“Concentrate, Layla.”

“I am concentrating.”

Layla bit back an angry retort. They were all stressed, and a lot rode on her being able to do the spell properly.

“You should be seeing a shimmering behind your eyes by now,” Sophie prompted.

Layla saw only complete blackness, though. She repeated the words of the spell again, Qua iven, concentrating on the people she wanted to find. Still, nothing.

“It’s no use!” Layla threw her hands up in frustration. “I can’t do the spell. It’s too advanced for me.”

“You can do it.”

But Layla wasn’t sure whether Sophie was trying to convince her or herself. She took a deep breath, trying to focus on the spell at hand rather than worrying over the unspeakable things that could be happening to her friends at this very moment. She tried again, willing something to happen.

Again, she saw only blackness.

“Maybe you should do it,” she said, slumping back in defeat.

Sophie frowned in concern, thinking. “If you don’t get it soon, I may have to. That’ll be dangerous, though. I need to be able to cast spells when we get there, or there’s little chance of getting the others out alive.”

Layla knew she was right, but she’d never been this frustrated. Sophie being integral to their success was the whole reason for Layla casting the spell. She’d be next to useless in a fight, compared to Sophie.

“I’ll keep trying.”

Hunter shook his head and stepped forward, resting his palm on Layla’s shoulder. “No, you should take a break.”

“I don’t have time for a break!”

Hunter put his hands fully on her shoulders, squeezing gently. “You’re working yourself up. You can’t cast a spell if you don’t have a clear head.”

Sophie gave him another of her scorching glares, but she didn’t contradict him, which she surely would have in a second if he’d been wrong.

“Come on, let’s just step outside for a few minutes. Get a bit of fresh air and then try again.”

Sophie got up to follow them and Layla managed not to roll her eyes, if with some difficulty.

“You stay here with Cord. We won’t go far.”

Sophie looked like she was about to protest, but to Layla’s relief, changed her mind. “Hurry back.”

Surprised she’d listened, Layla shot her a grateful look before letting Hunter usher her outside.

“I can’t do it,” she said as soon as they were out of sight of the others. “They’re all relying on me, and I can’t cast the stupid spell! It’s not going to work, Hunter; I’ve always been useless, and now everyone is going to die because of me.”

Her words were abruptly cut off when Hunter kissed her. Layla’s surprise only lasted a moment, and then she was just responding, her lips on his. As always, she lost herself in him. His hands sent hot trails over her skin as he caressed her face, and for a few endless moments, Layla forgot everything.

When Hunter pulled away, she realized that the tension in her shoulders seemed to have diminished a little.

“Come on, sit here,” he said gently.

He led her to a tall tree a few feet away and sat down with his back to it. He pulled Layla in then so that she was leaning her back against his chest. She could hear his heart beating, soothing and steady.

“Now, try again.”

“I’m supposed to have Sophie supervising me.”

“That was before you knew your stipulation and before you knew how this spell works. You’ve been trying it enough that you know now. And, you know exactly what’s going to happen when you cast a spell. You can’t cast under her eye forever.”

Layla thought for a moment—she should probably discuss casting alone with Sophie first, but here against Hunter, she was comfortable and relaxed. The pressure seemed slightly less with just Hunter beside her. He wouldn’t judge her or get frustrated if she couldn’t do it. Sophie had tried to hide it, but Layla could see how anxious the high priestess was for the spell to work.

Layla murmured the words, concentrating as hard as she could, desperately hoping something would happen. She almost screamed in frustration when she again saw nothing but blackness.

“It’s all right,” Hunter soothed. “Just relax for a minute and then try again.”

Layla tried to do as he said, but it was getting more and more difficult to relax with everything on the line.

Hunter stroked her hair, murmuring soft words of encouragement.

She lost track of all the times she tried. They got into a gentle rhythm, though. Try the spell, rest for a minute, try again. She lost all expectation that something was going to happen, focusing merely on the act of casting and resting, casting and resting.

