gels.”
“Are you sure? What about the shop?” Payton asked.
“Rowan’s watching it for me.”
Having her friend downstairs was actually helpful. Bohdan wouldn’t make it farther than his sister. She’d kick his ass if he tried to get to Payton.
She had a moment’s pause as she considered Rowan’s behavior in the bar. Yeah, there was no way she’d be safe in this attic for long.
“Okay, Gran, let’s go.”
Their next stop was the clearing in front of the cabin, where they discovered Archer Roche waiting for them.
“Dailey figured you’d make your way back here,” he said by way of greeting. “He said to give you this.”
Payton stared at the letter in his hand, fearing what it contained. Odds were it was a standard Dear Jane letter, and the old “it’s not you, it’s me.”
Flo, tuned into her inner turmoil, accepted the envelope on her behalf.
“Where is the bloody coward?” she growled.
Archer’s mouth tipped up at the corners, but he shook his head. “Don’t know, ma’am.”
“It’s okay, Gran.” Payton managed a smile she didn’t feel and grabbed the letter from her hand. “Thanks, Archer. Is anyone in the cabin?”
“Elara. Greer and Cecil are outside at the back corners, keeping watch.” His countenance took on a forbidding expression. “Those blasted dragons are patrolling from the air, ensuring no one gets close.”
“You make it seem like a bad thing,” she replied dryly, understanding all too well the bad blood between the two. “At least they are doing something noble, right?”
“Likely, they’ve agreed so they can set the townsfolk on fire if they venture too close. They’re a bloodthirsty lot.”
Stretching up, Payton kissed his cheek. “Thank you for setting aside your distrust to protect me.”
His rough-hewn expression softened. “It’s my pleasure, Miss.”
“It’s Payton. No need to be formal among friends.”
Although he smiled, he didn’t reply.
“But I can’t hide out here forever,” she said. “These cursed shoes are going to require a sacrifice, and I don’t want it to be any of you. If we can put our heads together and figure this out, that would be great.”
“Elara and Tripp were prepared to jump into the volcano for each other. Not that I’m suggesting you do that,” he said quickly, when she gasped in dismay. “I’m merely saying, you and Dailey, if you’re meant to be, should find a working solution together, rather than apart.”
She held up the envelope. “Why do I think that’s easier said than done?”
“If you want my opinion, he’s a fool for not staying to work through your problems.”
The kindness in Archer’s hazel eyes didn’t soothe the ache left by Dailey’s vanishing act, but she appreciated it all the same.
“I left him first. He didn’t deserve the fallout.”
“We all know the reason, and so does he.” He shook his ginger-haired head. “I wouldn’t want Mary-Alice for a mother-in-law. Not many would.”
“Thank you.”
Payton and Flo headed for the cabin. When they got to the porch, she said, “You go in and conjure dinner with Elara. I’ll join you shortly.” She waved the letter. “I should see what he has to say.”
“Let me know if I need to hunt him down and skin him alive.”
“Extreme, but I may take you up on it.”
After giving her a tight hug, her grandmother left her alone.
Payton sat on the glider, tucked her legs under her, and ran a nail under the flap. Letter in hand, she channeled her courage and unfolded the paper.
“This is bad, D.”
“I know, Harry.”
Their mother had worked herself up to a frenzy. And the crazier she became, the more mist seeped from her skin.
“She can’t remain as mayor,” Sloane said in a low voice. “Not if whatever is inside of her comes out to play when she’s thwarted.”
“I know that, too. But how the hell do we separate it from her and her from the job?”
“Brelenia might have a suggestion,” Harrison said, with a clinical eye on their mother, who sat across the room fuming. The green mist had enveloped the entire interior of her bubble, yet she seemed unaware of its existence. “And I agree. I don’t believe this is her own doing.”
“It begs the question, who is doing it?” Sloane replied, appearing ill at ease. “I hate to think I’ve misjudged her all these years.”
“You haven’t, Sloane.” Harrison wrapped an arm around her shoulders like he had when they were kids.
His protective instincts for their sister had always been strong.
Perhaps he’d subconsciously recognized her need to feel loved, since their mother had been so stingy about giving in to those warmer emotions, especially where her daughter was concerned.
“She’s still an overbearing mother. She’s just one with a built-in toxic gas. ”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Dailey snorted a laugh.
A cartoon image of their mother releasing toxic gas floated about in his mind, and he had the urge to pick up a pencil to sketch it.
Once, when he was a kid, he would’ve. But his mother had taken away his pencils and lectured him, saying Cobbs held worthwhile jobs, not those of artists, actors, or non-societal contributors.
