One... Two... Three... Poof!

Slowly, Magen stepped back, her wrinkled, frail hands clutching at the edges of her apron.

Hunter cracked his neck before his eyes began to gleam with the predatory instinct of a being who’d toyed with death way too much.

A smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he walked into the living area, approaching Magen, each footfall on the creaking wooden floor sounding like a death knell to the old lady.

Now, she understood why the poor girl had been so traumatized, why she continued ranting about a threat that could reach even the depths of the earth.

How did she not sooner realize it? That this man, this Hunter, was the very danger the girl had spoken of, the shadow lurking in the forest.

“You said you were FBI,” Magen managed to choke out, and Hunter clicked his tongue.

“How naïve.” He huffed. “This is the twenty-first century, granny. People lie.”

With her aged heart pounding behind her ribs, Magen, even despite her sore bones, bolted to the kitchen.

She groped for anything that co