Such a drama queen. I crawled over to him and let him pull me to his side. His chest was the best pillow, and after my vision of a certain half-naked dirty blond, I needed to surround myself with everything Torin. When he pressed a kiss on my temple, I patted his chest. "Okay, you got me. Start talking."

"My father and his clergy friends always had secret meetings. I didn't think much of it when I was young. Most necromancers were clergymen anyway. This was three centuries before the Witch trials. Mom found out what they were doing and they killed her. I watched my father die three months later. He and his friends were having a meeting when the house caught fire. No one could have survived that fire."

I wondered if he'd started it. Didn't he once say the necromancer who'd killed his mother and his friends had gotten what they deserved? "Did you...?"

"No, but I didn't stop it either. Not after what they did to my mother. So when the amulet resurfaced, I thought someone had robbed her tomb. I checked and found her body missing. Remember when you asked me if she was a witch?"

"Yes." He'd nearly bit off my head.

"I might not have liked it, but you got me thinking. I wanted you to be right. I hoped she wasn't dead. That she was an Immortal." He frowned. "So I searched. The days I was gone, I followed trails of a powerful Witch that seemed to appear every two or three decades then disappear."

"Madam Bosvilles?"

"Possibly. Not many Immortals make their presence known to Mortals. As for my mother's body, it turned out one of the earls had moved her. That's when I realized whoever had auctioned the amulet, this portrait and others trinkets did it to draw me out. The Norns confirmed it when they told you they were using me. They are using my father to come after you."

I lifted my head, braced myself against his chest. "What do you think he wants?"

"I don't know. He's obviously an evil Immortal." He had that look in his eyes. Like he couldn't wait for the showdown with his father.

I shuddered. "When were you planning on telling me all this?"

Torin traced my nose, stroking my freckles. "When were you planning on telling me about your visions of him?"

My face warmed under his narrowed gaze. "You don't answer a question with a question."

"Yet you do it all the time. You weren't trying to protect me, were you?"

"Oh no. These big shoulders can carry all the weight of the world." And he had for so long. First, the mess with watching his mother grieve and not being able to help her. Then knowing the person responsible was his evil Immortal father. "You shouldn't try to shield me from things, no matter how unpleasant."

His lips turned up. "Like how I told you not to hang out with the witches because they screw with people's heads and you went ahead and did it?"

I burrowed under his chin. Telling me not to do something was like waving a red flag at a bull. I barreled ahead at full speed. "They're not all bad."

He stroked my arm, continuing down to my jeggings-clad hips. He lifted my leg across his waist. "So what happened at the shop?"

Did he really think I could concentrate now? I trapped his roving hand with mine and threaded our fingers. "Uh-mm, I saved several people and restored their magic."

He chuckled, the sound rumbling through his chest. "Funny how you only see the positive in the mayhem. Start from the beginning."

"Disclaimer first. I didn't go to the witches. I listened to you and laid low. I was good. I was better than good." He chuckled. "I was a model Seeress. Then they came to see me and thank me and touch me." I shivered. "It got weird fast." I went into detail and finished with, "They also thought we'd called for help and insist on staying, which means-"

"We have a snitch. Whoever summoned them knows we are here and is working with my father."

Eirik. But until I could confirm it, I was not mentioning him. I focused on what happened at school with Sebastian and the twins, then the store. By the time I finished talking, Torin was sitting up. "Can you recognize the building in your vision?"

"Yeah. It's the old Grits Mill on Fulton Street and 10th North."

"Show me." He rolled off the bed.

"Just a second." I raced downstairs. Femi was with Dad. I waved her over. "I need to show Torin something from my vision."

She peered at me. "You okay?"

I nodded. "I'm okay now. The visions were crazy."

"Not visions. An evil Witch was messing with your head."

"Okay. I'll be home to read to Dad."

Upstairs, I grabbed the nearest shoes and followed Torin through the portal to the top of Founders Hall, the tallest building in Kayville. We didn't have a lot of tall buildings in Kayville. Most of them were either two or three stories.

Founders Hall was the oldest and the main administrative building at Walkersville University. The top had a dome and spire, the perfect place for viewing the entire town. I pointed out Grits Mill building.

