Hunter’s eyes snapped to Sophie, clearly having heard something that Layla hadn’t. In response to his movement alone, Layla quickly went to her prone form. Sophie’s head rolled from side to side, and she moaned softly.

“Sophie? Are you all right?”

Sophie’s eyes came open and blearily focused on Layla. “I think so.” She made no effort to get up, but her eyes roamed the room, narrowing when she saw Hunter standing well back from the bed.

“What happened?” Layla asked worriedly.

Sophie remained quiet for a minute. “I remember,” she said eventually. “It was your spell. It drained all the energy out of me. I’m so used to energy drains that my body naturally fought it for a few minutes—with anyone else in our coven, they likely would have collapsed instantly.”

“I didn’t mean to! I swear, Sophie. I don’t know what happened. I just meant to cast a shield charm.”

“It’s not your fault. In a way, this is a good thing; we’ve found your limitation. I imagine it’ll pick a random person in the room to drain every time you cast a spell. That could be an ally, an enemy, or even yourself, Layla, so you’ll need to consider things very carefully before casting anything. We’ll have to discuss casting order when we get back.”

“Casting order?”

“When we’re in a dangerous situation, we have an order in which we cast spells. Rose is first, since she only suffers if she makes a mistake. Damaris next, as she has a daily limit, but she can cast all those spells at once. Then it’s me, then Lizeth, as both of us are incapacitated after we cast. We’ll have to see where we should fit you in.”

“Then you’re not kicking me out of the coven?” Layla asked hopefully.

Sophie cast another death glare at Hunter. “No. Perhaps if it were a few hundred years ago, I would have, but witches are few and far between nowadays. The wars have had an effect on the numbers of all immortals. That doesn’t mean I’m not still mad, though, and of course, you can never see Hunter again.”

Hunter’s eyes flicked to Layla, but she kept her gaze firmly on Sophie. “No. If that’s your condition, then I’ll leave the coven myself. Hunter is my mate, and if you want me, you’re going to have to deal with him. I want to be a part of the coven, but I won’t do it at the cost of leaving Hunter. You need to choose.”

Sophie’s glare was now on Layla, and it took effort for her not to cringe. Sophie could be pretty scary if she wanted to. “I’m your high priestess, and you will do as I say.”

“You won’t be my high priestess for much longer unless you shut up and listen to me! Hunter and I are together. That’s not going to change. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like your decision. If you choose to kick me out of the coven, Hunter and I will be on our way. If not, I think you should get your own room for tonight and leave us alone.”

Some part of Layla was shocked at how she was speaking to Sophie. She couldn’t remember the last time she had stood up for herself this adamantly. Mostly, though, she was just angry. She was changing—she was starting to realize that maybe she did deserve good things, and she wasn’t going to keep letting people walk all over her.

“Layla, I don’t think you understand. He’s a demon. They can’t be trusted. Even thinking of being with him is horrendous. I realize you don’t know enough about demons yet to truly see them for what they are, but please trust me on this,” Sophie said quietly, her eyes hard at Layla’s. It was clear enough that Sophie meant everything she said and cared about Layla, but that didn’t change anything.

“Have you forgotten the part where I’m half demon myself? You want me to despise part of what I am?”

“Irrelevant, Layla. You’ve clearly chosen to be a witch, not a demon. You’re still one of us. You can still make this right.”

“I haven’t chosen anything,” Layla spat. “I only found out I was half demon a few hours ago. Hunter’s going to take me to the underworld to find my father. I’m not turning my back on half of my heritage. Even if I wasn’t half demon, though, it wouldn’t make a difference. Hunter and I are together. End of discussion.”

Sophie opened her mouth to keep arguing, but Hunter cut her off.

“I believe my mate has made herself perfectly clear. If you aren’t ready to make a decision right now, I suggest you leave and come back in the morning.”

Sophie ignored him completely and sent Layla a pleading look. She softened her tone. “Layla, I’m not doing this to hurt you. I only want to look out for you.”

“I know,” Layla sighed. “It’s my decision, though, and you can’t change it.”

