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She led a coven of twelve. Eight fire, three earth, and one air. Bella, who’d helped her and Jeremy capture Cade, was running Katerina’s occult shop, Flaming Objects, while Katerina was in the Pacific Northwest. The timid air elemental had been close to death when Katerina had found her in Mexico several years ago. Someone had done a number on the girl—beaten her within an inch of her life. Katerina didn’t know what it was about Bella that intrigued her, but she’d taken the young woman under her wing and helped her heal. Katerina never would have been able to leave Phoenix for so long without Bella’s help.
    There were some things that even Bella couldn’t do. Ease Katerina’s homesickness. Replenish her elemental powers. Stop this fucking endless rain. It was time to kill the wolf and go home. She’d thought to torture him for a year, to make up for the twelve long months she’d spent enduring nearly weekly beatings, wearing rags, and fighting with the other eight to ten children in temporary care of her foster “mother.” Care. Like her foster mother cared about anything other than the checks she got for each of them. But a year was too long to stay away from Phoenix, from her coven, her chosen family. In Katerina’s vision months ago, she’d seen the wolf much as he was now—emaciated, feral, and weak. The new moon was coming up in two weeks. She’d do it then. He’d feel the most pain if she set his heart ablaze on the day he was the weakest.
    The phone rang downstairs. Jeremy’s footsteps thudded up the stairs and he pushed into the bedroom with the phone in his outstretched hand. “It’s Bella.”
    “What is it, sister?” Katerina asked. In the years she’d known Bella, the two had grown close. A deep sadness had taken hold of the air elemental, but she never talked about her past and Katerina rarely pushed.
    “It’s Flaming Objects. The IRS is here and wants to talk to you. Two agents. They had warrants. I had to give them all of the books. They want to shut us down. I don’t know what to do. Please. You have to come back to Phoenix. For a day or two. Talk to them. There has to be some mistake.”
    “Dammit. I don’t have time for this right now.” When Bella covered the phone and yelled at the agents in the store, Katerina took a deep breath. “Sorry. It’s not your fault. I’ve been away too long. I wanted him to suffer for a year, but I can’t do it. I have to end this soon. The new moon is in two weeks. I’ll do it then.”
    “We can’t wait two weeks. Come back now. They’re going to confiscate all of our inventory if you can’t show evidence of good faith. Jeremy can take care of your . . . business there for a couple of days. And we need you. I need you. It’s too hard for me alone. I’m scared.”
    Two days. She could fly home tomorrow and be back here on Saturday. That should give her enough time to deal with the agents and lead a coven meeting. She joined online most weeks, but it wasn’t the same as being there in person. She missed her family.
    “I’ll be there tomorrow. Don’t worry, dear. I’ll fix it. Stay out of the agents’ way and let the coven know that I will lead the meeting in person on Friday.”
    “Thank the Goddess. Everyone will be so happy to see you.”
    When Katerina hung up the phone, Jeremy was at her side in an instant. His eyes were bright. “We’re going home?”
    “No,” she said with a grimace. “I’m going home. You’re staying here and watching the wolf. Killing him isn’t something I can do right now. It has to wait until the new moon.”
    “Why? He’s half-dead already. Let’s leave him here. Let him starve to death. I’m tired of all this rain. I miss the sun. Sinking into ankle-deep mud every time I need to feel the earth isn’t my idea of a good time.” Jeremy was whining now. It was a terrible nasally sound that grated on Katerina’s nerves. She cared deeply for the boy, but sometimes she couldn’t stand