“EXCUSE ME,” A female voice called from behind.

At first I thought Evie had lost her senses and come charging into the museum behind me. An instant later, before I’d even turned my head to confirm it, it struck me that the voice wasn’t hers.

When I spun around, I saw a short girl dressed in a traditional puritan outfit, including a long black dress and a little white bonnet over her mousy-brown hair. She waved at me when she saw she had my attention.

Glancing back toward Eth, I confirmed he hadn’t noticed I’d stopped so had continued to walk a bit farther into the museum. After an internal debate whether to ignore the girl or not, I jogged back toward her—she was clearly after me for some reason. I had to hope that it wasn’t a coincidence that this girl was looking for me so soon after I’d seen Evie.

“Um, a girl outside asked me to give this to you.” She handed me a flyer about a tour of the witch trial walking trails that operated in the area, and I glanced down in confusion at it. The girl reached forward and flipped it in my hand, revealing a phone number. Then she seemed to appraise me carefully. “She said she was your girlfriend? Is she?”

The note could only have come from Evie, and the thought sent an unexpected thrill through me.

My hope grew that it wasn’t a coincidence she was in Salem after all.

Breathless with anticipation over the clues Evie was leaving for me, I nodded in response to the girl’s question. Then I asked whether there was anything more.

“She said something else, but it didn’t make any sense.”

“We play these sorts of games all the time,” I lied, trying not to sound too desperate as I begged to find out everything Evie had told the girl. “Just tell me exactly what she said, and I’ll be able to work it out.”

The girl frowned as she tried to remember. “I can’t remember exactly.”

I resisted the urge I had to shake her in frustration. “Then just tell me what you do remember.”

“She said something about the number being a griffin. Washington’s griffin.” The girl smiled proudly as she remembered that extra detail. “On the eve of . . . of a fire.” She sounded more and more uncertain with every word. “And then ‘meet me at Nathaniel’s house.’”

Most of the words meant little to me. Nathaniel obviously meant Nathaniel Hawthorne, but he was celebrated as a local hero, so there were many references to him all around Salem. He was more than just that, but I didn’t think Evie would have known the history.

Everyone in the Rain knew the cautionary tale of Nathaniel Hawthorne. He came from another distinguished line of Rain elite—his grandfather John Hathorne had presided over a number of witch executions. Because of the public interest in destroying the practitioners of dark magic—or maleficium, as it was known to the Rain—at the time, a small portion of his successes were actually made public.

Only, when it came time for Nathaniel to learn the Rain traditions from his family, he refused. Despite his tender age, he was determined to take a different path.

There were many rumors that still circled the Rain about why that happened, but the most popular one was that he’d had a childhood friend who was an other and the Rain had them killed.

Whatever the reason, Nathaniel turned his back on everything, even going so far as to change his surname and locking himself away from the world to write novels about the hypocrisy he saw in his family’s beliefs. Then he further alienated himself by falling for and marrying a fae changeling, polluting the elite Hathorne bloodline.

For most of my life, I’d accepted the story at face value and had regarded Nathaniel as a traitor. Ever since Charlotte though—since I’d been gifted the precious week with Evie—I’d begun to understand where he was coming from. At least a little.

“I think that was all she said.” The voice of the girl in the puritan outfit pulled me from my thoughts.

I said a quick thank you to her and let her get back to her job before glancing down at the sheet again. The area code on the phone number wasn’t a local one. Evie wasn’t going to make it easy, but I understood why. She knew the dangers of her clues being intercepted as much as I did.

Although my fingers itched to dial the number, I restrained myself. It was something I could do as soon as I had a moment away from my family and a phone that they wouldn’t be able to track the calls on.

“What’d she want?” Eth asked, looking around me to watch Evie’s messenger girl disappear back outside.

I tried desperately not to look too guilty, but I worried I failed dismally. Folding the piece of paper up so that he wouldn’t see the phone number, I shrugged. “Nothing.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Did she give you her number?”

I didn’t answer him as I slid the paper into the pocket of my jacket.

