Back at the castle, we spread the emerald ritual items out across the table in the war room. But this time, we knew them for what they were. Fake items meant to trap us.

“I’m sorry I didn’t see it earlier,” Rend said. He paced the room. “Damn, I almost got all of us kidnapped. Or killed.”

“If it hadn’t been for you, who knows what might have happened,” I said. “Thank God you remembered when you did, or we might be sitting in cages in some dungeon right now. Or worse.”

“The key is to figure out where we go from here,” Mary Anne said. “We need a new plan.”

“I have an idea, but it’s risky,” I said.

“I’m good with risk, as long as it has the potential to get answers,” she said. “Like I said, Essex and I can go to find the emerald ring.”

“If it’s still there at all,” I said. “We have to consider the fact that the other priestesses might have gone after the ring as soon as they realized Priestess Evers was gone.”

“It’s worth a shot, though,” she said.

“I don’t want the two of you going alone,” I said. “When Harper and I found the ring, there were several hunters guarding it. It’s possible the Order increased security on the remaining rings after we stole the sapphire one. We have no idea what to expect, but if we send an army with you, you should be able to handle almost anything they send your way.”

She nodded. “I like the idea of an army,” she said with a laugh. “It’s too bad Andros never showed.”

My stomach tightened. Yet another piece of this puzzle that I didn’t have answers for. Andros had said he was coming to give me news about Aerden and Lea. Something was happening in the city that he thought I would want to know about, but so far, there’d been no sign of him. Even his communication stones weren’t getting through.

“Maybe after you find the ring, you can go look for Andros, too,” I said. “I’m anxious to know what’s going on in the city.”

“We’ll do whatever we need to,” she said. “But what are you going to do?”

I stared at the ritual items. The idea was crazy, but I didn’t know what else to do.

When Harper had disappeared, I spent months foolishly trying to get answers through sheer force. In the end, though, the one thing that had worked was getting the emerald priestess’s attention to the point where she had no choice but to seek me out.

Here, we had a direct route to at least one of the other priestesses. If the ruby priestess knew how to find Harper, maybe the others did, too, and if these items opened a portal to any of the others, it could help us. Maybe it was a long shot, but we needed more information.

“What’s going through your head?” Rend asked.

“Harper said these items were fake. She told you that she’d heard they were rigged so that if they were ever used, a portal would open up, right?”

“Yeah. She said the amethyst priestess would be ready to send an army of witches through to capture us,” he said. “They’re completely unusable.”

“Not exactly,” I said. “What if we use them anyway? What if we force her out of hiding?”

Rend shook his head. “I don’t know about that, Jackson. We’d have to put together a huge army just to be prepared for what she might send through,” he said. “I don’t see how that gets us any closer to our goals right now.”

“If the ruby priestess knew where there was a portal back to Harper, maybe the other sisters know about it, too,” I said. “We could spend months searching for that portal. We have no idea where it could be, other than the fact that it might be somewhere close to that hospital. But Cristo searched the entire town and couldn’t find any sign of it. It could be inside someone’s house, hidden deep underground. Hell, it could be permanently glamoured to look like a tree. We have no idea, and the chances of us actually finding it before it closes are slim to none.”

“But how is fighting the amethyst priestess and her army going to get us any closer to finding the portal?” Rend asked. “I mean, I’m all for fighting another priestess, but we might be biting off more than we can chew right now.”

“Who said we were going to fight her?” I asked. “Right now, we have an advantage, because we know these items open some kind of portal to one of the Order’s hideouts. If we can set it up somehow where we can see them, but they can’t see us, maybe we can gather some valuable information about who they are or where they’re located. Maybe we can see something that will help us find the portal.”

Rend nodded. “I see what you’re saying here,” he said. “But it’s risky. There’s almost no way we could hide an entire army from them. They would sense our presence if we bring too many people. But if we only take a handful of people or if you attempt to do this on your own, all it will take is having the right witch there with the right type of ability to see through illusions and it’s all over.”

“So, we plan for the worst-case scenario,” I said. “Any chance you have any potions inside your bag of tricks that can’t be detected by any magic?”

Rend brought a hand to his forehead and stood there for a long moment before he nodded. “I might have something that will work,” he said. “It’s going to take a combination of potions I haven’t tried before, but I can use you as my guinea pig. Since you can see through glamours and illusions, I can test it on you before we go.”

“How long do you need to get this ready?” I asked, ready to go right now. The sooner we could get to the portal, the more chance we had of actually finding Harper safe and alive.

“I’ll go home and get to work on it right away. I should have something to test by midnight or so,” he said. “We should plan to trigger the items at three tomorrow afternoon, if we can. Otherwise, they might get suspicious about why we’re triggering them at an off time.”

“Good point,” I said. “I’ll hang around here and come up with a plan for how to get away should we be detected.”

“Who all is going to go with you?” Mary Anne asked.

“We shouldn’t try to take more than a handful of people,” Rend said. “I’ll go with you. I can bring a bag full of potions that will help us get away if it comes to that.”

I nodded. “Then let’s just make it the two of us,” I said. “Less people to worry about if things go south.”

“I’ll start putting together an expedition group,” Mary Anne said. “In the meantime, I need to know everything about how you and Harper found the sapphire ring.”

We had a long afternoon and evening ahead of us, but as I stared at the fake emerald items on the table, I felt hope again for the first time since we’d found the burned building.

Just hang on, Harper. I’m going to find you.