Finally, we reached an atrium filled with trees. A glass ceiling overhead revealed the glow of the moon, and I felt its power seep into me. I drew in a deep breath, enjoying the surge of magic that rolled through my veins.

  My gaze moved from the potted trees that boarded the room to the heart of the space. The stone sat right in the middle, as if waiting for us. My heart thundered, joy flaring to life inside me.

  Each stone was a step closer to the truth, to finding the rest of my power and defeating the Maker. And we were almost there.

  We hadn’t got the signal yet, so we still had time. I walked toward it, awareness lighting up inside me. Something in my soul reacted to the stone, like I was seeing an old friend. As I neared, I was able to make out the designs carved into the rock. They made no sense to me, but as soon as moonlight shone on the stone, they would.

  “We should just take it,” I said, running my fingertips over the carvings. “There’s no one here.”

  “It’s too easy,” Lachlan said.

  “Well, I’m certainly not going to wait for it to get harder.”

  “We need to wait for Jaxson’s signal that everyone is distracted.”

  He was right—we hadn’t heard it. But I was desperate to get this thing and get out of here. And there was no one here to witness. Torn, I looked between Lachlan and the stone.

  “You’re right,” Lachlan said. “It’s too dangerous to wait, and there’s no one here to see us. We can take it, and Jaxson will be fine. Let’s—”

  Magic popped on the air, and I jumped. A split second later, a strong hand gripped my arm with painful strength and tore me backward, hurling me across the smooth tile floor.

  My elbow sang with pain where it had slammed into the ground, and I scrambled upright, shoving my hair out of my face.

  The room was filled with demons.

  Damn it, no.

  The Maker stood near the stone, his shadowy form seeming to vibrate with triumph.

  Rage and fear shot through me, a toxic combination. Somehow, that bastard could follow me. It didn’t matter that I’d taken the strongest concealment potion known to supernaturals. He could still follow me. It had to be our connection, which was probably far deeper than I feared.

  His army surrounded me, more than a dozen demons. I called on the power of the moon, using it to pick up the massive potted palms and hurl them at the demons. I knocked over six of them, but the rest prowled closer.

  In the middle of the room, the Maker approached the stone.

  No!

  Lachlan fought his way toward the bastard, but there were just as many demons surrounding him. In a swirl of magic, he transformed into his wolf and began tearing through the mob. With his powerful form and gleaming white fangs, he was magnificent. Demon bodies piled up around him, but there were just too many.

  I dodged a sword blow from one of the demons and pulled my potion bag from the ether. Quickly, I plunged my hand inside and withdrew a bomb, then hurled it at my nearest attacker. The acid bomb hit him in an explosion of green liquid, and he shrieked.

  Twenty feet away, the Maker stuck his hand into the pocket of his simple black trousers.

  A transport charm. He had to be retrieving one.

  As I hurled potion bombs at the demons who separated me from the Maker, I used the power of the moon to pull the stone toward me. It shifted, so massive and full of magic that it was difficult to move. Slowly, it scraped across the floor away from the Maker.

  A low growl sounded in his throat, something I shouldn’t have been able to hear from that distance. But I could, no doubt as a product of our connection.

  A small scream sounded from the entry to the atrium, and I glanced over.

  The little girl from the stairs stood there, a shocked expression on her face. A demon charged her and swooped her up.

  Horror shot through me.

  Lachlan was on the other side of the room, still battling his way toward the Maker.

  The demon turned to me with a triumphant look on its awful face, and my stomach dropped.

  He would kill her.

  I abandoned the stone and lunged, breaking through the barrier of demons and spiriting toward them. Carefully, I hurled a potion bomb at his legs. The acid hit his shins, and he howled. Though he went to his knees, he didn’t drop the girl. But he was weakened enough that I could grab her from him, and I yanked her away. A swift kick to the face sent him onto his back, and I whirled toward the Maker.

  He stood by the stone, so close he could touch it. In a flash of silver dust, he disappeared, along with the stone.