“And you actually took it?” He was smiling now, a regular shit-eating grin. “You sly dog. It’s about damn time! That’s the first girl whose number you’ve actually taken in almost a year. Of course, she would be dressed like a puritan—can’t go for anyone normal can you? Then again, maybe you should call her, you’d be perfectly suited for each other. After all, you’re an uptight pussy, and she’d have—”

“Fuck you, Eth,” I interrupted to cut off his filthy thought.

“You’d have to clean up that potty mouth though. Oh, but then again, I’d be willing to bet that she’d go crazy over a little dirty talk. What’s that they say about prudes?” He waggled his eyebrows at me.

Choosing to ignore his continued teasing, I thought some more about the message I’d been given, trying to pick out the key words. Washington’s griffin—I was lost on that one. On the eve of a fire—obviously that was confirmation she was contacting me, as if there was any doubt. Meet me at Nathaniel’s house—this seemed like the key piece of information.

Maybe it had something to do with the phone number.

“I’ve got the book,” Eth said, holding up a stack of bound sheets, apparently containing transcripts of John Hathorne’s journals of the days and weeks around the witch executions.

As we headed back to the main doors, I hoped that enough time had passed for Evie to have escaped the crowd. Based on the number and the message, I could only assume she had some sort of plan. It lent further credence to the idea that maybe she had hunted me to this town.

How could she have possibly found me though?

I knew better than to underestimate her, and it wasn’t that I didn’t think she was capable of anything she put her mind to. I wouldn’t have left her alone in Charlotte if I didn’t think she could look after herself, but there was a big difference between surviving and tracking me. My family and I had never specifically hidden our activities, but neither had we advertised where we’d be. With the number of cases we’d been on in the last two years, and the geographical expanse between our destinations, even I would have had trouble tracking us.

It had to be a coincidence that she was there.

Didn’t it?

I needed more information. I figured that I might get some if I was able to call the number she’d given me, just in case that held an additional clue.

Following Eth out into the street, I tried to think of a way to put a little distance between us so that I could work out the information I’d been given.

“I’m just going to hang out here for a while, Eth.” I only realized my palm was against the back of my neck when he glanced at my elbow and narrowed his eyes again. “I’ll meet you at the Hawthorne later.”

The moment the words came out of my mouth, I froze. Realization flooded through me in an instant of horror and elation. Nathaniel Hawthorne. The hotel was named for him. It was only a short walk away, on Washington Square West. Over the entryway door was a statue of a griffin; I’d even mentioned it to Eth when we entered the hotel the night before.

Goddammit!

I couldn’t believe it. As soon as the pieces started to fall into place, it made more and more sense. Of all the hotels in Salem Evie could have stumbled into, why did it have to be the one that was the base for a live Rain operation?

What if she knows about the operation?

It just wasn’t possible, which meant she was there at the hotel like a sitting duck. Any of my family, or the local Rain who were lending a hand because of the numbers we were going against, could spot her. She was just lucky they hadn’t already. I was certain Dad or Lou would have let Eth know if they’d found Evie, and his cell hadn’t rung all day. My breathing raced as I tried not to panic but failed miserably.

“Why?” Eth asked.

I blinked at him in confusion. I’d lost all track of the conversation as fear for Evie’s life took over my every sense. It was impossible to imagine how she’d survived for so long with the sort of luck that she had if she’d managed to stumble into the hotel that would be most dangerous for her in all of Salem. “Why what?”

“Why are you staying here?”

“Oh, I just need to clear my head a little to get it on the job for tonight.” I deliberately hunted through the crowd for the girl who’d brought me Evie’s note before turning back to Eth.

He chuckled. “Sure thing, Romeo.”

“You’re not pissed?”

“Actually no. I’m happy to see you taking an interest in someone again. Just sort yourself out before tonight. Go, get yourself a little puritan tail.”

After nodding in agreement and saying our farewells, I headed straight toward the girl who’d approached me earlier. If Eth looked back, at least my lie would be more convincing.

“Oh, and Clay?” he shouted out, forcing me to turn to look at him. “Smack that ass!” He waved his hand in front of him as he humped the air.

My lip twitched as I thought about what a fucking asshole he could be at times. Repressing the chuckle that his smart-ass comment had brought to my lips, I flipped him the bird before turning away and continuing toward the puritan girl.

