“Right, of course. We could get something to eat,” I say and then remember Ethan called off sick. The gym he works at is in Paradise Valley, but there’s a chance he could run into someone here in Thorne Hill. “Going home is a better idea.” We start walking toward my car. “Things are really okay?” I can’t help but ask.
“They are,” Carl answers this time. He comes to a stop, flicking his eyes to the police station. We’re alone in the parking lot at the moment. “Ethan has a solid alibi with proof he was at home at the time of the murder. And as soon as I pointed out that the evidence seemed rather convenient, it was as if the officers suddenly thought so too.”
I look from him to Ethan, not following. “Well, duh, it was planted, right?”
“Yes, and anyone with half a brain would have been able to realize that,” Carl goes on. “Once questioned, it was as if a spell had been broken and things were seen as they really were, which was that they didn’t have enough plausible cause for an arrest. No one even knows who found the lighter.” Carl tips his head, staring at me.
I inhale, eyes narrowing. “You really think that I’d try to get my own boyfriend arrested for murder?”
“All I know is, something altered those cops’ minds.”
Ethan holds his hand up. “Anora didn’t do this. Don’t you even fucking think about accusing her.”
Carl’s thin lips curve into a smile. “You know what they say about the company you keep.” He shifts his gaze from me to Ethan. “I’d be careful if I were you. You know who your family is,” he tells him. “And you know we have your back. When you’re ready to return, the Order will welcome you home.” He gives Ethan a curt nod and then turns and walks away, leaving me gaping at him.
“The fuck?” I mutter and look at Ethan. “I didn’t—”
“Babe,” Ethan interrupts. “Don’t defend yourself. I never for a second thought you were behind this. You’re not.” He puts his large hands on my shoulders and a rush goes through me just from feeling the heat of his skin against me. “The charges were dropped, I’m free to go, and Carl was able to pull some strings and the lighter with my prints on it will bemisplacedby the end of the week. Everything is okay.”
“It’s not, though.” I shake my head and bite my bottom lip. “Someone tried to frame you for murder, and I think Nik is right.”
“Right about what?”
“Another demon is after me.”
ChapterFive
“All right,” I say and smooth out the paper in front of me before sitting at the island counter in the kitchen. “It could be any one of these.”
“Or something else entirely,” Ethan chides, coming up behind me.
“Right.” I pull the cap off my pen and look down at the handwritten letter. Aunt Estelle wrote it years ago, and I don’t know who it was intended for. The letter has a list of all the demons she bound to human bodies, rendering them powerless. The spell she used to bind the demons was similar to the one she used to bind my powers. If the spell on me broke after her death…it makes sense that the demons won’t be bound for much longer either.
“We can go through the demon dictionary too. There’s not much to go on, but better safe than sorry, right?” I open a notebook, looking at my messy handwriting. I cross referenced as many demons as I could from the list with what I could find in the demon dictionary and my Book of Shadows. I look carefully over my notes about the demons.
“We have nothing to go off of,” Ethan says gently and sits next to me. “I’m not downplaying anything, but framing someone for murder isn’t typically how demons go about things.”
“I know,” I agree. “But someone did frame you.”
“The odds point to a human.”
“But who?”
His hand lands on my thigh. “My dad is going to send over all the info the Chicago PD has as soon as Julia can hack into their system. And Carl is still working on getting what he can from the Thorne Hill police.” His brow furrows and he slowly inhales. “The officer who made the arrest, Maxwell was his name, he…he seemed to know something is going on in this town.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we now know there’s a Ley line running through the center of town.”
“Right,” I say, thinking back to not that long ago when Ruby explained it all to me in detail. It was a strange concept to grasp, though not even scientists can deny there are certain points and locations where natural energy is stronger than others. “And all sorts of things flock to it.”
“Exactly. Statistically, Thorne Hill has one of the lowest crime rates in all of Indiana. But it has an unusually high death rate…though a lot of deaths caused by demons are written off as animal attacks.”
“Which the police have to know is bullshit.”
“Right. When Officer Maxwell questioned me, it was like he was trying to get info out of me, and not info about Patrick.” His eyes meet mine and I know what he’s implying. If one cop is already suspect to the supernatural, we need to be careful.
“You’re sure demon bones don’t share any sort of human DNA?” I ask, turning and looking at my backyard. The burn pile and surrounding disturbed earth would be a crime scene investigator’s dream. If finding charred skin and bone fragments is their kind of thing.