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“What remains is a general perception rather than specific.”
My ears pricked up. “Meaning you can give me a general location for her?”
“She is to the west of Castle Rock. More than that, I cannot say.”
The tunnel appeared to be on an east-west axis, so maybe, if luck was on our side, following it to the right would lead us to the vampires.
Or a trap, Belle commented.Possibly both.
Possibly.Probably. “If Marie contacts you—or even makes a move against you—will you let me know?”
“If she makes a move against me, you will know soon enough.”
Because the shit would hit the fan. Or rather, the blood and body parts would. “Maelle—”
“Keep me updated,” she added brusquely, then hung up.
She’s still off-kilter emotionally, Belle said.I don’t think it’ll take too much to push her over the edge.
Which is exactly what Marie intends.
So why isn’t Maelle helping us find her? I know she said she can’t because of that whole oath thing, but I’m not sure we’re getting the whole truth out of her.
And probably never will.I glanced around as Monty returned. “You found anything?”
He held up a glove-wrapped spell stone. “It was buried in one of the stumps—I think the blast must have dislodged it from wherever it had been initially set.”
“Is there any magic on it?”
“No, but I figured you might be able to psi track the owner through it.”
“Worth a try.” Especially if it meant I avoided going into the tunnel. I warily accepted the glove but didn’t immediately grip the stone. As Monty had said, no magic lingered on it, but darkness nevertheless emanated from it.
And that darkness was familiar.
I met Monty’s gaze, my heart beating faster. “This stone comes from Jaqueline’s set, and I think there’s enough of a connection to track her.”
“Did she go down in the tunnel? Or was she the one in that van?”
I gripped the spell stone tighter through the glove and narrowed my gaze. No images rose—unsurprising given the glove would mute all but the strongest of connections. After a moment, I said, “I have no sense of her having gone underground.”
Quite the opposite, in fact.
Which didn’t make sense. Roger—and by definition, Maelle—had been certain she’d been inside the bunkhouse when he’d first arrived. She’d obviously been deceived, but how? Was it the presence of her magic that they’d sensed? Or something else?
“Which means,” Monty was saying, “we might have to split up.”
“And that makes me thankful we now have additional help,” came Aiden’s comment from behind us.
I jumped and turned. I’d been concentrating so hard on the stone that I hadn’t heard his approach. And he wasn’t alone. Ashworth and Eli were with him, along with a tall, rather rugged-looking man I didn’t recognize. He was wearing dark overalls and was carrying a sack with several hard hats in it, which suggested he was either a caver or an Emergency Services officer.
All four were wearing sunglasses, which made sense given the brightness of the day, but also had the psychic bit of me relaxing just a little.
Although I wasn’t sure why, given we’d yet to test the theory they’d offer some protection from the basilisk’s glare.
And, personally, I hoped we never did.
“What are you two doing here?” I asked. “I thought you were waiting for the basilisk hunter to arrive?”
