The Caraway Inn seemed to have more guests than the last time I was here, and because of this I wasn’t sure how we were going to pull off searching the house without someone noticing. Besides, there was an awkward vibe to the place since Lucy Appleton’s death. It was as though a dark cloud hung over the inn, one I wasn’t sure the Caraways would be able to get rid of anytime soon. Spell or not. Lucy’s murder by the Midnight Reaper, as the townsfolk thought of it, had put Caraway Inn on the map. Police had been in and out, searching for clues as to whether the Midnight Reaper was truly responsible. Roman was good at not leaving behind evidence.

“So, how do you want us to start searchin’ for this bracelet?” Benji asked.

We all stood in the kitchen. It was the first place Rowena had went when we stepped inside. I watched her as she filled a teapot with water and placed it on the stove.

“The best place would be where there are no guests,” Rowena said. She reached into a cabinet and pulled down a mason jar containing a loose-leaf tea blend. I wondered if it was her calming blend and if she would share. I could go for a nice big cup of calm the hell down right about now. “Let me check with my girls to make sure there isn’t anything else that needs my attention first, and then I’ll have them help create a locator spell while the rest of you search in the attic.”

I hoped her spell worked. It would cut down our search time.

“The attic?” Benji asked. He didn’t seem too happy to be heading back there so soon.

“No guests go up there.” Rowena’s gaze drifted to Benji. “I know it’s probably the last place you want to be so soon, but it would be a perfect place to hide something like the bracelet.”

He scratched his head. “I guess.”

“We’ll let you know if we find it,” Tate said. He headed for the stairs.

“I’ll let you know when I’m finished with the locator spell,” Rowena insisted. She placed a spoonful of tea leaves in a sachet.

“I’ll help search the attic.” Ridley followed Tate. She pulled Benji along with her and I followed.

Tension emanated from Tate as the four of us climbed the stairs. While I couldn’t pinpoint its exact cause, I could tell it had something to do with Benji. Maybe he didn’t feel Benji was capable of helping as much as he thought.

I glanced at Benji. He seemed okay. Maybe we all needed to give him a chance. My wolf nipped at me; she was siding with Tate on this one.

“Will you chill out?” I hissed at Tate. “You’re making my wolf uncomfortable. Relax.”

“I’m trying, but I don’t feel like relaxing in the presence of a newbie vampire,” he insisted.

“A newbie who’s got heightened hearin’,” Benji muttered. “I said I could hack this, and I can. I’m fine.”

“Are you though? I’ve never met a vampire able to transition as smoothly as you,” Tate spat.

“What newly created vampires have you ever been around?” I asked, calling him out. Heck, he’d never been around a vampire in his life. His dad had made sure none entered Mirror Lake. The Montevallos hadn’t even visited during the length of his life.

Tate scowled at me, but he didn’t speak because he knew I was right.

“Let’s focus on finding this bracelet,” Ridley insisted. She opened the door to the attic and started up the stairs. “Once we find it we can talk about Benji’s new vampire abilities all we want. Until then, focus.”

It was strange to hear her sound so serious, but I didn’t disagree with what she said. Nothing else mattered except finding that bracelet.

I glanced around the attic, taking in the wooden beams and dusty trunks along the far wall. My insides deflated. Just this room alone could take hours to go through. We were screwed.

“I hope your aunt can get a locator spell to work,” I said. I stepped to the first trunk nearest me.

“Me too,” Tate insisted. “I’d like to get out of this house before I’m fifty.”

I rolled my eyes but secretly agreed with him.

“Want to split the room into four sections?” Ridley asked. “If we each take one, we should be able to scour this room in no time. Make sure you don’t overlook anything. The bracelet will be old. It’s made out of metal, but from what Gretchen said it’s a loose metal. Something more along the lines of rope, whatever that means. It’s bendable and silver. I don’t know if there’s any symbols on it or not.”

“How will we know we’ve found the right bracelet? There could be a million of them in all this junk your family’s forgotten about up here,” Benji said.

“I’ll know. Gretchen will contact me again.”

I glanced at her. How would she contact her? It was then I noticed Ridley wasn’t wearing her necklace. She’d left herself open—her door cracked, as Octavia had said.

“That’s not creepy at all,” Tate muttered. He started to his section of the attic to search.

If Ridley heard him, she didn’t let on. Instead, she began combing through her section of the room.

Hours seemed to tick away. None of us had any luck finding the bracelet, and Rowena had yet to say she’d finished her locator spell.

“Okay. That’s one room down,” Tate said as we left the attic. “Only a million more to go. I can’t believe how big this house is.”

“I know how you feel. This is goin’ to take forever,” Benji grumbled.

“Why don’t the four of us split into groups of two?” I suggested. “Benji, you and Tate can look in that room while Ridley and I look in there. Any type of bracelet you find, hold on to it, and we’ll let Ridley look through them all when we finish searching the rooms. Maybe it will make things go faster.”

