The thread snapped back, hurtling me back into space. I reached out my hands and felt a hand grasp mine. I slammed up against something hard.

Damn, I thought. Love hurts.

I opened my eyes. I was lying on the ground, surrounded by a circle of concerned faces, but not the one face I wanted to see.

“Brock? Is he …?”

“I’m here, Callie.” I saw Brock’s face hovering over me.

“Oh thank God,” I said. “I thought I lost you.”

He knelt down on the ground beside me as Liz and Ann Chase helped me sit up. “I turned around and the spiral broke. I thought we were spinning out of control.”

“We were, but you pulled us both back.”

“It was Liam,” I said. “I heard his voice …” I stopped as an expression of dismay crossed Brock’s face.

“That damned incubus!” he swore with unaccustomed anger. “It’s his fault I was trapped in the shadows in the first place. I was on your roof when I saw the storm coming, carrying something with it – a creature from Faerie …”

“That was Lorelei,” I said.

“No. I saw her descend into the woods, but the storm came on, carrying with it another presence, and heading straight toward Honeysuckle House. I realized then that although I’d warded the house …”

“That was you!” I interrupted. “Duncan Laird said someone had.”

“Duncan Laird?”

“My new magic tutor and a wizard of the Ninth order. The circle found him to train me.”

I noticed Liz exchanging a look with Anne Chase. The rest of the circle was picking themselves up from the ground, brushing grass off their clothes, and stretching cramped limbs. Ike and Amma were approaching from the house, tears streaming down the old woman’s face at the sight of her grandson restored. Brock, though, was focused entirely on me, his face creased with guilt.

“A wizard of the Ninth order would have no trouble recognizing my humble wards. The problem was that I’d just put in a new section of roof that wasn’t warded and that meant the creature in the storm could get in. I couldn’t leave you unprotected like that so I stayed on the roof until the storm arrived.”

“Oh Brock, you shouldn’t have! You shouldn’t have put yourself at risk to protect the house, Brock. It’s only a house …”

“It’s your home, Callie. If a creature breached its wards it would have power over you. Power over your mind and body and even your dreams. That’s how the incubus possessed Dolly. First it possessed Honeysuckle House.” Brock dropped his head and covered his face with his calloused, work-worn hands. “I’m so sorry, Callie. I let the incubus back into your house.”

Chapter Twenty-One

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE