Reign of Night (Thorne Hill #7) - Emily Goodwin Page 0,94
don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” I say, helping to ease her guilt. “And we’ll be town around sunset, but it’s no big deal to come an hour or so earlier and hang out with Penny if you want to nap.”
“Pray I’m fine by the evening. We have—” She cuts off.
“Abby? Still there?”
“Yeah,” she says, and Penny starts fussing again. “We have plans tonight and have to leave around five-ish. I already have a babysitter for the night, though I’d feel safer with you watching her.”
I do my best not to cringe, though I suppose it won’t matter since she can’t see me. I have powers and can keep us safe if someone tried to rob the house or something, but I also walk around with a target on my back twenty-four seven.
“I’ll happily watch her another time. You guys going out on a date night or something?”
“Or something. It’s…it’s Scott’s engagement party,” she rushes out, sounding relieved to have said it. “And I don’t want to go, trust me. It’s a pretentious party at the Metro Club that’s doubling as a political fundraiser. It’s the last place I want to go and—”
“It’s okay,” I tell her. “Go and load up on free food or something.”
“There’s an open bar.”
“Oh, how I wish I could drink.”
Abby laughs. “Thanks, Cal.”
“Of course. Oh, hey, what was Penny saying? Inks?”
“Oh, she means Binx. We’ve been working on trying to say his name. She loves that cat.”
“She’s pretty close! I can totally hear it now. And I’ll bring him next time we come to Chicago and see her. He loves the attention.”
“And she would love that.”
Penny starts crying again, and Abby says a rushed goodbye, sounded worn out and frustrated.
“That will be us someday soon,” Lucas says, and I smile, getting that weird, out-of-body experience again. Only days ago, we made the connection that the ritualistic killings both took place on a new moon, leaving us roughly three weeks to put a stop to it before another ritual takes place.
Tabatha put the word out, and the day before the new moon cycle hits, witches of the coven surrounding the hotspots are casting the same protective spell at the same time. Something like this hasn’t been done in decades, and I’m not exactly sure what the story that was told the coven members was, if they were even informed at all. Each coven’s council and High Priest or Priestess will perform the spell. There’s no need to make everyone panic…and there’s no need to lay out cookie crumbs of dark magic for those who are looking to leave their covens in search of greater power.
“It will,” I say, flopping back onto the bed and feeling Elena moving around. She stretches out her legs, and it almost hurts. Moving to my side, I shove a pillow behind me to try and get comfortable while preventing myself from rolling onto my back. I never really paid attention to how I slept before, and it surprised me how much I slept on either my back or my stomach. “The baby shower is next week. And then after that, I’ll be in the third trimester. Holy fuck.”
Lucas chuckles and brushes my hair back so he can kiss my neck. He readjusts the covers and lays down with me, rubbing my back until I fall asleep again. I sleep for a solid three hours before Freya jumps on me, waking me from a bad dream.
“Thanks, girl,” I tell her and run my hand over her head. She rubs against me and then meows, saying I can thank her by cooking some turkey with a little bit of butter and salt. “Give me a minute.”
I get up and go straight to the bathroom, having to pee so bad it almost hurts, like I do almost every morning now. I showered last night and let my hair air dry like usual. For as little as I do with it, my hair is actually in great shape. I never apply heat to it since I use magic to style it, which definitely helps. I wash my face, put a few drops of my morning sickness potion in a glass, and fill it with water.
Curling my hair with magic, I go into my closet and get out one of the new maternity dresses. It was really hard to find solid black maternity clothes in the store, and this slate blue wrap dress is so far from my usual style. I put the ties through