“All right, it’s worth a shot.” Tate shrugged.

The guys went into the room opposite ours, and I felt some of my tension melt away. My wolf seemed happier with the distance too.

“I’m glad you suggested we split up. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could put up with them. Their whining was getting on my last nerve,” Ridley said. She crossed the room to browse through the nightstand.

I moved the mirror above the dresser aside, looking for any hidden compartments behind it. There wasn’t any.

“Exactly why I suggested we split up. I couldn’t handle it anymore either.”

Time passed without any of us having much luck. We found bracelets galore, but none of them seemed to be the one. Rowena and her daughters successfully made the locator spell, but it hadn’t worked. Hours had passed. Eli had texted me more than once asking for an update, but we didn’t have any news to give. Neither did he. No one knew where Roman was.

After another forty minutes of searching, defeat rushed through me.

I couldn’t help thinking the bracelet wasn’t here anymore. We would have found it by now if it was. I swore we’d searched everywhere.

We needed a clue or some help, that much was clear.

“Have you thought about contacting Gretchen again?” I asked.

“That gets my vote too,” Benji insisted. “Maybe you can hear her better now, or she’s remembered where it might be.”

Ridley looked to Rowena.

“You know how I feel about it. I’m not going to repeat myself. Anyway, I said I’ll be here for you. I won’t go against you again on this.” Rowena tossed her hands up in surrender.

Ridley adjusted her glasses. “Asking again might be a good idea. I know she’s still with me, I can feel her.”

“Maybe she’s waiting around because she wants you to contact her again so she can tell you where the bracelet is. She has to know we haven’t found it yet,” I said.

“Maybe.” Ridley pulled in a deep breath and then closed her eyes. She placed her palms up, facing the ceiling. “Here goes nothing.”

Her face formed a neutral expression, and her breathing slowed. If I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve thought she was sleeping. A sense of peacefulness radiated from her.

Maybe she was getting the hang of the anchor thing.

When the same bluish-white light became visible, I knew she’d tapped in.

“Gretchen, we weren’t able to find the bracelet. We searched the house as best we could. Do you know if it’s still here within these walls?” Ridley asked.

I knew she was talking to Gretchen on our behalf, but it still freaked me out. There was no way I would ever be able to be an anchor. Ghosts, spirits, and the mere mention of the other side sounded too scary.

“If the bracelet you mentioned is still in this house, please tell me where,” Ridley insisted.

I waited for something to happen—something to go bump, a voice to speak, anything—but nothing did.

Ridley’s eyes flew open. The light streaming from her vanished, and she jumped up from where she’d been on the couch. I watched as she rushed to the stairway that led to the second floor. I thought she was going up them, but instead she stepped to the side and stared at their profile. She pointed to the seventh step and then moved forward to pry the top piece of wood off the riser with her fingers.

“This isn’t working,” she said. She went to the kitchen and came back with a flat-head screwdriver.

Once she got the board free, Ridley slipped her hand inside a secret compartment and pulled something wrapped in lavender colored cloth free.

“This is it,” Ridley said. She spun around to face us. “Gretchen showed me where it was instead of trying to tell me this time. I wish we had thought to do that before. It would have saved us so much time.”

Now not only could my friend hear dead people, but images they wanted her to see flashed through her mind as well.

Ridley was more powerful than she ever gave herself credit for.

“It’s been inside that step for over a hundred years,” she said. Excitement bubbled from her.

Rowena made her way to the steps. “I didn’t know there was a secret compartment there.”

“It was spelled to be hidden. Only Gretchen and her youngest sister knew it was there.” Ridley peeled back the cloth. Nestled inside was a shiny silver bracelet. “Here, let me put it on you.” She moved to where I was.

My wolf was hesitant and so was I. While I trusted Ridley, I still knew nothing about the bracelet or Gretchen Caraway. What if the spirit Ridley spoke to wasn’t who she’d claimed to be? What if I put the bracelet on and became a vampire’s slave or something equally as crazy?

Stranger things had happened in the supernatural world for sure.

“It’s okay,” Ridley insisted. Was she able to pick up on how freaked out I was all of a sudden? “Trust me.”

I held my right wrist out to her while holding my breath. My gaze drifted to Tate. He nodded and I knew he was sharing in my unease too.

Ridley draped the bracelet around my wrist. I’d expected it to feel cold, but it wasn’t. It was warm—almost as though it was alive. A living, breathing thing.

An entity all its own.

“It’s warm,” I said. My fingertips brushed across its silken, shiny surface.

“It holds a unique form of magic. Something Gretchen placed inside it. It doesn’t only render a vampire weak while in its presence, it actually feeds off a vampire’s energy. That’s what keeps it powerful. It’s what makes it work.”