  No!

  Behind him, Lachlan was surrounded by demons. He tore the throat out of one, but another snuck up and sank a blade into his chest. The way he shuddered made my stomach drop and my skin chill.

  With that last blow, the demons disappeared.

  Lachlan lay still on the ground, blood flowing across the tiles. In my arms, the little girl sobbed.

  Shit. This had all gone to hell.

  6

  Eve

  * * *

  Chaos filled the room around me. The stone was missing, and all of the potted palms had been uprooted, their containers smashed by my attempts to use them as weapons.

  It tore my heart out to ignore Lachlan, but I had to deal with the little girl first. She’d only been in the room for a couple minutes, and I could erase that much of her memory.

  Quickly, I set her on the ground and commanded, “Look at me.”

  The stern nature of my voice seemed to snap her to attention, and she stared at me with wide eyes. Swiftly, I removed a vial from my silver wrist cuff and dumped a tiny bit of powder into my hand. I blew it into her face, and she sneezed.

  Thankfully, her features relaxed as her memory erased.

  “Go back to bed. You saw nothing.”

  She blinked, then turned and left the room. Relief rushed through me, followed by stark fear.

  Lachlan.

  I lunged upright and raced toward him. He lay on the ground, his breathing labored. I’d only had twelve demons to deal with. He’d been fighting almost two dozen, and one of them had nearly landed a killing blow.

  Maybe it had.

  I dropped to my knees and inspected the wound in Lachlan’s chest. He was still in wolf form, his huge body limp on the ground. It looked like the blade had pierced near his heart, so close that even his incredible healing power was having a hard time keeping up.

  Frantic, I pulled a healing potion from my wrist cuff and tipped it into his mouth.

  Nothing changed.

  Tears heated my eyes. I couldn’t lose him. Not now.

  There had to have been some kind of poison on the blade if he wasn’t healing himself. I needed to get us back to my workshop.

  Panting, I yanked the transport stone from my bra and hurled it to the ground. As the silver smoke burst upward, I dragged Lachlan into the ether, leaving the destroyed room behind.

  The ether spun us through space, spitting us out in the courtyard at my tower. I left Lachlan on the ground and sprinted into the building, taking the stairs two at a time and charging into the room.

  It took only a second to find my strongest all-purpose antidote, then I grabbed my best healing potion. I combined them in a larger vial and sprinted back down the stairs.

  Lachlan lay under the moonlight, so still that my heart leapt into my throat to choke me. I fell to my knees at his side and forced the liquid into his mouth, praying that he was still breathing. “Please,” I sobbed. “Wake up.”

  He lay still, and I shuddered, sinking my hands into his fur as I waited, praying that my potion was working.

  Finally, when I could no longer see through the tears, he moved.

  “Lachlan?” I dragged an arm over my face to clear the tears away. “Lachlan, can you hear me?”

  He moved again, his fur warm and soft beneath my hands. Magic swirled around him, and he transformed back to his human shape. Slowly, he blinked, opening his eyes. Though his face was pale, his breathing was steady. I pushed his shirt up to see a wound knitting itself closed on his chest. The blade had likely punctured one of his lungs and grazed his heart, from the look of it.

  “Eve.” His voice was raspy, and I looked up toward his face.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Fine.” He groaned and sat up. “Thanks to you, no doubt. I could feel the poison on that blade as soon as it went into my flesh.”

  “Bastards.”

  “He got the stone, didn’t he?”

  I nodded. “Somehow, he got past the concealment charm. I should have expected it.”

  “How could you? No one ever has before.”

  “He’s capable of the unspeakable. It was naive of me to think my potion could stop him.” I sat back on the ground and sighed, looking up at the moon. “Damn it, I thought we would get it. In and out quickly without anyone noticing us.”

  “We’ll get it back.” He stood and pulled me to my feet.

  As I turned toward the tower, Carrow and Mac appeared, a massive stone at their side. I grinned, then hurried toward them. “You did it.”

