Page 50 of Never Been Witched (Starfall Point #3)

“I don’t know, but I would very much like to talk to her about it,” Alice told him.

“Then I would like to search your building thoroughly, every damned room, even the Cowslip Suite—which we will be talking about later, by the way. Also, you’re lucky it’s me here right now and not Caroline.

She’s at Shaddow House, being forcibly restrained.

By Mina. Who is also being forcibly restrained.

By Riley. It’s a whole tangle. I’m only here talking to you because I didn’t want to see your hotel razed. ”

“This is ridiculous,” Collin protested, pulling up the security feed from the last few hours.

He’d set the filters to search for “person moving” around the exterior doors.

And while several segments popped up featuring members of the paint crew taking their breaks, around seven, there was footage of Paige and Josh, lugging a large black suitcase into the north-wing entrance—which someone had helpfully propped open.

“Dammit,” he huffed, turning his screen around so she could see. “This is not ridiculous. This is very easily explained, because Paige apparently lured Josh into the north wing.”

Alice gave him a withering look. He never wanted her to give him that look again, so he simply stood up, shrugged on his coat, and gestured for her to follow him out the door.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Paige’s number.

She didn’t pick up, so he left a terse voicemail.

“I don’t know where you are, but you need to call me back right now. ”

“The north-wing entrance is the fastest way to get to the basement,” Collin said as they moved quickly out of the office.

Collin took her down a shortcut, a service staircase that led to the hallway Victoria’s echo haunted nightly.

In fact, the shadow was currently chasing her directly toward them as they opened the door.

“Oh.” Alice shuddered, showing some emotion other than anger for the first time since entering his office. The shadow Stanford overtook Victoria’s echo and threw her to the ground. “That is awful.”

“Yeah,” he muttered, texting Paige, telling her to call him immediately.

“I am trying really hard to focus on anything besides how upset I am at you right now,” she told him. “I am not used to being angry with someone I care about. I don’t like it. It’s a bad feeling, like I’ve swallowed a battery coated in coagulated fish grease. That’s on fire.”

Collin began, “I’m so sorr—”

“No,” she said. “The time for that will come later. Now, we focus on finding Josh and getting him back to his dad and Mina and Caroline. Margaret’s done this kind of thing before.”

“Really?” Collin asked.

“Yeah, fortunately, she’s not great at it,” Alice told her as they approached the basement door.

They were silent as they descended the stairs.

In the distance, Collin could hear a buzzing noise.

He had the worst possible thought that they were about to enter some sort of power-tool-based torture scenario.

But when they reached the bottom of the stairs, the basement was just…the basement. It was as orderly and dusty as it had been the last time they’d visited. But now, there was a folding chair near the wine cellar.

And it was empty.

“No,” Alice moaned, running closer to the chair, which was surrounded by several discarded strips of silver duct tape. A cell phone, encased in black “destruction proof” plastic, buzzed in the corner of the basement, and it was starting to feel like it was mocking them.

“This is Josh’s phone.” Alice picked up the phone and turned the screen toward Collin so he could see a picture of Mina sprawled on sand. Apparently, Josh’s home screen was a picture of his sister just after she’d tripped face-first on a beach somewhere.

“Josh never goes anywhere without his phone,” Alice said, her voice shaky. “If he was separated from his phone…”

Collin picked up one of the loose silver strips from the floor. “Have these been…chewed on?”

He held up a piece of tape that looked like it had been gnawed on by a tiny land-borne Great White…

or an evil little ghost hamster named Chester.

What little blood that was left in Alice’s face drained out of it.

Collin could almost smell the reactive magic gathering inside her, ozone and the unsettling scent of burning paper.

It seemed to run along her skin, like a shimmer of static.

That was new.

“I need to get back to the house,” she insisted, dashing for the stairs.

Somehow, she was bolting upstairs while simultaneously texting.

Collin didn’t question it. He simply ran after her, his long legs easily allowing him to catch up with her as she bolted down the hallway.

She seemed angry and terrified and anxious all at once, and he felt very sorry for Josh’s captors, when the coven tracked them down.

If that included Paige? Well, she was a big girl and she would have to accept the magical consequences.

“If you want to show me you’re sorry, you can hire me a lawyer,” Alice told him as she ran. “And pay for it. I’m going to need one. Because I’m going to murder your fiancée .”

How did she manage to sound so threatening as she ran like a freaking Olympian?

Collin groaned. “She told you we were engaged, didn’t she? Alice, I wouldn’t do that…again.”

“Not now,” she growled. “Oh, fuck it, yes, it’s going to be now, because the terror I feel for Josh right now is outweighing how pissed off I am at you. And have I mentioned the battery coated in coagulated fish grease? That’s on fire?”

“OK, you’re mad. I can work with mad,” Collin told her. “Alice, I am not engaged to Paige.”

“And that’s great,” Alice told him. “You managed to be on the same island for a whole day without accidentally getting engaged to her. But you did put her in the Cowslip Suite. With my tub. She used my tub before I did.”

“I didn’t know she was going to stay in the Cowslip Suite,” Collin said. “There was a—let’s call it an administrative error. She bullied the staff until they gave her a preview.”

“And she used my tub,” Alice repeated. “I know it’s not the point, but I find myself really, really annoyed by it.”

“I was surprised by that too. Paige is more of a shower person.” She glared at him. He raised his hands. “Not the point. I know I keep using the word ‘complicated’ but—”

“Yes, and it makes me think you don’t understand the word.

Your situation is not ‘complicated.’ You act like she’s some immovable object in your life, like you have no option but to let her near you.

She’s just a person,” she told him. “And as long as you think of her as a mystical element you can’t defeat, you’re never going to be free of her.

I wonder if you want to be, honestly.” She stopped running and turned on him, panting.

“You two, you figure out whatever is going on between you, but leave me out of it.”

“Look, I’m not saying you’re wrong,” he told her, wrapping his fingers around her upper arms. “And I get that you’re upset.”

“I’m not upset,” she insisted, shaking off his gentle grip.

“I’m hurt . It came down to protecting something that you assured me was mine, and you chose to give it to her—even indirectly.

She has a hold on you that I don’t understand, and I really don’t need to, I suppose.

I don’t want to spend our time together fighting it.

My relationships with my grandparents, with Clark, they’ve all been struggles.

I don’t want to take on another fight.” She darted toward Shaddow House.

“Except for Paige. I’m willing to fight Paige. Physically. With punching.”