Mystically Bound (Frostbite, Book Three) (22 page)

Tears welled in her eyes. “Have you seen him
again?”

I seriously did not want to lie to the woman,
since she’d been nothing but kind to me and made me incredibly
amazing food, so I simply shook my head.

“I’m sure Tess will figure out what
happened,” Alexander said.

Amelia narrowed her eyes on what she thought
was Caley. “I’m not sure why you are here, either.” She looked at
Dane. “I don’t approve—my father wouldn’t approve—of having
outsiders know about us.”

Dane looked as if he were annoyed, even
though I knew he wasn’t. “I’m afraid we are out of choices now,
Amelia. Tess wants her friend with her, and we need Tess. We have
to compromise.”

She stared her husband down for a long
moment, but finally huffed. “Okay.” To me, she asked, “With you
leaving the house now, how are you going to talk to my father
again?”

Dammit, I hadn’t thought up a good reason
yet. What she didn’t know is that I wasn’t necessarily working the
case anymore. From all we’d learned, we’d never find out who killed
Alexander. No one at the house had a motive and they all wanted to
solve his murder enough they made me bind the promise.

The feat of finding any evidence was
impossible and at this moment, I was more concerned with Kipp. In
addition to finding a solution that would also save Alexander from
his predicament. “Well, to be honest, he’s not stuck at this house
or anything, so maybe he’ll find me.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Maybe?”

“She’s right.” Dane wrapped an arm around his
wife, tugging her into his side, sending more horribly creaking
sounds to echo in the barn. “Alexander knows her now and would have
touched on her energy. If he wants to find her, he can.”

Little did she know, her father was standing
right beside me and I almost felt a pang of shame. All she wanted
was to find justice for her dad. The whole thing topped the list of
things I never wanted to repeat in my future.

Amelia gave him a sweet smile. “Okay, you’re
right; he would be able to find her.” She exhaled a long breath,
then added, “I’ve finished in the house and packed our things.”

“Where are you going?” I blurted out.

Dane arched an eyebrow at me. “Do you think
I’d allow her to stay in this house now?”

Something fluttered over my head and I ducked
slightly, horrified that a bat was in this creepy place with me,
even more horrified there were probably hundreds of them. “Um…” I
hated to point this out, “you sensed the magic the other night and
she stayed here.”

“Exactly,” Kipp muttered.

Dane’s eyes narrowed into slits, only hearing
my remark, but his gaze held little heat as it once did. “Because I
wasn’t worried about the magic, but now…” his eyes flicked to Kipp,
where I assumed he thought he was standing from when I’d been
talking to him, “I’m more concerned.”

Meaning, he thought something was about to go
down and that sure-as-shit worried me, too. “Gotcha.” I gave a firm
nod. “It’s not safe for anyone to be here. But what are you going
to do? Stay away from the Animus forever?”

He shook his head. “Once we find out what’s
going on here with Alexander and get this all straightened out, we
can look into more what spell has been used in the house and then
we can break it. Right now, we have more important matters to
attend to.”

“Sounds like a good plan.” Even though, we’d
never find out what was going on with Alexander, not that I’d tell
Amelia that, especially since Dane did his best to hide it from
her. For now, I pushed it aside, sticking to present problems.
“Okay, I’m done here. Not like I really found out anything at all,
except that Nettie died after going into the Netherworld.”

Kipp nodded. “Not sure how that helps you,
either.”

Turning toward the workbench, I nodded in
agreement, trying to hide it from Amelia. Dane hadn’t mentioned to
Amelia that Kipp had returned and I figured he had a good reason
behind the silence. Besides, even I could see the darkness under
her eyes and the weakness I’d first spotted when I had met her. And
well, I could understand wanting to protect someone. That’s why I
now stood in this scary barn—to find a way to protect Kipp and save
him.

As I looked at the book, I noticed the spider
had left its spot, and I hurried to get the book back in the
drawer, hoping to hell it wouldn’t pounce on me. I closed the
drawer with a slam, since what good was the diary to me anyway,
expect to make me wonder what happened to Nettie. “All right.” I
turned to Dane. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Another sudden squeak of the door had my
heart once again leaping up into my throat. My flashlight was aimed
at the door in 2.2 seconds and the door slowly creaked open.

“We’re all packed.” Gretchen covered her
eyes, shielding herself from my flashlight aimed on her face. “Do
you mind? I can’t see.”

With another sigh of relief, I lowered the
beam of my light to her thighs. I really couldn’t take many more of
these surprises without dropping dead.

More than ready to get the heck out of this
old spine-chilling barn, I put a little fire in my steps, but
Kipp’s icy fingers on my arm stopped me. Dane and Amelia strode
toward Gretchen at the doorway with Alexander in tow, and I
whispered to him, “What?”

He frowned. “I didn’t finish my thought
earlier.”

With a roll of my eyes, I turned my back to
the others and bent, pretending to fix my shoelaces and giving him
the chance to continue, “The question has to be asked if Wayde
thought Nettie became trapped in the Netherworld…”

My cell phone rang, causing me to jump a foot
off the ground, and Kipp gave a disgruntled sigh. When my heart
didn’t explode out of my chest, I laughed shakily to shed the fear
engulfing me. “God, I’m on edge.” I raised a finger and whispered,
“Hold that thought.”

Kipp crossed his arms, a frown marring his
face.

Reaching into my pocket, I took out my phone,
and looked down at the call display. I glanced over my shoulder at
Dane, who stood at the doorway with Alexander, Amelia, and
Gretchen. “It’s Max. I need to get this.” Then I raised the phone
to my ear. “Hi, Max.”

“Get out of that house
now!
”

At his urgent tone, I scanned the dark barn
with my flashlight, since suddenly it seemed darker and all I could
hear was things crawling about, bat wings fluttering…scary things
around me. “Pardon?”

“We’ve zeroed in on a suspect.”

I looked at the faces around me and while I
suspected it wasn’t Dane or Amelia, in this moment, I experienced a
second of terror that maybe I’d been entirely wrong. I forced the
whisper out of my tight throat. “Who?”

“Wayde.”

I blew out a very long breath, releasing the
images of Dane suddenly turning on me and killing everyone here
except the ones he wanted to live. “No, that’s impossible. Wayde’s
the one who made me bind the promise to help him. It doesn’t make
sense. Why do you think he’s responsible?”

“Because Wayde Hagen is, in fact, dead.”

Stay tuned for Tess and Kipp’s final adventure
in…

Frostbite, Book Four

Coming March 2013

Stacey Kennedy’s novels
are lighthearted fantasy with heart-squeezing, thigh-clenching
romance, and even give a good chuckle every now and again. But
within the stories, you’ll also find fast-paced action,
life-threatening moments, and a big bad villain who needs to be
destroyed. She lives in Southwestern Ontario with her husband and
two children. If she’s not plugging away at a new story—which is
rare because her muse is annoying—you’ll find her camping, curling
up with the latest flick, or obsessing over
Sons of Anarchy,
Games of Thrones, Supernatural
and
Dexter
.

Stacey welcomes comments from readers. You
can find her at www.staceykennedy.com.