“Hi,” she said with a smile.

“Hi again.”

“Did you work out what your girlfriend meant?”

I grinned, and turned on the Jacobs’ charm a little more. “I did, thank you for passing on the message.”

Her smile widened a little, clearly appreciating of my praise. “Anytime.”

“I don’t suppose I could push for one more little favor, could I?” I laid on the charm as thickly as I could without making myself sick. “I don’t suppose you could point me in the direction of a payphone? My cell battery died.”

“You can borrow mine, if you’d like?” she offered straight away, reaching into the pocket of the full-length black dress she had on.

“Thank you so much.” Taking her cell phone, I grabbed the piece of paper she’d given me earlier and dialed the number written on it.

A few rings later, someone picked up and simply said, “Hello?”

A trickle of disappointment washed over me when it wasn’t Evie who answered. I swallowed hard. I’d hoped that the clue would be so obvious that I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone.

“Hi,” I said awkwardly. “Listen, a friend gave me this number and asked that I call it, but didn’t tell me why. What is it that you do?”

After a brief moment of silence on the other end of the call, the man who’d answered told me they were a church group based out of Phoenix, Arizona called the Reunion Church. He spent a few moments running through their outreach programs and sermon times. When he’d finished, I thanked him for his time and told him to keep up the good work.

The phone call was exactly what I’d needed. It hadn’t offered me any additional clues as such, but it had given me an insight into exactly what Evie wanted. I was convinced, without any doubt, that Evie was interested in a reunion with me. She wanted me back in her life, and I couldn’t help but wonder whether the “one day” I’d promised Evie when I left her had finally arrived.

Only she’d found me rather than the other way around.

Now I just needed to be sure that I did the right thing by her and helped her escape the danger lurking in and around the hotel. If we could get out undetected, we could take on the world. That simple fact burned within me. Ever since spotting her in the crowd, one thing had become blindingly clear: I wasn’t willing to give her up a second time.

My heart beat faster at the thought as I thanked the girl for the loan of her cell and pressed a twenty-dollar bill into her hand for her trouble.

Once I had my confirmation about what Evie wanted—unless I’d completely misinterpreted her reappearance and every single clue she’d apparently left for me—I strategized a way to get us, or more specifically her, away from the danger.

It was already too late to just sneak out of the hotel; the Rain operatives from the local areas had met me the night before. The instant I stepped foot in the hotel, they would assume I was starting my part of the operation. They would certainly remember me leaving with a woman. If it was a random woman, then Eth would likely assume that I’d taken my date there, but if Dad, Lou, or Eth heard Evie’s description, I had no doubt they’d see she wasn’t as dead as they believed.

I considered calling the hotel and trying to be patched through to her room, but I had no idea what name she might have booked it under—only the certainty that it wouldn’t have been her own. I could have gone to see her in the room and hoped like hell no one saw me go into the room that she came out of, but there was still the risk that one of my family would arrive at the hotel early and spot her. Besides, I couldn’t risk Evie trying to escape without me at her side. I would go crazy waiting for her to pass through the lobby, and if something happened to her that my presence could have stopped . . . well, I would never forgive myself.

Leaving her in the hotel overnight was simply out of the question. The best time to disappear without my family giving immediate chase would be right before the operation started. I needed to at least show my face before it went down so that they thought I was there. It would be a balancing act though because I would need to be gone before the first shot was fired in the operation. I couldn’t risk Evie being so close to the action, not with so many Rain with itchy trigger fingers. There wasn’t a single one of my family members who wouldn’t shoot Evie first and ask questions of me later.

A plan began to form in my mind. There was still a risk, but that was inherent with what I needed to do. It also meant making Evie wait longer than I wanted. I just hoped she’d understand and stay put. Surely she’d give me a few hours to piece together the clues she’d left?

With the plan set in my mind, I catalogued the things I needed to arrange to help her escape. She’d need a disguise, something better than the hoodie she’d been wearing when I saw her. The Hawthorne Hotel was a classy establishment. Even if she’d walked in without raising any eyebrows in her faded, street-worn clothes, she wouldn’t be able to walk around the lobby unnoticed now that the guests had started to trickle in.

