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She nodded and he left before he could say or do anything else.

Chapter 9

SHE knew Lark would call. The only surprise was how long it took. She’d showered, spoken with her team about the car, mourned two who’d been killed, eaten, been fussed over by Faine and Molly and escaped finally by going to sit out in the middle of the raised beds in the garden to recharge.

She’d scowled everyone away and finally had returned inside, finding a small sitting room and settling on a couch with a blanket, reading her mail and taking calls.

Helena answered her sister’s call with, “I’m all right.”

“The only reason I am not on a plane to you right now is because of that. Gage has been keeping me updated but I figured you’d had long enough and I needed to hear your voice.”

Helena smiled, touched at that.

“Christ, Hellie, what the hell? Car bombs? Do you think we should pull the plug and bring people home?”

“I’m going to take the next few hours to think on that. I ate some lunch and sat in the garden for an hour. My nose isn’t bleeding anymore and my teeth haven’t fallen out, so I’m counting that as a win.”

“Don’t joke. This is serious. You could have died.” Lark’s voice was stern, but the fear bled through.

“Yeah, like when you got shot. Twice. Saving the world.”

“Goddamn, we’re fucking awesome, huh?” Tension broken, Lark soldiered on. “What’s the situation with the cars? I know there is simply no way you didn’t have a process in place to check the undercarriage of any and all vehicles you use.”

“I do.” Though it was nice that her sister knew that of her. “There were two SUVs. Both were checked thoroughly before they left here. Both were in a secure garage. I went through the security footage for the last twenty-four hours and there’s nothing. No one approached either vehicle until this morning when we left and then when they came back they were checked and checked again when they left to retrieve us. There’s a checkpoint at the gates at the capitol too and the cars were clear.”

“What the fuck?”

“Somewhere between those gates and the drive near the building where we were at the hearing our drivers were stopped, shot in the head, left in a Dumpster and the attackers took over. There are cameras everywhere but, conveniently, several were out of commission for a few hours today.” The anger rushed through her again at the thought.

“Are you kidding me?”

“They don’t care. I wanted to hold out as long as I could, you know? A lot of humans are good people like Tosh. But this other stuff? Bombings and attacks and bills to put us in camps? That’s not right, damn it. Cameras being turned off so my drivers could be murdered? It’s like a movie plot, for god’s sake!”

Lark sighed heavily. “We receive death threats on a daily basis now. It’s . . . I’ve forgotten what it was like before.”

Helena understood. She nearly had too.

“Both those men, humans according to Anderson, were killed in the blast. The second car was also bombed, but half the vest he wore malfunctioned so the blast wasn’t as large. They’d moved to the passenger seat to get closer to us when we came down to load everyone in. I suppose we should be thankful they detonated before I reached the door.”

“I hate this. Hate it. Gage told me you pulled some mighty magick out of your tool bag today. He said he’d never seen anything like it and that you nearly fried yourself doing it.”

“Honestly? I don’t know where it came from. Only that it happened. I’m glad for it and a headache is a price I’m willing to pay for that result.”

“Yeah? And if you’d died?”

“It’s my job to protect people. If that means I die doing it, well, I signed on for that. You know you’d do better at this than me, but there’s no one else so I’m doing the best I can.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Do you really think that? That I’d believe anyone was better suited for this job than you? You’re the only one I trust to oversee it all.”

Helena swallowed hard. “Lark, that’s not the best idea.”

Her sister cursed beneath her breath. “Oh shut up. If you’re going to bring up the haven thing, just stop.”

“You can pretend it doesn’t matter, but it was my decision to send the witches to the havens. And that got them killed. All those lives in my hands and they’re dead.”

“It wasn’t the choice that killed them, Helena. What happened was so much beyond what any of us could combat. We’re all of us fucking treading water here.”

When the Magister’s attacks got worse, and more and more Others were turning up missing and dead, The Gennessee called together the Full Council and they decided to send the most vulnerable witches in the Clan to the havens. Havens were safe spots, well away from the city, guarded. Helena had been the deciding vote to send the witches—supposedly—out of harm’s way. Until one of the smaller havens in Indio had been discovered and all twenty-two witches there, including five children, had disappeared.

One glaring fact remained. “But you didn’t make that choice.”

Lark sucked in a breath. “I could have, though. It was a perfectly reasonable choice to make. It could have easily been me. You didn’t make the wrong choice. Hell, how many Others died when the Magister manifested? Huh? I didn’t stop it in time. We lost a lot of people, Helena. We did the best we could. You and me, we had the weight of all those lives on our shoulders and we did all we could with what we had.”

And it hadn’t been enough. Helena had to live with that knowledge every day.

Lark broke into her thoughts. “I know we haven’t had enough time to talk about all this stuff. We need to. But I want to be face-to-face when we do. I want to be able to knock out a few bottles of wine and hash everything out. That’s not happening anytime soon, but it will. Just know that. In the meantime, you have to stop blaming yourself for what happened at the haven. You are the person I trust more than anyone else to do this. I mean that.”

Tears came, surprising her. All the hard-won walls she’d built against the well of emotion and fear crumbled at the edges. Oh goddess, not now. She just couldn’t. Didn’t want to talk about the haven thing anymore. There was nothing to be done about it. It was over and the shame of her failure would hopefully make her a better hunter. “I’ll call you when I learn more. Rebecca is having a phone conference with Meriel and some of the other witches about whether or not continuing this road show is viable. I’m sure you’ll hear when I do, but I’ll check in when I know anything.”

Lark paused and Helena knew she wanted to say more. But thankfully, she didn’t. “All right. I love you. Please be safe.”

“I love you too.” She hung up and with a groan, heaved herself up from the couch. She had work to do.

Faine seemed to appear out of nowhere, scowling at her and blocking her exit from the room. “Sit back down. What can I get for you?”

“I need to work.”

“You need to rest.”

“You’re not the boss of me.”

“Thank heavens. I can’t imagine what a shitty job that would be. You’re disobedient and reckless and you take on far more than you’re responsible for.”

She didn’t know how it happened, but suddenly she found herself gasping on a sob and a flood of tears.

He softened, a sad smile marking his lips. “Come on.” He took her hand and led her to her room, pulling her blankets back. “In.”

“Please go away.” She tried to pull the covers up over her head, but he lay down next to her, pinning her in place with the bed coverings, the heat of him soothing as well as discomfiting.