The ward blink and the security notifications took on sinister implications that twisted my stomach.
“Who is this guy?” Clay pounded a fist into his open palm. “Why fixate on the Silver Stag? Why Colby?”
I recognized the attempt to distract me for what it was, but I was happy to embrace it.
“The Stag had no family. No friends.” I reached back in my memory for those details. “He was a ghost.”
“Not a ghost.” Clay grunted. “An outlier. He lived off the grid with minimal social interaction. His victims were taken from big box stores. He moved around a lot so as not to draw attention to himself. He had at least forty-eight kills under his belt before he took the last group. We may never know the grand total.”
“We got lucky that Colby was a type one diabetic. She got hypoglycemic at the drop of a hat.” How times had changed. She lived on sugar now. “She wore a medical alert bracelet her parents had imbued with a locator spell so that if she had an episode outside the house, they could find her. We followed it right to him. He was in the process of transforming the girls for the hunt. Two of their souls were already outside their bodies, wrapping them in his chosen form. He consumed them while I hammered at his ward.”
Rage had consumed me, not over the girls’ deaths, those hadn’t affected me then, but at my inability to beat him at his own game. No wonder, with all the souls he had devoured over the centuries of his life.
But I had Grandfather’s voice ringing in my ears, the phantom agony of his cane striking a lash across my hands for each failure. Fury and hatred had burned through me and incinerated the ward. I smashed through the barrier, stabbed the Stag in the gut with my wand, and cursed him with delight. Then, I did what all black witches do to ensure their rivals don’t get a shot at revenge.
I ate his foul, black heart.
“Then you saved Colby,” Asa finished the story. “Who else would have known that part?”
“I thought no one saw.” I rubbed my arms. “The third girl had been transformed when I broke in, but she spooked when the other girls were consumed. She broke out of the pen and ran.” I didn’t blame her one bit. “Clay chased after her. The Stag was as good as dead at that point. He used everything he had left to transform Colby into a moth. He couldn’t move. She had to fly to him.” He gave her wings rather than hooves, so she could sail to her own death. “I finished him off before he touched her, then I had an armful of sobbing moth-girl and some hard choices to make.”
“It took two teams three days to find the third girl, but her soul had evaporated beyond saving by then.” A thoughtful expression settled across Clay’s features. “We assumed the fourth girl, Colby, met the same fate.”
“That was the plan.” I toyed with my seat belt. “All this time, I thought it worked.”
“As far as I was concerned, it did.” Clay rubbed his smooth head. “I had no idea.”
“I should have told you.” I wet my lips. “I should have trusted you.” I forced out the rest, because I didn’t want him getting ideas about me being good for goodness’ sake. “I think…I was afraid if I told you what I had done, and I caved to temptation, you would never look at me the same way again.”
“If you had told me,” he said quietly, “I would have helped in any way I could, to whatever end.”
To whatever end.
“I know that now.” I blinked to keep tears from sliding down my cheeks. “I couldn’t see it then.”
Clamping a hand onto my shoulder, Clay squeezed. “Are you booking our flight, or do I get the honors?”
“You do it.” I folded my hands in my lap. “I’m so jittery I might book us a rocket to the moon.”
The seat groaned when Clay leaned back, and his soft voice soothed as he used voice commands to walk his phone through purchasing our tickets.
Asa stole a glance at me. “Will you call Colby to warn her?”
“I tried.” I held my phone in a death grip. “She didn’t answer.”
* * *
The flight homefrom Charlotte was an hour and forty-five minutes.
Four hours had lapsed between the moment we left Olsen’s property until we hit the city limits.
Colby still wasn’t answering her phone or returning texts, and the security cameras had all gone dark.
I was ready to scream. Or punch something. Or scream while I punched something.
The drive home from the airport took forever, and I didn’t wait for Asa to stop before I jumped out. I ran to the gate, casting my senses wide for the wards that had protected us for so long. They were dormant.
The copycat had beaten us here, and he had bypassed my security when he couldn’t outright destroy it.