  Mac wiped a smear of blood from her face. “We did, indeed.”

  “Anyone see you?”

  “Not any humans.”

  I turned to the stone, my heart filling with light as I looked at it. Underneath the glowing moon, I could read the symbols. They were identical to the ones on the other stone, confirming that we needed to find them all and unite them to reveal the next part of my journey.

  “Where’s yours?” Carrow asked.

  “The Maker followed me.”

  Shock flashed on her face. “No way. You took that concealment potion.”

  “I know. He still managed it, though.”

  “You don’t think it was just coincidence?” Mac asked.

  I shook my head. “He arrived too close to our own arrival. I think we’re connected somehow.”

  Carrow grimaced. “We’d better kill him soon, then. Can’t be good for your health to be connected to someone like that.”

  “Definitely not.” I looked at Lachlan, whose color was returning. It wasn't good for his health, either, not as long as dozens of demons accompanied the Maker everywhere he went.

  A noise sounded from behind us, and I turned to see Seraphia and Beatrix. The two women stood next to another stone, their hair windswept and big smiles on their faces.

  “Well done!” I strode toward them, quickly confirming that the stone was identical to the others. “We have three out of the five, now.”

  “Three?” Beatrix asked as she tried to pile her hair into a messy topknot.

  “I’ll tell you inside. Let’s get these things into a safe spot.”

  “Do you think he can break into the tower if he can follow you?” Carrow asked.

  I frowned. “He’s proved that anything is possible.” I looked at Lachlan. “Do you think you could arrange for these to go to a safe place I won’t visit or know about?”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Thank you.”

  We waited with Lachlan as his guards came to help move the stones, and I told the story of the Maker.

  “So we need to figure out where he’s put the stone he has,” Carrow said. “And beat him to the other one that we still haven’t found.”

  I nodded. “But we need to be clever. I have no idea where he is now. He’s proved very adept at finding different hideouts for himself.”

  “We’re going to need to follow him back to his headquarters,” Lachlan said. “Because we have no other leads.”

  He was right. We hadn’t even managed to kidnap a demon. Hell, we’d been lucky to get out of Spain without humans seeing us fighting for our lives. I couldn’t imagine what they thought of the destroyed atrium.

  “I have an idea.” I looked at Seraphia. “Where’s the other stone, again?”

  “Miami. Owned by a billionaire there.”

  Miami. It brought to mind images of tropical sea breezes and waving palm trees, cold drinks and tanning oils, but I had a feeling that would be distinctly different from my experience.

  “Do we know where the owner keeps the stone?” I asked.

  “He’s a hotel magnate. I’ll try to find out exactly where it is now. Should we meet again tomorrow?”

  I nodded. “Perfect. Let’s do that.”

  Seraphia departed, headed back to the library, no doubt.

  “What now?” Carrow asked. “Because you’ve got a look on your face that suggests you’re not done yet.”

  “I need a powerful stunner. Way more powerful than I can make alone.”

  “Why, exactly?” Lachlan asked.

  “In a perfect world, we’d get the stone from Miami, somehow follow the Maker back to his place, and steal the other one from him,” I said. “But it’s not a perfect world, so we need to be clever. Pick our target wisely.” My head spun as the plan began to take form.

  “What have you got in mind?” Lachlan asked.

  “We let him have the Miami stone. Let him think that he’s won. While he’s pursuing that, I’ll slap a tracking charm on him.”

  “Won’t he be suspicious?” Mac asked.

  “We’ll put up a good fight. And I can make something subtle enough that he won’t notice. He’ll take the Miami stone back to his place, and we’ll follow. But we’ll need to incapacitate him for long enough to get both stones. Maybe we can even kill him.”

  As much as I wanted that last part to happen, I didn’t have my hopes up. If there was something powerful enough to take him out with one blast, I’d already know about it. But I’d heard the witches talking about a spell once that could be perfect for our uses.

