Even if they both survived what came next, feelings change and evolve, and they hadn’t had enough time together to establish a solid basis to their relationship.

The disaster no longer felt like it was impending. She was pretty sure it was already insidiously here.

She hadn’t missed her flight. She had already checked in, and she didn’t have any luggage, so she was soon winging back to the Bay Area. She had to drive north from there, and it took longer than she had anticipated, so dawn had broken by the time she pulled into a parking space at Sarah’s old Victorian home.

The peaceful surroundings wrapped around her raw, abraded nerves. Something ungovernable welled up, and she screamed in the confines of the Subaru. Then, for the first time since the night she had left Austin, she sobbed wildly until she was completely emptied.

She texted Josiah, I’m back safe.

He responded immediately. Good. I’ll text every night at 8 pm EST/ for you—5 pm.

She sent him a thumbs-up.

When she walked inside, she went into the kitchen for a piece of fruit to quiet her gnawing stomach. She found Sarah sitting in the breakfast nook with a cup of herbal tea. When Sarah looked at her, her expression softened with kindness. “Was it as hard as you thought it might be?”

“Yes and no.” She rubbed her face, grabbed a banana, and went to sit opposite Sarah. “It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but that somehow made it worse. I don’t have the right words.” She peeled the banana and looked at it. “We swore and yelled at each other and came to a compromise of sorts.”

“It looks like you hate it.”

“I think we both do.” She poured out the details of what they had decided while Sarah listened sympathetically. “So I have eighteen weeks to train for a possible confrontation with an evil, potentially thousand-year-old witch. In the meantime, I can always hope that Josiah and his coven find and kill him first.” She twitched a shoulder. “And survive.”

Other than a small wince, Sarah took the news with the appearance of calm. “I see. It looks like we have our work cut out for us.”

“Thank you for not saying it’s impossible.” She looked outside. The morning was sunny with a mild temperature and another cool breeze blowing off the jade-colored water. Outside, the sky was a clear, bright aquamarine blue. Golden light streamed in from the windows.

“I thought I would avoid stating the obvious,” Sarah said dryly. “I hope you enjoy studying for long hours. Do you need to go to bed?”

She had napped on the plane, so she shook her head.

“All right. Have you finished reading the books I gave you last week?”

Molly nodded. The week before, Sarah had given her a pendulum to work with along with the books.