Page 35 of Sins of the Fathers
Attracted by the pretty stones, the fae didn’t seem to care about anything else. A glance told Dawson that Grady had entered the woods, but he couldn’t do anything about that right now.
When the last of the flickering points of light clustered inside the circle, Dawson sluiced a wave of salt across the ring, followed immediately by a flurry of iron shavings to blanket the area.
An inhuman shriek pierced the silence, and the ground under Dawson’s feet trembled. He shielded his eyes as a brilliant white light shot up around the circle, extending as far into the sky as he could see.
Then the light winked out, and nothing remained except for a charred circle in the grass.
Gray.Panicked, Dawson ran in the direction Grady had gone, shouting his name. His voice echoed, but no response came.
Twigs and scrub tore at his skin and clothing. Beneath the trees it was darker, and Dawson’s eyes took precious seconds to adjust.
“Grady!” he shouted, searching for footprints.
Tracking skills came in handy, and he found a partial impression of Grady’s boot. Dawson set off at a jog, marveling that Grady had gone so far when he had appeared to be sleepwalking in a fae trance.
He came to a break in the underbrush, and his blood ran cold. Grady was heading for a craggy outcropping, and there was no telling how far down the drop went.
“Stop!” Dawson yelled and put on a burst of speed, tackling Grady mere feet from the edge. They tumbled to the ground, Grady wrestling weakly, still lost in a dreamworld.
“Wake up,” Dawson begged and pulled the amulet from beneath his shirt, pushing the charm into Grady’s palm and closing his hand around it.
Grady went still, and he blinked rapidly. His eyes lost their glassy stare, and he relaxed in Dawson’s grip.
“Daw? What happened? And why are you on top of me—not that I mind.”
Dawson sighed in relief and dropped to one side, planting his ass in the moss. “They had their hooks in you, and you almost went over the ledge. I thought their hold would break when I salted the circle, but they didn’t let you go on their way out.”
Grady sat up and rubbed his hands over his face, still looking like he’d woken from deep sleep. “Fuck. I don’t remember anything after we got out of the car.”
“I figured, from the way you zoned out. It would have been funny if it hadn’t been so damn scary.” As it was, Dawson didn’t think he’d ever feel like teasing about the situation, especially considering the drop just a few steps away.
He wondered if it was the same place the hiker had died. These mountains were full of places where primordial forces had pushed sheets of rock up from the depths and raised mountains. Boulders as big as houses and sheer drops awaited the unwary.
“I’m alright, Daw,” Grady said. “You saved me—and you sent the faeries packing. That’s plenty for one day.”
Dawson stood and extended his hand, helping Grady to his feet. Grady glanced toward the ledge, and his eyes widened. “Damn, thatwasclose.”
“Let’s try to avoid being bait in the future—both of us,” Dawson replied.
“I’m good with that,” Grady replied.
“Come on—let’s go home. We’ve got a busy evening,” Dawson said, keeping the salt and iron at hand just in case more of the fae showed up.
They both cast suspicious glances at the charred circle, but nothing interrupted their walk back to the car. Grady no longer seemed spacey, for which Dawson felt grateful, although he worried what the aftereffects of fae influence might be and resolved to see if Denny knew anything about it.
“You really don’t remember anything?” Dawson had hoped that they might at least learn more about how the fae used their glamour to trap victims. He knew that ridding the forest of the faeries wasn’t possible, so he wanted to be better prepared for their next encounter.
Grady frowned, thinking. “I didn’t at first. Now, it’s like bits of a dream. I thought I heard Dad calling to me. And then Knox—and you. You were all just ahead of me, out of sight. I wanted to find you, catch up.”
He shook his head. “I wasn’t scared. I knew you’d be waiting. But every time I got to where I thought I heard the voices, they were farther away, so I followed them.”
“And nearly died. So we know what must have happened to the others,” Dawson said grimly. He spared a glance as he drove, wanting nothing more than to take Grady into his arms and never let him go. The close call scared Dawson more than he wanted to admit. Danger might be a part of the hunting life, but now Dawson had so much more to lose than his own life.
Grady seemed to read his mind. He slipped a hand across to grip Dawson’s thigh. “I’m okay. We’re both safe. We won this round. You can relax.”
“I don’t know how to relax.”
Grady licked his lips with a salacious smile. “I have some ideas.”