  “What will we use to incapacitate him?” Carrow asked.

  “I need to go to the witches.”

  “I’ll come,” Lachlan said.

  I shook my head, needing a break from him. It was getting to be too much, being close to him yet unable to touch him or kiss him. The whole situation was beginning to drive me mad. “It would be better if just us girls went. They’re having some kind of girls’ party tonight, from what I’ve heard. And we are going to need plenty of backup. Can you get some?”

  He nodded. “I’ll work on that and meet you later.

  I watched him as he left, my heart in my throat.

  “You look at him like he’s got the answer to the meaning of life,” Mac said.

  I grimaced. “I know. It’s a problem.”

  “Maybe it doesn’t have to be,” Carrow said.

  “Maybe.” But I didn’t want to rehash the reasons it likely was, so I stood. “Want to head to the Witches’ Guild?”

  Carrow stood. “I saw the invitations they papered around town. It’s going to be an experience.”

  “It always is, with them.”

  “But we don’t need costumes, right?” Mac asked.

  Carrow shook her head, and I was grateful. More than half of the witches’ parties were fancy dress, and they expected people to put a lot of effort into their costumes.

  The three of us headed across town, Ralph trailing behind us. It was getting late—nearly ten o’clock—but the town was still bustling. Restaurants and bars were full, with people spilling out onto the streets with beers and cocktails. Laughter rang through the historic roads, and the light of the streetlamps glinted off colorful clothing.

  “It must be Saturday,” I said, a bit bemused. I’d completely lost track of the dates.

  “Or Friday,” Carrow said. “I don’t know, either.”

  “I never know.” Mac dodged around a drunken pixie, who tried to grab her and drag her into a dance.

  We made it to the Witches’ Guild at the end of town without further incident. As usual, the building looked a bit drunk, listing to the side with its pointed hat of a roof. Blue smoke wafted from the chimneys, and the blackened windows stared out onto the courtyard with a serial killer’s eyes. The shops behind us were still abandoned, and when a firework shot out of a chimney and landed on a nearby roof, I wasn’t surprised the landlords hadn’t found any shopkeepers brave enough to rent the spaces.

  We set off across the dead grass of the courtyard, our feet disturbing the green smoke that hung low over the ground. Music thumped from the house as we neared the dark wooden staircase that wound around the structure. It terminated at a wooden door halfway up, and we began to climb.

  As we reached the top, the door swung open to reveal the dour-faced butler.

  “Jeeves!” Delight rang in Mac’s voice.

  Annoyance flashed in his eyes. “Macbeth O’Connell. I don’t recall seeing your name on the invitation list.”

  Mac laughed. “Oh, Jeeves. I’m always invited. Anyway, the invitations were plastered all around town.”

  He grimaced, then stepped aside, knowing that she was right. As much as Mac annoyed Jeeves, the witches loved her. Primarily for the same reasons Jeeves loathed her—the pranks she played while in the house.

  I nodded at him as I passed, but he kept his gaze above our heads.

  Inside, it was pandemonium. Shouts sounded from a room to my left, and I headed toward it. The large space was filled with witches. They crowded around a table in the middle, upon which stood Coraline, one of the lead witches. Her dark hair was pulled up in a ponytail, and glitter sparkled along her cheekbones. Tight blue leggings adorned her legs, and she held up a matching pair by her side.

  “This lovely pair of legging chaps is only twenty quid! And there are coordinating underpants for just another fiver. In orange!” She turned around, and I realized that the butt of her leggings had been neatly cut out to reveal her orange underpants. They were like the chaps cowboys wore, but insane.

  Hands shot up, each waving money as the women screeched.

  “What. The. Ever-loving. Hell.” Carrow looked at me, eyes wide.

  “Legging chaps,” I repeated, “are apparently a thing.”

  “And half the people here are wearing them.” Mac pointed to two girls in front of us. One had black leggings and a pink butt, while the other had silver leggings and a gold butt.

 

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