Hair tangled and skin waxy, Dell resembled a flu victim in full bloom who’d been creamed by a bus on her way through the parking lot. Getting on the plane turned out to be the easy part. Keeping our seats was harder. Polite to a fault, our flight attendant suggested we might want to disembark and exchange our tickets for ones later in the day.

Teeth clamped together, I insisted Dell was fine, that nerves were to blame. I even smiled when she brought Dell a chilly mimosa, while wearing a white mask that covered the lower half of her face, and downed it once her back turned. It was early for alcohol, the sun was just thinking about rising, but I figured there was orange juice in the mix, and that counted as breakfast.

Graeson, who I suspected might fresh squeeze his own OJ, would have been properly horrified by the use of concentrate and the general lack of bacon.

Once Texas dropped beneath our feet, I shot a quick text to Isaac. It went unanswered, of course, but he was waiting in the lobby when we landed. He took one look at Dell, set his jaw and gathered her in his arms. She curled against his chest, and he opted to ride in the backseat of his crew cab truck with her tucked in his arms while I drove us back to Villanow.

The first thing I noticed when I pulled into the clearing was Aunt Dot pacing inside the wards that extended to the front yard. When she spotted us, she clasped her hands and ran for us.

“Isaac said that sweet little Dell isn’t feeling well.” She hauled me out of the cab and into her arms. “Is she okay? Are you all right? What can I do? Do you need anything?”

“I’m fine, and Dell will be too.” I gave her a squeeze. “We have to get her home. Her family will know what to do about this.”

“I’m coming with you.” Isaac joined us on the grass, leaving Dell curled on the seat. “I don’t want you out there alone.”

A second’s hesitation made me wonder if his was general paranoia or if something had happened while I was gone. There would be time for questions later. Right now I had to focus on locating Graeson’s house. A sinking feeling in my gut made me doubt it would be so easy as to find him there waiting for me. He had neighbors, though, and they would know how to get Dell to her meemaw’s house.

“I’m coming too.” Aunt Dot rolled up the sleeves of her floral-print blouse. “Something happened last night that made those wolves go nuts. They were barking and yapping and howling all night long.”

“Graeson said there was a gathering.” Implied it more like. “That must be what caused the ruckus.”