Graham’s gaze was sharp when it bounced around the room. “What?” he asked. “Am I missing the ‘oh’?”

  Gunner opened his mouth, his smile suggesting he was going to say something snarky, but I shook my head to stop him.

  His lower lip came out to play. “It was sitting right there.”

  Graham’s face was blank. “What?”

  “Just ignore your son,” I replied with a grimace. “He’s trying to be difficult.”

  “He idles at difficult,” Graham muttered.

  I was no longer invested in the banter. In a roundabout way, Evan had given me an idea.

  “What are you thinking?” Bay asked, reading the change in my demeanor.

  “That Evan made a point.”

  “Of course I did.” Evan smiled in response. “I always make good points.”

  “I didn’t say you made a good point. Although, in this particular instance, maybe you did.”

  “What was it?”

  “Things only took a turn in these tableaus when I was present.” I started ticking off the instances on my fingers. “I fought the hillbillies and won. Last night, we had no problem taking down the vampire because I was there. I triggered the trip to see the clown. It wasn’t her magic. It was mine.”

  “Nothing happened at Mama Moon’s place until you arrived,” Evan agreed. “You are the catalyst.”

  “The witch designed all of this to get your attention,” Bay said. “This really is all about you.”

  “For once, I wish I wasn’t the center of attention.” I managed a rueful smile, then stood with my burger. “I need to make a call.” I wasn’t asking anybody’s permission. “I need your computer again,” I said to Doc.

  He balked. “I’m researching.”

  “You haven’t come up with crap,” I fired back. “I have to finish this. That means making a call, whether you like it or not.”

  He pouted.

  I left him, only mustering a pointed look for Rooster, who silently nodded. He would handle Doc. Then I moved to the other side of the Cauldron and sat in a booth to eat my lunch and make my call in private.

  Poet was at a desk in what looked to be a rustic cabin. She was all smiles when she answered. “Victory?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “Are you still taking your downtime?” I felt bad interrupting what amounted to a mini-vacation, but I needed her help.

  “This is our last day here,” she confirmed. “We take off for Portland tomorrow.”

  “Are you excited?”

  She shrugged. “I like the Northwest. It has a gloomy atmosphere I appreciate. It’s weird to think that because I’m moving to a tropical island in a few months, but I do appreciate a nice morning fog.”

  I smiled. “I kind of like a morning fog too.”

  “Of course you do. You’re as gloomy as me.”

  “Yes, well…” I shoved a fry in my mouth as I debated.

  “You might as well come right out and tell me,” she prodded. “I can tell something is bothering you.”

  “There are many things bothering me,” I acknowledged. “We can only tackle a few of them.”

  There was no hesitation from Poet. “Lay them on me.”

  “Okay.” I sucked in a deep breath. “You were right about the witch.”

  It took her a moment to sort through my words. “Are you saying it’s the witch we met as kids?”

  I nodded. “I saw her last night.”

  “Did you talk to her?”

  “Briefly.”

  She waited a beat, then scowled. “Well, don’t keep me in suspense. What did she say?”

  “That I wasn’t ready for the truth. She said if I can’t figure out what’s going on, I’m not ready. Then she disappeared.”

  “And she just, what, popped in from nowhere to start?”

  I shook my head. “She was dressed as the fisherman killer in I Know What You Did Last Summer. She was in a rain slicker and only showed her face after Evan took out the 30 Days of Night vampire.”

  “Huh,” was all she managed.

  “Yeah, it’s been a really confusing few days.”

  That made her laugh, but the sound was hollow. “What does she want, Scout?” she asked in a low voice, almost as if dreading the answer.

  “I really don’t know, Poet, and I’m starting to lose my head. Tillie spent the whole night fighting a ballerina vampire and nobody knew she was even missing until this morning.”

  Poet’s eyes went wide. “I’m missing a few updates.”

  On a sigh, I pulled myself together. Then I told her everything, catching her up on what she’d missed. When I finished, she just sat there and blinked.

