As soon as we stepped into the castle’s main entry hall, I caught sight of Cade and Jude.

Bree ran to her boyfriend, flinging her arms around him and smacking a kiss right on his lips. She pulled back. “This is a coincidence, finding you right here.”

“Not a coincidence.” Cade raised his head and looked at the rest of us. “Convenient.”

“How so?”

He returned his gaze to Bree. “The seer that I was meeting predicted that you all would arrive here, roughly around this time, with information that would help us find our missing friends. I was just reporting that to Jude.”

My brows rose. “Good seer.”

He grinned. “One of the best.”

“What did you find?” Interest gleamed in Jude’s starry blue eyes as she looked at us.

“They’re in the Parco dei Mostri,” Lachlan said.

“The park of monsters?” Jude frowned. “That’s in central Italy. Lazio, correct?”

“Aye. I know roughly where the forest is, but finding the monsters and the stronghold will be tricky.”

“We’re here to help!”

The feminine voice sounded from behind, and I turned, spotting Cass, Nix, and Del, our FireSoul friends from Magic’s Bend. Aidan, Ares, and Roarke—they’re fiancés or partners or whatever they were—had come, too. The three big men stood at their sides, looking ready for battle. Connor and Claire, the brother and sister duo who ran Potions & Pastilles, stood just behind them, grinning.

“I called them as soon as the seer told us what to expect,” Cade said. “I thought we could use the backup.”

“Good thinking,” Bree said.

I nodded. “And we could definitely use the backup, if we have to search the whole forest.”

“Did I hear you say monsters?” Nix’s green eyes glinted with interest. “I could use a good monster fight. Been cooped up in the shop too long.”

“It’s only been a few days,” Cass said.

She grinned. “Exactly.”

“Then you’re in for a treat, because there will definitely be monsters,” I said. “Probably plenty of them.”

She rubbed her hands together. “Excellent.”

“I’ll rally the troops,” Jude said. “Then we’ll head to the forest and start our search.”

“Is there any way we could transport the buggy?” I asked. “Seems like it’d be helpful in covering ground.”

“I’m not sure it would be,” Lachlan said. “The forest is so dense that I don’t think we could drive through it.”

I frowned. “On foot it is, then.”

“We’ll find them,” Bree said. “On foot or however we have to do it. We’ll find them.”

Fifteen minutes later, after a quick shower and a stop by the kitchen, I sat on the front steps of the Protectorate with Lachlan, waiting for the rest of the crew. We each ate a turkey sandwich as we stared out at the cold, clear night. Dawn was almost here. I did my best to store up my energy for what was to come, though I was exhausted.

There was no time for breaks, however. Not after what St. Bacchus had said.

“Here.” Lachlan handed me a tiny bottle of potion from his pocket. “It’ll give you energy.”

“Thanks.” I took it and drank, feeling a surge of strength go through me. “Aren’t you going to take one?”

He smiled. “Later.”

I frowned. “That was your last one, wasn’t it?”

“Last is a relative term.”

“The last one you had here.” I punched him lightly on the arm.

“Aye, it was.”

“Thanks. I’d have saved half for you if I’d known.” I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, then finished the last bite of my sandwich. “Do you know what kind of monsters are at the Parco dei Mostri?”

“I don’t. Whatever is there has to be terrible, though I don’t know how they’ve managed to keep them a secret in the woods for so long. But once we find them, we’ll know that we’re close to their stronghold.”

“So, head into the unfamiliar forest in search of monsters?” All in all, a pretty normal activity for me. But still, my chest tightened with nerves, stress making me feel trapped. “What if we don’t find them?”

Lachlan gripped my arm gently. I looked up at him.

“We’ll find them,” he said.

I nodded, trying to believe him. But I was terrified we wouldn’t be in time. “I wasn’t fast enough to save Caro, Lavender, and Angus back in The Narrows. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t act quickly enough. Now they’re captives, and it’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.” He shook his head. “You can’t take on that burden. Full stop.”

I sucked in a steady breath. He was right. Even if I felt guilty, I couldn’t let it weigh me down. Heck, I was a woman. I was predisposed to carry guilt like a sad knapsack full of misery. But the guilt wouldn’t help anything. We had to keep hunting, and I needed my focus on the job to get it done.

Lachlan pulled me to him, his arm around my shoulders, making me feel like we were in a bubble of warmth in the cold night air. “We’ll find them. I saw what you went through in Death Valley as children. How you drove across that deadly desert so many times. With you and your sisters on this job, we’re bound to find them.”

