Rampant

He frowned. “No, I didn’t know. I never even suspected until I knew you were staying at the cottage and I saw how interested Elspeth was in you. She was like a terrier with a bone and she was prepared to defend it, that made me wonder.”

Zoë recalled the strange vision she’d had while she was with Cain Davot. She’d chalked that up to Annabel’s mischief. Not anymore, not after last night.

“After you’d been in the house,” Grayson continued, “the atmosphere changed in the village, and I could feel the psychic activity through the wall.” He leaned over her. Lifting a stray hair that was blowing across her face, he tucked it behind her ear. “Then Davot’s citadel came to life. Your arrival caused quite a ruckus, my dear. But you’d already caught my attention.”

Zoë wanted to believe him. Was she fooling herself? She acknowledged that she was being seduced by an external force, and part of her welcomed that. Her own emotions were entangled, though. She wasn’t fool enough to ignore the danger that pressed against her consciousness now that she knew the full extent of what was going on. And she was a gateway to knowledge for Grayson. If she continued to get visions like the one she’d just had, the chances were that they would solve the mystery surrounding Annabel’s death and Grayson could write about it. He’d be able to complete his book.

He touched his thumb against her lower lip, which made her realize that she was pouting. How ridiculous was that? I’m a grown woman. I should act like one.

“Come on,” he said, “let’s get to Abernathy.”

Abernathy. With everything that had happened since they’d left Carbrey, she’d forgotten all about it.

Grayson’s mind was working overtime. “There’s something I have to do,” he said, when they got back to the car.

Zoë stopped walking.

“It’s okay, you can get in.” He waited until she

was inside the car, and then he walked across the road and three paces back toward Carbrey.

He lifted his arms, reaching out for the long-nurtured power in nature all round, requesting assistance in the ancient tongue of the craft. As he chanted the words, he pointed across the road, slowly drawing a line of fire through the tarmac, marking the boundary. It burned like a seam of lava, bright yellow. After a moment it faded into red and darkened, until it disappeared completely into an invisible shield.

“What was all that about?” she asked, when he got into the car.

“It’s a boundary spell, similar to the one in the cabin last night.” As he spoke, he watched in the wing mirror as a car approached, passed over the boundary and shot on. There were two kids and a dog in the backseat. “It’ll only affect those who seek to follow us. It won’t stop them completely, but it will make things a little more difficult for them to find out where we have gone.”

They had barely driven three hundred yards when there was a great cracking sound behind them. Grayson looked at the rearview mirror. A large branch from an old oak tree had split and come crashing down across the road. Zoë twisted around in her seat, exclaiming aloud as she did. She stared back at the tree blocking the road and then he felt her attention on him.

“I guess they were already on our trail.” He flashed her a quick smile. They wouldn’t be able to spend too long in Abernathy, not if Davot’s lot were closing in. The boundary spell would hold them up, but not indefinitely. They would need to be out of there and on their way back soon.

Zoë looked shell-shocked, and she continued to stare at him in silence before sitting back in her seat. “Is there another road back?”

He noticed her voice was very quiet. Was she being drawn back to the village already? “Yes, inland. Do you feel yourself being drawn back to Carbrey?”

She nodded but stared straight ahead, and he knew she was fighting it. They sat in silence for the rest of the drive, although she responded when he put his hand on her thigh, placing her hand over his. He sensed she was working through everything in her mind. It had been a baptism by fire, for sure, especially for a skeptic.

He wondered what she’d make of it all when she met some of the Abernathy coven. Smiling to himself, he put his foot to the floor.

22

“GREAT, JUST GREAT,” ELSPETH SAID WHEN THEY reached the fallen tree in the road.

Crawford drew his Land Rover slowly to a halt and climbed out.

Elspeth followed. “He’s bloody good.”

“Don’t let Cain catch you saying stuff like that again, Elsie. You got very close to the line last night.”

“Do you blame me? Our friends are being hurt, they’re scared.” There was a rising sense of rebellion inside her, and she folded her arms across her chest as she stared at the road ahead of the fallen tree. “What drives Grayson Murdoch? Why is he so strong, and why isn’t Cain able to force him to leave?”

Crawford shook his head, clearly unsure of that himself.

“It’s as if he has something to prove,” she added, pondering the conundrum, “something that makes him tenacious and invincible.”

“Do you think maybe he knew all along?” Crawford asked. “Do you think he wants to resurrect Annabel?”

Elspeth was surprised. Crawford only ever gave his opinion when he’d thought things through. Perhaps he had doubts, too. They’d all come into this with a very different picture of how it would evolve, after all.