  “Wow,” she said finally.

  “That’s all you have to say? Wow?”

  “That’s what I said,” she confirmed. “Wow.”

  “I could’ve gotten a wow from anyone,” I complained. “I could’ve gotten it from the Peeping Tim ghost. I expected more from you.”

  “Wow,” she said again.

  My eyes narrowed. “Say it again. I will open a plane door and grab you just to slap you around.”

  To my utter surprise—nothing felt funny to me right now—she threw her head back and laughed harder than I’d seen her laugh since we were kids. Her eyes twinkled when she collected herself again. “I get that you can’t find this funny right now,” she started.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “It’s a little funny.”

  “It’s really not.” I crossed my arms over my chest to show her I was adamant.

  Her smile didn’t diminish.

  Because I needed a moment to get my thoughts together—okay, I needed to get my petulance under wraps—I changed the subject. “Where’s Kade?”

  An emotion I couldn’t identify flashed in her eyes, but she shuttered it quickly. “He ran to the grocery store. We need snacks for our drive tomorrow. And gas.”

  Was she lying to me? I had never once thought that when interacting with her and yet there was something. “I⁠—”

  “Let’s talk about your problem,” she insisted, cutting me off. “Why do you think she tracked you down?”

  “I think she saw something in us that night.”

  “In you,” she corrected.

  “We’re both powerful.”

  “We are now,” she agreed. “Back then, I was a dabbler more than anything.”

  “But she saw what we would become. She knew the second she saw us that we were going to do something big together. I still remember what she said, and how she said it. She’s been in my dreams.”

  “She’s been in both of our dreams,” Poet said. Her gaze shifted toward what looked to be a window, then her gaze was back on me. “What else?”

  There was definitely something up with her. “Poet, what is going on? Why are you acting so weird?”

  Across the bar, Evan and Gunner—both beneficiaries of enhanced hearing—jerked their eyes to me. They’d picked up on my tone. I knew they were coming to join me without having to watch them.

  “Focus on the witch,” Poet ordered. She was serious. “Tell me the rest and be fast.”

  “Why?”

  “Scout!” She sounded exasperated. “For once in your life, do as I say. Tell me the rest.”

  I licked my lips, debating, then went for it. She was right. I never did what anyone else wanted. It was always my needs, my whims, that took precedence.

  “So far, at least to our knowledge, no one has been able to beat the creatures created by the spell unless I’ve been present,” I explained. “Somehow, me being there changes things.”

  “Because you’re the center of the game,” she mused.

  A door opened somewhere on her end. Was Kade back? Were they fighting? Would he be angry knowing she was on a call with me? Before I could ask the obvious question, someone moved behind Poet. She didn’t look at the hulking figure.

  I cataloged what I saw: Faded gray work pants. Some sort of jacket, like a Carhartt. I couldn’t see shoes but there was a plain—and what looked to be grubby—T-shirt beneath the jacket.

  “Poet.” Her name was a gusty exhale on my breath.

  “I saw him earlier,” Poet replied calmly. “I knew what he was. That’s why I sent Kade on errands.” She was deadly serious. “Try to talk Kade down from the ledge when he gets back. He won’t understand why I’m not here.”

  “Kill him,” I ordered. I hadn’t seen a mask yet, but I knew who was behind her.

  “You just told me I couldn’t kill him,” she reminded me.

  “You were there that night,” I argued. “You could be operating under the same rules I am.”

  “But I’m not.” Poet didn’t look upset. In fact, she was smiling. “Hold on.” She lifted a finger to quiet me, then turned to the individual in the room with her. At the same time, she angled the computer screen so I could see the huge man towering behind her.

  His features were impossible to make out because of the hockey mask.

  “And you are?” she asked in her most pleasant voice, as if greeting some random guy at a park.

  “He won’t answer,” I blurted.

  Only a split second later the man in the mask did respond. “Jackson Voorhees.”