Sophie looked away, and Layla suspected she was busy organizing more anti-Hunter arguments in her head. Layla really just wanted her to leave, but Sophie still looked so weak that she didn’t feel comfortable kicking her out of the bed.

“Come on, Hunter,” she murmured. “We’ll find another room.”

“Perhaps we’d be better off with a different hotel. Penny is most certainly going to take Sophie’s side in this.”

Layla reluctantly agreed, and they packed up their stuff quickly. Sophie kept up a steady stream of arguments, constantly gazing at Layla as if she’d been betrayed. Layla ignored it. She’d already presented her arguments to Sophie. Arguing further wasn’t going to achieve anything except to make them all angry again.

They left quickly, hoping not to run into any of Penny’s coven. Fortunately, the witches all seemed to have gone home, and they made it out of the hotel without being stopped. Finding somewhere else to stay didn’t take long. The receptionist was clearly surprised to have guests checking in so late, but she took it in stride, setting Layla and Hunter up in one of their rooms. It wasn’t nearly as luxurious as the one they’d been in before, but it had the added benefit of not having a keycard controlled by angry witches.

“You okay?” Hunter asked once they’d settled in. “It got pretty heated in there.”

“I’m fine,” Layla said heavily, though she wasn’t entirely sure that she was. “I just…don’t like conflict.”

“I know. You did great in there. I’m sure Sophie will come to her senses. She’d be a fool to let you go.”

“I hope so. I’ve never asked you what you think, though. I mean, even if she does accept me, I don’t think she’s going to approve of you. If I’m still part of the coven, you’ll probably end up being around them quite a lot, too. That’s not going to be too pleasant. You’ll probably get a really hard time from all of them.”

“I’d never ask you to give up part of your heritage,” Hunter said, repeating her words from earlier. “You’re a witch just as much as a demon. And I can handle myself. Besides, they’ll get used to me eventually.”

Layla wasn’t sure she shared his optimism, but it wasn’t something to worry about now. When Sophie made her decision, they’d have plenty of time to worry about the future at that point. Meanwhile, she was exhausted from the stress of the day, as well as the heavily interrupted night. In no time at all, she fell asleep in Hunter’s arms.

Layla groaned as she heard the door handle. How many times tonight would she be woken by that cursed sound? Maybe it was only Hunter going to the bathroom. She reached out and found the other side of the bed empty.

“It’s Sophie,” Hunter whispered. She saw that he was standing in front of the door in a protective stance, a few feet away from the opening door. She quickly got up, ready to throw up more shield spells if necessary.

Sophie stepped inside without a word then quickly closed the door behind her.

“Layla, you need to listen to me—”

“Enough, Sophie! I’m done listening. If you’ve come here to lecture me again, you may as well leave. I only want to see you again once you’ve made your decision.”

“No, Layla, listen, there’s trouble back in Orlando!”

Layla halted her diatribe as fear sang through her. “Damaris and the others? The demons? Are they all right?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t heard from them at all, but some of the long-distance wards went off. They should have been reset by now. Something’s wrong. We need to get back right away.”

Giving up on sleep, Layla leapt up and grabbed her bag, glad she hadn’t unpacked it before falling into bed. Hunter went out first, carefully checking for danger. Sophie was still giving him the stink-eye, but other than that she made no protest to his presence. She must be really worried to have diverted her attention from sending him blistering glares.

“Hurry, my car’s around back,” Sophie pushed.

“What about my car?” Hunter asked. “How did you find us anyway?”

“We’ll have to come back for your car or get someone else to bring it later; there isn’t time. I did a locator spell. Hurry.”

Layla and Hunter piled into Sophie’s car even as Sophie threw herself behind the wheel. Layla knew Sophie was generally a good driver. Not tonight, though. Tonight, Sophie drove like a maniac, blowing through stop signs and traffic lights like she had a death wish.

“Sophie, slow down! We won’t do them any good if we get ourselves killed trying to get there.”

Sophie’s face was tense, but she eased up a little on the accelerator.

“Have you tried calling them?” Hunter asked.

“Of course, I’ve tried calling them. It was the first thing I did. No one’s answering their phones.”

