At some point, I regained consciousness to find my brother hovering over me, but I was no longer in the forest. I felt soft sheets against my bare skin, the edge of a comforter pulled to just under my chest.

“My Jeep’s at the retreat,” he said, his voice echoing slightly in my ear. “I transported you home after Dr. Baker looked you over.”

My throat was dry, my voice hoarse as I asked, “Kelly?”

“I’ll come back to check on you,” he said, then disappeared.

I thought to rise, then lost consciousness again.

When I woke next, I knew I was in my bed. My body had regained some strength and my mind was alert. Glancing around, I saw Josh across the room, sitting in a wooden chair he’d brought from my dining room. He was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, watching me intently. Relief washed over him as I sat up and rubbed the fog of exhaustion from my eyes.

“Kelly?” I asked reflexively.

He offered a beleaguered smile. “Weak and tired, but she’s fine. It worked.”

“She—”

“It was a pretty gruesome procedure, but she has full feeling in her legs. It’ll take some rest before she can put weight on them, but Dr. Baker expects a full recovery.”

“Good,” I said, relieved. We remained quiet for a long moment, staring at each other and waiting for the other to speak. “Why don’t you just ask?”

Josh shrugged, a casual gesture belying his growing look of concern. “Why don’t you just tell me?”

I glanced at the dresser, hoping to find a glass of water there, only to be disappointed. At least he tucked me in. Tossing the comforter aside, I slid out of the bed and walked naked to the bathroom. After quickly downing two glasses of water, I walked back into the bedroom, to the dresser, and found a set of fresh clothes. Turning from the dresser, I noted Josh’s amused scowl as he averted his gaze. I tossed the clean clothes onto the bed and began to dress, deliberately saving the underwear and jeans for last.

“Save it for the ladies,” he eventually chuckled.

“You shouldn’t have carried me,” I said, buttoning my jeans.

“Well, I wasn’t going to drag you home. Is the magic that hard to control?”

I had to remind myself that the origin of my newfound magic was still a mystery to Josh. He didn’t know that I’d almost killed Sky with it, either. “Not when I’m awake. For the most part.”

“Is that why the forest tried to take you?”

Fully dressed, I went about making the bed. I couldn’t just leave it a mess.

“Ethan,” Josh continued, “the forest doesn’t just collect magic. It collects the magic of dark things, magic too dangerous to be in the world. If the forest was drawn to this new magic in you, it is more dangerous than we thought.”

“You don’t say?”

“I was wrong to suggest that you keep it,” he said softly. “We need to destroy it.”

I quickly fluffed the pillows, set them precisely centered at the head of the bed, then turned to Josh. “Easier said than done. The secret’s out now, or nearly out.”

His gaze shifted as he searched his memory, then nodded. “Abigail had a front-row seat. That’ll come back to haunt us, eventually. Whatever this magic is, we have to get rid of it before she figures out how to take advantage of your situation.”

Exhaustion caught up to me in a wave, forcing me to sit rather than lose consciousness. “I’m working on it.” As he held my gaze, I knew what he was going to offer. “We can’t use the ritual I used on Sky.”

His eyes widened as he glanced to his right and left, as if to a waiting crowd that shared his incredulity. “Why not?”

“Because I’ll lose it all.”

“All,” he repeated. A wry grin crossed his lips. “You mean the magic you inherited from our mother, the magic you used to take down my field and then feed me some BS story about how all were-animals can do that?”

I blinked at my brother, wondering when exactly he’d figured it out. “I didn’t say all.”

He gave me a wary look, but refused to take the bait. “The Aufero is your best chance. We’ll have to steal it from Marcia.”

I shook my head. “We aren’t taking anything from Marcia.”

He slid to the edge of his chair, his expression stern as he jabbed a finger toward me. “You’re not doing this without me.”

“We both know she’s just looking for a chance to strip you of your magic. You can’t be a part of this.”

I watched his frustration peak to a sharp retort, but he swallowed it and looked away. Anger rippled in his jaw as he slowly acknowledged the risk was too great for him, that my efforts didn’t require a sacrifice. Eventually, he managed a begrudging nod.

“You can tell me how to use it,” I said.

