“I’ll update you as soon as I can.”
“Thanks, Julia.”
We end the call and I download and send her the videos of Ethan from the morning. He opens the big barn door and goes in, leaving the door open behind him. It lights up the barn and you can clearly see his face. He talks to Mystery, Sundance, Ross, and Rachel as he gives them hay and then the recording stops. Motion is detected again when he leads the donkeys out of the barn, taking them to the pasture. He comes back for Sundance and Mystery, and the two geldings nip at each other as Ethan leads them both at the same time outside.
He comes in once more and starts cleaning stalls, and the camera picks up him walking in and out of the barn two more times as he empties a wheelbarrow full of manure. The last little clip of him shows him with his flannel shirt tied around his waist and I pause the recording and zoom in. You can clearly see his tattoos. There’s no denying this is Ethan, and he was here—all the way on the outskirts of Thorne Hill—at seven-fifteen the same morning Patrick died.
This should bring me more comfort than it does, but I can’t stop thinking about why the cops would show up now, two months later, to arrest Ethan.
“There’s only one reason,” I tell Hunter, setting my phone down after I sent the videos to Julia. “Someone is trying to frame him.”
ChapterThree
“What about a glamour spell?” I nervously flip the pages in my Book of Shadows, glancing up every few seconds to look at the police station.
“For you or for Ethan?” Nik asks, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.
“Um, both?” I shake my head, knowing that won’t help. If anything, Ethan randomly appearing as someone else would make things worse. Letting out a sigh, I lean back and look at the police station again, heart skipping a beat when the door opens. It’s not like the charges are going to get suddenly dropped and he’ll be free to go.
Closing my book, I tap the screen of my phone. Julia hasn’t updated me in nearly half an hour and I got nowhere when I tried going into the police station.
“They can lie.” I swallow hard and open the book again. “The police.” I turn my head toward Nik. “They can say they found evidence or have DNA or something.”
“Ethan is smart,” Nik assures me. “He won’t say anything to make matters worse.”
“Yeah. You’re right.”
“It’ll be okay. Somehow.”
“Somehow,” I echo and start to feel frustrated as I look through the book. “I’m a witch who can literally hold fire in my hand yet I’m totally clueless how to fix this right now.” I lean my head back again, grinding my teeth. “Someone set Ethan up, I know it. And I’m pretty sure it’s the fucking Order.”
“Let’s say it is,” Nik starts, twisting in the driver’s seat to face me. “What could they have on Ethan that could frame him?”
“I have no idea. I mean, it could literally be anything. They have the resources to get him out of jail, it would probably be pretty easy to get him into jail, right?”
“Yeah,” he agrees. “But being convicted of murder requires evidence. You two didn’t go to Patrick’s apartment, did you?”
“No. We saw him at the Order HQ and that was it.”
“What about a motive?”
“Patrick didn’t like me. He said a few mean things and kind of threatened me, but it wasn’t anything major.”
“But it could be enough.”
“Yeah.” We’ve been through this already, and I’m thankful Nik is going over things again to appease me. “Really, Patrick has more motive to murder us, but, uh, he’s a little too dead to do that.”
“That tends to make things difficult.” Nik lets his hands slide off the steering wheel. I was too shaken up to drive and I need to get it together. Ethan is innocent and hewillget out of here. If we can’t do things legally, then I will figure out how to magically erase his record.
“Maybe I can cast some sort of spell that will help us fake his death or something?” I muse out loud when I open the Book and flip past the glamour spell again. “I can make him look dead and then we can break into the morgue and get him out.”
“If it comes down to it,” Nik says, making a face. “But, uh, I’m sure we can come up with something else.”
I put my head in my hands, letting out a breath. “I can fight demons but I cannot figure this out.”
“You’re rattled right now.” Nik pats my shoulder. “Your boyfriend is in jail for murder and the Order of the Mystic Realm has it out for you. It’s a lot to process.”
“Yeah.” My breath leaves my lungs and I turn, looking out the window. “And that’s what scares me. We get Ethan out and then what will the Order do? They won’t let this go. Will they go after Ethan’s family?”