A Little Wicked (The Bewitching Hour Book #4)(52)

Sam frowned as she held onto the handle above the door to keep from careening into Angela. “What? How?”

“You said Claudia took Derek. With your magic and all, I figure she didn’t turn off his phone, right? So I had one of the department guys track it.”

“Why the hell didn’t you say that before?” shouted Dante from the back.

“What difference would it make? If we had his body, we couldn’t bring him back. And Claudia does hate him. I still thought that Sam would keep on being stubborn and nothing would change.”

“But you still traced the phone,” said Sam, torn between anger and admiration.

“I cover my bases. Now these guys are speeding, but if I put the lights on, I can get to him faster. I promise.”

“Where is his phone?” Just because his phone was there didn’t mean Claudia was there too.

“Some place in Connecticut. Right around the place Abigail woke up the hellhounds.”

Her house. Claudia was at Abigail’s home. Seemed fair considering Abigail had stolen Claudia’s house.

“Go,” said Sam. “Go as fast as you can.”





Sam’s stomach flipped over as Angela skidded to a halt. Except when Angela reached for the door handle, Sam managed to find her voice. “Stay here.”

Angela looked at Sam as if she’d grown a second head. “There’s an army of witches coming here and you want me to stay in the car? You know how useful I can be.”

“I do. But Claire is defenseless right now. You need to take her somewhere safe. I’ve already put her in too much danger. Claudia can take care of herself.” She wished she believed that, but all she could see were the waves and waves of people Abigail had sent.... They’d all been heading right in this direction before Angela had passed them all.

Sam had plenty of time to replay what had happened in her mind. Abigail was sending everything she had to Claudia while not leaving the safety of her tower. She was going to try to kill Claudia while not putting herself in danger at all. Because she didn’t care about her minions. They weren’t real people to her. They were all expendable.

Claudia was strong, but Sam knew there had been well over a hundred witches at the party Abigail had taken over. That had been days ago. Who knew how many people she could’ve gotten to between then and now?

“Keep Claire safe. I’ll take care of this.”

“You’re not thinking straight,” said Angela.

“You’re right. I haven’t been thinking straight this entire time. But you, Dante, Claire... I’m not having anyone else get hurt because I can’t fucking think.”

“But you’re allowed to get hurt.”

“This is my family. My mess. Get out of here, Angela. I appreciate everything you’ve done, but your job is over.” Sam didn’t wait for a response or look back as she stepped out of the car and slammed the door. A few seconds later, she heard the tires screech as Angela pulled away and let out a little sigh. It wasn’t relief or resignation. It was something in between.

She knew an army of evil witches were headed to her right now and would be there in just minutes, but it was hard to be afraid. If she somehow pulled a plan out of her ass and fought them off, then she’d live to fight another day. If they won, she’d be reunited with Derek. Strangely enough, death felt like it would be more of a victory at the moment.

She kept those thoughts from her mind as she turned the knob on the heavy wooden door and stepped inside her mother’s home.

It was eerily quiet as she stepped inside. There were no footsteps or voices. She hadn’t seen Garrett since Abigail had infected him. Was he on his way to kill Claudia? Maybe he’d gotten away. Maybe he was dead already....

“Hello!” called Sam as she stepped deeper inside. She heard someone running on marble and all of a sudden Bastian came into view. She’d never seen him run before, and that was a bad sign during an already bad day.

“You shouldn’t be here.” He gave her a disapproving look.

She was too tired to be offended. “There’s an army of witches sent by Abigail to kill us all on their way. You shouldn’t be here either.”

He stared at her for a moment before he turned and strode away, his angry footfalls echoing through the empty house. Sam followed him up the stairs and down the hall leading to the east wing, but when he reached one of the doors, he went in and slammed it in her face.

Sam rolled her eyes but didn’t try to get into the room. If they wanted to be all secretive even when they were all about to die, let them. She went across the hall to another bedroom and looked out the window. Lights approaching signaled that they were out of time. Abigail’s army had arrived.

She tightened her lips and took a deep breath. Her heart didn’t speed up. Her hair didn’t stand on end. She was supposed to have Derek back by now. She’d done everything she could think of and it wasn’t enough.

Let the army come. Let them take her. She wouldn’t fight.

She pushed away from the window and resolved herself to tell her grandmother that it was over. She was done. But when the door to the bedroom she was hiding out in opened, she didn’t see the Claudia she knew.

“Grandma,” she breathed as she saw the great and powerful Claudia leaning on Bastian for support as he led her into the room, kicking the door shut with his foot. Sam ran to her side and put her shoulder under her grandmother’s other arm, giving another point of support. “What happened?”