“Where?”
“No idea, but I overheard her say something about the airport.”Kiev sighed, his breath crackling over the line.“I’m sorry it’s not much, but I thought you’d want to know.”
No, the information didn’t really help him. Within twenty-four hours, his mother could be anywhere in the world, and wherever Valerie Halloway went, misery usually followed.
But Kiev was right about one thing. Hedidwant to know, even if he had no idea what to do about it.
“Thanks for texting me.”
Neither of them seemed to know what to say after that. The silence stretched on, awkward and deafening, until Kiev announced that he needed to get back to work. Relieved, Sammy thanked him again and said a hasty goodbye, not bothering with false promises to keep in touch.
He and Kiev hadn’t parted on bad terms, but the siren represented a part of his life he desperately wanted to forget.
Marking the page in his book, he set it aside on the end table and forced himself to his feet. Lost in a maze of thoughts and worries, he moved on autopilot, carrying his mug to the small kitchen to wash it, then placed it on the silicone mat to dry.
Not knowing what else to do, he went about the rest of his nighttime routine, locking the doors and turning out all the lights. He washed his face, brushed his teeth, and changed into his pajamas. He didn’t really remember doing any of it.
Unsurprisingly, sleep eluded him, and he spent most of the night tossing and turning while his mind spun out one bleak scenario after another. He didn’t know what his mother had planned, or what she had been doing at the nightclub, but he doubted it involved a family reunion.
Despite the panic bubbling beneath the surface, a part of him had been anticipating this. In fact, he had expected her to make an appearance much sooner.
Just before daybreak, he finally fell into a fitful sleep plagued by murky dreams. Trapped in darkness, he couldn’t see anything, but he could hear whispers of conversation all around him, voices hissing like hundreds of miniature fires.
Then, from the shadows, his mother emerged in the distance, muted and blurred around the edges. She wore a triumphant smile on her painted lips, and her eyes—the same jade green as Sammy’s—sparked with malice.
A pewter locket hung from her neck by a leather cord, the casing trimmed in onyx and laced shut with a scarlet satin ribbon. She tapped a pointed fingernail against the front, making the etched runes flare with golden light.
Dread curled in his stomach, and an invisible fist tightened in his chest, forcing the breath from his lungs. Instinct screamed for him to flee, but when he tried, he couldn’t move. Frozen, trapped inside his own body, he could only watch as his mother crept closer.
Sammy jerked awake with a soft gasp, his heart thrashing wildly against his ribs.
“Fuck,” he muttered, dragging a hand over his face as he tried to slow his breathing.
It had been a decade, almost to the day, since he’d last seen his mother, and a lot had changed in that time. He’d grown not only older, but smarter, warier, and more resilient.
Yet the mere mention of her still made him feel like a scared child.
Lowering his hand, he pushed upright in bed, squinting against the sudden brightness. Sunlight filtered through the sheer curtains that bracketed his bed, casting the room in a warm, golden glow that felt wildly disorienting.
He couldn’t have been asleep for more than a few minutes, but it looked to be midmorning by now. A quick glance at the clockon his nightstand confirmed his suspicions, the brass hands showing just after ten o’clock.
Groaning, he shoved the blankets back and swung his legs over the side of the mattress. Chilled, damp air immediately assaulted him, making him shiver, and the cold hardwood leeched any remaining warmth from him as he shuffled down the hall to the bathroom.
He went through the motions, showering and dressing, his movements plodding as he prepared for the day. When he stepped through his front door, he didn’t bother locking it behind him. Even if someone broke in, he didn’t own anything worth stealing.
He turned his collar up against the biting wind as he made the ten-minute walk from the edge of town to the main street that ran through the heart of Hunters Hollow. The cold snap was predicted to last throughout the week, but at least the sun felt nice against his face.
Entering the back of his shop, he passed through the tiny studio apartment that had been his home for the first year after he’d come to town. Only marginally bigger than a walk-in closet, it contained a sleeper sofa, a mini-fridge, and a separate bathroom with a shower just big enough to turn around in.
But it was dry, temperature controlled, and it had suited his needs at the time.
When he entered the main dining room, he found only two occupied tables, not unusual for that time of morning. More than once, he had considered adding a selection of sandwiches to the menu to boost midday traffic, but he never seemed to get around to it.
“Hey, Sammy.” His assistant greeted him when he ducked behind the counter, though he barely glanced away from his cell phone. “Late night?”
Young and enthusiastic, Braeden Cox had been his first employee at Cherry on Top, as well as his first friend in Hunters Hollow. He had never worked in a bakery before, and Sammy had never owned one, but they’d muddled through together until they’d eventually figured it out.
Opening a bakery in a place like Hunters Hollow had already been a gamble. As a general rule, Otherlings didn’t care much for sugary treats. With their heightened senses, they often found the sweetness cloying and overpowering rather than enjoyable.