  I frowned. Did he have an accent? What sort of accent was that? It was like a weird cross between a British dude and an angry New Yorker. I said the next part without thinking.

  “Jason doesn’t talk!”

  The man in the mask turned to look at me on the screen. “I believe I just said my name was Jackson.”

  It was only now that I saw the huge machete gripped in his hand. My heart skipped ten beats. “Kill him,” I ordered Poet. “Kill him right now.”

  She shook her head. “You said it yourself.” Her voice was low. “It’s time to play the game.”

  “Kill him!”

  “No.” She flashed a smile for Jackson’s benefit. “You’ve been tasked with taking me somewhere, if I’m not mistaken,” she said. She sounded as if she was talking to a child.

  “Don’t go with him,” I screamed at my computer. I had never felt so helpless.

  Then I remembered I could open plane doors. I scrambled to get out of the booth.

  Poet must have read my intent, because her demeanor shifted in an instant. “Scout, don’t! Don’t you dare come after me. He’ll be bringing me to you.”

  There was no way I would let some freaking fake Jason—everyone knows Jason doesn’t talk!—take her. I didn’t care how calm she was, or how she saw this playing out, I could go to her and stop this.

  I had so much energy built up that the plane door opened with a whoosh. Gasps went around the Cauldron, and somewhere near the back I heard Bay call my name. I only had one thing on my mind: I had to get to Poet, and I had to get to her now.

  I walked through the door.

  26

  TWENTY-SIX

  The door opened outside Poet’s rustic cabin. I had no idea where I was, probably somewhere in northern California. Poet hadn’t been specific when she said they were taking a few days off.

  There was a pickup truck in the driveway, but otherwise the property was quiet. Footsteps behind me spun me around. I found Kade standing there with several bags of groceries. Evan and Gunner were there too. They’d followed me through the door, which was now closed.

  “Hey,” Kade said blankly as he regarded me. “I didn’t realize you guys were coming for a visit.”

  He didn’t know. How was I supposed to tell him? I left it to Gunner and strode toward the cabin door without saying a word.

  Evan was a blur as he kept pace. “Is this a good idea?” he asked.

  “She’s in trouble,” I said.

  “Okay, we need a plan.”

  “I have a plan.” I used my magic to blow open the door. There was no hesitation when I walked inside. I was going to kill him, and I was going to enjoy it.

  The cabin was empty.

  “Poet?” Kade called out. He’d followed me, sensing trouble. He dropped the bags of groceries in the middle of the floor and hurried through the small living area. “Poet?”

  I slid my gaze to him for a moment, my heart pinching. Then I headed toward the hallway. There was only one bedroom, and a quick scan told me it was empty. I checked the closet—just to be on the safe side—but it was empty. So was the bathroom.

  “What the hell is going on?” Kade demanded when I returned to the living room. “Where is my wife?”

  Kade tended to overreact. He was magical, a lot of power at his disposal. He hadn’t grown up realizing he was magical, so he didn’t know how to wield it. He sat through lessons with his father occasionally, but in general, he was willing to let everybody else in their group throw around magic. I thought he was afraid of his magic.

  He was normally calm when it came to the big things. He looked the exact opposite of calm now.

  I opened my mouth to respond to him, but I had no idea where to start. When I snapped my jaw shut, his eyes darkened.

  “Where is my wife?” he gritted out, anger rippling across his handsome features.

  “We think she’s back in Hawthorne Hollow,” Gunner volunteered. For once, he wasn’t trying to be funny. “Scout came here to try to stop what was happening, but she was too late.”

  “What happened?” Kade kept his eyes on me.

  My heart hurt looking at him. He was angry. He had every right to be. I had no idea how to respond to him.

  “Are you aware of what’s been happening?” Evan asked, taking control of the conversation. “How much do you know?”

  “Only what Poet told me,” Kade replied. “Horror movies are coming to life.”

  “Pretty much,” Evan confirmed. “There’s a witch. Apparently, Poet and Scout met her when they were kids. We’re not certain what her goal is, but she’s testing Scout. That’s the only way I know to describe what’s happening. She wants Scout to react somehow.”

