Page 48 of Wicching Hour (The Sea Wicche Chronicles #3)

FORTY-EIGHT

New Beginnings

E lizabeth and her family waited at the dock on the sailboat for us. As we approached, she looked behind us, her brow furrowed. “Where’s Mom?”

My mom shook her head.

Elizabeth grabbed Faith’s hand. “I—I can’t wrap my head around Mom not being here. She’s…indomitable. How could she be dead?” Her eyes filled with tears as Frank led her to a bench. He and Faith sat on either side of her, their arms around her.

“Fire!” Frank said, staring back at Cal’s house.

I nodded. “A friend is burning it to the ground for us.”

He looked alarmed for a moment and then seemed to realize that was for the best, slumping back and holding his mother’s hand. “Sorry,” he murmured to her.

Robert piloted the boat back to the gallery while the rest of us sat, lost in a haze of thoughts.

We made plans to have dinner again in a few days, once we’d decompressed, to discuss the night. Under cover of dark, Declan, Mom, Bracken, and I hopped quickly off the boat and back onto my deck while they sailed away.

We stood for a moment and stared at one another.

“I should tend to your Gran,” Mom said.

“Not tonight,” I told her. “You stay here with us and then we’ll tend Gran together tomorrow.”

Dad appeared on a bench. “That makes good sense, Sybil. Your mother is safe in her own home. She’ll be okay until you get there.”

Mom looked torn, but at Dad’s words, she nodded, her shoulders slumping.

I turned to Bracken. “Do you want to stay with us?”

He shook his head. “That’s a kind invitation, but I have an artifact to store and then I’d like to sleep for a very long time.”

“Sounds good. Mom, you should stay here. Don’t go home all alone.” It hadn’t hit me before, just how huge and empty that house was with Mom living there on her own.

Dad stood. “Your mother and I have things to discuss. She won’t be alone.”

I gave him a hug. “Thank you for your help tonight.”

He nodded and then held out his arm for Mom to take. Bracken shuffled off to his RV and Mom and Dad walked around the gallery in the opposite direction, leaving Declan and me staring at each other.

“There were so many times tonight,” I began, “when you could have understandably walked away, but you never did. You stuck by me, getting cut and burned, fighting a damn monster and dealing with curses. It hit me when Robert asked you if it’s always like this. I can’t tell you it’ll be smooth sailing from here on out, because that’s never been my life.”

“Shh.” He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me. “I told you. I love you. You’re my family. And I turn into a wolf. I lead a pack of others who also turn into wolves.” He shook his head. “If you can handle my crazy, I can handle yours.”

I squeezed him as hard as I could. How’d I get so lucky?

“Come on,” he said, rubbing my back. “Let’s get cleaned up, and you need a conditioning pack for your hair.”

I laughed. “I really do.”

We went up and showered, getting cleaned up, dirty, and then cleaned up again. Being the responsible Alpha, he remembered to send a message to the pack, letting them know the sorcerer was gone and everyone should sleep in.

As the sun was beginning to rise and we were tumbling into bed, I thought we’d sleep for days. Unfortunately, it felt as though I’d just closed my eyes when I heard a knock on the back door.

Declan grumbled, “No,” and tightened his arm around me.

The knock came again,

“Go ’way,” he growled.

When I heard my phone vibrating on the worktable below, I gave up and got up. I pulled on sweatpants and a hoodie, slippers, and my gloves. My hair was still wet and probably looked stupid, but I was too tired to care. If you knocked on my door at the butt crack of dawn, you got what you got.

Squinting one eye, I made out Hernández’s silhouette. I opened the door and squinted some more.

“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t realize you’d still be sleeping,” she said, pushing her sunglasses up on top of her head.

“Why would I not be? It’s only—” I looked over her shoulder and found it far too sunny for early morning. “Never mind.” I waved her backward. “Let’s go out there. Declan’s sleeping.”

“No, I’m not,” he growled.

“Well, you should be,” I shouted back, closing the door behind me.

Hernández and I sat down on a bench. It was a glorious day and for the first time in centuries, we didn’t have a sorcerer in the family and there was no demonic grimoire waiting to corrupt more. It was a good day.

“Rough night?” she asked, the corners of her serious mouth turning up.

I nodded. “Not in the way you mean, though. We found the sorcerer.” I shook my head. “It was a lot. Remind me to tell you someday when we have time. Suffice to say, the sorcerer, her demon, and the spell book are all gone. Unfortunately, so is my gran.”

Hernández sat up straight. “Arwyn, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have made a joke.”

I smiled, soaking up the rays. “Yes, you should have. You don’t relax and joke nearly enough. So, are you visiting because of the serial killer or the stalker?”

She scratched her nose. “Both, actually.”

I turned to her. “Did you get him?”

She knew I meant the killer. “I did. And, yes, he’s the cop you warned me about when I was here arresting our last serial killer.”

“I’d prefer not to think of them as ours,” I muttered.

She stretched out her legs, crossing them at the ankles. “Harding was recently suspended for two weeks because of far too many civilian complaints and then pulling his gun on you. Unfortunately, he seems to have used that time to amp up his issues with unnecessary force to begin stalking victims.

“The judge who presided over the botched trial witnessed his humiliation and therefore needed to be punished,” she continued. “The woman with the patio full of plants submitted a pretty damning complaint against him. My friend Gaby, with the floral couch, reported him for harassment and the repeated use of ethnic slurs. The man—Joel—didn’t fit the pattern. He wasn’t a woman of color.”

