When Naomi regained consciousness, she was in a moving car. Rain splattered against the windows, mixing with the fog to form a wet, thick weather soup. She couldn’t see more than a few inches past the windows, not enough to figure out where she was. She hoped whoever was driving this car didn’t have the same problem.

“Where am I?” she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“In San Francisco,” Makani replied. He was sitting beside her. “You’ve been asleep for nearly ten hours.”

“Ten hours?” Wow. Using all that magic had really knocked her out.

“Kai had to call in a plane to bring us back from Atlantis,” Alex said. She and Logan sat in the row in front of Naomi and Makani. “We just left the airport a few minutes ago.”

The trip from Atlantis to San Francisco would have taken only a few minutes by following the magic streams in the spirit realm.

“Glad you didn’t die,” Alex told Naomi with a wink, then turned back around.

Sera and Kai sat in the front seat. Kai didn’t seem to have any trouble navigating through the foggy rain. In fact, he was driving and talking to the commandos on speakerphone at the same time.

“Per your instructions, we tracked Riley and Lara last night but did not interfere with them,” Tony’s voice spoke out of the car’s speakers. “They are acting very oddly.”

“Define oddly,” Kai said.

“Riley took a few things out of the office,” Dal reported. “Two sets of magic-proof armor. A few restricted potion ingredients. Bottled elemental spells. Components that can be combined to create some pretty spectacular explosions. Magical flowers that can put people into a cursed sleep.”

“Lara bought some benign, non-magic ingredients from a grocery store,” Callum added. “But we all know Riley could easily turn pure alcohol and sugar into something magical if he mixed them with the right herbs. He is a master mixer.”

“Riley and Lara also visited the north office and took an artifact from the research center,” said Tony.

“Which one?” Kai said so coolly that Naomi was surprised frost hadn’t formed on the windows.

“The Pearls of Tears,” Tony told him.

The Pearls of Tears was a famous necklace—or maybe infamous would be the better word. It was a magical pearl necklace with the power to curse someone. Throughout history, many prominent supernatural players had died from the curse. The necklace had been lost for many years, but Gran had found it during one of her digs. She sold it to Kai because, in her words, ‘if he wants to kill someone, he wouldn’t use an old necklace to do it’.

“Riley and Lara seem to be building up an arsenal to take out powerful supernaturals,” Sera said.

“If they are playing hosts to demons, they could be preparing to weaken powerful supernaturals,” Makani said. “So when the mouth of hell opens, the demons will have hosts ready for the taking.”

“We’ve also learned that Lara has rented a large warehouse south of the city,” Tony said.

“Whatever they are planning must be big,” Logan commented. “A large warehouse could hold their army and be used to produce everything that army needs: armor, weapons, and potions.”

“It would appear so,” agreed Tony. “Lara and Riley have shaken the tails I set on them many times. Whatever they are doing, it’s big—and they don’t want anyone to know about it.”

Which meant they had to approach Riley and Lara with caution.

“Where are they now?” Kai asked.

“In the warehouse,” Tony said. “I’m sending you the address.”

A beep chimed over the car’s speakers.

“Got it,” Kai said. “We’re on our way now.”

The car swerved so violently that Naomi was glad she couldn’t see past the windows.

A few minutes later, they stopped in a parking lot. The rain had trickled out, and the wind had blown away the fog. As Naomi stepped out of the car, the sun peeked out from the clouds. She looked around. Garages were all around her, the sort companies used to store their stock. This appeared to be a huge complex of them. Each garage looked large enough to comfortably fit eight cars inside.

“Number thirty-two,” Kai said, walking toward the garage with that number painted across the door.

Naomi moved to follow him.

“Naomi.” Makani’s hand caught hers. “You should stay at the car.”

“I’m fine.”

“You just passed out from magical overload.”

“Ten hours ago. I’m ok now.”

“You’re pushing yourself too hard.”

“Because I have no other choice,” Naomi sighed. She could still feel the magical fatigue weighing her down. “I’m the only one who can perform the spell to expose a demon inside a host body and send the demon back to hell without rupturing the veil. You guys need me.” She smiled at him. “You know I’m right.”

His gold eyes were hard, his mouth a tight line. He’d been so overprotective of her since their fight with the demon Sarth last week.