I nodded, feeling steadier. “Soon. Because whatever the Fates are planning…” I shuddered. “We can’t let it happen.”

I just knew it would be terrible. If it weren’t, then St. Bacchus wouldn’t have helped us.

I leaned my head against Lachlan’s shoulder, grateful for his support. This relationship—or whatever it was—had started as a whirlwind. But it was turning into something real. “Thank you.”

He squeezed my arm. “Anytime, Ana. I believe in you.”

An hour later, a group of twenty-two of us departed for the forest in central Italy. It’d taken some time to transport everyone, but as soon as we’d arrived, we’d split up into teams of two, spreading out through the forest to find the area where the Fates were hiding with our friends.

Lachlan and I crept through the forest together. The sun was beginning to rise as we moved around trees and over boulders, through bushes and narrow creeks.

“It’s pretty thick back here.” There was no sign of civilization that I could see. It was like we’d stepped back in time.

“Aye, it’s a wild forest. Almost no human interference.”

I kept my ears alert for any sound of approaching beasts, but all I could hear was the rustle of leaves and branches high above my head. Even in the winter, this place was nearly fully overgrown. Had to be magic.

I gripped a dagger lightly in my hand, ready to throw.

We kept going, minute after minute, creeping through the forest in what seemed like an endless hunt that would never be successful.

Every leaf and twig seemed to shiver in the air, active and alive. It was hard to focus on any one thing when the whole place was so wild.

Then I caught the scent. Something slightly rotten.

I held out a hand, palm up, in the universal gesture to stop. At my side, Lachlan halted abruptly, nodding at me.

I squinted into the dim forest, wishing for more than the watery morning sunlight to light the way. There was something here.

The rabid faun leapt from the trees without warning, its red eyes crazed as it raised a blade.

I lunged out of the way, swiping out with my sword as I dived to the side. My steel sliced across the faun’s belly, and it hissed, clawing out at me.

Lachlan grabbed the creature by the back of the neck and hurled it into a tree. It collapsed on the ground, not moving.

Shakily, I stood. “I think we’re getting close.”

“Patrols, maybe,” Lachlan said.

We left the faun, whose body had begun to disappear.

“If it’s disappearing, it has to be some kind of demon species,” I said.

“Aye, I buy it. They’re miserable little beasts.”

We crept forward on silent feet, more alert than ever.

A few moments later, the Cats of Catastrophe appeared at my side, creeping along quietly. Even Bojangles had chilled out a bit, clearly sensing the need for stealth.

Smell that? Muffin asked.

I sniffed, but only caught a whiff of the forest. I shook my head.

Give it a moment.

He was right. A dozen yards later, I smelled it, then looked at him and nodded.

See? I’ve got a superior sniffer.

It probably helped that the scent was vaguely like rotten fish. I nudged Lachlan, and he nodded. Quietly, we crept through the trees, finally catching sight of another faun. Foam dripped from its fangs as it paced the forest, sticking to the same path as it walked back and forth.

Definitely a patrol.

I raised my dagger and threw. The steel flipped through the air and landed in the faun’s neck. The creature dropped to the ground.

I hurried forward and retrieved the dagger from the body that was already beginning to disappear.

“Twenty bucks there are more of them,” I whispered.

Incoming! Muffin shrieked.

I spun around. Six fauns were racing from the forest, coming straight at us. Part of the patrol, and damn, was it a big one.

I threw my dagger, hitting another faun in the neck as Muffin leaped through the air, then landed on one and took it down to the ground. Bojangles and Princess Snowflake III used the same maneuver, and blood flew. Lachlan was fast, taking out two fauns with his sword.

But there were more of them. Five more raced toward us, drawn by the shouts of their compatriots.

“Block the sound!” I said to Lachlan.

“On it!” His magic swelled on the air, cocooning us from the outside world.

I called upon my fire magic and sent a blast of it toward the nearest faun. He lit up like a bonfire.

I spun to the right, shooting flame at a faun that was about to attack Muffin. Just as my flame hit the enemy, a sharp pain sliced through my outer thigh. I looked down, spotting a glint of steel from a sword that a faun had dragged across my leg.

“Bastard.” I shot him with fire, and he howled.

Lachlan took care of the rest with the help of the cats. Panting, I turned to search the woods. The trees rustled around us, massive boulders watching us like silent sentinels.

Then I spotted it. A demon’s face, staring at us from between two large leaves. He turned and ran.

“Come on!” I sprinted after the demon. If he was running like this, he had to be a scout, and we needed to catch him before he alerted the Fates to our arrival.

