“I see you,” I assured her. She looked relieved, and then confused, and I felt a fresh pang of grief. “Sammy?” I said out loud, reaching for my sister in my mind.
You know what to do, babe. It’s not going to get any easier.
I swallowed and looked at the spirit in front of me. “You died, Becca,” I told her, as gently as I could. “I’m so sorry. But it will be okay. You don’t have to stay here.” The words sounded trite, but I couldn’t think of any other way to say it just then. “You can move on,” I repeated.
Becca looked down at her body, then gave me a reproachful look. “I’ll make sure you are put to rest,” I promised. “I’ll find your parents in Chattanooga. You can be at peace. You have my word.”
She stared at me for another moment without blinking, and even though I knew she didn’t have to lubricate her eyes anymore, it still looked eerie. Then a smile broke over her face, a shining, beatific smile that was so achingly beautiful it made me gasp and jerk out of my boundary mindset. When I checked again, Becca’s form was gone, just like the remnants I’d guided through the door.
For the first time in months, I felt the familiar rush of boundary magic, the serene high of setting something right. I wanted to cry, but I needed to save my strength. I’d made a promise to stop Odessa, and I damn well intended to keep it.
With great effort, I dragged my right arm close so I could see my watch. Three fourteen p.m. Fuck. I had been unconscious for most of the day. In just over three hours the sun would go down, and Odessa could set off another spirit bottle.
The only good news was that I felt a little stronger than I had before I’d lost consciousness. The first thing I did was roll a little so I could feel my pockets. As expected, my cell phone and sidearm were both gone. Odessa must have searched us the first time I was out, when she’d taken my necklace. If she was smart enough to do that, she was also smart enough to call the grooms and give them the day off. Maybe the night grooms too.
Tobias. Tobias was probably already looking for me. Odessa was right, though—with no reason to think I’d be at the barn, he wouldn’t risk coming here and freaking out the horses—but he’d be asking everyone questions.
Which made him a liability to Odessa.
I tried to swallow the panic and work it through. Unless she had a secret stockpile of silver bullets—unlikely, since there weren’t wolves in Atlanta—Odessa would have to lay low for now to avoid him. After sunset, though, she could ambush him with another spirit bottle. Tobias had survived the first blast because I—and my obsidian—had been between him and the worst of it, but that didn’t mean he could survive a second bomb. Especially if she caught him off-guard. And of course, Tobias was too trusting to do anything but bound right up to her the second he saw her.
Weak or not, I had to get myself out of there. I needed to warn Tobias—and Beau—about Odessa.
I eyed the infinite distance between me and the door and sighed. Odessa had slid it closed when she fled. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to push the damned thing open once I got there, but reaching it was the obvious first step.
This was really going to suck.
Flipping myself over, I began dragging myself in an army crawl toward the heavy door. Elbow forward, opposite knee forward, drag body along, rest. Other elbow forward, other knee forward, drag body along, rest. Repeat, and repeat, and repeat.
I had plenty of time to think as I crept along the floor. If Odessa got rid of me and Tobias, she could probably convince Beau we’d gone back to Colorado early. She’d clearly figured out a workaround for lying to vampires. If I’d had energy to spare, I would have smacked myself in the forehead. Odessa had smelled like alcohol the night before, and I’d just thought, oh, typical nineteen-year-old. But she’d been preparing to lie to the kind of people who could smell it.
As long as Beau didn’t suspect her, she could ambush him tonight with one of the spirit bombs. And then her silent, undetectable explosives would be out on the open market. Atlanta