Witching Time (The Wild Hunt #14) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,59

be there—at her funeral.”

Herne nodded. “I haven’t seen an altar to Reyas in decades. His followers are mostly agrarian earth witches, and there aren’t a whole lot of those left around.” He paused, then added, “That statue of him has a lot of energy. I’d destroy it unless you want him to remain focused on this patch of land. Because of his diminishing worshippers, I’m thinking he may turn his attention to his sacred spaces, and this would be one of them. Especially if there’s an autumn wight on the land who was originally a sacrifice.”

“So there are natural autumn wights?” I asked.

Ember nodded. “I’ve heard of a few, but they’re rare. On the other hand, I never realized you could create one through sacrifice. It’s a grisly thought.”

As the rest of Akron’s crew filed down into the room and began to prepare Aida’s body to be moved, the rest of us returned to the temple.

Kipa went over to the statue of Reyas. “If Herne and I destroy this, we risk starting a war with Reyas, and neither one of us wants that. He’d feel the energy. But if a mortal destroys it, or nature, he won’t know about it, I think. Especially since it hasn’t been actively used in years.”

“That’s a hint, isn’t it?” I asked.

He nodded. “Are you going home after this? You aren’t going to poke around here anymore tonight, right?”

“Yes, I mean no. I mean yes, I’m going home and no, I have no plans to do any more searching out here tonight.” I frowned. “You’re thinking my lightning bolt?” I had brought my wand with me.

He nodded. “That would do wonders.”

“Yeah, but it could also bring the walls down. Do you want Akron and his crew buried?”

Ember snorted. “And Herne says you’re impulsive.”

I frowned, turning to the Lord of the Hunt. “Dude, did you tell Ember that I’m impulsive?”

He tried to suppress a grin but couldn’t. It slipped out and he laughed. “Guilty as charged, but you can’t tell me that you aren’t impulsive as hell.”

“Well, no but…” I wanted to protest but he had me there. “Anyway, you don’t want me blowing this place up or we’ll all be buried. What about Kipa’s men? They’re not technically gods.”

“True that. Well, I suppose it can’t hurt,” Kipa said, motioning for his guards to attack the statue. They struggled, carrying it outside and then wrestled it up the hill. From above, they pushed it over the side and the marble statue landed hard, breaking apart. One of the guards ran back to the barn and returned with a couple of sledgehammers. They set to, smashing the statue until it was a pile of rubble.

I sighed. “All right, tomorrow we work on figuring out just how we’re going to take down the wight. And Wager wanted to see me. For now? I just want to go home and sleep. It’s been a long, wearying day, and my heart feels heavy.”

As we walked back to our cars, sans Kipa’s guards who stayed to guard Akron and his crew, Kipa and I filled Ember and Herne in on everything that had happened the past few days.

“It’s a nightmare. We have to find and kill the wight so that Marigold’s no longer under his compulsion.” I shook my head. “And we have no clue on how to do this. Ember, you said you’ve heard of them before? Do you know of anything that will destroy them?”

“Fire, for one thing. Lightning. As to what else? Weapons? I don’t know.” She shrugged.

“Do you know of any way to beat the invisibility?”

“No clue, I’m sorry,” she said, looking around. “This is a beautiful farm.”

“You should see it in the daylight,” I said. “I hope we can break the spell on Marigold. She and Rain are working so hard to make this farm a full-blown moneymaker. And the fair—it’s fun and lively. But this year, unless they do a Samhain-themed one, will be a money drain on them.”

“Maybe we can help. If you can free Marigold, we’ll bring over all our friends and fill the place.” Herne reached around Ember to clap his hand on my shoulder. “You really do care about this family, don’t you?”

“They were Llew’s friends first, but Rain and Marigold are good people. Their kids are good kids. I want to see them make this work.”

We were near the makeshift parking lot. I glanced over at the darkened house. “I’ll call Vixen and see how they’re doing. And I should