My lungs burned as I raced through the forest, leaping over rocks and dodging around tree trunks. The pain in my thigh faded as adrenaline filled my veins, giving me extra speed. I was nearly to the demon when something heavy hit me in the back.

I slammed onto my front, barely avoiding smashing my face into a rock.

Muffin sprinted by me, then leapt onto the back of the demon and took him to the ground. Aching, I scrambled to my feet, catching sight of Lachlan dealing with a faun behind me. The little bastard must have hit me in the back with a rock.

I turned and raced toward Muffin, who was making quick work of taking out the demon. Princess Snowflake III had joined him and was already gleefully tearing out the demon’s throat.

“Well, he won’t be alerting anyone to our arrival,” I muttered.

You’re welcome. Muffin dusted off his paws and turned to look into the forest. You feel that?

I did, suddenly. Like slime and stab wounds. “The Fates’ magic.”

Miserable witches. Muffin stalked forward, heading toward the magic.

Lachlan and I crept along after him, keeping close to the shadows of the bushes.

Holy tuna. The awe in Muffin’s voice made me stop. He was looking up at something, and I followed his gaze, my jaw dropping.

An enormous stone sculpture sat in front of us. It was a grotesque giant’s face carved from rough stone. The mouth gaped wide open, forming an entrance into a new part of the forest.

“We’ve found it,” I whispered. “This has to be it.”

“Aye, I think you’re right.” Slowly, Lachlan moved toward the mouth. He looked back at me. “Let’s check it out.”

I nodded eagerly, following him to the entrance of the Parco dei Mostri. Dark magic pricked against my skin as I walked through the huge opening in the stone.

The forest on the other side was creepier somehow. There was just as much light, but the leaves were a darker shade of green, the earth a deeper brown. The air itself vibrated with dark magic, and the trees had grown silent, their leaves no longer rustling.

The hair on my arms stood on end.

The magic here was strange. Something was definitely wrong.

I stopped, and Lachlan followed suit. Even the cats didn’t move.

“There’s something so weird in the air here,” I whispered. “Not just the Fates’ magic, but something else.”

“They aren’t close,” Lachlan said. “I think they’re here, but they are deeper into the forest. Past the monsters.”

“The monsters guard them.” Every inch of me vibrated with awareness as I searched the forest around us. “But where are the monsters?”

It was so deadly still and silent here that I had a hard time believing there really were monsters. Except for the dark magic that lingered in the air. That made it clear that there was something way wrong with this place. We shouldn’t go any farther. Not alone.

I stepped back. “We should let the others know where we are. We can’t afford to get killed before telling them we’ve found the place.”

On quick feet, we retreated back through the stone sculpture of the face. As soon as we reached the other side, the horrendous sense of wrongness dissipated. Yeah, we hadn’t seen any monsters in there. Not yet. But we were close.

I touched the comms charm at my neck and whispered into it. “We found the place.” I looked at the GPS coordinates on the little device that Hedy had given me, then relayed them to the rest of the team.

As soon as I got a chorus of confirmations, I cut the connection on the comms charm and looked at Lachlan. “Now, we wait.”

Forty minutes later, we were still waiting. It hadn’t taken long for our entire team to find us, but Jude had decided to send in the airborne forces first.

Bree was currently flying just above the tops of the trees, searching for any sight of the monsters or the Fates’ headquarters. They must have had a massively strong structure to hold in all of the Protectorate members.

Cass, Aidan, and Roarke had joined her in the air, all of them flying under the cover of invisibility. Bree had the gift of illusion, and so did Cass. It felt like ages passed as we waited, and I itched to get in there and start the hunt myself.

Finally, the trees rustled overhead.

“They’re back.” I stood.

All around me, our crew rose to their feet. Ali and Haris, Jude and Hedy, even Potts and Hans, who were fighting a lot more than they ever had before. Connor and Claire waited with the FireSouls, while the rest of the Protectorate members stood to the side. All in all, we were a force of twenty, and I prayed it was enough.

Bree’s invisibility charm faded just as she landed on the ground in front of me. She folded her silver wings back into her body. Roarke, the dark gray demon half blood, landed silently next to her. Aidan, the griffon, hit the ground on silent paws. His huge beak gleamed in the early-morning light and his golden wings glinted. A little sparrow came to perch on his head.

“That’s Cass’s favorite form for reconnaissance,” Del said from my left.

“Did you find it?” I asked.

“Two miles straight ahead,” Bree said. “A massive fortress built of stone. Nearly impenetrable.”

“And the monsters?” Lachlan asked.