“You can stand by my side the whole time,” she said.

“Oh, I will.” His voice grew softer, even as his voice dipped lower. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed his fingers. Then they faced the door to garage thirty-two together.

“All done smooching?” Alex smirked at Naomi.

“For now.”

“Well, then. Let’s get this party started.”

Explosions fired off inside the warehouse.

“Alex,” Sera sighed.

“That wasn’t me.”

“Or your dragon?”

“It wasn’t Nova either.” Alex glanced at Logan. “Honey, if you please.”

Logan grabbed the door and tore it off its hinges. Everyone stormed inside the warehouse. As soon as Naomi spotted Riley and Lara, she cast her spell on them, bombarding them repeatedly with spirit magic to reveal the demons inside.

“There aren’t demons inside of them,” Naomi declared as they finally fell to the floor. Naomi nearly fell herself. Apparently, ten hours hadn’t been nearly enough sleep.

“What the hell, Naomi?!” Lara demanded, pushing herself off the ground. Her enraged eyes glared out from behind the curtain of red hair that had fallen over her face.

Riley rose, wobbling a little as he stepped up beside Lara. “What is going on?”

“We thought you two might be playing hosts to demons,” Alex said with a shrug.

Lara folded her arms across her chest. “No.”

“Yeah, we know that now,” said Naomi. “If there were demons inside of you, my spell would have revealed them.”

Makani closed in behind her and massaged her shoulders. Slow, easy magic pulsed out of his fingers, relaxing her muscles and magic. He gave the best magic massages.

And he was right. She really needed to slow down, or this demon hunt would kill her.

“You thought there were demons inside of us?” Lara said, frowning. “Where would you get a crazy idea like that?”

“You stole magic-proof armor and magical herbs from Drachenburg Industries,” Sera said. “And you’ve been holed up in here since last night.”

Lara expelled an exasperated sigh. “So instead of asking us, you decided to barge in here, magic firing.”

Sera’s smile was almost sheepish. “Sorry.”

“You will need to work really hard to make this up to me, Bridezilla,” Lara snapped.

“Bridezilla?”

“You heard me.” Lara planted her hands on her hips. “The stress of the wedding must have cracked your mind if you thought for a second that a demon could hold me.”

“Bridezilla.” Alex was laughing her head off. “I like it. And you always wanted a cool nickname like mine.”

“Bridezilla is not a cool nickname,” Sera said. “Besides, we’d already agreed that I am the Mistress of Mayhem.”

Alex smirked at her. “Sure thing, Bridezilla.”

Sera stuck her tongue out at her sister and went to stand beside Naomi. Kai walked up behind Sera and set his hands on her shoulders.

“So why were you two acting so covert?” Alex asked Riley and Lara. “What were you two up to? And please don’t say S&M dungeon.”

“No,” Lara laughed. Her gaze shifted to Sera and Kai. “Fine. If you really must know, Riley and I were preparing a special wedding surprise for you two.”

“A wedding surprise?” Sera said.

“That’s right, Bridezilla. We were making you a cake. And if we seemed to be acting covert, it’s because we were trying to keep it all a secret.”

Riley indicated the cake on the table at the center of the warehouse. They’d rushed in so fast that Naomi hadn’t seen it before.

“I bottled some of Lara’s summoning spells, storing them into these.”

He tapped the two dragon cake toppers, and they started moving. The two tiny dragons danced across the wedding cake as little fireworks exploded all around them.

“This surprise has taken months of planning and testing.” Lara frowned. “And now you’ve ruined it.”

“Why did you take two suits of magic-proof armor?” Naomi asked.

“Some of the spells we’re trying out to create the special effects are rather explosive,” Riley said.

“Explosions.” Alex smirked at Sera. “Just what every good wedding needs.”

“And the cursed pearls?” Sera asked Riley. “Were you planning on cursing the guests?”

“The Pearls of Tears are completely misunderstood. The pearls themselves are not actually cursed. Each one is simply an immense magic reservoir, a place to store spells. Which we used to store the firework spells.” Riley pointed at the strand of fat pearls that dotted the cake’s top tier. “Curses are complex, multi-layered spells. They take up a lot of magic storage space, which this necklace provides. That’s why people used it to curse people.”