“You’ll need Sky for that, but yeah, I’ll look into it and send you what I can.” He rose from his chair. “In the meantime, try to rest. Get your strength back before you try to deal with Marcia.”

“Put the chair—”

He’d already disappeared. Glancing out the window, I saw him get into his Jeep and drive away. As I watched him, something moving in the bushes across the street caught my eye. I stared at the spot, considered leaving my house to investigate, when a sudden dizziness came over me, as if the world had suddenly lost its equilibrium. I staggered, clutching the frame around the window to steady myself. The feeling lasted only a moment, fading almost as quickly as it had arrived. I shook the cobwebs from my head and glanced out the window again, but saw nothing.

Turning back to the bed, I decided I was too tired to investigate and lay back down supine over the covers. Within seconds, my eyes were closed and I was nearly asleep, when I heard a crashing sound from downstairs, like the smashing of plates or drinking glasses.

Instinctively, I drew the knife from the headboard and rolled off the bed, facing the bedroom door in a fighting stance, but the door was closed. I froze, listening intently for a clue as to whether I was facing multiple intruders, and where they were located, assuming one was in the kitchen. I heard the pounding of a single pair of feet stomping in the living room, accompanied by the creaking of the wood floor. The footsteps stopped, followed by the cracking and splitting of smashed wood.

I lifted my dining chair and pushed it away behind me, then faced the door. Holding the knife ready, I opened my bedroom door with a snap gesture, just stopping it from slamming into the doorstop. The hall was empty, dark.

A moan rose from downstairs, deep and mournful and crescendoing into a forlorn wail. Another crack of broken wood, followed by the rumble of something heavy being propelled across the floor.

Gripping the knife, I slowly walked down the hall. I glanced into the open guest bedroom, then the open bathroom, before reaching the top of the stairs. The couches below were pushed into the middle of the living room at odd angles and the floor was a wreck of broken end tables and bookshelves. The books that should’ve been left in heaps were surprisingly missing. I scowled, confused, but then the wailing began again, this time from the dining room.

“Why?” the voice demanded. Dennis’s voice.

Another crash that sounded like my oak table being split like firewood.

“Why?” he wailed again. His voice became suddenly guttural as he shouted, “You’ll get what’s coming to you!”

I walked down the stairs on the balls of my feet to minimize the sound. When I reached the ground floor, I flicked a gaze into the empty kitchen—every dish and drinking glass seemed broken on the floor—then walked deeper into the living room, toward the dining area.

“I know what you did!” Dennis shouted, his voice pitching into unbridled rage.

Stepping around the furniture debris, I quickly shuffled sideways into view of the dining room, knife raised. The table was broken in two and each of the chairs laid smashed over the broken halves of polished oak, but Dennis wasn’t there.

“You’ll pay!”

The shout came like a rush from the stairs on my left. Pivoting on my right foot, I saw Dennis charging me. He wore the usual blue suit, but this time the bloody wound was on his hip. He charged with empty hands reaching for my throat. Timing my strike, I swept the knife at chest height. The blade should’ve connected, slicing through fabric and skin. Instead it swept through empty air, landing in my left hand as I transferred the blade and pivoted again, but Dennis was gone.

The couches and bookshelves were in their normal position, as were the unbroken end tables, as if Dennis had never been there. Looking into the dining room, I saw that the table stood normally, undamaged. All six chairs were perfectly positioned around it. I stepped farther into the room to glance in the kitchen; the cupboards were closed and the floor spotless, uncluttered.

Something wasn’t right. I glanced back at the table, the chairs.

“You can’t kill me twice!” Dennis roared behind me.

I pivoted, driving the blade up into his torso at an angle, but the moment the blade touched him, he disappeared.

“Why!”

The shout came from the kitchen. I pivoted once more, but he was almost on me. Unable to bring the knife to bear quick enough, I punched at his jaw, intending to deflect his momentum with the blow. Once again, he disappeared on impact.

I waited, crouched, my head swiveling in anticipation of another attack. My eyes took in the chairs at the table, all six of them. I pivoted again, then looked back. Six. But one of the chairs was upstairs in my bedroom.