“The one who wanted money?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yes. He worked part-time in records and did some IT stuff around the station. We discovered that the reason Harding’s complaints weren’t flagged earlier was because Joel was going into the system to delete complaints or to alter them so the civilian seemed like a crank. Those two carried the same prejudices, and Joel was more than happy to help his buddy Harding even the playing field, as they saw it.”

“Jeez.”

“Yep. Unfortunately for Joel, he started to ask for loans in a way that sounded very much like blackmail. So Harding’s in jail as we collect more damning evidence against him, and Joel’s in the morgue.” She lifted her face to the sun. “We found the pictures on Harding’s phone and some keepsakes from the murders. We’re hopeful he goes down for all four murders.”

The wind off the water was chilly, so I stuffed my hands in my pockets. “Sometimes there is justice. Sounds like we have two fewer killers in the neighborhood today.”

We were quiet for a bit. “I’m sorry about your gran,” she said.

My throat tightened and tears rushed in to blur my vision. I’d been doing so good, not thinking about it, about the loss of her. It was all so complicated and gut-wrenching. She was my Gran, the one I’d always turned to as a child when Mom had seemed cold and unfeeling. Knowing I’d been manipulated, even robbed, was devastating. I couldn’t make it make sense. I’d felt warmth and affection from Gran. I was sure of it. And yet… She was a complicated woman, raised by cruel elders—if Bracken was to be believed, and why wouldn’t he be?

She’d been raised to always put family first, to protect and promote Coreys. Did she steal from me? It sure seemed like it, but I also knew that Gran was the one family members went to when they were in trouble and needed help. Sometimes that help was financial.

My guess was that she had an account the three million went into and out of which came the loans she gave others. Maybe she’d originally thought of me as the half-faeling guard dog who could protect and benefit the family and then, eventually, learned to love me. Maybe. Someday, I’d ask Mom, but I wasn’t ready for the answer right now.

“And I’m sorry about yours,” I said to Hernández, patting my face and soaking up the tears with my gloves.

She gave me a sad almost-smile. “Thanks.”

“Wait,” I said, sitting up straight. “What day is it?”

“Wednesday.”

I slumped back down. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was going to have to open the gallery soon.” I shook my head. “How is it only Wednesday?”

“Don’t you want to know about your stalker?” she asked.

I gave her a Declan-worthy scowl. “What about him?”

“A body washed ashore early this morning. Drowning victim named Brandon White.”

“Brandon,” I repeated. “That’s his name.”

“I’m told they went to the address on his ID and found a small room with a card table and podcasting equipment. The walls of that room were covered with pictures of you, this gallery, and articles from fringe websites about demons and witch burnings.”

I blew out a breath.

“Arthur went to check out the apartment, rather than sending a uniform. He wanted it documented and processed with the fewest cops aware of it. He said White’s car was in his designated parking spot, so he doesn’t know how he ended up in the ocean.”

Not wanting to think about that room, I got up and went to the railing. “Hello, Cecil! Good day, Poppy.” I watched the water and smiled when I saw a tentacle. “I don’t know how to feel about any of this,” I told her. “I don’t wish harm on people, but he was obsessed, and with the prodding of my cousin, had a gun he intended to use.”

“I was just about to tell you about the gun,” she said, sounding frustrated that I, yet again, knew before she told me.

“I had a vision. He was supposed to kill me last night.”

The silence was charged. “Arwyn, I know you can control water. Did you drown him?” Hernández walked to the railing beside me.

I stared her in the eye and shook my head. “I didn’t kill him. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when he showed up, but we were out dealing with my cousin all night, and I forgot about him.” I wasn’t going to tell her I knew my father was the one who had drowned him. He’d been protecting me, and it wasn’t as if the police could do anything about the fae.

“Okay. I can see you’re exhausted. I’ll let you go.” She moved toward the end of the deck and then spun. “I almost forgot. The arsonists from last night are in jail, as well, and I need the security feed.”

“I’ll send it to you when I’m more awake,” I promised.

“Good. And that other one.” She pulled out her notebook and flipped the pages. “Milo Swan has been arrested. Arthur already has the security feed for that one. Swan is claiming innocence, and his grandma is shouting that Coreys have always been jealous of Swans. I’d watch out for that one if I were you. She’s nuts. Anyway, we got him dead to rights, so her shouts aren’t going to amount to much. I just wanted you to be prepared if she takes the fight to you.”

I nodded. “Got it.”

“Oh.” She tapped her forehead. “One more thing. The podcast has disappeared. Osso tried to pull it up and it was gone. Like it had never existed.”

I stared at her, confused. Dad?

“Go back to sleep.” She checked her watch. “But get me the arsonist footage by one, okay? I can stall things that long.”

“Will do.” I waved and walked back in, finding Declan on the couch rather than in bed. “What are you doing down here?”

“Listening to the updates and sketching plans,” he said, with one of my sketchbooks and a pencil in hand.

“Oh, yeah? What are you sketching?” I sat beside him and rested my head on his shoulder.

“The baby’s going to need a crib,” he said, showing me his idea.

“I thought—” I looked again. “I thought you’d continue with the Craftsman design.”

He shook his head. “Not for our little sea princess. This is actually something we can both work on. You’ll paint the room, and it will be gorgeous. For the crib, though, I want this tall, carved wood backboard with ocean animals. And then see here and here? That’s where I’ll make cutouts and you can blow glass inserts, so the jelly looks translucent, and the wave looks like water.”

“The light will stream through.” I grinned up at him. “It’s beautiful. I especially like this wolf right here. Why is he underwater? We don’t know, but he’s looking out for you.”

With a kiss he said, “Always.”