small smiles on their faces I suspected they liked being asked for help. They both crossed the kitchen without hesitation.
“Of course, Son. We’ve got this. You deal with crazy.” Kessler squeezed his shoulder and stepped around him. “All right, you four and your parents? Come with us for a chat.”
The parents had their young children up and hurrying across the living room in the blink of an eye. Constance led the way toward the front door like a mother duck. Kessler waited until the last of them passed before he turned to follow. Timothy started to go but Tennessee reached out and snagged him by the sleeve.
“Don’t go far,” Tennessee growled between clenched teeth.
Timothy nodded. “We’ll be right out the front door.” Then he turned and I saw a wide grin on his face.
Tennessee scrubbed his face and then turned back to Tegan and Henley. “Henley, we can’t ask you to do this—”
“Good thing you didn’t then.” She arched one perfectly shaped black eyebrow. “I volunteered. I’m not letting anyone else even think about it.”
“Boss. NO. You can’t allow this!” Royce flapped his arms around and paced the living room. “No. No way. Last time it took you to another dimension, Henley! You went to a demonic realm. NO.”
“Exactly, baby brother,” she said softly. “I’m already scarred from this. I already have trauma and baggage…I can’t let someone else go down this rabbit hole like I did. I know how it thinks. I know what it’ll do and how it’ll treat me. It won’t hurt me, not while it still needs me.”
“And we’ll have you out by then.”
“How, Tegan? HOW?” Royce spit as he screamed.
Hunter hurried over and wrapped his arm around Royce’s shoulders, golden light pouring over his body. He just stayed like that. “I am not Coven Leader, nor am I trying to overstep. But please, for all our sanity, can you talk us through your plan for keeping her safe? For getting it out?”
“No, she can’t.” Henley shook her head. She glanced around to all of us and must have seen the tension in our eyes. “He hears more than you realize.”
“I have a spell on the house right now. Only those inside can hear what’s being said.” Tegan turned to me. “Saffie, Riah…either of you sense him in here with us?”
I frowned and pushed out with my magic. I didn’t feel anything but this was a demon not the dead.
“No, there are no demons within these walls.”
“I didn’t feel any either.” Tegan snapped her fingers and her Book of Shadows shot across the room to her open hand. “There’s a Gap in the Old Lands, remember? The one we recently learned about?”
My stomach turned. Did I know that? I don’t feel like I knew that.
“Chutney?”
She shook her head and her dark curls bounced. “The animals know a general vicinity but they steer far away from it. Lonan suspects it is moving, which isn’t comforting.”
Tegan nodded and flicked her wrist. White light flashed and then Timothy stood right beside her. She turned on him. “The Gap in the Old Lands, you know where it is?”
Timothy’s eyes widened, then he cursed. “No. I don’t. Neither did Joseph, though he was looking.”
Tegan pointed to her left. “Riah?”
“I have not been in the Old Lands since 1665.” He frowned and shook his head. “If there is a Gap there now, it is new.”
Tennessee closed his eyes. “If that was meant to be comforting, it wasn’t.”
Tegan patted his chest with her hand. “Timothy, when I sent Ellis back to Joseph, were you around?”
“Yes…” He narrowed his dark eyes. “Why?”
“Could you tell that I was listening?”
“Excuse me, what? You did what?”
Tegan grinned. “I planted a magical wire on him by a mark behind the ear. It was invisible to the eye and allowed me to hear everything he heard.”
“You are scary.” Timothy chuckled. “This is how you knew I was alive?”
“Ellis told me but it was how I got my confirmation and knew that my magic had worked on you.”
“Well shit, crazy pants. No I had absolutely no idea. Did not sense the magic on him at all and neither did Joseph or Trey, otherwise none of our plans would have worked.”
Easton raised his hand. “Can you still hear what he does?”
“Only if I turn it back on, which I’ve done a few times just long enough to confirm he is alive and well. But what I’m saying is, I’ll do the same thing with Henley and then I’ll be able to