Alone in the restrooms, Harper quickly did her business – all the while, Larkin and Devon argued with Carla outside. Their voices were muffled, thanks to the closed door and the loud music, so Harper couldn’t make out what was being said.
After washing her hands in the sink, she turned to grab some paper towels… and there was McCauley. She almost jumped out of her freaking skin. “Jesus, kid, what’s with the sneaking around?” Her demon stirred, anxious and ready to defend.
He blinked. “You need to run.”
Harper’s body went rigid. “Run?” It didn’t sound like a threat, but…
“She’s going to hurt you.”
All right, that was unexpected. And damn creepy when spoken in that toneless voice. She licked her lips. “Who?” But the boy just stared at her with those chillingly blank eyes. “I don’t understand, McCauley.”
“I didn’t kill them.”
Harper didn’t have to ask who he meant. “Was it your demon?”
He shook his head.
She frowned. “Do you know who did it?”
He nodded slowly.
God, trying to get info out of the kid was like trying to get blood out of a stone. “Who was it?”
“Linda.”
“Linda?” Harper found that she wasn’t quite so surprised by that answer. A part of her had always thought something was… off about the woman. Still, a whole lot of things were off about the kid laying accusations at Linda’s door, so Harper wasn’t totally convinced. “Why?”
“She wanted me to stay with her. And she hated Talia.”
The latter didn’t made sense. “Why did she hate Talia?”
“I don’t know.” He paused. “She kept calling me Sam. I told her that’s not my name, and she yelled at me.”
Wyatt’s voice came to Harper… Our son was stillborn. We called him Sam. But Harper also remembered the warning that Nora had delivered via Dario – when the time comes to kill the child, don’t hesitate.
Was the kid fucking with her head, gearing up to hurt her? Her gut said no, but Harper didn’t know what to think or believe. Her demon was too wound up to think straight and help her work it out.
“I didn’t like it in her house,” he told her. “My demon said we weren’t safe there.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I don’t know you.”
It was a simple yet very adult answer, Harper thought, as she inclined her head. Nobody with trust issues asked for help from perfect strangers. And a child who’d found out his whole life had been a lie and whose human mother tried to kill him would definitely have trust issues.
“Linda says you’re bad,” McCauley added. “But my demon thinks you’ll protect me from her if I warn you.”
“Why would Linda think I was bad?”
“She said you killed someone she loved.”
All right, that made no sense to Harper. Unless, of course, Linda had some affection for Roan, which didn’t seem likely. “Where’s Linda now?”
“I don’t know, but she wants to hurt you.”
Harper opened her mouth to ask just why he wanted protection from Linda, but then a new voice joined the others outside the door. It was familiar, yet too muffled for Harper to place it. “Hide,” she hissed.
McCauley dashed into one of the stalls and closed the door behind him. His little feet disappeared, and she figured he was standing on the toilet. She wondered if he’d been there when she’d first entered the restrooms.
The door creaked open, but it wasn’t Linda who walked in. It was Nora.
Harper relaxed. “Hey, Nora. How are you?”
“Good, good.” She gestured to the door with a huff. “Carla’s up to her old tricks again. The sentinel and your friend are taking care of it. Look at you. You’re glowing.”
Harper grabbed some paper towels and dried off her hands. “Aw, thanks.”
Nora came close. “Pregnancy’s an exciting yet frightening time, isn’t it?”
“Definitely.”
“But you look happy.”
Harper nodded, a smile spreading across her face. “I am. I really —” She flinched as a zap of energy shuddered up her arm.
Nora raised her hand in apology. “Good ole static electricity.”
Oddly uneasy, Harper said, “Well, it was good speaking to you, but I have to go.” She also needed for Nora to go inside one of the stalls so that McCauley could sneak out with Harper.
“Give the sentinel and your friend a chance to scare Carla away first,” Nora advised.
“Doesn’t sound as if they’re having much luck with that.”
“They’re toying with her – mocking her and giving her a lecture on her failure as a mother and as a person in general.”
Harper chuckled, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t find that funny.” She figured she also shouldn’t feel so tired all of a sudden, but a wave of fatigue hit her hard. “Damn, I should have headed home earlier.”
“Yes, you should have. But I’m glad that you didn’t. That would have made things much harder.”
Harper frowned. Nora’s voice sounded tinny and far away. Her sight began to blur and everything seemed hazy, but she felt calm. Totally serene. Her demon felt just as peaceful.
A breeze built behind her, and Harper turned, morbidly fascinated by the swirling circle of red and black smoke that had come out of absolutely fucking nowhere. A portal, she realized. “What the —”
A hand grabbed her arm and shoved her into the smoke.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Opening her eyes had never been so hard, but damn they stung. Harper licked her chapped lips. Her mouth was bone dry and it hurt to swallow. Her skin felt cold and dewy, especially the skin of her back – which was no doubt thanks to the damp soil beneath her.
Soil?
Memories slapped her. The restrooms. McCauley. Nora. The portal. Fingertips digging into her arm and shoving her.
Well now.
Apparently, Nora had a fucking death wish. Obliging her would be a pleasure.
Forcing her sore eyes open, Harper awkwardly sat upright and blinked a few times to clear her vision. She almost wished she hadn’t, because finding that she was sprawled on a patch of land encircled by eight, tall boulders wasn’t an uplifting sight.
A cold mist hovered above the ground. It was thin, so it didn’t haze her view of her surroundings. And it had to be said that her surroundings were pretty bleak.
It seemed like an endless stretch of green, bumpy land. There was the occasional puny bush, mossy rock, or twisted tree, but the weedy land was otherwise plain and bare. No blossoms. No mountains. No landmarks. No real color. It was the kind of place where you could just walk and walk and walk, and nothing would look any different.
There was an unnatural quiet that was broken only by the creak of tree branches and the eerie sound the cool wind made as it rushed over the barren land and whistled through the brittle shrubs. It brought with it the scents of grass, soil, and decay.
Shit, she needed to get away from here. Fast.
Knox?
Nothing.
Knox, please say you can hear me.
Still nothing. Crap.
Adrenaline began to pump madly through her veins. Harper kept her cool, knowing it wouldn’t do the baby any good if she lost her shit. Besides, her demon was panicking enough for both of them.
Harper braced her hands on the damp soil and pushed to her feet with a moan. It was no easy feat with a baby bump. She brushed her hands together to get rid of the dirt and then gave said bump a small rub. Her limbs trembled, yet she didn’t feel weak.
The mist gave the place an eerie feel, but that wasn’t what had the hairs on her nape and arms standing on end. No, the uneven ground vibrated beneath her feet, and those vibrations echoed through her body. She didn’t like it, because they didn’t make her feel charged – they made her feel dizzy. Sickly. Soiled, even.
The wind came again, brushing against her skin and ruffling the dress that was now damp and stained with streaks of dirt. She shivered, rubbing at her cool arms, as she gave her surroundings another thorough scan. Just where the fucking hell was she? The gray clouds were low, so she guessed she was somewhere high. Had she been dumped here with the hope that she’d never find her way home? And why, exactly, had the old woman sent her here?