Page 25 of Welcome to Blackbird Hollow
“Careful there,” I murmur. “There’s a trick step—third one from the bottom.”
She smiles up at me, so unguarded that I know I’ve got to go. I’ve only known Alice for a few hours, but I am certain she’ll hate herself tomorrow if she reveals something too personal to me tonight. She can say whatever she likes to Fallon. My sister is a vault. It’s one of her best qualities.
“You smell good,” Alice says.
“So do you,” I reply with a smile, setting her steady back on her feet.
“I had a shower,” she informs me.
I’m not touching that one with a ten-foot pole. “You need a snack?”
Alice shakes her head. “I’m stuffed.”
“Wanna watch a movie?” I ask, feeling like I’m interviewing her with all these questions. “I think Fallon gotThe Gooniesthis week.”
“With you?” Alice asks, a little too brightly.
My heart thumps, slow and heavy and far too hard. But a vision imposes itself on me: her snuggled up next to me on the couch, wearing my clothes…and I shake my head, firm in my resolve. “No, I’ve gotta keep watch tonight. But I could put it on for you.”
Alice looks like she might pout for a second, and if she does, I’m a goner. But then she blinks, and it’s like a sober light flicks on in her head. She blinks a couple more times, then yawns. “I think I’m going to get a big glass of water and go to bed.”
I sigh with relief, watching her bare feet pad into the kitchen of the house I grew up in, open the correct cabinet for cups, and run water into one with a cartoon bear on it, like she’s always been here. Fallon raises an eyebrow at me from her stool, twisting the phone cord around her index finger with a mischievous glint in her eye. The two of them are having a wretched effect on one another already.
Fern bumps my hip with her big head, and I scratch behind her ears, a bittersweet ache forming in my chest. My dog watches Alice carefully as she walks back toward us. “Go on with her,” I urge Fern, stepping back from the foot of the staircase.
“Really?” Alice asks, picking up her backpack. “Can she sleep in the bed with me?”
There’s hesitation in her voice that cracks me in two. Like she’s never had a pet to cuddle with in her life. “Just try and stop her,” I reply with a grin. “I’ll bring your duffel up in a bit.”
Gonna wait ’til I’m good and sure she’s asleep for that. Alice doesn’t say another word—she just takes each step on the grand old staircase extra slow. She’s obviously tired. It’s hard to believe we’ve only known her for a few hours. It feels like we grew up together.
Fallon hangs up the phone as Fern and Alice make it to the top step and disappear into my room. I cannot possibly thinkabout her climbing into bed, wearing my jersey, while she and Fern snuggle up. That’s one stop too far down the optimist track for me.
To nip this train of thought in the bud, I walk into the kitchen and lean against the sink. Nothing kills a buzz like Fallon on a mission. “Well?”
“All done,” Fallon says. “Word’s out.”
“That’s good,” I say, dread curling up in my gut like it’s there to stay. “I saw one of the hellhounds lurking outside the Stardust—stared right at me. Ran off when it spotted the Winchester.”
Fallon’s eyes narrow. She’s always taken an agnostic view on the Courts, the Hunt, and all Their antics. I’m sure Caden’s run his theories by her dozens of times. She has more patience for that kind of talk than I do.
“You gonna take first watch?” she asks, not addressing any aspect of that. “Fern’ll keep an eye on Alice.”
I nod, grateful for the fact that with all her teasing, my sister knows when to be serious. “Get some sleep.”
Fallon yawns, slipping off her stool. “Wake me at three, ’kay?”
“Sure,” I agree. “I’m gonna go salt.”
Fallon pauses on the stairs. We don’t usually go so far. They don’t usually come so close to the house. There’s too much iron buried in the yard. When she nods, I know she’s wondering the same thing I am—if there was a reason the hellhound was hanging around near the Stardust.
If Alice is one of the Hunt’s Chosen, They will have a fight on Their hands. They’re not leaving with her. If I have to shove every leafer in three counties in Their path to take her place, I will.
Chapter 13
Alice
Sometime the next morning, I awake in an unfamiliar bed. I’m curled up on my side, hair loose and tangled, and there’s a pleasant warmth pressed against my back. I blink slowly into the misty sunlight leaking through the two tall windows, trying to get my thoughts together. My head throbs painfully, a punishment for too much wine.
