He clasped his hands together. "Look, I understand that you're afraid of your boyfriend. You have reason. We can help protect you. Just, please, help us out a little. Tell us who to contact. You must have family, friends. Someone to care for you."

She jerked her gaze away. She had no one. No one anywhere. Not on this Earth, not on Eudae. She was completely, crushingly alone. The emptiness that existed in her chest grew a little wider, a little blacken with the reminder.

After a moment, Dr. Charnowski sighed. "Fine, Claire, have it your way. A judge has issued a commitment order. You're staying here until we can determine whether or not you're a threat to yourself or others."

Later in her bed, after they'd locked the door and turned out the lights and her roommate lay moaning in the bed beside hers, Claire reached into herself one more time and parsed out a thread of the twisted, heavy magick. She could not take any of her own now without it being tangled with Rue's daaeman magick.

This time she did it deliberately. After all, the last time she'd pulled it she hadn't died, she'd just almost died. If she didn't risk it again, she'd perish here anyway.

Immediately, her gorge rose. She lurched to the side and brought up her lunch of spaghetti and Jell-o onto the polished hospital floor even as she used the magick to broadcast a thought to any air witch able to hear her. This time she'd make it more complete.

Please … I need help. My name is Claire and I'm at…

CHAPTER FOUR

PreviousTopNext

ADAM SAT IN THE LIBRARY, ALSO THE ROOM THAT Thomas had adopted as his office, watching Mira pace in front of Thomas's desk with Eva in a brightly colored sling around her shoulders.

"All of them heard it, Thomas," said Mira. "Every last one of the air witches in the Coven heard her plea, down to Molly, who just has a bare whisper of power." There were only three, not including baby Eva.

Thomas sat back in his chair and rubbed his chin. "It doesn't seem possible that Claire could be this side of the doorway."

Adam stood. "Boss, a year ago it didn't seem possible a demon was running around on Earth killing witches either. We need to go check this out."

"It could be a trap. We haven't heard from Stefan or the Duskoff for months. This seems like just another way to draw us out. We need to contact Darren and Eleanor and find out if they've noticed anything out of the ordinary."

The Chicago coven was the largest of the covens and ruled all of the United States, but there were two smaller covens, too. The one on the West Coast, located in San Francisco, was headed by Eleanor Pickens. Darren Westcott led the East Coast coven in Boston.