Page 63 of The Queen's Box

A soft throat-clearing noise startled her. Cole stood five feet away, looking nervous and uncomfortable. He cracked his knuckles, and Willow noticed again how handsome he was, even when he was being his most serious.

“You’re determined to go back, aren’t you?” he asked.

“To Amira’s? Of course.”

“And nothing I can say will stop you?”

“Why would you want to stop me? I thought, you know, that I was your pawn or whatever. A way to uncover more about Amira.”

“Not a pawn, Willow. Never a pawn.”

He leaned against the wall and stared at the floor. He was silent for several moments. Then he lifted his head, met her gaze,and said in a low voice, “I’m going to tell you something I never told Brooxie and Ruby.”

“Okay,” Willow replied. Whatever he said, it wouldn’t change her mind about returning to Amira. But she would hear him out. She owed him that.

He moved closer, so close that she could feel the heat of his body. “When Micah was taken, a pile of sapphires was left in his place. In our backyard, at the foot of the swing set where Micah had been playing.”

Danger prickled beneath Willow’s skin.

“Later, my mother took it back. Said she’d been mistaken, and who knew if Micah had been ‘taken,’ anyway? Our house backed onto the forest. Bad things happen in the forest.”

“But if something happened to him in the forest—”

“Then where was the body?” Cole nodded to say,Yes, that’s it exactly. “Nowhere. Gone. Micah disappeared and was never seen again. But the sapphires—I saw them in my mother’s dresser drawer. Six perfect sapphires, each the size of a grape. One by one, my parents sold them, but their number never diminished.”

“An enchantment?” Willow asked.

Cole’s nostrils flared. “Hush money from the devil, plenty of which found its way into the collection plates at my parents’ church. That’s how the new propane tank was purchased and how the roof came to be repaired. That’s how my brothers and sisters ended up with shoes that fit and schoolbooks without any missing pages.”

“So the church knew about the magic after all?”

Cole’s jaw tightened. “Don’t be ridiculous.Magicis evil.Magiccan only be perceived by the wicked. But the church got new hymnals that year and a state-of-the-art organ. And Pastor Jim started driving around town in a real nice BMW. ‘BLESSED’ read the vanity plate.”

Willow placed a hand on Cole’s arm and felt a tremor there. Anguish for his little brother, but also a yearning. Cole longed for answers, just like Willow did.

“Amira believes in magic,” he said bitterly. “Believes in it more than she should.” He scanned Willow’s face. “She wants something from you, Willow.”

Willow nodded. “Yes. I feel it, too. But that doesn’t change anything. Serrin needs me.”

Hurt flashed across Cole’s face. “Serrin. You still haven’t told me who he is.”

“He’s... someone special,” she began carefully. “Someone noble and true and good. And he’s waiting for me. Forme, Cole.”

“And he’s important enough that you’ll follow Amira blindly to reach him?”

Willow’s throat thickened. She nodded.

“Right,” he said heavily. “Then I’ll go with you.”

“You don’t have to. I don’t want a chaperone.”

“No, I imagine you don’t.” He looked at her ruefully and pushed back his too-long hair. “But you’ve got the will of a queen and the instincts of a lamb, which makes it my job to make sure you don’t get slaughtered.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

BROOXIE AND RUBY wished Willow luck when they saw her off the next morning. They tucked an apple and some cheese into her backpack on top of the soft gray baby blanket. Willow wanted to give them the money from her wallet, but they refused to take it. So Willow tucked the wallet onto one of the kitchen shelves when they weren’t looking.

Would she return here one day and learn what they’d done when they’d found it? Did she want to?

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