And so she squeaked in surprise when an image flashed behind her closed eyes. She sat up straight, her eyes still closed, trying to grab the image before it could fade away again. Hunter’s arms were steady around her.

The image wavered for a moment before solidifying. Layla saw five figures sprawled over the floor of what looked like some kind of warehouse. Layla held her breath for a moment, until she’d seen the gentle rising and falling of each of their chests. They were still alive, but asleep.

Wait—asleep? That didn’t make sense. No way would they be asleep in circumstances like these. Drugged, perhaps. Layla looked around in the vision, trying to gather any clues about where they were. As if responding to her thought, the image zoomed out. She felt like she was flying, even though she could feel her body sitting firmly on the ground with Hunter.

The vision started to flicker then, and Layla doubled her focus. She couldn’t lose it now. A street sign came into view. Willow Street. Layla zoomed out further, and she no longer felt like she was in control of her movement. It was like she was on the back of some huge, out of control bird, and it was soaring higher and faster.

She caught a flash of a sign on the highway—Lake Buena Vista. Then she was zooming out even more and she was starting to feel sick. She closed her eyes, but the streets kept spinning before her.

With a gasp, Layla came back to herself, sitting with Hunter on Sophie’s lawn.

She leaned over to the side and threw up. It was as if she had motion sickness, though it was fading fast now that the spell was over.

“It worked!” she said happily, wiping her mouth with the worst effects of the spell already forgotten. “Hunter, it worked!”

Hunter didn’t answer. Layla wriggled around to look at him. His head had fallen back against the tree trunk, and his eyes were half closed. “Hunter? Are you okay?”

Suddenly, Sophie was there, lifting Hunter’s eyelids and checking his pulse.

“Your magic targeted him to drain,” she said even as Layla realized the same, but she found herself pleased that Sophie didn’t look mad about her trying the spell on her own. She must have watched from the house after a while, Layla realized, seeing how quickly she’d reached them.

“Demons are a lot stronger than other immortals, so it didn’t drain him completely,” Sophie continued. “He’s still conscious, but weak. Give it a few minutes and he’ll probably be able to respond again. What did you see?”

“I know where they are, all of them! They’re in a warehouse on Willow Street in Lake Buena Vista. They all look to be asleep, so I think they might be drugged.”

“That would make sense. That’s probably why Hunter’s blood bond couldn’t find them. It couldn’t function properly with the drugs interfering.”

Layla turned back to Hunter, worried. His eyelids fluttered.

“Hunter? Are you all right?”

His eyes focused on her, and he nodded, seemingly with some effort.

Layla shot a worried glance at Sophie, who also looked drained. “I didn’t drain you as well, did I?”

“No, I think this is just my normal stipulation’s lasting effects. I helped you with the spell’s magic a bit, and that spell on the highway wasn’t all that long ago. I’m not as drained as I usually am after casting a spell myself, but you partially drew on my power to cast it—that’s why you were able to cast such an advanced spell in the first place. I was watching from the window once I realized you’d been gone a while. I can still cast, but I’m not exactly running at full capacity.”

Layla didn’t say anything. Hunter was barely conscious, Cord was injured, Sophie looked like she hadn’t slept in a week, and Layla knew next to nothing about fighting. She could cast a defensive spell, but getting coven members out of a hostile situation? She felt like a child trying to play adult games.

“Come on, let’s get going,” Sophie said briskly. “Get him into the car; he’ll have to recover while we drive.”

Layla glanced at Hunter and then back at Sophie again. “Sophie…I’m not sure we can do this. You’re all weak and exhausted, and I’m so new... It feels like we’ll be signing our own death warrants if we go in like this. We’re not prepared.”

Sophie shrugged helplessly. “You’re probably right, but it’s not like we have a whole lot of choice. We don’t know why the others are still alive, but they could be killed at any moment. You said they look drugged. They’re completely helpless. We have to get them out now before anything else happens. And whoever came for them could come for us at any moment, so might as well go on the offensive; we’ve got nothing to lose right now.”