Even though they were moving considerably faster than they had been on the way to Miami, the trip seemed to take ten times longer. Layla kept checking the time. Hunter was staring out of each of the windows in turn. She didn’t see how anyone could possibly attack them at this speed, but his vigilance was reassuring.

Sophie stared at the road as if it was an obstacle she needed to blast out of her way. Layla really wanted to know if she’d made a decision over whether or not to kick her out of the coven, but she knew this wasn’t the time to ask.

But she hoped the reason for their haste was something stupid, like that the others had gone out to an area with no cell reception; it was a slim hope, she knew. Cell reception or not, they’d have felt it when the wards were tripped and gone to reset them at once. If they’d been able to. Clearly, something had stopped them.

A siren started up behind them and Hunter swore under his breath. Sophie was going at almost double the speed limit. They’d be lucky if they didn’t end up in jail.

Sophie pulled to a screeching halt. “Layla, you drive,” she said shortly, getting out of the car.

“What are you going to do?”

Sophie ignored her, striding up to the officer who was just getting out of his car. She threw her hands out and shouted something. The officer crumpled. So did Sophie.

Hunter swore again and leapt out, crouching down by Sophie’s side for a moment before picking her up.

“She’s fine,” he said shortly, laying her down on the back seat. “She just needs rest after casting the spell.”

Sophie’s eyes fluttered weakly. “Drive,” she whispered to Layla.

Layla wanted to see if the man Sophie had knocked out was all right, but there wasn’t time. As soon as Hunter came back to the car with the SD card from the cop’s dashcam, as well as his body camera, she drove, trusting that Hunter had pulled the cop off the road specifically because he expected him to be okay. She couldn’t quite bring herself to go at the crazy speed Sophie had—she didn’t want to die in a car crash any more than she wanted the witch killer to get her—but she pushed the speed limit enough to get them into trouble if another cop saw them. Hopefully, they’d had their share of bad luck for the night.

The sky was just lightening when they blew into Orlando.

“Stop,” Hunter said. Layla automatically started to slow, but Sophie pushed herself up from the back seat.

“Do not stop! We’re nearly there.”

“We can’t just go running blindly in,” Hunter said patiently. “It sounds like there’s trouble. There could be someone waiting for us. It could be a trap. It could be any number of things. We need to do this carefully. It won’t help the others if we get ourselves killed or captured.”

“No one asked your opinion!”

Layla pulled over. “He’s right, Sophie. You hired him to protect us. You’re not thinking rationally. We need a plan.”

Sophie looked ready to breathe fire, but the sense of Layla’s words seemed to sink in.

“Fine. I’ll go in alone and you two can hang back. If anything happens, you can back me up.”

Hunter was already shaking his head. “You’re weak. You still need rest. I’ll go in, and you and Layla can back me up.”

Sophie pursed her lips, but nodded even as Layla protested. “That’s dangerous! You can’t just send him in like bait. I know you don’t care what happens to him, but I do.”

Sophie looked like she was about to answer angrily, but Hunter spoke first. “This is my job, Layla. I’m very good at what I do, I promise you. I’m not just going to go strolling in there hoping there’s nothing nasty waiting. I’ll be careful. I’ve done this plenty of times. Ninety percent of the time, it’s a false alarm, and there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for what’s going on.”

“What if this isn’t ninety percent?” Layla whispered. “We both know there’s probably something really wrong here. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to me. Now, go slowly—we don’t want to announce our presence from a mile away. Stop one block from the house, out of sight of the front and back doors. I’ll go in to check things out, and you and Sophie can follow from a distance.

“If it looks like I’m in trouble, don’t try to come for me. Cast spells from where you are and then run. If it goes wrong, we’ll meet up at that café across town we saw; you know the one?”

Layla nodded. She wanted to delay, to put off the moment when Hunter was going to be in danger, but the thought of one of the others hurt or in trouble made her swallow her objections.

They parked on the pavement behind a large bush that the owners had clipped into the shape of a dog. Hunter got out and started sneaking down the road, sticking to the shadows, looking like a shadow himself.

Layla helped Sophie out of the car and put an arm around her waist to help her walk. Quietly, they followed Hunter.