“You’ll never know peace,” Dennis said from the living room behind me. I swiveled, swinging the knife in an arc, but this time he didn’t charge. Instead, he walked toward me in slow, predatory steps. His eyes appeared black and lifeless, like a void. “You’ll tell me why before I let you die.”

I charged, feinting with the knife, then swinging a kick up toward his head. He disappeared. Almost instantly he reappeared at the base of the stairs, glowering at me with the grim determination of the dead.

“Why?”

Six chairs. I flicked one more glance at the tables around the chair. There were six. Chairs. This isn’t happening, I realized. Dennis wasn’t the undead, and he wasn’t a figment of my imagination. He’d been planted there by someone who’d taken the time to learn the layout of my house, the ground floor at least, but there was one detail that had been missed. The unexpected. A chair had been moved from one place to another.

Mind magic. It was the only answer.

“Why?” Dennis growled. His head lowered and his black eyes stared at me from beneath his eyebrows as he tipped his chin toward his chest to glower at me. He shifted his weight from side to side, preparing to attack.

I looked down at the wound on his side, remembering all the variations of wounds I’d seen that more resembled a wolf attack than a vampire attack. And the location and nature of the wounds kept shifting with each appearance, as if the mind witch was only guessing at how he died.

“I didn’t kill you,” I said, still holding the knife in a fighting stance.

“Liar!”

He charged. I struck again and predictably he disappeared, only to walk back out of the kitchen a moment later to stop and glare at me once more from the bottom of the stairs.

“You can’t escape me,” he growled.

None of this is real. I forced myself to lower the knife and let it drop to the floor. “Who are you?” I demanded. “If you want to kill me, you’ll have to use more than parlor tricks, but I didn’t kill Dennis.” I might as well have.

He roared and charged. I let him come. Instinctively, my body tensed for the impact, but the moment he should’ve gripped my throat in his pale hands, Dennis disappeared. Realizing I’d held my breath, I released it in a sigh and glanced around for his reappearance, but it never came. After a moment, I realized there were only five chairs at the table.

I strode to the door and walked out onto the porch, scanning the neighborhood. The witch had to have been close, but probably already escaped. I considered whether I had the energy to go out and search the neighboring woods for sight or scent, when I heard a phone ringing upstairs.

The ringtone belonged to my burner phone. It continued to ring as I closed the door and walked up the stairs and found it on the bedroom dresser.

“Caroline,” I said stiffly.

“David?” She spoke in a breathless, apologetic tone, but there was a slight edge in her voice that betrayed her. “I’m sorry to bother you.”

I swallowed, pitching my voice to sound calm, compassionate. “Anything you need, just tell me.”

“I found some of my father’s documents that he’d hidden.” She paused, presumably for effect. “There’s something that looks like a journal of his cases. I can’t be sure. He used a code, but I found someone who thinks he can decipher it pretty quickly.” Another pause. I held my breath even as I waited for her to continue. “I’m pretty sure it has the name of his last client, the one who killed him.” Hard as she tried, she couldn’t hide the accusatory tone underlying her practiced enthusiasm. She was good, but now that I knew what I was looking for, the crack in her facade was glaring. I wondered if it was the guilt or the dark elf magic that had put me far enough off my game to miss the obvious. My mind flashed to the dizzy spells, to the black crystal in her pendant.

“When I find him,” she continued, “he’s going to pay.”

I hesitated slightly, then put a hint of anxiety in my voice. “So you’re determined to seek revenge, no matter the cost?”

“It’s always been about revenge. An eye for an eye. Don’t you think that’s fair?”

“Of course,” I answered quickly. “Perhaps I can help you decipher the code. He probably used a simple character substitution.”

She chuckled. “You’re a man of many skills, David. Are you a cryptographer as well?”

I hesitated for her benefit, then allowed just a hint of anxiousness in my voice. “If you need me, don’t hesitate to call.”

“You’ll be the first. Talk to you soon,” she said heavily, then disconnected the call.

Now I know, I thought, staring at my phone. After a moment, I called Tim and left him a voice mail message on his personal phone: “I’m thinking of inviting our guest to dinner, but I’d like to know more about her first. Maybe you can ask around her neighborhood.”

