Binding the Shadows (Arcadia Bell #3)(78)

Priya’s bare torso crackled.

“No, no, no!” I cried. “Don’t leave me. I need you.”

“I cannot stay.”

“What if she finds you? She’ll hurt you, too.”

“I am careful. At the moment she does not know I am alive or that we have bonded again. I have a new body. It is serving me well. But it does not serve me here, and I must leave.” His wings snapped open, blocking out the filtered moonlight. All I could see were two glossy eyes and the silver glint of his teeth. “Sleep in the daytime only. Do not relax your guard at night. Steel your emotions. Learn to hide your thoughts and create lies in your head—if she manages to connect with you again, you will need that skill before you find the Moonchild ritual.”

“Priya!”

“You need magical protection from her,” he insisted. “Go to your order. If they cannot help you solve the problem, their magicians can shield you until we can find a solution. I will return.” Without another word, he snapped away, disappearing in front of my face. Leaving me alone.

Alone and faced with the abysmal thought of going into hiding again.

I was a fool to think I could ever stop running.

I could never have a normal life. Everything I had was lost before I ever found it.

I didn’t go back to sleep that night. Instead, I walked the meandering road down Lon’s cliff, past Mr. and Mrs. Holiday’s cabin, to the beach. Foxglove kindly escorted me. I watched her sleek Labrador body exploring the driftwood-strewn sand as I sat on some big rocks where Lon and Jupe and I had once built a small bonfire. And I thought.

And thought.

I remembered my parents talking about some old grimoires they’d found in France that contained the ritual they used to conceive me. God only knew where those books were now. Destroyed, maybe. Brought over to the states? My occult order had taken over my parents’ house in Florida after I’d let Nivella take them to the Æthyr. Maybe the Caliph had found something in the house that could be helpful.

It was all such a f*cking long shot.

But what else could I do? Sit around until I eventually hurt someone I cared about?

Then I thought of Dare. I couldn’t just run off to Florida and leave Lon and Jupe unprotected when that man was going around killing people who’ve looked at him crooked.

Couldn’t stay. Couldn’t leave. I didn’t know what I was going to do.

I sat thinking for hours. At some point before dawn, Foxglove ran back up the beach path toward the house and returned a couple of minutes later with Lon. I watched his fiery halo flickering across the dark beach as he approached. When he caught up to me, he sat down on the rock next to me. He didn’t ask me why I was out there. He merely pulled me into his arms and said, “Show me what’s wrong and we will fix it.”

• • •

Daylight crept over the beach. Feeling fairly confident I was out of my mom’s foul reach, Lon and I made the trek back up to the house. We hadn’t solved my problem, but at least Lon knew everything. And at that point I was exhausted and spent, and knew I needed to force myself to get rest sometime that day if I was going to stay up all night. I’d watched enough Freddy Krueger movies with Jupe to know that sleep depravation always came back to bite you on the ass.

“Get in bed and sleep,” Lon said. “Rose and Adella will be back from the hospital in a few hours. I need to get some work done, but I’ll come upstairs and wake you when they come.”

I rummaged in my pocket and handed him the medicinal I’d given Jupe. “If he’s got a hangover, give him another drop of this in some water. Or crushed ice, if he’s throwing up.”

He kissed my forehead. “I’ll handle him. Go to sleep.”

Amazingly enough, I eventually did.

I woke on my own around three. Rose and Adella showed up as I was getting out of the shower. Mr. and Mrs. Holiday were buzzing around the house as well—I could hear Mr. Holiday teasing Jupe in the living room about making him some disgusting hair of the dog drink with raw eggs.

Normalcy had never sounded so good.

Once I rejoined the group, I found out Yvonne would be released from the hospital that afternoon. Her concussion was okay. No permanent damage. A small relief to the lingering guilt I harbored. Rose and Adella were flying Yvonne back home with them to Portland. She was going to stay with her mother for a few weeks. As long as Rose had the Solomon ring, I supposed she was safe from Yvonne’s knack, or what remained of it. I spoke to her alone while Lon was helping Adella pack.

“You good?” I asked her. “Need any help?”

Rose pushed her glasses higher on her nose. The Solomon ring was loose around her index finger. “We’re going to retrieve Yvonne’s clothes from the hotel, then pick her up from the hospital on the way to the Morella airport.”

“Doctor says it’s okay for her to fly after the concussion?”

“Mick did some healing on her this morning. Scans look fine, so he said it’s okay. Will you be riding out to the city with us?”

Yvonne was the last person I wanted to see right now. “Probably not. My business partner’s coming over, and I’ve got some things to take care of.”

She nodded. “I wanted to thank you for what you did. Lon told me that you put yourself in danger by doing that to Yvonne. I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have asked you if I knew.”