Her voice trembled like china during an earthquake, and I understood at last how hard this was for her. For both of them. They were doing this to keep me safe. I was doing this to keep them safe. If my presence was going to get everyone close to me killed, then surely my absence would keep them alive.

But sneaking out of town with two supernatural beings on full alert was not as easy as it sounded. Granddad sent Jared back to the Clearing with the sheriff to investigate some mysterious anomaly he’d made up. Then he sent Cameron to the church to check the munitions supply. There was about to be a war, after all. We had to prepare.

Even with those precautions, we didn’t want to turn on any lights. It might alert them to our plan. We had a very small window of opportunity in which I could sneak out of town. If we were successful, I would be handed off to another set of believers. Then another and another until we got to the boarding school in the Northeast where I was registered under the name Lorraine Pratt. Granddad had papers, a birth certificate, a student ID from a school in Arizona … everything a girl needed to start a new life. A new existence.

They drove me to the edge of town, where an SUV sat idling on the side of the road, its parking lights on. We climbed out and Granddad grabbed my bags. He handed them to a man in his early thirties. I had never seen him or the woman with him before. These were complete strangers to me, and I was about to be wrapped in a bow and handed over to them.

But this was my choice. The only way I could keep everyone safe.

“Pix,” Grandma said, and the pain in her voice brought tears to my eyes. Before she could say more, she pulled me into a hug, and I realized she couldn’t have said more if she’d wanted to.

vzyl Granddad patted her back as she hugged me to her. “Vera, we don’t have much time. Cameron’s going to figure this out sooner than we want him to if we don’t get back.”

Her breath hitched and she held me at arm’s length. “You know how to contact us if anything goes wrong.”

I nodded and bit my trembling lip, afraid to say anything. Granddad hugged me then, and his shoulders shook with emotion. Emotion that almost crushed me into dust. When he let go, I hurried to the SUV and slammed the door shut. I hugged my pillow to me as the couple got in. They introduced themselves, but I didn’t hear a word they said. They smiled nervously, and I got the feeling they thought I was something special. It made me dislike them. Just a little.

I was going to be in one car or another for two days straight. Four legs of the journey. Four different vehicles. Trying to keep supernatural entities off my trail was going to prove tricky, but Jared and Cameron had been through enough. They had both been shot because of me. And they would both give their lives for me because they also thought I was something special. No one understood I didn’t know a thing about war, much less how to stop one. I refused to let their blind faith in my abilities get them killed.

Fear consumed me as we drove off. Fear for my friends. For Jared and Cameron. For my future. But especially fear for my grandparents once everyone figured out what they’d done. Just the threat of sending me away had the Order up in arms. I couldn’t imagine what the members would do when they found out I was gone. What my grandparents would face. Derision? Hatred? Hostility?

I turned to look out the back window. We were on an incline and Riley’s Switch sat nestled in a lush valley below, its lights twinkling in the thick darkness. Jared was somewhere on the other side. The Clearing lay a couple miles out, and whatever he and the sheriff were supposed to be investigating would keep them busy for a while.

Hopefully it would be long enough.