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“Where are you?”
“In the same clearing I found Karen in.”
“I’ll be there in ten.”
I battered away the mental images of him getting dressed. However pleasant those images might be, it was hardly appropriate for my hormones to be getting giddy when there was someone lying unconscious and in trouble at my feet. “I’ve called the medics.”
“Good. Don’t move—but don’t take any risks, either.”
“I won’t.” I hung up, put the phone away, and waited.
Precisely nine minutes and three seconds later, the wisp’s light went out and Aiden appeared. He was once again wearing loose-fitting sweats, but this time his feet were bare and his hair was as scruffy as the whiskers lining his chin. A small pack was slung over one shoulder.
He paused when he saw me, his gaze quickly sweeping the clearing before returning. Though his expression gave little away, I nevertheless felt both his frustration and relief. The latter had my pulse skipping a beat or two.
“The medics are a minute behind me.” He strode forward. “Is she still alive?”
“Yes, but severely burned.”
He knelt beside me, his knee brushing mine. “It looks like she was caught in an explosion.”
“There must have been some sort of spell attached to the pendant, as the closed circle would have stopped an outside force from getting in or attacking her.”
He glanced around as two men entered the clearing and motioned them over. “So the force of the explosion also erased her pentagram?”
“I think so.” I rose and stepped away to give the medics room. “I can’t see how else this could have happened.”
“Have you done a search of the area yet?”
“No, but we need to. There’s no sign of her athame, and she would have used it to cast the circle.”
“I take it an athame is made of silver?”
“Yes, although the handle will be wood and the blade single-edged rather than double.”
“Single-edged or not, I wouldn’t want anyone accidentally stumbling onto it. Not with the damage that stuff can do to us.” He handed me a flashlight and then motioned toward the area on the left. “You check that side, I’ll check this.”
I nodded. Using the top point of the pentagram—the one traditionally representing spirit—as my starting point, I started walking up and down, carefully examining every inch of the clearing. I couldn’t find anything, though the lack of bloodstone shards was hardly surprising. The small stone would have disintegrated under the force being channeled through it.
I was walking back to my starting point when a bright flicker in the trees to the right caught my attention. I paused, and the light pulsed again. The wisp might have fled when Aiden had walked into the clearing, but it hadn’t gone too far.
I switched direction and hurried into the trees.
“Liz?” Aiden said.
“Hang on,” I replied. “I just have to check something.”
Again the wisp’s light pulsed. I climbed over a felled tree trunk and saw what it had wanted me to find—Anna’s athame. I took out my phone, took a couple of photos to record its position for Aiden, then tugged my sleeve over my hand and carefully picked it up. While silver couldn’t cause me any harm, most witches from royal lines tended to be rather fussy about who handled their ceremonial items. I had no idea if Anna was one of those, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
There was no physical evidence of damage to either the blade or the hilt, but even through the protective layer of my sleeve, I could feel the uneasy energy clinging to the knife. It was the same sort of energy that had been used against the café’s defenses this evening, and it was all the confirmation I needed that the vampire had also been behind this attack.
Not that I ever had much doubt about that.
I glanced up at the wisp. “Thank you so much for all your help tonight, my friend.”
The wisp spun in a circle and emitted a ridiculously high-pitched noise. I had no idea what it meant, but it seemed rather pleased with itself.
I climbed over the tree, then returned to the clearing
