Page 68 of Welcome to Blackbird Hollow
She walks, stiff-legged, toward the silver-haired Fey, whose gaze devours her in a way that makes me blush from all the way up here on the roof. When Willa reaches him, the Fey wraps one arm around her waist and pulls her against his broad chest. Beside me, Wyatt inhales sharply, bringing his rifle up to shoot. But then we both watch the Fey whisper something in Willa’s ear. Sherelaxes. The ledge’s concrete bites into my hands as I search her face for evidence of thrall.
Instead, the dark-haired witch looks straight up at us andnods. Then she turns to the Archer Inn, giving Fallon and Caden a wave, before turning her gaze back to the coven gathered on Widow’s porch and making some complicated gesture with her hand that I don’t recognize.
Finally, she turns back to the silver-haired Fey. The moment holds taut for far too long, but then he pulls her up onto the motorcycle, sliding one muscular arm protectively around her waist. With his large, long-fingered hand, he tips her chin up in a strangely gentle movement and examines Willa’s face, smirking down at her.
She says one word, clear as day: “Okay.”
And then she’s gone, the silver-haired Fey rejoining the last of the Wild Hunt as it winds through Blackbird Hollow like a funeral procession. From across the street, Fallon leans over the edge of the inn’s roof and yells, “Get it, girl!” at the top of her lungs.
I sit back in my chair, my mind buzzing. For a while, no words come out, but then I turn to Wyatt, my brow furrowed.
“I thought you said that Theyweren’tfuckable.”
Chapter 30
Wyatt
“Woman,” I breathe, unable to decide between laughing and shaking Alice Blythe silly. “You will be the death of me.”
My heart races, hardly believing the scene that just played out before us. Hardly believing we survived this without a real fight.
Willa leaving with the Hunt was a wild card that none of us could have anticipated, but… Suddenly, I remember the way Willa acted in the garden. The way she’d been hesitant with me about agreeing to come out to Cade’s to check the wards. Had she known all along the Hunt was coming for her? She was certainly dressed to leave.
My mind runs over the details. The sleepy, forgetful feeling I’d gotten when she touched my arm. The way our conversation slipped through the cracks in my mind, almost immediately. I doubt very much that Willa would have let us go to all this trouble if she’d known exactly what would happen here, but she’d known something the rest of us did not. And I had to admit, our plan was executed perfectly.
Too perfectly, probably. I glance at Alice, who’s still smiling at her Fey-fucking joke. Godsdamn it, I love it that she finds herself amusing. But my mind can’t sink into the moment, into the relief that the town’s preparations saved us. That we weren’t needed. There’s a puzzle piece missing, and I can’t tell what it is.
A crackle comes over my walkie. It’s Barnes. “The first of the procession has crossed the county line.”
The first of Them. That’s it. In all the excitement over the little bear cub and Willa, I never spotted the hellhounds. With the amount of Them in these parts recently, there should’ve been a whole pack. Where the fuck are They?
I switch the channel on my walkie to the one Cade and I use in private. “You sense the pack, bud?”
Alice’s eyes widen as my realization sinks into her, too. Her instincts for this life are sharpening. She stands up, craning her neck to and fro, shaking her head at me. She can’t see Them.
“No,” Caden responds, his voice slow, pondering. “But remember, Dr. Waterhouse’s research indicates that They may not stay as close to the Hunt proper as we imagine.”
Alice sucks a nervous hiss of air through her teeth, returning to her chair, but she doesn’t sit. She’s still looking at the dark, shadowed forest, like she might somehow be able to track the hounds at this distance.
She plucks the walkie from my hand, bringing it toward her face. “It’s possible They cast a wider net because of Sector’s presence, right?”
“Sure is,” Cade responds. “And we’ve still got everything locked down.”
The wind shifts, cold as winter, sending the scent of homefires and pine forest into my nostrils. Not even a hint of sulfur. Fallon comes on next, apparently having returned the bear cub to where he belongs. “Best thing to do now is get everyone inside and keep ’em there.”
Mona comes on over the group channel, her voice a slow Southern drawl, rich and warm. “The rear-guard is passing through. Couple’a hellhounds at Their backs.”
Cade responds to her. “Good. The rest of the pack?”
Julius replies. “Not yet; probably sweeping the woods, if I had to guess.”
Something a little like relief flows through me. None of ours are in the woods tonight, and the coven did their best to keep the leafers out of the way. We might just make it through this unscathed—without too much drama or fanfare—and why shouldn’t we?
Barnes and Julius aren’t hedgeriders in the sense that they were born into European hedgeriding families. They, and Mona, are known as Hunters here in the Northern Territories. They know the demimonde as well as we do, probably better in some ways. They don’t just deal with Them; they deal with the Earthbound. The stuff people used to call cryptids, monsters, and demons. I trust them to help us with this.
Julius, apparently, takes the walkie from his wife. “Where’re we drinking?”
“Yeah.” Alice laughs. “Wherearewe drinking?”
