Page 28 of Hunted
“Seems to me like we do,” Pepper mumbled.
“What’s that?” Helen asked.
“Well…” Pepper paused. “We have eight days until the next crescent, don’t we?”
“Eight days?” I asked, “What do you mean?”
Helen sighed. “While you were all fighting for your lives, Pepper and I were visiting some scholarly friends of ours. We think we know how we can get you back to Arcadia.”
“Only, it’s going to take eight days,” Pepper put in.
“Eight days… that’s,” I shook my head. “That’s way too long. The creature is already here!”
“I know,” Helen said, “But as I’ve explained before, most Arcadian portals open randomly, except for the ones that don’t. Those usually conform to certain celestial events, they almost always require an offering before they can open, and they arealwaysguarded by the Fae—at least, on the other side.”
“The next portal we know of won’t open until the next crescent moon,” Pepper said. “In eight days.”
Valerian stepped toward the table. “And even then,” he said, “It will be guarded on the other side by the Fae. Fae who may or may not be friendly to us.”
“The good news is,” Helen said, “This one opens into the Winter Kingdom.”
“That’s… something?” I asked, my voice rising in pitch, like I wasn’t really sure of the question or the answer.
Helen shook her head again. “We are getting ahead of ourselves,” she said. “First, we must protect this house. Pepper, please get started with that.”
“Right,” Pepper said, finally taking her leave from the table.
“Evie, see to it that you have fresh sigils to use, just in case the creature somehow breaks through our defenses before we are ready for it.”
Evie stood up, gave me another squeeze of the shoulder. “I’ll be downstairs if you need me,” she said, before following Pepper out of the living room and going down the stairs.
“As for you three,” Helen said. “It’s probably best if you make yourselves comfortable.”
“I can’t just sit on my hands,” I said. “I want to help. I want to learn how to use this magic I have inside of me.”
“There are eight days until the next crescent moon, but that isn’t enough time for me to teach you all you need to know about your magic. Starting you on the path without making sure you know the proper safeguards is probably going to be more dangerous for all of us in the short run than not starting you on the path at all.”
“And if that creature comes back?” I asked. “We have barely a drop of magic left between the two of us, and we can’t outrun Fate forever.”
“If the creature somehow makes it past our defenses, we will be ready for it,” Helen said. “No Arcadian monster is going to hurt my granddaughter while she’s under my protection. Do you understand me?”
“That…” Tallin ventured. “That just gave me the chills. Does anyone else have the chills?”
I was the one who resigned, now. “Alright…” I said, “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful.”
Helen stood, approached me, and smiled. “I do not get that sense at all,” she said. “I know you are only trying to protect us. We are all trying to protect each other. Our hearts are in the right place.”
“I just feel useless. I hate feeling useless.”
“Sit tight, child. Let us look after you.”
With a warm smile, my grandmother took her leave of us. “That’s the problem,” I said to myself. “All my life, all I’ve ever done is let other people look after me.”
“Consider yourself lucky,” Valerian said. “Some of us haven’t had that luxury.”
CHAPTERTEN
It had been a few hours since the incident back at the store, but I still wasn’t settled. Pepper had gone around and warded the house. I had watched her as she drew strange runes into doorframes and windowpanes, had witnessed the steady rise and fall of light from those runes as the power within them flared to life.