Any serious endeavor at investigation started with an effective crime map. Fortunately for Silas, Meredith had set up a corkboard along half his office wall and covered it with every contact Silas, Jason, or Laina had had with Alex or one of his cronies. The apartment building in the vampire district, the crime scene outside of Carlton City, Copper Herald Health & Wellness, and ZeroHour.

“Don’t forget the Four Paws parking lot.” Laina rubbed her stomach as if she was already guarding the baby inside. Her hand circled the small mound of her lower abdomen. Was it only his imagination or did she already look pregnant? Kyle rubbed her shoulders, hovering protectively.

“Whoever stabbed Laina could change his or her appearance to look like Nickelova,” Kyle said. “That’s a clue, isn’t it?”

“Did Nickelova actually say Alex was going to raise Panaal?” Selene asked.

“More or less. She said Alex was his tool. That his goal is to overthrow Hecate as the master of this world and turn the tables, unleashing the underworld.”

“Who else thinks it would be a bad idea to allow that to happen?” Jason raised one hand.

“Bad is the understatement of the year. It would be chaos,” Selene said. “War. Violent, bloody carnage until there was nothing left to eat or be eaten.”

“So… bad,” Jason said.

Selene tilted her head, her mouth twitching with a suppressed smile.

“What is he waiting for?” Meredith asked no one in particular. She’d taken a seat in Silas’s chair and rested her boots on the desk.

“I know enough from my study of the goddess to presume Alex is working out some kind of ritual,” Selene said. Every eye in the room snapped to her. “Crossing dimensions takes magic and energy. Lots of energy. If he’s opening a pathway to the underworld, literally raising Panaal, physically and permanently, he’ll have to complete a ritual powerful enough to merge this dimension with the next.”

“Blood magic?” Silas asked, thinking of the dark sorcery he’d heard Grateful talk about.

“Yes and no. Most likely it will require blood,” Selene answered, “but Alex is a werewolf. Even with the dragon fae amulet, his body can’t wield elemental magic like a witch. He’ll have to use ritual, not sorcery. Only all werewolf rituals are pleas to the goddess. Whatever ritual he’s trying to perform must turn everything I know on its head. Something like that would require a major source of metaphysical power… like… like… a celestial event.”

“An exploding star or something?” Meredith asked.

Selene rose and crossed the room to Silas’s wall calendar. Her finger skimmed the page and landed on a square. “Holy shit.”

“What is it?” Silas strode to her side to get a better look.

“A full eclipse of the moon.”

“Goddess, why didn’t I think of that? I knew it was coming. We’ve been preparing at Rivergate for weeks.”

“Fill me in,” Kyle said. “What happens to werewolves during a lunar eclipse?”

“The shift is irregular. Some wolves will shift back to human when the light of the moon is blocked.”

“Wolves like Alex?”

“With the added power of the amulet, I’d count on it.”

Jason rubbed his chin, supporting the weight of his arm by the elbow. “What if Alex hasn’t attacked us yet because he’s storing up power and collecting ingredients to perform this ritual?”

“He took bones from the crime scene,” Meredith said.

“Bones from an unconsecrated grave,” Silas added. “I don’t know what it means, but it sure sounds like an ingredient for a spell.” A collective moan rose between them.

“Selene, do you think you can find the ritual?” Jason asked. “Maybe we can stop him from obtaining all of the components to perform the spell effectively before the lunar eclipse.”

She shook her head. “This is dark magic, Jason. Artemis isn’t going to have anything like this in the sanctuary texts, not even from a theoretical perspective.”

Laina sighed. “Of course not. This is black magic.”

“There is one place we can find books on rituals like this,” Selene said, glancing over her shoulder at Jason. “But I doubt you’re going to like it, Silas.”

“Ryker,” Jason said.

“Ryker,” Selene confirmed.

“Ryker! Who’s to say he wasn’t the one to provide Alex with the ritual in the first place?” Silas asked. He didn’t trust Ryker. How could they be sure Ryker wasn’t responsible for the sulfralite they found in Laina’s wound? “Can demons disguise themselves as other people? How do we know it wasn’t Ryker who stabbed Laina?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jason said. “Ryker’s not a Sunday school teacher, but he lives based on one very basic principle: he acts in his own best interest. He has no motivation to change the status quo. Why would he compromise his business? More money? The guy is rich. Power? He doesn’t need it. He’s very persuasive. He gets what he wants.”

“Besides, demons can’t look like someone else,” Meredith said softly. Silas turned around to face her. She’d removed her feet from the desk and was concentrating on her clasped fingers. “A demon can possess someone, make them do something they don’t want to do, but a demon can’t change their appearance to look like another person, well any more than you or I could disguise ourselves. There are charms of course. Costumes.”

“The enchantment around the property would null a camouflage charm, and it wasn’t a costume.” Laina’s voice was firm.

“A demon could have possessed Nickelova and forced her to stab Laina, but that demon could not transform himself into a Nickelova look-alike without magic,” Meredith said.

“How do you know?” Silas asked.

“Because the only creatures who can change their appearance without magic are skinwalkers. It’s the pride of my mother’s people.”

“So then, do you think a skinwalker did this?” Jason asked.

“No. That’s the thing. Skinwalkers hate Alex and everything he stands for. He killed my father. No way would any of my mother’s people help him. There are other communities, but they are notoriously neutral. What motivation could they possibly have?”

“What if magic was involved?” Kyle chimed in. “A witch or fae could have deconstructed the enchantment and simply suggested they looked like Nickelova after they stabbed Laina. That stuff she was infected with could have changed her memories.”

Laina shrugged. “It seemed real, but I’m beginning to think anything is possible.”

“I could check with Gerty. See if she’s heard any rumblings from the dark fae,” Kyle said.

Silas scratched the stubble on his jaw. “I like it.”

“And I can check with Grateful about the witches,” Laina said. At Jason’s quizzical look, she added, “She is my neighbor. I’ll pop over for a visit.”

Jason put his hand on Selene’s shoulder. “We’ll check out Lost Things and see if Ryker can help us figure out where Alex might have obtained this ritual.”

“And I’ll see what I can learn from Nickelova.” Silas reached for his coffee. When was the last time he slept? When was the last time he ate?

Meredith stood from behind the desk, “And I’ll make sure Silas eats something and lies down before he falls over.”

Laina and Jason exchanged glances. “Thank you, Meredith.”

He was tempted to protest, to tell her all he needed was a cup of coffee and he was good to go, but he knew it was a lie. He was on the verge of collapse, and he hadn’t even realized it until now.

She slid her fingers into his, her red hair swinging over one shoulder as she met his gaze. “Come on, hero. I’m taking you home.”