“Are you going to kill me?” I ask.
“Of course,” Leila says, matter-of-fact. “I have to. Bad things happen when humans find out about us. I know the boys have been very casual about it, but that’s because the consequences look really different for them. They slip up, they’re considered gods. Rose and I? Well, you saw. We get the whole ‘Witches, burn them at the stake’ treatment.” She taps her nails against the table, and they clack, one by one,like a metronome. “I promise I’ll put you down easy. For what it’s worth, I really liked you. You’re very interesting. I get why Julian lost his sense over you.”
The compliment flies over my head; I’m focused instead on how to get out of this. As far as I know, Julian has no other supernatural powers, no preternatural strength or offensive abilities aside from the ones he’s built for himself over the years. Leila can drain me, sure, but she’s already quite young as it is—too much and she’ll turn herself into a child like Rose did. As it stands, she’s shorter and slighter than I am. If this comes down to a battle of brute force, I could take her.
Leila’s grin widens, and she claps her hands together in amusement.
“Oh my god, are you sizing me up right now?” she says. Her giggle is high, shrill, and sends chills down my spine. “Ugh, you’re so cute.” She twists in her chair. “Robbie? Can you come in, baby?”
The back door opens, and a hulking man steps through. He is broad chested and bald, and the skin on the back of his head folds over itself. His face is obscured behind a mask.
Strapped across his chest: a gun.
Blood splashing against the glass. Harold’s wide-open grimace, his mouth still forming around his cries for help. Eyes lifeless and dead.
My body moves before I can stop it, because I can’t just sit here waiting to die, can’t just let her snuff me out—
I hear a click. “Robbie” has lifted his gun, and the barrel is trained on me.
“I wouldn’t run if I were you,” Leila says. “Robbie here’s a former Navy SEAL; he’ll catch you pretty quick. And I don’t want that, because I have the most fabulous end planned for you!”
She pulls out her phone, makes a call, and I hear the tone of a video call being answered.
“Hey, Leila,” a sweet, sullen voice responds.
Time slows. I feel like a giant has grabbed me by the middle and is crushing me in his grasp.
Because it’s Sophie.
Oh my god,she has Sophie.
“Hi, sweetheart,” Leila says. Her expression has changed completely, glee making way for a pitying pout and watery eyes so quickly that it gives me whiplash. “How are you hanging in there?”
“I’m okay,” Sophie says. “We’ve been coloring. Mom hasn’t woken up yet though.”
Leila’s eyes flicker up to me as if to ascertain that I’ve captured that bit of information, and of course I have: Winona is with them too.
“I know things are hard right now but you’ve been a very brave girl,” Leila is saying, and I hear her as if from a distance, her voice slowed and stretched out. “But anyway! I called because I have a surprise for you!”
“What is it?” she asks unenthusiastically.
Without warning, Leila turns the camera to me, and I have to fight the terror off my face. It’s Sophie all right, sitting on a plush teal carpet and surrounded by markers. In the distance, another young girl draws swirls on a piece of paper while she swings her legs. She glances up, eyes catching mine, then ducks away almost sheepishly as Sophie gapes at the screen, and I suddenly understand why Sophie said “we.”
Rose.
“Auntie Sean?” Sophie says in disbelief, then the phone rises until her face fills the screen. She looks tired, wan, her normally riotous curls hanging limply around her face. “Auntie Sean! Oh my gosh, you’re okay!”
“Y-yes, nugget,” I say weakly.
“Mom got called by the doggy daycare that you didn’t come back for Onix, and you weren’t answering your phone, and we thought something happened,” she cries. “We went and got him, don’t worry, but you were missing, and nobody knew where you’d gone, and we were so scared—”
“Sean just went on a little vacation without telling you,” Leila supplies for me. “Blizzard took out some cell towers and made the drive back unsafe, but I finally got in touch with Julian this morning and came straight down to check on her!” Her gaze catches mine, as if to seek praise for her decent alibi. “But she’s safe, and she’ll actually be coming with us.”
Tears drip down Sophie’s chin, and she gets to her feet, heading toward the door.
“I have to go tell Mom,” she declares.
Across from me and out of sight of her stepdaughter, Leila rolls her eyes, then turns the camera back to herself.