“And what about all the non-magical ingredients you bought?” Alex asked Lara.

“Oh, you mean flour, sugar, and eggs? Let’s just say we blew up a lot of cakes before we got the spells right.” Lara winked at her. “And cleaned up a lot of cake bits. Those were all the cleaning supplies I bought with the cake ingredients.”

The cake’s sweet aroma teased Naomi’s nose. Her stomach growled in response. Apparently, sleep wasn’t the only thing she was missing. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d eaten.

Oh, right, the pancakes. That felt like years ago.

Her head felt light, airy. Dizziness swaddled her. Hands caught her before she even realized she was falling.

Naomi looked up into Makani’s eyes. “Thanks.”

“Sit down, Naomi.”

“I’ll be ok.”

“I wasn’t asking.” His voice was harsh and gentle, all at once.

“He’s right,” Sera told her.

“Even the crazy Dering sisters know when to stop,” Alex added.

“No, you don’t.”

“Well, then don’t follow our horrible example,” Alex said with a wicked wink.

Naomi sat down at the table, which put her even closer to the cake’s tempting scent. “It looks good.”

“I’d offer you a piece. You sure look like you need something to eat,” said Lara. “But unfortunately, Riley and I haven’t worked out all the kinks in the recipe.”

“What kind of kinks?”

“It turns out that it’s not that easy to make a beautiful, delicious, magical cake,” Lara sighed, a wistful glimmer in her eyes.

“I’m still figuring out how to contain the leakage of the more explosive ingredients,” Riley explained.

“Meaning, if I eat it, I’ll blow up too?” Naomi asked.

“No, nothing so dramatic,” Riley assured her. “You’d simply be poisoned.”

“If you and Lara can’t figure out how to not poison all the wedding guests, then I’m putting Naomi in charge of the wedding cake,” Kai said, every word crackling with magic.

“She drugs all her desserts,” Riley protested.

Naomi flashed him a grin. “But they are happy drugs.”

“We will figure it out,” Riley assured Kai.

Lara glanced at Naomi. “We might not have a working cake yet, but we do have a refrigerator full of Magic Spike and other magic-boosting drinks on the other side of the garage.”

“Unfortunately, they don’t help me.”

Lara blinked.

“My magic is spirit-based. Those drinks only boost earth-based magic,” Naomi explained.

“Oh, right.” Lara mulled that over. “Well, the drinks also have lots of sugar in them.”

“So, what now?” Alex said as she sat down beside Naomi. She casually planted her boots on the table, leaned back in her chair, and balanced on the back two legs.

Logan’s eyes slid over her. “Practicing for tea with the Queen?”

“Absolutely,” Alex replied brightly.

“What prompted you to suspect that we were demons anyway?” Riley asked Kai.

“A demon we defeated tonight taunted us that the remaining two demons were hiding right under our noses.”

“It sounds like he wanted to keep us all occupied,” Riley commented. “Or he wanted to make us not trust each other.”

“Or both,” said Naomi. “Yeah, the thought crossed our minds. But what if it’s not a trick? What if there really are demons hiding within our inner circle?”

They’d been running around blind, chasing phantoms, for far too long.

The demons are inside two of you. All you have to do is figure out who was closest to the Spirit Warrior when they got loose.

Gluttony’s words echoed in Naomi’s mind. What did the demon mean by them? They’d already checked everyone who’d been there at Monster Lake—well, except for the two ghosts. But a demon could not possess a ghost. Or could it?

Naomi’s phone rang before she could debate any further impossibilities. She glanced down at the name on her screen.

“Mom?” she answered.

“Naomi, your father just woke up,” Mom said. “He is asking for you.”

Happiness pinched her heart. Dad was awake! He was truly all right.

“I’ll be right there,” Naomi told her mother.

She had to see her father. She had to hug him, laugh with him, just be with him again. And she had to talk to him about the remaining two demons.

They were bumbling around blind in their demon hunt, but Dad was an experienced Spirit Warrior; he’d spent years fighting demons. He knew how they thought. And, more importantly, he knew better than anyone else alive how the laws of spirit and demonic magic worked. He might just be their only hope of tracking down the two incognito demons—and stopping them before they executed their dark, mysterious plan.