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When the warehouse in question came into view, my grip on Kinsley’s hand tightened, but she didn’t try to pull away. We stopped before a window and listened quietly with Lia and Markus behind us.
I couldn’t hear a fucking thing inside, which either meant that there was a silencing spell on the building or nobody was there.
Either way, we were about to find out.
Chapter25
KINSLEY
Something about being in No Man’s Land made my skin crawl. I hadn’t ever been an official member of a House, but still. I didn’t like being here, where people were apt to be more reckless. That didn’t mean I was afraid, though.
Lia moved in next to me and pressed a hand to the exterior of the building. “It’s empty.”
I glanced over at her pinched expression. “Are you sure?”
She nodded but kept her hand on the wall. “Yeah, but they just recently left, and they could be back anytime.”
Grayson didn’t waste any time heading for the door, and I was right there by his side. If we only had one chance to look around, I didn’t want to give that up.
We went around to the front of the building and Grayson opened the door with a quick tug. The metal of the lock snapped, clattering to the cement, but Markus kicked the broken pieces toward the street before we stepped inside.
The door closed nearly all of the way behind us, and the lights were still on in the area we’d entered. There were a few rooms with doors up ahead, but the main area seemed to be where most everything had been before whoever had up and bolted. If only we’d gotten here earlier like planned.
Tables with cords dangling from them that likely went to computers and other tech filled most of the space. Potion bottles I’d seen before were on a shelf against the far wall, and that was what drew my attention the most.
Not because I thought I knew a lot about magic, but because these were purple stained-glass bottles with an insignia on them that I had seen on occasion while growing up.
These were from Hazel’s shop back at the coven.
My fingers touched the glass lightly as if I expected the material to do something grand, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about these potions except for the fact that I knew where they’d come from.
“What is it?” Grayson asked from next to me.
I glanced up at him, unsure if I was overthinking this or if I was on to something. “I know the witch who made these,” I said. “Well, I more knewofher. She housed me for a few weeks when I was, like, seven. I never talked to her after that.”
A rumble built in Grayson’s chest. “He could have gone to your coven for magic trades and stumbled upon you, forcing her hand in some way.”
“Or the witch turned on her coven and sought Johnathon out,” Lia said from behind us, pointing at the bottles. “That magic is familiar.”
She reached between us and took one, opened the corked lid, then sneered a second later, quickly closing it back up. “Yep. That’s the same magic that was used on you, Grayson.”
“Are you sure?” he asked with a strained voice.
“Positive.” She nodded at the same time. “Honestly, it was an excellent plan now that I’m seeing all of this, one that would have worked except there was no way to know that you were Kinsley’s mate or that I’d show up.”
“I’ve got something over here,” Markus said from across the room.
He was standing over one of the tables and sorting through some papers that had been scattered about. “What is it?” I asked when we joined him.
Markus handed me a sheet of paper with just a few confusing sentences on it, then he pointed to certain words. “Shade. Heir. Factions. War. Throne. Spread out, those make no sense, but if you put them together, this Johnathon person knows exactly what he’s doing, and I would assume he’s been fucking with things longer than any of us realized if he’s talking about Shade.”
“Who is Shade?” I asked as I scanned over the paper again.
“He was Dad’s second-in-command,” Markus answered, but the hard set of tension in his face told me not to ask anything else about the guy.
I noticed Lia still moving around the room with her eyes closed and hands hanging loosely at her side. I watched her for several moments until she paused next to one of the doors.
“We need to go in here,” she said, slowly looking at each of us.
