Page 21 of Wind Called

Which made Bellamy think the thief’s motivations for trying to steal the artifact weren’t exactly pure.

“With any luck, we’ll never find out,” Allegra said. “Now the thief knows they can’t get the safe or the amulet out of this house, so let’s hope that’s enough to dissuade them from making a second attempt and they’ll leave us alone.”

Especially since Angela and Connor would be back here, adding another layer of protection to the amulet. Still, Bellamy couldn’t help thinking that maybe Devynn and Seth should have left the damn thing in the past.

Then again, if they’d done that, they wouldn’t have had the power to make it back to the present day. Great-Aunt Ruby, then just theprima-in-waiting, had given them a magical boost as well, but Devynn had sure made it sound as if she and Seth had needed both Ruby’s powers and the amulet to send them all the way into the mid-twenty-first century.

And that meant the current-day McAllister clan would have to deal with the fallout of possessing the thing whether they liked it or not.

Neither of Allegra’s fellow elders nor Connor and Angela looked very sanguine at the prospect of the thief just giving up and going away, but no one seemed inclined to argue with her.

“Yes, I suppose it’s no harm, no foul,” Angela said. “All the same, can you elders stay here at the house while Connor and I go home and pack up? We weren’t planning to come back to Jerome for at least a month, so we weren’t really ready to relocate.”

“For as long as you need,” Tricia assured her, then looked over at her grandson. “Marc, thanks again for the heads-up, but I think we’ve got things under control here.”

By which she probably meant that her grandson — and Bellamy — weren’t really needed on the scene, and that was fine by her. Neither of them possessed the sorts of gifts that could possibly help if there was another incursion at the house while Angela and Connor were preparing for the move back to Jerome.

Better to get out from underfoot and go someplace where they could talk in private about what had just happened.

“Sure,” Marc said easily. “I need to take Bellamy home anyway. I guess just text me if something else comes up.”

“I will,” Tricia replied, and that seemed to be that.

After saying their goodbyes, Bellamy and Marc headed down the hill to the spot where he’d left his truck parked. Both of them were silent during the walk, but she was okay with that. Once they were away from Paradise Lane, there were tourists on all sides, and it wasn’t as if they could talk about anything important anyway.

Once they were in the truck and driving down 89A toward Cottonwood, though, she figured it was safe to speak up.

“That was kind of crazy.”

His shoulders lifted. “I don’t know. I mean, we were all halfway expecting that someone might try to make a move on the thing.”

Well, when he put it that way….

“But it’s a little freaky that neither the elders nor Connor and Angela could get any sense of who was behind the theft.”

Marc nodded, although he kept his eyes fixed on the road. It was just curvy enough as it wound its way down the hill that not paying attention could be a recipe for disaster. Sure, he could have turned on the self-driving mechanism, but she noticed he’d kept the truck on manual, as if he wanted to focus on something other than the attempted theft of the amulet.

“That part does worry me,” he said, slowing as they turned onto Clarkdale’s tiny main street. “I mean, that’s a pretty powerful group of witches up there. How is it possible that the person who tried to steal the amulet is so strong that they were able to hide any trace of their magic?”

“I don’t know,” Bellamy replied. She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone, hoping maybe she’d missed a text from Devynn letting her know Jeremy Wilcox had dug up all sorts of dirt about the Olsen witch clan that would explain who’d broken into Connor and Angela’s house and tried to steal the amulet.

But she hadn’t missed anything except a text from her hair salon reminding her about her appointment the week after next. The owner of the salon was a stickler about people showing up when they were supposed to, so she’d continue to receive those messages right up to the day she was scheduled to appear.

Well, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting the appointment, not with those constant reminders.

They were past Clarkdale now and just about to head into Old Town Cottonwood. Part of her thought it might be a good idea to stop there and hang out for a while, if only to shake off her worries about what had just happened up on Paradise Lane, but then she told herself that wasn’t such a good idea. Much better to go straight home and, with any luck, convince Marc to hang around for dinner. They could get some takeout and eat at the house, since going to a restaurant didn’t seem like a very good idea, either, not when pretty much everything they needed to talk about was something they wouldn’t want overheard by civilians.

“Hear anything from Devynn?” Marc asked, and Bellamy shook her head.

“Not yet. I suppose I shouldn’t have been expecting too much — the store seemed pretty busy today, and even if Jeremy got back to her quickly, she’d still have to wait for the right time to text me when she wouldn’t get interrupted by a customer.”

Marc nodded but didn’t reply, which seemed to tell her he was okay to wait on any in-depth conversations until they were safely back at the house.

They’d get there a little past six, which was earlier than she usually ate dinner. Still, it seemed smarter to pick something up while they were still out, rather than going all the way to the ranch and then having to head back into Sedona once they decided what they wanted to eat.

“Did you want to grab some dinner?” she asked, hoping she didn’t sound too diffident. “There are some places in West Sedona where we can get takeout.”

Something about his grip on the steering wheel seemed to ease slightly.

---