*CHAPTER 43*

*CHAPTER 43*
It took a few long moments of me staring blankly at the phone dangling between my hands for me to get a grasp on myself. I rubbed at the spot between my eyebrows, forcing a calm I didn't feel. Pulling myself up from the shaded concrete steps, I drew a few shaky breaths and let the apprehension fade to the back of my mind, to a place that was manageable. David knew something. I needed to go talk to him. Hopefully he could connect the dots on all of mysteries surrounding my Magic and my mom.

Whatever he had to tell me, I'd deal with it when the time came. There was no point stressing about it now. And whatever he had to tell me couldn't be worse than the fact that I had Blood Magic or that I had a weird life bond Curse, right? And I'd gotten through that just fine. That fact was strangely comforting and after another moment, I was composed enough that I re-entered through the Pembroke's front door.

The sound of Caleb's easy chuckling and the clacking of computer keys as Penny continued to work in the dining room soothed a part of me that was now restless. I found everyone in the same place I'd left them, though Malcolm and Caleb turned to look at me as I re-entered the room.

Caleb's easy smile fell away when he saw me, eyebrows drawing together worriedly,"Everything okay Kass?"

Maybe I hadn't hid my anxiety as well as I'd thought. I blinked and reattempted to smooth out my face, forcing a smile that felt believable enough, though I felt it didn't quite reach my eyes, "Yeah, everything's fine."

I could feel Malcolm's searing gaze in the side of my face that I worked to ignore as I shuffled up behind Penny to look at the screens with unfocused eyes, "Have you found anything yet?"

"Not yet, I'm working my way into the police database first, to make sure there's nothing we missed there."

I nodded as if I understood anything that would entail.

She clicked away on her keyboard, and after a few moments, I finally forced myself to turn in Malcolm's direction. He was tapping away at his own laptop keyboard at the kitchen island. Going over evidence, probably.

I sidled up beside him, eyeing the long document he was combing through. I glanced in Penny and Caleb's direction. Satisfied they were wholly absorbed in what they were doing at the dining table, I cleared my throat and said to Malcolm under my breath, "I need to borrow your truck."

He didn't even glance up from what he was working on on his laptop.

"No." No question, no hesitation.

My hands folded across my chest, annoyance radiating through me, "I wasn't asking. You're the reason I don't have my own car, so I'm going to borrow yours."

A muscle in his jaw ticked, "Why?"

"Does it matter?"

"It's not safe for you to be out wandering the streets right now. Especially with what we found out last night. So if you're going to go somewhere by yourself, it better be for a damn good reason."

A large part of me wanted to wrap my hands around his throat and strangle him, but I refrained, taking a calming breath—or what should have been a calming breath. It turned into a huff of annoyance.

"I'm going to see my uncle. He's in town and is expecting me to meet him soon."

He didn't glance up from his computer, but his fingers hesitated a moment on the keyboard. With another quick glance in Penny and Caleb's direction to make sure they were distracted—they were—I lowered my voice and continued, "Apparently, he knows a few things about my parents."

Another moment of staring at his computer screen, and then he closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. Finally he turned his gaze to meet mine, resolute, "I'll drive you."

"I don't know how long this is going to last, and it's not exactly a conversation that we can have an audience for."

Another weighted moment.

He stood from the barstool, crossing the kitchen with slow strides to pick up a set of keys laying at the edge of the counter. He held them out in the space between us. I snatched them out of his palm before he changed his mind.

"If you're not back in two hours, I'm coming to get you." He warned.

Busybody.

"I heard that." He grunted.



David's car was in the driveway when I pulled Malcolm's truck up against the curb. Steadying my hands on the steering wheel, I sucked in a few deep breaths until I was mentally prepared for the conversation we were about to have. Everything was going to be fine. No matter what he told me, it was going to be okay. I would be okay.

I locked Malcolm's truck behind me, waving to Lucille who was out watering her browning plants out in front of her house. She waved back with a wrinkled hand. As I rounded the driveway, something had me pausing in my tracks. Something was off. The smell of rot and burnt sugar lingered in the air. It was barely a whiff, barely anything at all, but it was there. A shiver racked its way down my spine, despite the blazing heat, and goosebumps raised on my arms.

Something was wrong.

Very, very wrong.

I almost tripped over myself in my rushed the last few feet to my front door, "Uncle David," I called out, my voice breathless as I reached for the handle. "Dav—" A loud click sounded, cutting off my next word. A deafening roar erupted from the back of my house. I felt it before I saw it. A wall of scorching orange and yellow and white so powerful it knocked me to my feet.

And the world turned to fire.