After I killed the call, I retrieved Caroline’s number from my phone’s caller ID, checked the time, then called my legal assistant on her personal phone. Judging by the clatter in the background, I assumed she was out in a restaurant or bar.

“Hey, boss,” she said, barely masking her disappointment.

“Caroline McDuffy,” I stated, followed by her phone number, which I repeated.

“Got it.”

“She’s from Boise, but she’s here in Chicago. I need to know where she’s staying, where she’s spending her time.”

Stacey sighed. “So where she’s spending her money.”

“I’ll compensate you, as usual.”

“Of course,” she said, taken aback. Regret crept into her voice. “I’ll get right on it.”

I was about to end the call when she said in a rush, “Can I ask you something?”

I winced, massaging my forehead with the fingers of one hand. I didn’t have the time or the energy for questions. “Make it quick.”

“How do I know if my date is an, uh”—her voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper—“elf?”

She saw supernaturals behind every corner. I blew out a slow breath before answering, reminding myself that she was an important asset. “Unnatural good looks?”

“On the pretty man scale, he’s a twenty. I should probably point out the scale only goes to ten.”

“Fair skin?”

“Check.”

“Vibrant eyes, probably of an unnatural color?”

She gasped. “He says he’s wearing contacts, but who wears violet contacts?”

“Is he an arrogant prick?”

She hesitated. “Am I in danger?”

“Tell him Ethan Charleston sends his regards. You’ll be fine.” I reached to kill the call, then added, “After he pays the check.”

I hung up, stripped, and took a long shower. Letting the water run down the back of my neck, I considered my new reality. I’d gotten Caroline’s father killed and she’d come looking for answers, and revenge. Understandable. Did she think she was going to drive me to suicide, or just drive me to make a mistake so that I’d be easier to trap and kill? The latter, I decided. She was already preparing me for the trap. The next call I received would be a request for my help, directing me to somewhere secluded. She expected me to jump at the chance, hoping I’d be able to mislead her, steer her away from discovering my name.

That would be my mistake, according to her plan. She must’ve known I was her target from the moment I’d met her outside her father’s office, when she’d been handing out posters. Word would get out that his daughter was searching for him, stirring up interest in his disappearance. Her very public pursuit of answers guaranteed that eventually the person responsible for her father’s disappearance and presumed death would turn up to find out just how much she knew, to assess whether she was a liability. It was a well-thought-out plan, and I’d walked directly into it.

I smiled, splashing my face with hot water. I admired a clever opponent.

What I didn’t know was what to do with her. I couldn’t have a mind witch stalking me. Could I tell her the truth, point her at Michaela? Caroline was clever and patient, but she was no match for the Mistress of the Northern Seethe. I couldn’t send both father and daughter to the same gruesome death. But death was the only way to ensure she’d abandoned her quest for revenge. It was never wise to leave an enemy behind you, but could I kill her?

I finished my shower, changed into loose, comfortable old jeans and a short-sleeved shirt. Almost forgetting, I snapped my iridium bracelet around my wrist, then went downstairs to examine the books on my shelves, pulling one in particular. From what Josh had told me, the chances of finding a reference to mind magic were small, but I had some of the oldest texts from the pack’s library. After ordering a pizza, I pushed the cognac-colored ottoman to the couch and sat down to start my research.

By the time the pizza arrived, I’d pulled several more books from the shelves, adding a couple of notepads where I tried to keep track of the various small clues I found, each one leading me down a fruitless rabbit hole. Hours later, the pizza was reduced to nibbled pieces of crust. The bookshelves were nearly empty, contents spread over the couch and the floor. Every notebook I had was scattered among them. I’d been reduced to searching esoteric websites with my laptop, hunting for small kernels of truth hidden beneath mountains of New Age garbage.

I recognized the sound of Sky’s Honda Civic moments before it pulled into my driveway. Abigail wasn’t the only one who wanted to know how and why the dark forest had tried to take me. If I hadn’t been so distracted, I’d have expected Sky. The mess in my living room was only going to lead to more questions. For a moment, I considered not answering the door, but it was obvious I was home. She was on a mission to get answers, and there was no point in putting her off. She’d just reached the porch when I opened the door and stepped aside, gesturing for her to come in.