  Kade held out his hands. “What does that have to do with Poet?”

  “I’m not exactly sure.” Evan was hesitant in turning to me. “I know that Scout and Poet were talking. Scout got upset about something. By the time we made it to the computer, Poet was being taken.”

  Kade’s shoulders straightened. “Taken where?”

  “We think to Hawthorne Hollow. She seemed to know what was going on. She told us not to come here, that she would come to us. But, well…” Evan gestured to me.

  My hands were clasped into fists at my sides. I wanted to punch someone. The artist formerly known as Jason made an enticing target, yet he was nowhere to be found.

  “She knew what was going on?” Kade looked baffled. “But…” When he trailed off, recognition sparking in his eyes, it was obvious he’d come to a conclusion.

  “She was acting weird,” I volunteered. “I noticed right away. She kept looking at the window, and when I asked where you were she was evasive.”

  Kade swallowed hard. “She told me to get gas and snacks for tomorrow. We’re leaving to meet up with the others in Portland.”

  I nodded to encourage him to continue.

  “Normally, she likes to go shopping,” he explained. “She likes having control over our snacks. This time, she told me to go alone. I thought… I knew she was acting weird, but I thought she just wanted some alone time.”

  “She knew what was going to happen.” That was the only conclusion I could come to.

  “What do you mean?” Kade challenged.

  “She knew she was going to get taken.” I dragged a hand through my hair. “I saw it on her face. It wasn’t resignation as much as anticipation.”

  Evan nodded. “That’s what I saw. She wanted it to happen.”

  “She wanted to leave me?” Kade demanded.

  I shook my head. “She wanted you clear of the fallout. She was probably worried that you would fight him when he came. She had every intention of letting him take her because she knew where the path would end.”

  “Who is he?” Kade snapped. “I thought you were fighting a witch.”

  “She sent an emissary,” Evan replied. “He looked a lot like Jason Voorhees.”

  Kade’s eyes almost popped out of his head.

  “She’s fine,” Evan insisted. “She went willingly, and we’re not at the end of this adventure yet. She’s back in Hawthorne Hollow.”

  “With Jason Voorhees?” Kade’s shouted. “How am I supposed to be fine with that?”

  “It wasn’t Jason Voorhees,” I replied. “It was Jackson Voorhees. All the movie monsters she’s been throwing at us have been slightly off.”

  “Poet mentioned that.” Kade relaxed marginally. “They’re weaker, right?”

  “They’ve been playing a part,” I replied. “The ones we’ve taken out haven’t been difficult.”

  “As long as Scout is there,” Gunner added.

  “What?” Kade snapped his eyes to Gunner. “What does that mean?”

  “That no one has taken out one of the creatures unless Scout has been present,” Evan replied. “Obviously, this was all designed for her.”

  His words sank in and made my heart heavy, but I wasn’t prepared to admit defeat on one particular topic. Not yet. “We don’t know that Poet won’t have the same rules,” I argued. “She was with me when we met this witch as kids. It’s possible the witch wants both of us. Why else send someone to get Poet on the other side of the country?”

  “Maybe because she thinks sacrificing Poet will get you to do what she wants,” Kade fired back.

  “That doesn’t feel right.”

  “None of this feels right.”

  “It’s okay,” Gunner assured Kade in a low voice. “We’ll get her back.”

  “How do you know she’s not already…?” His voice broke.

  “That won’t happen,” I replied firmly. I turned back to where I’d created the door. “We have to go back. The only thing we’re certain about is that Poet isn’t here. That means she’s back there.”

  “Did that Jason wannabe create a door?” Evan asked. “Is that how they pulled this off?”

  “I don’t know.” I shook my head. “They needed me to create a door to get to the clown.”

  “Maybe it was something else,” Gunner said. “Maybe they needed to access Poet’s magic to get to Hawthorne Hollow.”

 

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