“So, I’m like a freakin’ battery charger for it, then?” Benji asked. He stepped closer.

For a moment I’d forgotten he was a vampire.

“Do you feel anything from it?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No.”

Good. The last thing we needed was for it to send out some sort of sensation Roman would be able to feel. I wanted him to be blindsided when I took him down, not skeptical or tipped off.

“What’s been feeding it while it was stored in the step for over a hundred years?” Tate asked. Skepticism seemed to pulse from him.

“I have a feeling the other objects stored with it had something to do with that.” Rowena pulled various artifacts from the hidden compartment.

I stared at each. There was a tiny metal sphere that fit in the palm of her hand. It was a rustic brass color with intricate designs carved across its surface. A necklace with a beautiful locket and a red gem I assumed was a ruby on it. A dagger made of solid black metal. A big ugly ring with a giant blue stone. A silver hand mirror. And finally, a vial of something red I assumed was blood.

“What the hell is all of that? That step was like a coffin of witchy objects,” Benji said. He stared at the contents of the step, mesmerized like the rest of us.

“Looks like your ancestors have some explaining to do,” Tate insisted. He reached out to touch the metal sphere.

Rowena slapped his hand away. “Don’t. We don’t know what any of these things can do.”

“You’re touching them,” Tate spat like a little child.

“I’m a Caraway. The objects won’t hurt me because of it.”

“She’s right,” Ridley said. “Gretchen says only Caraway witches can touch them.”

“Then how am I able to wear this bracelet?” I asked. I wasn’t being sassy; I was curious.

“Because I allowed you to,” Ridley said in a scary calm voice.

My gaze lifted to her. She may have only tapped into her anchor powers recently, but she was already oozing strength and confidence in her magic. Ridley wasn’t going to be someone to mess with once she figured everything out.

“Oh.” I blinked. “Thank you?” Was that what I was supposed to say?

Ridley didn’t speak. Instead, she took the artifacts from Rowena and carefully placed them back inside the step before securing the piece of wood in place. Then, she headed to the living room. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her. She was whispering something I couldn’t quite make out. When she came back to where the rest of us stood in the foyer, she was wearing her necklace again.

“The bracelet should work. Gretchen said Roman will need to be within a few feet of you for it to syphon his powers. Once that happens, Roman should be rendered practically human.” A yawn slipped past her lips. “Sorry, I guess tapping into the other side and communicating with the dead drains me.”

At least it didn’t cause her to have a seizure this time. She’d definitely made progress.

I pulled her in for a hug. “Thank you for this. I think we stand a chance against Roman now.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad I could help,” she said.

“We should head out.” I released her. “I’ve got a killer vampire to play bait to.”

“Be careful,” Ridley insisted. She covered her mouth as a second yawn slipped free.

Benji placed a kiss to her forehead. “Get some rest. I’ll call you later and fill you in on things.”

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Back to the Montevallos. I’m starved.” He flashed her a shy smile.

Rowena pulled me in for a hug. “Please be careful. Eli can’t handle losing you too. Make smart choices.”

“I will,” I said, returning her hug.

When she released me, I headed to the front door. Benji and Tate followed.

“How do you even know that thing works? I told you I don’t feel anything comin’ off it,” Benji said as the three of us started down the porch steps.

I balled up my right fist and slammed it into his shoulder as hard as I could. He stumbled backward and grasp his shoulder as a breath of air whooshed from his lungs.

“Holy shit, I wasn’t expectin’ that. You got a mean right hook,” Benji muttered. He rubbed the area where I’d slugged him. “That hurt.”

“Guess the bracelet is working, then.” I snickered. I climbed into the driver seat of my car and cranked the engine. A new level of hope swelled within me.

We could end this thing with Roman. The piece of shiny metal around my right wrist was the key.

“You ain’t kiddin’,” Benji huffed. “I can’t feel my shoulder.”

“Oh, whatever.” I rolled my eyes and reached for my cell.

I shot a quick text to Eli, letting him know we’d found the bracelet, and I was heading home soon. He replied right away, his excitement apparent.

“I didn’t realize you were such a wimpy human.” Tate chuckled. He climbed into the passenger seat of my car while Benji slipped in the back.

“I wasn’t a wimp. She just has one hell of a punch.”

“Right.” Tate laughed. “Sure.”

I glanced at Benji through my rearview mirror. He was shooting death rays at Tate.

“Calm down,” I said. “I’m sorry I hit you so hard. Did you need me to stop by anywhere else before I drop you at the Montevallos?”

“No. Like I said, I’m feelin’ pretty damn hungry.” Benji glared at the back of Tate’s head, and then shifted to stare out his window.

I forced my car into reverse, trying hard to keep the smirk off my face. Someone was moody when he was hungry—and when he felt his manhood had been tested.