Bree shook her head. “No sign of them.”

“Not a single movement in the forest,” Roarke added. “If there were creatures big enough to be called monsters in there, not a single one was moving.”

“They have to be there,” Rowan said. “No way we’d get so lucky.”

“We’ll need to figure it out on foot,” I said.

“Agreed,” Lachlan said.

“We stick together, then,” Jude said. “One team, straight through the forest toward the stronghold. Airborne team, you stay up high. Watch for the monsters. Shout if you see them.”

We all nodded, then moved forward.

The statue of the giant’s ugly face glowered at me as I stepped toward it. My muscles tightened. When I walked through, the same ugly magic washed over me, making my breath come short and my hair stand on end.

“Fates, I hate this place,” I whispered.

“Aye, it’s bloody awful,” Lachlan said.

Up above, my sister flew, scouting for the monsters that I still couldn’t see. Every one of my nerve endings vibrated with tension as we moved through the forest. When would they come for us? Were we being stalked even now?

When I first saw the giant boulder, I didn’t process what it was. It took a moment to realize that it had been carved in the same intricate detail as the scowling giant’s face that had marked the entrance to this place.

All around me, my colleagues stopped dead in their tracks.

“It’s a bear,” Rowan whispered.

A bear with massive fangs and claws as long as my leg. The thing was thirty feet long if it was an inch and had to have been carved hundreds of years ago. Trees and bushes had grown over parts of it, welcoming the bear to the earth.

“Did all of the monsters turn to stone at some point?” Del asked.

I stepped forward, my hand outstretched to touch the bear. I was fifteen feet from the statue when magic surged through the air. It hit me hard, nearly bowling me over. I gasped.

The stone bear exploded upright, surging to its feet. The creature was eerily silent, but moved so quickly I could barely process it. A massive paw swept down and slammed into me.

Pain exploded as I flew backward, plowing into someone else. We tumbled to the ground, and the air rushed from my lungs.

Stars swam in front of my vision as I tried to get a grip on my surroundings. Lachlan lay next to me, and we were right in front of a massive tree.

He’d caught me. Mostly. I’d been flying too fast to really catch, but he’d kept me from slamming into a tree and breaking all my bones.

“Thanks,” I croaked as I sat up.

The bear stood on all fours, a massive stone monster as big as a house. Its hackles rose and it moved forward.

Golden magic swirled around Cade, and a second later, the dark-haired man shifted into the form of an enormous wolf. He charged the bear. Aidan, Cass’s boyfriend, was already in his griffon form.

He joined Cade’s charge. Though they were huge, they were still a fraction of the bear’s size. They leapt into the air, slamming into the bear’s side with unnatural force. The beast tumbled to its side, crashing to the ground.

Thunder cracked in the air, then lightning struck. It pierced the stone bear, forming a crack in the monster’s back.

I scrambled to my feet next to Lachlan, who was already shifting into his lion form.

The bear shifted and stood. A huge crack cut deep into his back, big enough to kill any living animal.

But he was far from living.

The bear opened its mouth on a silent roar and charged.

This time, Lachlan joined Cade and Aidan. The three of them raced toward the bear, then hit him in the side again and shoved him over.

It bought us precious seconds.

Ares, the vampire with incredible strength, shoved an enormous tree onto the bear. Bree hit it again with her lightning, but the bear heaved to its feet once again, knocking the tree aside.

“Crap.” My mind raced as I searched for a way to defeat the bear, which was basically unkillable since he wasn’t alive. Even if Bree broke him in half with her lightning, the front half would probably still come for us.

I called upon my earth magic, opening up a crack in the ground. It yawned deep, a black void that reached into the earth.

“Get him into it!” I screamed.

Cass shifted into a griffon, mirroring Aidan’s form, and joined him, Cade, and Lachlan. They circled around the bear to push him into the ravine that I’d created. Roarke, in his demon form, joined them, along with Ares. The six of them charged the bear, leaping into the air and then kicking him in the side.

The bear teetered, then tumbled into the pit.

I sprinted toward it, using my magic to cover the bear with dirt. It pulled at my soul, an enormous burst of power that finished the job, and drained me.

When I reached the pit in the ground, it was nearly caved in over the bear, and he was nowhere to be seen.

My friends stood, panting.

“Well, hell,” Jude said. “I think the monsters must be made of stone.”

Adrenaline made my muscles shake as I spun in a circle, studying the forest around us. There were more monsters out there. I could feel them. Sleeping, waiting. But if we got close enough, they would wake.

Oh man, we were screwed.