A Little Wicked (The Bewitching Hour Book #4)(35)
“Get out of here,” warned Claudia in her deep, authoritative voice that would have most witches quaking on their brooms.
But Abigail just put a hand on her hip and stared down Claudia. “The families have voted. You’re no longer required here. Consider this your formal notice.”
Claudia looked at the group and the silence seemed to echo through the room. Then, in a burst, the back window exploded and Derek covered Sam with his body as the bits of glass crashed around them. When Sam looked back, Claudia and Bastian were gone and Abigail was looking out the window.
A second later, she turned and held her arms wide. “Welcome to my new home.” Then she met Sam’s eyes. “You don’t have to go home, hun, but you can’t stay here.”
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“She didn’t kill me,” said Sam for the tenth time since he’d brought her home.
Derek wanted to be happy about the whole not killing thing, but it was pretty obvious what the problem was. Abigail, or whatever was inside her at the moment, wasn’t the slightest bit afraid of them.
He didn’t remember the last time he’d considered backing down from any fight, but this wasn’t just him. This was Sam. This was Claire. Now even Parker was involved.
How much could they really do? How much was he willing to risk when the odds were so against them?
“Come on.” He held a hand out. “Let’s go to bed.” He wasn’t tired. Even though it had been a full day, the adrenaline was still coursing through his veins. But he’d had life-and-death situations before. If he waited until he was tired, he’d never get any sleep. He needed to lie down and wait until the exhaustion finally kicked in.
The fact that Sam would be next to him would be a bonus.
“Claudia ran,” said Sam in the same shocked tone. She’d been in this little daze ever since they’d left Claudia’s. Everyone went their own way to lick their wounds. Dante and Claire had snuck out after hearing the ruckus and were at Sam’s old apartment right below him, so he would hear if they were in trouble, and Parker was with them. So he and Sam had some privacy as they recovered.
Sam hadn’t heard from Claudia, and neither of them knew whether Claudia would even let Sam know she was okay.
Abigail had mentioned her “plan” a few times. From what he could tell, the first phase of this plan had two sections: kill Claire and kill Claudia. Which made sense, if Claire could kill her. Claudia had been the one who had locked the darkness away in the first place, so she would be a threat too.
Sam wasn’t a threat and Derek.... Apparently she had some other ideas for him. He debated telling Sam but had decided against it. She already had enough to deal with. He didn’t want to add any more stress to her plate.
Besides, he was pretty sure Abigail was just saying that to get under his skin. The fact that Heather had said the same thing.... He wasn’t going to think about it.
Sam got to the bedroom and threw herself down without even taking off her shoes. “Think if I go to bed now, I can wake up and realize this was all a dream?” She pushed her head into a pillow.
“Why don’t you try it and let me know how it goes?” He set his jacket and holster over the dresser and kicked off his shoes. Then he lay down on the bed next to Sam.
She turned her head in the pillow to look at him. “You seem very sane.”
“I try,” he said, unsure what the correct response was.
“You should be running for the hills.”
“I’m not a runner.”
She leaned up on her elbows. “Hellhounds, Derek. We faced down hellhounds. Like, I’ve been around magic my entire life and I never thought I’d ever have to face a hellhound.”
“It helps that I had a badass witch next to me,” he said with a wink.
She rolled her eyes. “A lot of good that did. I still needed Claudia to come and save me.”
“But we got them away from Claire. I’d call that a win. And you were able to control your magic the entire time, right? That’s a first.”
“It’s progress, but not fast enough. I feel like Claudia is the only one who can do anything, and I don’t want to sit back and hope she gets her shit together. I want to help or... anything. It’s my mom, you know?”
“It’s not your mother.”
Sam pushed her face back into the pillow. “Something happened.”
The words were muffled by the pillow, but he made them out. “What do you mean?”
Sam looked at him again. “After Heather died, Abigail was still Abigail. That’s the last time I saw her. So what happened between then and now? Heather wasn’t taken over. She let the darkness in. I think Heather’s death was a trigger. What does the darkness want? To kill Claudia. What if Abigail was so mad at Claudia that the darkness got to her? Corrupted her? What if she isn’t completely innocent? What if she allowed this?”
“I think her daughter just died,” said Derek carefully. “I think a lot of things happen after a tragedy like that. But no matter what Abigail would’ve wanted, she loved family. She wouldn’t want you to feel this way,” he said confidently. The high-powered defense attorney he knew didn’t give a damn about a lot of people, but she loved Sam. Even if she wanted Claudia to suffer, she never would’ve wanted Sam to feel this bad.