"If he's marking buildings to create a magical circle around the city, he's going to etch runes or magical symbols on rooftops around town," Torin said. "Go that way while I go this way."

I went to the right, searching everywhere for the triskelion. Below, students walked across the quad and into buildings. The university was already preparing for Spring Aggie Day.

"Got it," Torin called out.

The drawing wasn't on the flat roof top. It was on the town-facing side of the dome. Torin pulled out his artavus from the inner pocket of his leather jacket, then pulled a Jackie Chan move-jumping off the roof and running up the drum and the dome. Only he did it better. At Valkyrie speed. He etched a block and protect bind rune over the Witch symbol.

He landed gracefully beside me like a cat and flashed a smug grin. "Let's see who will win this battle. Next stop, Grist Mill."

Father and son rivalry had just taken a new meaning.

"You've got some nerve demanding my presence, St. James," Echo said, entering the kitchen at the mansion with Cora in tow. "I was in the middle of something, so this had better be good."

"My father is coming to town," Torin announced.

Andris choked on his drink. Blaine and Ingrid traded puzzled looks. Ingrid was still acting like I didn't exist. I wasn't even going to stress about it.

Echo laughed. "Now that's definitely worth my time."

Andris stopped sputtering long enough to say, "Your dad is dead, Torin."

"He's very much alive and possibly an Immortal. An evil Immortal. He killed my mother to hide his necromancy activities and is now coming for Raine. We are going to stop him."

If he was going for shock factor, he nailed it. Jaws dropped. And once again, Echo didn't seem surprised.

"Someone here is working with him," he continued, eyes narrowed as he glanced at faces around the room. We glanced at each other as though trying to figure out which one of us was guilty.

He was getting some weird kicks out of keeping everyone on edge. I walked to where he stood with his arms crossed and legs apart, clearly using his stance to try and intimidate the guilty party.

"Seriously? This is how you're going about this?" I asked.

He cocked his brow as though surprised I was challenging him. "They need to know how dire the situation is. Someone here is working with my father."

"But we agreed yesterday that none of us is guilty," I said. I glanced at the others. "Sorry, guys. He can be a bit melodramatic. The bottom line is someone here in the valley sent out a witch-in-trouble alert or the Call, as they call it. We don't know if the witches are here to help us or to support his father."

"Do Hawk and Femi know what's going on?" Cora asked.

"Yes, but they're not guilty," I said.

Torin grabbed me around the waist when I could have walked away and pinned me to his side. "Quit hijacking my meeting," he growled in my ear.

"Then quit behaving like a douche." I tried to wiggle out of his arms, but his grip tightened.

"I vetted Femi and Hawk, Cora," Torin said. "They are loyal to Raine's family. I believe that whoever made the call did it knowing my father would know about it and follow the witches here. It might explain why they stopped going after Seeresses. We even set a trap in a witch's shop in Philly, but so far nothing's happened there. He knows where we are."

"Just one question, St. James," Echo interrupted. "What makes you trust me? My first loyalty is to mine." He pressed a kiss on Cora's temple. "Then to my goddess."

I expected Torin to lose it. Instead he smirked. "I don't trust you, Grimnir, but I'm counting on Cora and your feelings for her. You wouldn't do anything to hurt her best friend and screw up what you have going with Cora."

"He's right," Cora said, glancing up at Echo. "You betray my best friend and I'll hurt you in ways you couldn't possibly imagine."

Echo actually winced, then he slanted Torin an annoyed glance. "What do you want from me? Like I said, I could be reaping or..." he winced when Cora elbowed him. "Woman, you jab me again..."

Cora grinned.

Andris watched them and shook his head. "How are we going to find out the person working with your father?"

"We'll draw them out. They've already started drawing their witchcraft symbols on roof tops. I think they're creating a magical circle around the city to contain whatever mayhem they're planning. I want to know what they mean and that's where Echo, Ingrid and Blaine come in. You all practiced the Old Religion at different periods and should figure out what we're dealing with."

"Can we see them?" Ingrid said.

