No Humans Involved (Otherworld 7)

I almost fell backward. Eve's glare was murderous.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, Jaime, but you get your ass back in--"

I cut her short with a whispered explanation as I snuck around the hedge, following Hope.

"I don't care what your reason is. Get back in that goddamned house right now."

"It's not a setup. Look at her." I waved toward Hope as she banged her shin against a garden wall and kept walking, oblivious. "She's in some kind of trance."

"She's luring you in. Making you curious. Making you think it's safe to follow."

I kept moving. "I've seen her when she gets a vision and that's just what she looks like."

"And she can't fake that? Don't be--" Eve bit off the rest with a click of her teeth. Then she strode in front of me. "Stop and look around, Jaime. Notice anything about where you are? And where you're being led?"

I glanced over my shoulder at the hedge, which wrapped around the garden, cutting me off from the view of anyone stepping out the side or rear doors. Then I turned to see Hope heading toward the most secluded corner of the yard.

"She's not following any 'chaos trail,'" Eve said. "She's leading you to a spot where no one's going to see what happens next."

Damn. She had a point.

I glanced back at the house.

"Finally," Eve breathed.

"Jaime?"

Hope was walking back through the garden.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked, blinking like a wakened sleepwalker.

"Damn it, Jaime, ignore her--"

"I was worried about you." I lifted the gun. "You left this behind."

She frowned and looked down at her waistband, as if trying to figure out how the gun got from there to my hand. Eve shoved me toward the door, but her hands passed through.

"What happened?" I said.

"I'm...not sure. Someone..." Hope shivered. "I think someone was killed back there. Just now. I can still feel it."

She wrapped her arms around herself, shuddering, but her expression wasn't one of fear or concern. She looked almost...rapturous. The hairs on my neck rose.

"Don't listen to her bullshit," Eve said. "She'll say anything to get you--"

I tuned her out. Hope glanced over her shoulder, toward that far corner.

"I think we should check it out." Her voice was high with barely contained excitement.

"Do you?"

Her gaze stayed riveted to that deepest, most remote, shadow-enshrouded corner of the garden. My fingers tightened around the gun. Eve had gone silent now, tense, as if waiting to jump in, as if she could jump in.

Hop

e motioned for me to follow, took a couple of steps, then, seeing I hadn't moved, wheeled back. Her fingers grazed my arm. Eve started a cast. A spell? But it wouldn't work in my dimension.

Hope's fingers wrapped around my arm. I raised the gun. Eve lifted her hands over her head, something materializing between them.