Layla didn’t like it, but she knew Sophie was right. Still, what good would they do if they just got themselves captured as well? But if they didn’t go and the others died because of it, she’d never forgive herself.

“Isn’t there anything we could do, like a rejuvenation spell or something?”

Sophie was already shaking her head. “Believe me, I’ve thought of it, but in this case, it would do more harm than good. If we had Lizeth or Rose, it might be an option, but either of us casting spells is just going to end in more draining and exhaustion. We’re better off making do with what we have.”

“What about calling for reinforcements?” Hunter suggested. His voice was still very weak, but at least he was speaking.

“The closest intact coven is in Miami, and they’re hours away. We don’t have time,” Sophie repeated. “Come on—I’ll drive.”

“I can drive,” Layla said quickly. Despite her heavily interrupted night of sleep, she was probably still the most alert of all of them, and it would give the others more time to rest, if anything.

Sophie agreed and went to fetch Cord. A minute later, Layla could see her grimacing as she helped Cord limp to the car. Whatever progress Sophie had made in getting used to demons seemed to have been erased completely by Layla’s and Hunter’s relationship. Layla remembered also that Sophie still hadn’t given her an answer as to whether the coven would accept her and Hunter. Now wasn’t the time to ask, but that didn’t stop her from worrying.

Layla offered Hunter a hand up and let him lean on her shoulder as they slowly followed Sophie. Hunter was heavy enough that Layla stumbled and couldn’t help wishing the other demons were there to help. Finally, they all made it. Hunter and Cord lay half on top of each other on the back seat and were asleep in seconds. Sophie angled her chair back as far as she could so that she could also get some rest.

“We all need some rest,” she told Layla. “It’ll take nearly an hour to get there with traffic.”

Layla agreed to wake her when they got close. Sophie was going to be the one doing the fighting. The least Layla could do was make sure that she got as much rest as possible.

She set the GPS and started driving. With everyone else resting and Hunter snoring lightly, Layla had no distraction from her whirling thoughts. She tried not to imagine worst case scenarios, but she’d always had a good imagination, and she cursed it now.

It would be better if she’d at least felt prepared, but she knew next to no magic. At most, she’d be able to cast a shield while dragging an injured body out of harm’s way. Being a witch sometimes made her feel powerful, but not now. Now, she just felt completely out of her depth.

“It’ll be okay.”

Layla glanced back to see Hunter looking at her. “You should rest,” she said simply—there was no point telling him she hadn’t been feeling overwhelmed; he could see it on her face. But he needed to sleep, too. He still looked hammered.

“No one can rest with that much anxiety weighing them down.”

Layla groaned as she remembered. Hunter could sense her emotional state, and now it was keeping him from resting. Determined not to keep him up, she tried a small smile in the mirror, and then worked at thinking of waterfalls and sunsets and peaceful things. Hunter needed to be strong when they got there.

She was rewarded, a few minutes later, by a snore.

Everyone but her slept on peacefully. Layla finally found herself wondering if there was something she could do to help that wasn’t magic. She’d never gone to any kind of combat training. Some girls she knew did karate, though. She wished now that she’d taken up something useful like that. Still, it didn’t mean she couldn’t do anything.

Distractions were always useful, right? Maybe she didn’t know a lot of magic, but she could set a fire or bash a car until the alarm started going off. Any little thing might help. She wished the others were awake so that they could discuss strategy, but she couldn’t bring herself to draw them from their rest any sooner than she needed to.

The GPS directed her off the highway, and as they approached an industrial looking area, Layla slowed. They couldn’t just drive right in. She stopped a block away. Maybe she should do the location spell again, to see if the others had been moved? That could mess things up if they weren’t where they were supposed to be, but she quickly discarded the thought. The last thing she needed was to weaken anyone more than they already were.

“Sophie.” Layla gently shook her shoulder. “Sophie, wake up. We’re here.”