him into telling what he knew about Holly, Garret would put up as much resistance as necessary to hold it back. He wouldn’t let anyone push him around right now, not until he figured out what to do about this—if there was anything to do about it.
He curled his lip at Loch and closed his hands into fists. “If you’ve got something to say, just spit it out. I got shit to do.”
Loch’s eyes sliced toward the trees. “The Fair Dryad.”
Garret froze, gaping at him. “Come again?”
Loch shrugged, but he steadfastly refused to make eye contact with Garret. He kept skipping his gaze back and forth, to the barn and the trees and the sky—anywhere but at Garret. “Just thought I’d mention it now while we have a quiet moment to ourselves. Whatever it is you gotta do, it might want to wait while we work this out. Just a thought, you know.”
Garret shut his mouth with a click and swallowed hard. He had to think to come up with something to say. “Is that…real?”
“I didn’t think so.” Loch scrutinized his fingernails before looking away again. “I thought it was a kids’ story, you know—kinda like shifters and vampires and evil witches and all that shit. But then…”
A surge of maniacal fury seized Garret. He barged down the steps and stormed up to Loch. He would have thundered in his friend’s face, but he didn’t want Holly to hear.
He towered over Loch’s wiry frame and hissed at the man between gritted teeth. “What makes you think it’s real? What in the name of Jesus fucking Christ would make you mention that now of all times? Are you out of your tree? You better have some damn compelling reason to say that shit now.”
Loch gazed up at him with maddening composure. Instead of answering, he stripped back his shirt sleeve to expose his bare inner forearm. He extended it for Garret to see.
Garret blinked down at the expanse of olive skin below the shirt cuff. Emblazoned on Loch’s arm, a rim of swollen bruising surrounded a red mark branded into the skin. A spray of weeping willow curved in a graceful arch to touch a concentric ripple widening in a circle. Garret’s stomach turned at the sight of it.
He summoned all his will to raise his eyes to Loch’s face. When he did, he registered a spasm of suppressed misery tugging at Loch’s cheek. Loch struggled to hide it. It broke out once, and then Loch succeeded in getting his features under control.
His dark eyes searched Garret’s soul, and Garret read the question haunting the young man’s mind. What in the name of holy hell were they supposed to do about this?
A thousand questions crowded Garret’s brain. Could this be the hidden threat Johnny and the witches warned the party about? How could it be? They said the threat was far away, too far away to see clearly. This was nearby—impossibly nearby. It was right under their noses. How could they miss this?
Loch regarded him with an unwavering gaze. Garret realized with another pang of horror that Loch was waiting for him to come up with some plan, some answer to this unsolvable problem—like Holly and her people needed another one of those.
Without thinking, he wheeled away and leaped up the steps. He had to get out of here. He had to get as far away from Loch as possible.
CHAPTER THREE—HOLLY
Holly extended her hand to the two strangers seated on her own couch. “It’s very nice to meet you. Thank you so much for coming.”
The two newcomers shook her hand without standing up to greet her. She lowered herself onto the love seat opposite them, and Keller sat down next to her. He didn’t mention her wearing his clothes.
“This is Savannah and Rolf Macauley from Golden Oak,” Keller murmured in her ear. “Their father, Neal, is head of their clan.”
The man across from Holly picked up the last tuna sandwich from the plate on the coffee table. He crammed half of it into his mouth, bit it off, and pushed it into his cheek with his tongue before he spoke.
He bobbed his head and struggled to get his lips to function around the food in his cheek. “Come to pay our respects to the maiden. Always had nothing but the utmost respect for the maiden. Gotta pledge our support and fealty to the maiden and her child.” He dipped his head once more and swallowed an enormous wad of sandwich. “Always