Walking into the living room, she took a keen interest in the mess of books. She licked her lips as her gaze shifted to the open laptop on the couch, or was she eyeing the pizza box? Using my foot, I cleared a path for her through the various books and notebooks on the floor. As she approached the oversized chair facing the couch, her gaze flicked once more to the open laptop, just before I turned the screen from her view. She sat down, letting her eyes wander over the books and notepads with a practiced casualness.

After a moment, she shook off her curiosity and examined me with an increasingly concerned look.

I guess I look as bad as I feel.

I sat on the couch, facing her.

She stared at me, waiting for me to talk. After the first minute, I realized she was using my tactic of drawing people out with silence. I suppressed a smile and held her gaze. I didn’t figure she’d last longer than two minutes. To her credit, she lasted nine. Eventually her look of empathy became a blatant question mark.

“What are you?” she asked.

That wasn’t what I’d expected. Rather than talk about the elves and the woods and the things kept inside, she’d cut straight to the heart of the matter. I sank back into the couch, impressed. A lie was the smart play. So far, I’d avoided putting her at risk, but I’d need her help eventually. Once I obtained the Aufero, I’d need her to use it. Most likely I’d have to tell her exactly what she was removing, since I didn’t want to lose my mother’s magic, as well.

Exhausted, I washed my hands over my face as if I could wipe away the stress. “My grandmother was a dark elf,” I said, surprising both of us. “She died eight days ago.”

Her gaze shifted while she sorted through the ramifications of my revelation. “Do you have any aunts or uncles?”

Had there been other relatives, we would’ve shared my grandmother’s inheritance. It was an astute question. I shook my head.

“The other day, with me, was an accident, wasn’t it?”

I glanced down at my hands to hide my embarrassment. After a moment, I looked up to meet her gaze. “I am not as strong as she was, the wolf part of me controls some of that.” I shrugged. “It gets better each day.” I leaned back, noting the depth of concern in her frown.

“What happens now?” she asked. “Does Sebastian know?”

“He is the only one that does. Was the only one that knew,” I said with an uncomfortable smile. Does she realize the danger I’ve put her in?

She pointed to the iridium cuff around my wrist. I’d forgotten it was there, but there was no point in hiding it any longer. “Does it work?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I had it on in Elysian and it didn’t seem to work.”

“We need to get the Aufero.”

“I thought about that,” I admitted, allowing her to come to her own conclusions, “but I have no idea where it is.”

She smiled. “I do. Well, not exactly. I have an idea where it may be.” After some rummaging in her purse, accompanied by a fair amount of grumbling, she drew out four torn pieces of plain white paper and laid them out onto the ottoman between us. On the pages were mostly abstract sketches, some more detailed than others. A few I recognized. I leaned over, inspecting them closely while she explained.

“I saw this room that year I was in the in-between.”

She was referring to the time I’d killed her. I’d stared directly into her eyes and watched the life drain out of her as I’d strangled her. I shook the memory from my mind and focused on the sketches. Two were drawn in blue ink, but with different thicknesses. Another was drawn in black, and the other in green. “These were done at different times,” I observed. “Why?”

The flick of her eyes and the sudden intake of breath told me she considered lying. “I visited it again, recently,” she admitted.

I scowled, knowing full well who was behind this recklessness. “With Josh, I presume.”

She glanced away as she nodded.

Sky was constantly testing boundaries and putting herself—and sometimes others—in danger. After nearly two years with us, I expected more from her, but it dawned on me that I expected too much. No matter how long she’d spent with us, she didn’t have the experience of growing up in our world. Up until we’d saved her, she hadn’t even known there were other were-animals, let alone other supernatural creatures. Her curiosity and recklessness, while frustrating, were understandable, but Josh knew better. “You have indeed become one of his weaknesses,” I said, then returned my attention to her sketches.

“Better me than anyone else,” she said, piqued. “I will never hurt him, betray him, or point a gun in his face.”

It took me a moment to realize she was referring to the time Chris had pointed a gun at Josh in an attempt to get us to surrender Sky. “You say that now,” I muttered, choosing not to take the bait.

