Her phone rang again. She was going forty over the speed limit and couldn’t take her eyes off the road, so she answered without looking.
“Molly,” Josiah said. His voice was hoarse and gravelly. “Where are you?”
Her pulse leaped with gladness and surprise. “You got a phone. What are you doing up?”
“One of my coven woke me. We had two people watching the motel. They said you knocked out your police escort. They’d checked into another room and ran out in time to see you drive off. They tried to follow, but they lost you. What’s wrong?”
“An old friend wanted to get together, and I was stupid.” Using broad, quick strokes, she sketched everything in. “I can’t shake the spell, and I don’t dare stop until I get to the airfield.”
“I’m on my way. Keep your phone on and tuck it somewhere, like under a bra strap against your skin. It’ll give me a focal point until I get there.”
Pressing her phone hard against her ear, she listened to him breathing, oddly comforted by the sound. “Even if you break every land-speed record on the books, you’re not going to make it in time.”
“You don’t know that,” he said fiercely. “I’m coming. In the meantime, hide if you can. I can use our connection as a conduit to place some defensive spells on you.”
Biting her lip, she considered that. Much like medicines, spells often interacted with each other. Sarah called it relative contraindication. It was possible Josiah might do more harm than good if he happened to throw a defensive spell that counteracted any of the offensive spells she’d been practicing.
“Don’t throw any spells on me,” she told him. “But I’ll take any strength you and your coven are able to send my way.”
“I’ll give you everything I’ve got.” Lifting his voice away, he said to someone else, “Get Richard on the line. I need to talk to him.”
She was so focused on him she almost missed her exit off the highway. Signaling, she swerved right just in time and shot onto a two-lane country road. This one was winding, wet, and dark, and it forced her to slow down.
The Volvo’s headlights threw images into the dripping trees. She caught a glimpse of a raven, a wolf. They had borne witness months before when she’d left her old life. It felt right that they had shown up for this.
Her trackers started to gain on her.
“I’m back.” Josiah’s voice came through loud and clear. “We’re exploring an idea to get to you faster.”
“I’ve got hairpin turns coming up,” she told him. “I have to put the phone down.”
“Don’t hang up yet.” He sounded so calm, so steady. “What’s the name of the airfield you’re headed for?”
He was working his heart out to find ways to protect her and join the fight, but meanwhile he hadn’t had a chance to recover from life-threatening injuries. This upcoming confrontation might not kill her.
But it might very well kill him, because he would die before he let anything happen to her.
Except he couldn’t join her if he didn’t know where she was.
“Josiah?”
“Yes, milaya.”
“I love you,” she told him.
She didn’t wait for a reply. Pushing her phone’s power button, she turned it off. Then she tossed it into the drink holder and concentrated on the dark, solitary road ahead.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Those hairpin turns cost her.
Maybe she had ten or fifteen minutes at best before they caught up with her.
It wasn’t worth trying to get to the airfield. She had to stop now, before she lost any more time. Anyway, she was tired of running. Months tired, in fact, and she was more than a little pissed.
So okay. It would have been better if the area was by the ocean, or—she glanced at the clouded night sky—if there was a full moon. She was missing the presence of her two strongest elements, but she had to play the hand she was dealt.
She passed around another curve and reached a relatively straight length of road.
This was the place.
She spun the Volvo into a tight U-turn. There was just enough room on the two-lane road to turn around. Then, putting the vehicle in park but leaving the engine running, she ran to the narrow shoulder and searched until she found a rock that was heavy enough she had to lift it with both hands.
Jogging back to the Volvo, she set the rock on the floor on the driver’s side, poised on its narrowest side in front of the gas pedal. Then,