A part of his younger self’s soul had died the day she took his sketchbook away, and he’d refused to participate in museum field trips.
Instead, he’d stayed home and studied for some exam or another, under the proud eye of his mother.
“How do we get ahold of Brelenia?” he asked, feeling a sudden melancholy. “Maybe she’s encountered a situation like ours before. I still don’t understand why she’d failed to mention this part earlier. Did she not pick up on it?”
“Rand left his number. I’ll give him a ring,” Harrison replied.
It didn’t take long before they had their answer.
“A triad?” Sloane asked. “Who here in town would constitute one?”
“The Hawthornes,” Harrison said with a concerned glance at Dailey. “Elara, Payton, and Flo might count as one.”
“No.” Dailey would never believe it. Flo bore no love for Mary-Alice, and neither did Payton, but there was no way the Hawthorne women were involved.
Not even accidentally. They were inherently good.
“It would need to go back decades, Harry. Elara and Payton didn’t know what they were until last year. ”
“There are three Sandersons, but again, age is a factor,” Sloane said. “Who would’ve been around longer than us?”
“Only the Camdens have been around as long as the Cobbs,” their mother said from her seat. She sent Sloane an unfathomable glance.
“Bradford is a douche canoe, Mother, no doubt, but he—”
“His father is one of three,” Dailey said slowly as the truth dawned. “Bradford the Second, Orson, and Archibald. But why target you?” he asked her.
“Orson loved me,” she said simply. “But I left him for your father, Harvey. The minute he strolled into town, I knew I was meant to be with him.” Her mouth tightened in pain. “The Camdens were known as The Unholy Triad. What they wanted, they got.”
“And you married me off to one of them,” Sloane stated flatly. “And Mother of the Year award goes to… Mary-Alice Cobb.”
“I…” More green smoke filled the bubble.
“We’ll discuss it when you’re free of whatever has hold of you,” Harrison said. “Right now, we have to find a way to ensure they can no longer influence her, if they are.”
“Does this mean my breaking away just got harder?” Dailey asked.
“No. I suspect it’s easier.” His brother nodded, as if he’d reached a conclusion. “Wait here, D.”
The room was eerily silent while he was gone, but what did they really have to talk about? Sloane was stewing over their mother pushing her to marry a man she didn’t love, Dailey was questioning his entire existence, and Mary-Alice was bizarrely quiet for once in her life.
Harrison returned and handed both Sloane and him a vial, keeping a third for himself. “The antidote, tweaked to exclude Camden influence from our lives. Bottoms up, gang.”
“What about Mother?” It didn’t sit well with Dailey to leave her infected by the Triad.
“That’s going to need a spell with surgical precision. One we haven’t built yet.” He cocked his head. “Are you okay locking her up for a while, Dailey?”
“I don’t love it. But I’d rather contain a known risk than pretend everything is fine. She can’t be left free in this state.”
“What about the secret room?” Sloane asked in a low voice. “It was meant to keep her out, but with a little magical engineering, would it keep her in and the Triad’s spell out?”
Dailey considered her suggestion from every angle. “I’ll defer to you, but I think she might be better in the holding cell in the station’s basement. The one I reserve for our kind.”
“I can’t disagree,” Harrison said, nodding.
Surprisingly, Sloane was the one to object.
“I don’t care how she feels about me, fellas.
But don’t destroy what’s left of your relationships with her.
If you can remove whatever that thing is, you may have something salvageable left over.
” She cast an unreadable glance at their mother.
“She won’t forgive you if you humiliate her in front of the town by hauling her to jail. ”
Dammit, Sloane was right!
“Let’s drink this, see what sort of clarity it brings, and decide after,” Dailey suggested.
They nodded their agreement, and as one, they removed the caps to down the potion.
His body’s reaction was immediate. As Harrison indicated, a headache and dizziness followed. He could almost feel the taut wire connecting him to his mother. Disregarding his brother’s earlier caution, Dailey pictured an axe and severed the cord.
Mary-Alice cried out, and had he possessed use of his limbs or even a clear mind, he’d have gone to her. But fortunately for him, he remained where he was, because he wouldn’t have fared well close to her.
The protective shield encasing her stretched and strained under the force of the mist’s need to reach them.
Behind Dailey, the door to the hallway opened, and he turned to find the Trickster.
“Cobb, we have a problem brewing at your place,” Hermes said.
Then he heard the echo of Payton’s enraged scream, accompanied by a howling wind.
“What the fuck was that?” Dailey asked, shaken. “Is she hurt?”
“You might be the best person to answer that,” Hermes replied. “Get there.”