“You had to do it. They left you no choice.”
“That doesn’t make the doing of it any easier.” He touched my face. “You love the people in this town very much.”
“So?”
“I’m going to have to kill one of them.”
I straightened, and his hand fell away. I glanced out the window. Dawn hadn’t even begun to lighten the horizon, but when it did, we’d go back out and keep searching for the Raven Mocker.
“Or I will,” I said.
“Can you look at the Raven Mocker, perhaps see the face of someone you care about, and do what needs to be done?”
“Yes.”
“What if it’s Claire, Malachi, Cal, Jordan? What if it’s me?”
“It isn’t.”
“It could be anyone, Grace. Anyone at all. Once, it was my wife.” He touched my knee. “Let me finish this.”
“We’ll do it together. The power of two is greater than the power of one.”
His head sank between his shoulders. “I don’t know if I can bear it if you die because of me.”
“Why would I die because of you?”
“If I can’t figure this out. If I can’t find a way to destroy the witch—”
I put my fingers against his lips. “You will. We will. Good versus evil. Us against them. We can do it. I know we can.”
He just shook his head.
“Come here.” I lay back and pulled him with me, flipping the covers over us both. “Hold me awhile.”
But it was me who held him for what remained of the night.
* * *
I must have dozed, because I came awake with a start when someone knocked on the door. Ian wasn’t in bed and for a second I panicked, thinking he’d gone witch-hunting without me. Then I heard water running in the bathroom.
I dug my brand-new robe out of a shopping bag and answered the door. Cal stood on the other side, and I got an extreme case of déjà vu. I nearly asked him how he’d found me, then remembered Jordan.
“What’s Chuck Norris up to this morning?” I greeted.
“There’s been another death,” he said, without sugarcoating it. “Just outside of town. The Browns’.”
“But—” I stopped myself before I could blurt that we’d left a protective buzzard feather at the Browns’. Perhaps this death was just a death. I kept hoping.
“Henry or Harriet?” I asked.
“Neither. Their niece was visiting from Chicago.”
“Was she sick?”
He shook his head. “She’d come to help them pack and move north to live with their children. According to Harriet, the kid was healthy as a horse and strong as an ox.”
Simile city. Sounded like Harriet.