Torin pulled out his artavus and etched the symbols on the counter. He stepped aside and allowed the three to study them.

Ingrid shook her head. "I recognize the triskelion, but it looks like things are growing on its legs."

Blaine traced part of it. "It is a combination of symbols."

"Move aside, Immortals," Echo said. He removed his artavus and drew four different symbols, one on top of the other. When he was done, he'd drawn the exact symbol from Walkersville dome. "They used the triskelion to hide the Ogham writing underneath it."

Ohm? "What is that?" I asked.

Echo glanced at Blaine. "Want to tell them, Immortal?"

Blaine ignored him.

Echo smirked. "They're Druidic and ancient Irish Celtic alphabet, something Pretty Eyes here should know. You know what this one," he pointed at the symbol. "means?"

Blaine shrugged. "Before my time, Grimnir."

Echo chuckled. "But you must have seen them on stones in Ireland, or Scotland, or wherever it is you're originally from."

Fire flashed in Blaine's eyes. "Grave stones and cairns. They are also used to mark boundaries."

"Atta boy. I knew there was a brain behind those pretty eyes." Echo glanced at Torin, oblivious to the fact that Blaine wanted to rip into him. "They've probably used Ogham to create a magical circle. We'll need to find all the symbols to see how wide their circle is. It might cover the whole town or just Raine's neighborhood to contain her within the circle."

I shivered.

"There could be several messages hidden in the symbols too," Blaine said. "One using Ogham and another using the Celtic symbols. We should decipher both."

"Good. Let's do that. Whatever my father is planning is not going to work," Torin vowed. "Not in this town. We're going to check every roof, until we find all the symbols. Then we'll replace them with bind runes to protect the city and block runes to stop them from entering it. If they come into town, they'll be forced to camp outside the residential areas. I'm talking about the forests and farm lands. Use your phones to take pictures of the symbols and the houses. Andris, can you monitor which houses we've marked?"

Andris got out his tablet and showed off his Holy Grail of software, an interactive map with satellite imaging. Once he explained how it worked, he handed it to Cora.

"You don't have an artavus, so make yourself useful," he said.

"Hey, don't talk to her like that," Echo warned.

"Easy, big guy," Cora said, patting Echo's arm. "You don't fight my battles." Then she glanced at Andris and cocked an eyebrow. "What's in it for me?"

"I'll help you with your dad's blog."

Cora grinned. "Really?"

"Throw the garlic bread in the oven before we get home and we have a deal."

"Deal. I've been racking my brain about what to do with the blog."

We took off, leaving Cora in the house with the tablet. The guys zipped from street to street and scampered up roofs like monkeys on sugar rush. Now I understood why Andris hadn't wanted to be tied to his tablet. They were having way too much fun. Who was the fastest? How many houses and buildings they marked. It wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't brag.

It was dark by the time we finished. The guys were still on runic energy rush.

"Who won?" Echo asked when they got back to the mansion.

"Dude, you shouldn't even be asking that," Andris said. "You were eating my dust most of the time."

"Andy, you didn't stand a chance. Did I win?" Echo tried to see the table.

"Was I supposed to keep a tally? Oops." Cora turned off the tablet. "Hungry anyone? The garlic bread is ready and your housekeeper is an amazing cook." She went to the oven and removed the bread Everyone crowded around the food. I just wanted to go home and figure out what to do about Eirik. Alone. After a long shower. All that running had left me tired. Maybe I should contact the Norns too. They'd reluctantly answered my questions whenever I asked and I needed some answers now. I shrugged off Torin's jacket. He'd let me borrow it when it got cold.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," I said to the room and gave Torin his jacket. I saw the question in his eyes. "I'm just tired."

"But dinner..." he pointed at the tray the others were attacking.

"I'm not hungry."

Wrong thing to say, because he got that look on his face. The one that said he wouldn't stop until he fixed whatever problem was bothering me. He couldn't fix everything. Try telling him that.

He walked me out of the kitchen into the wide hallway connecting the foyer and the two downstairs bedrooms. My eyes found the door to the room that used to be Eirik's.

"Is anyone using Eirik's old room?"