I placed the laptop on the ottoman and began searching. I had assumed that Marcia kept the Aufero in one of her magic shops, but the symbols in Sky’s drawings opened the door to other possibilities. Based on the public records, I’d believed that Marcia only controlled the two shops that were in her name, but there were other New Age-related shops and businesses in Chicago that might be indirectly under her control.

While I searched, I couldn’t help wondering what else Sky and Josh had been up to. Trying to push that out of my mind, I focused on my search, periodically glancing at the sketches. Sky was surprisingly patient while I worked, leading me to keep a cautious eye on her in case she started snooping into things she shouldn’t. There were a few of the books and notes that I preferred she not see.

I queued up some pages to print and waited by the printer for the batch to finish. “Are you sleeping with him?” I asked, trying to sound casual while I closely watched her for any hint of a lie.

The question startled her. “With who?”

“You know damn well who,” I snapped. “Are you screwing my brother?”

Her lips pressed into a thin line. Her eyes narrowed. “It’s your brother; maybe you should ask him about his personal life.”

I scoffed. “He wouldn’t tell me.”

“Probably because it isn’t any of your business.”

She rose and tried to grab the printout from my hand. I snatched it back, glaring at her, but she refused to back down. Her intense gaze fixed on mine.

“Look,” she said finally, “we can sit here all day while you speculate about what goes on between me and Josh in the bedroom, but we both need the Aufero. Don’t you think we should dedicate our energy to looking for it?” She snapped the pages from my loosened grip and laid them out on the ottoman.

Regretting my outburst, I sat quietly on the couch while she pointed to one of the sketches.

“What is this?”

“It’s a protection symbol. Most people have them simply for the aesthetics, but if enchanted correctly, it weakens all magical beings that enter the shop. Marcia would never have a real one where she keeps the Aufero, because it would weaken it and her as well. I’ve seen them in all of these places, but I am not sure which ones are real. We will have to go to them.” If close enough, I could sense whether the symbols were magical.

Sky unclipped a pen from a nearby notepad on the floor and marked off at least a third of the locations.

She’s been doing research of her own. I felt a rush of regret in my chest. I’d let the dark elf magic keep me on edge, and too often I’d taken my irritation out on her. She deserved better.

I smiled as I rose from the sofa and offered her my hand, as much to soften the tension between us as to demonstrate a point. She eyed the gesture with confusion, curiosity, and some trepidation. The last time we’d touched, I’d nearly killed her. After a moment, she eased her hand into mine. I gently brought her to her feet and pressed my forehead against hers, surprising her. My lips lightly brushed against hers as we stood there, silently sharing each other’s warm breath. Her breath quickened. Her lips parted, but I didn’t kiss her. Instead I lingered there, just touching against her softness, then stepped back, still holding her hand, and grinned.

“It’s getting easier,” I announced.

She rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated breath as she drew back her hand, but her smile remained. “What does it feel like?”

“Chaos. If I’m calm, I can control it better. It’s harder with you around.” For many reasons.

Gazing down at her, I reached out and brushed my fingers against her forearm, then gently wrapped my fingers around it, enjoying the soft, cool touch of her skin against mine. I felt my shoulders relax. The dread of what had happened in the forest drained from my body as I gazed into her green eyes. “It’s a lot better.”

After a moment, she gently pulled her arm free and demurely tucked a loose mahogany curl behind her ear. “We should probably get started.”

I nodded.

For once I didn’t bother to hide my ability to detect magic, which made our search easier. Thanks to Maya, Sky was able to as well. Together, we wandered through each shop, looking for magic in the items there, in the various symbols painted on the walls that were often just for decoration. More importantly, we looked for less obvious sources of magic, such as from hidden rooms or storage spaces. Sharing the search with her, I appreciated the ease of her company, how well we worked together when I didn’t have to lie.

Eventually we narrowed the list down to just three possibilities, two of them Marcia’s shops. One of those three hid the Aufero, we were both certain.

“We’ll wait until they’re closed to search those,” I said. “We can conduct a thorough search without concern for detection.”

She gave me a sideways look. “You’re just going to break in?”

“Exactly.”