Georgie shook his head. "It doesn't have to be like that. I don't want it to be like that."
He got up and went inside.
Declan sat, frowning, his arms resting on his knees. When she passed him on her way inside the house, he said, "I'll need some supplies. Would it tax you too much to obtain them for me?"
She stopped. He actually had some sort of a plan. "What do you need?"
"Blue candles. A metal bowl or a large pot. Certain herbs. A basin, the larger the better. Some other things."
That seemed pretty specific. "How sure are you that the hounds won't attack?"
"Very sure."
"In that case, put on the clothes Amy gave you. I'll take you to Wal-Mart."
Ten minutes later, they were both in the truck. Her cab wasn't that small, but Declan made it seem cramped and tiny. She started the engine. "Have you ever been in a car before?"
"No."
Rose nodded at the guns. "Can you use a gun?"
He picked up a rifle, locked, and loaded.
"Good. Keep the rifle out of sight and please buckle your seat belt."
They drove in silence for a couple of minutes. "Why the sudden benevolence?" Declan asked.
She avoided looking at him. "How long do you think George has?"
"It's hard to say. I don't know what his capabilities are and how much drain he's under or for how long. But judging by his physical weakness, I would say he has less than six months. He's featherlight. He can't do more than two push-ups and he tires very quickly. I thought he was anemic."
"There's your answer," Rose said. "I hate to say it, but if you truly think you can convince my brother to stop his slow suicide, I'll help you, even if it costs me a challenge."
She drove on. "When did you have a chance to see him do push-ups?"
"Two days ago while you were cooking dinner. I gave each of them a knife and put them through some basics. Jack is a born killer. George had to sit down after a couple of minutes."
"It won't help you," Rose said.
He raised his eyebrows.
"Making friends with the children won't help you," she clarified. "We won't leave with you."
"I made friends with the children because I wanted to do so. Not everything I do is calculated. Although I understand why you would think that."
"Oh?"
"I spoke to Madam ElEonore at some length this morning, while you were with George."
Oh, really? He really did get around, but if he thought her grandma would join the Declan-worshipping parade, he had another think coming. "What did she tell you?"
"Many things. Your grandmother is very conflicted. She's unsure if she should encourage or discourage me, so she has done a bit of both."
She glanced at him. Their stares connected, and she didn't like what she saw in his eyes: they were resolute and determined. Disturbed, she turned away to watch the road.
"It's difficult for you to trust anyone," he said. "I contributed to this by my deception. For this, I'm sorry. But it was necessary."
"You keep saying that, but you don't tell me why."
He said nothing.
"That's very illuminating," she said. "You knew the creatures were a threat to the whole Edge. I know we're nothing to you, but couldn't you have at least tried to warn us out of common decency?"
"I did," he said. "You have no law enforcement and no central authority, so as soon as I crossed into the Edge, I went to your church. Your priest seemed like a reasonable man. I told him that the Edge needed to be evacuated. He nodded, pulled out a gun, and unloaded twenty-two shots into me. When he realized the bullets weren't hurting me, he threw his sidearm at me and called me an agent of Lucifer."
Rose winced. "That's because George Farrel, the local preacher, is borderline insane. He preaches hellfire and damnation every Sunday and checks the church for the rogue angels that fought against God with Satan. He's convinced they're out to get him. He probably thought you were an evil angel."
"I see," Declan said dryly.
"Nobody goes to his church except for some old ladies," she said. Not that it helped the situation any.
"Next I went to the largest house I could find. My logic was that anyone who owned a house of that size would have some roots within the community."
Rose's heart sank. There was only one large house next to the church. "Which house? The Ronn house, with the blue roof?"
"Yes."
She almost cringed. "The dogs."
He nodded. "Yes. The owners set a pack of dogs on me. I suppose they were also expecting agents of Satan?"
"No, they have a meth lab in the house. They're producing illegal narcotics. They're high all the time, and they're paranoid the cops from the Broken will somehow get into the Edge and raid the place. Did you try anyone else?"
"As I crossed the road to the next house, a woman tried to run me over with her truck."
"You were in the middle of the road!"
Declan's face was still impassive. "At the next two houses, I was ignored. They saw me and hid inside. I decided not to waste any more time and began tracking the hounds. It took me a day and a half to untangle the different tracks. One of them led me to an isolated house. A woman emerged - the same one who had tried to run me over - and declared that she would not marry me and I better leave or the two kids at the windows would shoot me."
Rose struggled for words. He had really tried. He'd tried more than many other people would have in his place. "You must've thought the lot of us was insane."
"The thought did cross my mind. I went along with you because I needed a foothold in the Edge at any cost. I knew that the hounds were drawn to your family because their magic lingered in the area, and contrary to your assertions of yesterday, I don't want anyone to be hurt. You gave me a very good idea of what you expected a blueblood to be. If I went along with your expectations, I thought I could reasonably predict your reactions. And I wanted to know why you wouldn't marry me. I found you intriguing."
Aha. Intriguing. She would buy that for a dollar. Next thing she knew, he'd try to sell her some intriguing oceanside property in Nebraska.
"Declan, I spoke to Georgie, and he told me what Casshorn said. I thought about it, and I realized that Casshorn was right: I am bait. Except it's not you who is doing the baiting, it's him. He's using the threat to me as a means of keeping you put. You can't go out looking for him, because you're worried he'll attack me or the boys. That's why you followed me into the Broken, that's why you insisted on staying at my house, that's why you timed your expedition with Jack for the morning when I was going to spend most of the time in the Broken food shopping. You're trying to do it even now. You've dangled those writs in front of me to make sure that we can escape into the Weird if you fail the challenge and can't defend us."