Page 57 of The Wolfing Hour

He set his hand on the doorknob and gave me a surprisingly gentle smile. “I would invite you inside, but I fear the darkness that lies behind this door would unsettle you further.”

Unsettlewas one way to say it.Freak me the hell outwas another.

“How do I do this? How do I hold on to Betty the earth witch when Betty the demon keeps trying to take the wheel? How do I hold on tomymagic while fighting yours?”

He dropped his hand and set his intense gaze on me.

I shivered. The weight of his attention was heavy, and probably even scarier than whatever was behind that door.

“You cannot. You must accept both magics. The dark and the earth.”

More old chestnuts from Demon Gandalf. Great. “I don’t want to be an apathetic robot who has no problem killing her friends.”

“You misunderstand. Allow me to express it another way.” He cleared his throat, and the sound was like the haunted echoes in a long-forgotten cave. “You must accept both magics to survive this transition with your sanity intact. However, in doing so, you risk losing them both.”

“What?”

“The most severe outcome isn’t allowingDemon Betty,as you call her, to overtake you. It is accepting the demon side and being rejected by your elemental magic. Or vice versa.”

“The vice versa is fine. I don’t give a damn about my demon side, but I can’t lose my earth magic, Sexton. Iwon’tlose it. I’m the last remaining Lennox witch. My lineage is one of elemental power, and I won’t give that up.” I fisted my hands, pressingthem into the outer sides of my thighs. “I’m going to fight with the power of my ancestors behind me. They helped me before.”

He sighed, and the sweat on my face turned to ice. “This isn’t something the elders can help you with. Neither is there anything I can do. You must forge a new path.”

“Forge a new path?” Anger melded with frustration and fear until I thought I might explode with it. “Godsdamn it all, stop talking like that. I don’t need shitty clichés. I need you to tell me what’s happening to me. Because it sounds like you’re suggesting that I have to accept my dark side to keep from going bonkers, but in doing so, I risk losing my elemental magic.”

If Sexton was offended by my tone, he didn’t show it. In fact, his response was kinder than I expected. Gentle, even.

“What I am saying is you risk losing itall. Contrary to what you may believe, the darker side of you is not your enemy.” He turned back to the door and swung it open. The air blowing out of it was deep-freeze cold. My breath turned smoky. Icicles made spiderweb patterns on the doorjamb.

“All? I could end up without any—” The wordmagicstuck in my throat.

“You finally understand.” He folded his awkward body to fit through the small doorway using a series of insectile movements that never stopped weirding me out.

“I’m not sure I do.”

Sexton’s voice came from very far away, though he’d only just stepped inside. “You must find a way to communicate with her, Betty. Because if you don’t have her cooperation, your magic won’t survive—dark or elemental.”

Chapter

Eleven

Chapter Eleven

After the day I’d had, KLXX was out of the question. Whoever was running that place had a knack for choosing music that arrowed right to my heart, and that was the last thing I wanted. So, I drove the outskirts of La Paloma and Smokethorn for an hour, listening to Mom’s “70s Favorites” playlist.

I’d found it on her cell after she passed and loaded it onto mine. Because it made me sad, I didn’t listen to it often, though Mom had exquisite taste in music.

I took a sip of the Dr. Pepper I’d picked up at a drive-thru after leaving the cemetery, set the phone to airplane mode and the playlist to random. Up popped “Stone Cold Crazy” by Queen.

“You must find a way to communicate with her, Betty.”

The words wound through my head in Sexton’s cold, gentle voice.Gentle?Sexton? It was the wrong word to associate with him, yet it had also been completely right. Today, at least.

“…if you don’t have her cooperation, your magic won’t survive…”

“Sure, Sexton. I’ll just dial up ol’ Demon Betty and ask her over for tea and scones,” I said aloud. “What could possibly go wrong?”

“Stone Cold Crazy” led into “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC, and I considered turning it off even though it was a great song, because Mom’s playlist was starting to hit KLXX-levels of clairvoyance.