And she needed her phone. Limping to the Volvo, she climbed into the ditch and searched the lopsided car until she found it underneath the steering wheel. As she thumbed the button, she looked around. The area was remote enough, there might not be a cell phone tower to connect to.
As soon as the phone powered on, it started ringing. Lauren’s name lit up the screen. Molly answered, and Lauren said, “We’re almost there.”
“Oh good.” The ditch was rough and uneven, and the muscles in her legs shook. She braced herself against the side of the car. “Sarah was with me for most of the fight, but then she dropped out. I’m worried about her.”
“She reached her limit and couldn’t hold everyone’s Power together any longer, but she’s all right,” Lauren said reassuringly. “Lexie and Remy are with her. What about you? You were just in midbattle. Where’s your assailant?”
“He’s dead.” She looked back at the body and shuddered. It had started to rain again, and the drops hissed as they hit the flames. From where she stood, it looked like the earth had cracked open to let hell spill out.
Do you think I am the only one you have to worry about? What had he meant by that? Were others searching for her?
An SUV appeared around the bed and approached at a cautious speed.
Molly asked, “Are you in that SUV?”
“Sure am,” Lauren replied.
She climbed out of the ditch and waved when the headlights caught her. The SUV pulled to one side, and Delphine, Lauren, and Sylvie emerged.
The copper tones in Delphine’s corkscrew curls highlighted her rich, tawny skin as she stared at the scene. “We all felt when you released that, but daaaamn. It’s one thing to sense it from a distance and another thing altogether to see it. Remind me to never piss you off, cher.”
Usually the skittish one, Sylvie looked around, eyes gleaming with Power. While she was entirely human, she was Elven slender and wore her hair back in braids. “This place feels alive with possibilities. We can bury the body here. The forest won’t mind.”
Delphine gave Molly a round-eyed look and mouthed oh em gee. Then she said in a light, easy tone, “Nobody said anything about burying the body, Syl.”
Sylvie blinked at them. “We’ve got to do something with it… don’t we?”
“First things first. Everybody take a breath.” Lauren’s classically beautiful features were lit with relief. She pulled Molly into a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Thank you. You have no idea how much it means that you guys came back to Atlanta with me.” Molly returned the hug with one arm as she held up her phone. “I have to call Josiah. I lost touch with him too. He’s got to be worried.”
As she scrolled through her list of contacts, a mechanical growl caught her attention. That wasn’t the purr of an individual engine. Several vehicles approached. She met Lauren’s gaze.
“Emergency responders?” Lauren suggested.
“That was a hell of a fireball,” Delphine remarked. “It had to have been visible for miles.”
Biting her thumbnail, Sylvie muttered, “Told you we should hide the body.”
Or maybe that was Josiah and his coven? Molly held her phone to her ear as she watched car after car speed into sight. Two, three, four, five… six… Their headlights turned the shadowed stretch of road as bright as day.
She hit dial.
Josiah roared in her ear. “There you fucking are! Don’t you ever fucking hang up on me again!”
Oh, yeah. She’d already forgotten about that. “Is that you, baby?”
“What do you fucking mean, is that fucking me?” he demanded. “If you have time to chat, the other guy better be dead.”
“Yeah, he’s dead.”
“Good. I was bargaining for transportation with a Djinn.”
A Djinn? “You mean you haven’t left yet?”
“I’ve been a bit busy directing coven resources your way,” he bit out.
She started the four-seven-eight technique. “You’re not going to let it go, are you?”
“God no. Wait until I see you in person.”
The vehicles pulled to either side of the road, and silhouetted individuals climbed out. A crawling sensation ran up Molly’s spine, and the other women drew close. Delphine said uneasily, “I’m feeling a lot of magic, cher. Didn’t you say this area didn’t have many magic users?”
Do you think I am the only one you have to worry about?
“Josiah, remember when I said I took precautions?” Molly breathed. She counted silhouettes as they approached at a leisurely pace. Seven, eight, nine… “I meant to tell you at the police