We also needed somewhere else to stay. It would be stupid to rush around on the streets for a significant length of time without a plan, especially with Evie in tow. She might have been able to pass through unnoticed for a while, but between my status in the Rain and her heat, I was certain we’d garner extra attention together than either of us would alone.

I hunted down a cab, and found an ally in the driver. Handing over all of the travel money I had, I had him agree to be booked exclusively to me for the rest of the day and into the night. A little extra planning before following Evie to the Hawthorne Hotel would more than pay off in the long run.

After stopping at a cash machine in Salem and draining the daily limit on all of my cards—leaving me with a decent stash of emergency money—I asked the taxi driver whether he had any suggestions for a nice hotel, lying to him by telling him that I was planning a surprise for my new bride.

Not long after, he pulled up in front of a colonial style Sheraton in Wakefield. It was perfect and I could only imagine how much better it would be at night. It was the sort of accommodation Evie had deserved back in Charlotte—the sort of life she’d always deserved to have. I could offer her that fantasy for one night. Maybe I could even correct all the mistakes I’d made back then—like not succumbing to her touch.

I ran inside and booked into a room, feeling a rush of excitement that if everything went right, I could be sharing the space with Evie in just a few hours’ time. It would be the beginning of the rest of our lives; because one thing was certain for me and that was that I would never be able to willingly give her up again. The smallest glimpse of her in that crowd had brought everything I’d thought I’d felt for her—everything I’d tried to push away and keep hidden—crashing back to the surface.

I had the driver return to Salem and found a formal wear shop where I ran inside and grabbed a shirt jacket and had a salesperson pick out something for Evie—I’d pointed out a mannequin who looked roughly Evie’s build and hoped like hell I was right.

The salesperson also suggested a few different shoes and bags that matched the dress, and I just nodded along, selecting the pair of shoes that looked the easiest to run in. Then I asked her whether she could suggest any place to get a decent wig, and she pointed me in the direction of a shop in Peabody, even going so far as to call ahead to get me an appointment.

Even though it wasn’t a great distance, I started to get weary of the amount of time that had passed since I’d spotted Evie. If she felt anything near what I did, she had to be anxiously waiting for me to arrive and every precious minute that I delayed, I was causing her agony. I silently urged the driver to move a little faster.

Just before we arrived at the wig store, my cell rang. The caller ID told me it was Dad, and I figured he was calling because Eth had returned alone. Reluctantly, I answered it, knowing it would be worse in the long run if I didn’t. After a fifteen minute lecture on how I should be thinking with my brain and not my dick so close to a major operation, I was finally able to satisfy him with a promise to meet him at the Hawthorne Hotel primed and ready to go in three hours.

It took another twenty minutes at the wig store because the super-friendly lady behind the counter decided she needed to run me through proper wig care so that I could help my poor sick wife out with the maintenance of her hairpiece. I wanted to strangle the woman and tell her that keeping a loving husband away for so long would almost certainly be a bad thing—or at least it would have been if I had in fact had a sick wife.

Hours had passed since I first spotted Evie before I was finally able to walk through the doors of the Hawthorne Hotel, only I didn’t know what to do from there. Evie was tucked up inside one of the rooms, and the threat of the Rain grew greater with every minute that passed, but I had no idea how to find her.

I wandered up to the reception desk. The check-in clerk lifted her bright red lips into a pleasant, welcoming smile. I explained that I was supposed to be meeting someone and gave my name. With a knowing look, she handed me a sealed, blank envelope. Thanking her, I moved away from the desk to open it, wanting to read whatever note Evie had left me in private.

All that was printed on the piece of paper inside was a couple of digits, but it was enough to send my heart soaring toward the stratosphere, filled with the weightlessness of hope. The numbers were very clearly a room number. Evie trusted me enough to lead me straight to her if I got this far. Either that or she was leading me straight into a trap, but that didn’t seem right considering the effort she’d gone to in trying to hide her efforts from everyone else.

Racing to the elevator, I jammed my finger against the button impatiently. After a ride that felt like it went on for far too long, and a corridor that seemed determined to lead me in the wrong direction, I arrived at Evie’s door.

I closed my eyes and took two deep breaths, and then I tapped against the wooden surface.