I thought about calling Nate, but remembered he had said he needed to head back to St. Louis to meet with Hemingway. And I had just told him that I didn’t need his help. What, I was going to call him five minutes later, begging for help?

No. I was going to finish what I had started. Nate had said the bears were noble, but he obviously didn’t know everything. Rather than wasting my dwindling energy to Shadow Walk again — not that I could have Shadow Walked through my dad’s ward anyway — I chose the truck. I didn’t want to accidentally Shadow Walk right into a pile of bears. Hanging out on the roof had given me enough time for my magic to return, if not at full force, at least enough to fight. And I didn’t have to worry about being close and quiet. I would light them up from a distance like Roland always encouraged me to do.

I locked my door and ran down the hall, bursting out the door without acknowledging the cop. I heard him shout, but I was soon climbing into my truck, pulling out of the parking lot in a screech of tires. I saw the cop running after me, shouting into his shoulder rig. Fine. Let them track my plates. Worst case scenario they would show up at my dad’s place, maybe scare away the bears, but I doubted it. I was on my own. It would take them a while to track me down, and I heard no sirens pursuing me. Likely, the cop wasn’t allowed to leave his post after the attack.

But how had the bears gotten through the ward? As I thought about it, it didn’t make sense.

Unless… my dad had chosen to leave the house. Or I had just thought the voice sounded like my dad. It had been raspy. But the bears had already proven they knew where my dad lived. They had pictures of me in the front yard.

I pressed the gas harder, thinking about the darker spells Roland had taught me. I was exhausted, but the sudden burst of adrenaline powered me. I wouldn’t give them a fair fight.

I was just going to kill them. All. Immediately.

Screw what the church thought.

They didn’t own me.

These bastards had attacked my dad.

“Game on, Yogi Bear. Game on…” I snarled, tires screeching as I turned on a side street. I was only minutes away.

My anxiety threatened to overwhelm me as I saw strobing lights up ahead. Right near my father’s house, and the area seemed to be glowing much brighter than it should.

Had the wards gone off?

I rounded the last curve, and my jaw dropped.

The house beside my dad’s house was ablaze, flames licking the air like hell itself had swallowed it. A firetruck was blasting the house with water, and several groups of pajama-wearing people stood in clusters on the sidewalk. Two cop cars blocked off the street. I skidded to a halt, jumping out of my truck, not even bothering to turn it off.

Then I was running. “My dad!” I shouted as the cop standing beside his car began yelling at me. But I was too quick, racing past him before he believed I would, thinking his presence was enough to give me pause.

But it wasn’t, because I knew—

“Hey, those plates are the ones Officer Nelson just called in! Stop her!”

But I didn’t stop. I ran down the sidewalk in front of my dad’s house, extending my magic to find that the wards were still up. What the hell? All the lights were off in the house.

I rounded on the nearest group of people, almost hyperventilating. “What happened?” I shouted at them, trying to scare them into talking quickly because another cop car had just pulled up, and the first cop was running up behind me, still shouting. “Now! Tell me!” I roared, amplifying my voice with magic.

“Callie! Your father. He saved us. The house went up so quickly, and he was just there—”

Ohmygod…

I ran. Towards the back of the house. I flicked my hand as I ran past a bicycle in the lawn, sending it skidding into the police officer hot on my heels. He tripped and stumbled, cursing as he fell, but the chaos and flames would distract him enough to not see how I had done it. He would think he had just tripped over it.

I needed to find my dad. The bears must have set fire to the house. And my dad had run out to help. Like the stupid hero that he was. I didn’t know if they had planned on the house catching fire to his, or if they had wanted to lure him out, but with so many cops here now, I had little hope of finding any bears. Still, I had to be sure.

I rounded the back corner, angling into the back yard to enter the back door.

An arm latched around my throat, strong as braided steel, and I sucked in a deep breath of surprise as I heard pounding footsteps pursuing me just out of sight. They would see my attacker, and help me.

But I hadn’t noticed the damp cloth around my mouth and nose, and that breath cost me my life as the world faded away to nothing. The last thing I noticed was a faint stench of rotten eggs, then chemicals.