A couple of seconds later, two adorable girls walked into the kitchen with Selma and Jake at their side.
“You’re home!” Selma rushed forward for a hug.
“Aye, we are.”
“It’s about time.” Mrs. Dawson walked into the room behind the others. “We were getting worried about you.”
Amber stood and offered her chair to the older woman. “Tea or coffee?”
“Tea would be lovely, dear.”
Selma introduced Amber and Gavin to the girls and put them on the task of mixing a couple of bowls of pancake batter. The twins quietly watched the others in the room and talked amongst themselves.
Amber moved to Jake’s side and laid a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”
He nodded toward his daughters. “It’s them I’m worried about.”
“We’ll keep them safe.” He met her gaze, and sorrow mixed into her thoughts of the girls safety. “But that isn’t what you’re worried about.”
“They just lost their mother.”
“But they still have you.”
Jake gave a curt nod and moved to the place between his girls to help.
****
The prophecy lay on the tip of Raine’s tongue, yet there wasn’t a single crack in the white honor of Kincaid or Amber MacCoinnich. Not one.
She sat next to the fire under the night sky. Her clothing was carelessly tossed to the side as she bared herself to the elements to feel every ounce of energy around her.
The herbs tossed into the pyre billowed in dark smoke and filled her lungs then her head.
She rocked back and forth and stared into the hot flames. When the world around her slid away, she whispered the words, “Show me.”
A white flame licked an orange one then merged into a blue ball that spread and filled with the Druid lives she wanted to take. Their souls were chess pieces moving on a board, and she was a dark angel watching from above.
The white light of children played. The call of a wolf screamed as sap slid from the bark of a tree and ignited in the flames. The blue sphere tightened, enclosing the children. All the souls in the Manor cried.
Then before she could see more, the ball exploded.
Yes. Raine needed to move the chess pieces in place for the queen to take her throne. No use destroying a MacCoinnich who had yet to realize all their power. That would be like chewing cake and spitting it out.
No, it wasn’t time to kill. It was time to move about the board, collecting power, removing a pawn, a knight, and then removing the queen would reward her as an empress.
The world slowly moved back in place around her and the wind kicked up. Without thought, Raine stood and walked through the flames to reach her discarded clothing. She flicked the soot off her arm and dressed.
As she turned to walk away, the flames behind her died.
****
Kelsey and Sophie had taken to the backyard to explore Mrs. Dawson’s massive yard.
“Todd sends his best,” Amber told Jake who watched his girls through the door.
“It’s not fair you just saw him.”
“He feels the same way. Perhaps one day you’ll meet again.”
Jake pushed away from the window, and Amber took his place.
The girls were chasing two butterflies and laughing. Then, as if they realized they were smiling they both stopped.
Amber gave a silent prayer for their strength and ability to laugh. The girls continued to move in and out the flower garden talking with each other.
“So the person behind the murder—any leads?” Gavin asked.
“Selma seems to think the wacko that wants a piece of her is behind it, but Simon thinks something witchy forced the dogs to attack.”
Amber overheard their conversation, only half listening as she watched the girls. Apparently, two dogs from one neighbor and another one from an adjacent property banded together and attacked.
Amber cracked the window so she could hear the girls. They need to be guarded. It isn’t about the mother; it’s the girls.
Amber?
The window wasn’t open enough so she moved to the door and walked outside.
Amber?
She opened her shield and stepped on the porch.
Voices from the adjacent houses filtered in. She pushed them away. The girls were quiet in their grief, and the attention of those in the house were focused on one person. Her.
But she couldn’t dwell on that, not now. Someone, two someone’s were close. Watching.
Something darted from the trees. Kelsey and Sophie both screamed.
The hair on Amber’s nape stood on end. She lifted her arms and pushed her shield around the girls some half an acre away. The blue light surrounded them when several wolves moved out of the trees. Their howls pierced her ears and Jake ran past her.
Amber?
Gavin called to her, but she couldn’t answer.
He was out there…the person making the wolves attack.
One of the wolves jumped on Jake. But before the wolf could sink its teeth into Jake’s flesh, she reached for a way to fight off the animal from so far away. The solution was there, like a jay sitting on a fence inside her head, mocking her.
She caught her breath and held it.
Stop breathing! Amber pushed the thought into the animal’s head. The wolf whimpered and dropped to the ground, its eyes nothing more than a cold, dead stare.
Her mind flooded with a tsunami of knowledge—power resting just beneath the layer of her consciousness.
Jake stumbled away from the fallen animal and moved into the circle with his girls.
Do you feel him, Gavin? He’s here…
“Where are you, you coward?” Amber yelled to the sky.
I feel him.
She swiveled toward the house to see Simon standing before Helen, a dirk in his hand. Gavin’s weapon was pointing toward the ground. Giles stared directly at her. Mrs. Dawson stood inside the house and Selma was gone.
Selma!
Gavin turned to see the missing member of their family. “Shit.”
A scream sounded from the front of the Manor.
Amber grew cold and she started to run.
Gavin was in front of her in the space of one breath. They both found Selma being dragged by a man twice her size into a waiting car, a knife to her throat.
Drop the knife! The words came from her husband’s head, not hers. The knife shot from Selma’s attacker’s hand and flew several yards away.
Amber focused on the man. Her body grew rigid and rage swirled in her line of sight.
You stupid man. You can’t breathe.
The attacker stumbled, his grip loosened.
You! Can’t! Breathe!
The man dropped Selma and grasped his neck.