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“Hey!” Adrian’s voice came through the line. “I’ve got a situation on la Alquelarre’s land.”
I looked at Dastien, but he shook his head. Which meant it wasn’t the demon that attacked. “What’s going on?”
“There’s some guy here asking for you,” Adrian said.
“A demon?”
“No. Definitely not a demon.” He sounded pretty firm about that.
“A witch?” I asked.
“I don’t think so.” His voice pitched up, which meant it could be a witch.
“Fey?” Chris asked.
“Maybe? Honestly, I’m not sure what he is, but says he’s got information for you about the demon that attacked you last night. He says it’s urgent.”
This could be a trap, but I think we have to go. Any information could be a huge help. Dastien said through the bond.
Agreed. Was I nervous? Sure. Especially after last night, but if this guy had information for me—even if he was only going to spout out a ton of lies—I had to go.
I chucked my backpack in the general direction of our front porch. “You coming with?” I asked Chris.
“Yeah.” He rubbed a hand along his beard. “Guess I should, just in case.”
“We’ll be there in twenty to twenty-five,” Dastien said.
“Make it quicker. I don’t know how long this guy will wait, and he just saved our asses.”
“On it.” Dastien hung up the phone, and tucked it into his pocket as he leapt off of the porch.
As we sprinted back through the woods to the parking lot, I couldn’t believe I was about to willingly go to la Aquelarre’s land at night. It seemed pretty convenient that this person showed up right when we got home. But I had to trust Adrian to know an enemy when he saw it. If this guy was out to hurt me, none of the Cazadores would have wasted the time on a phone call, especially not my friend.
Even knowing that, I hoped we weren’t racing into some kind of a trap. Because that would seriously suck.
Six
The car rattled as we passed over the cattle guard and onto la Aquelarre’s land. Now that the compound was abandoned, Claudia had changed the wards. The only ones left in place were specifically set for humans, instead of the old one for all non-coven members. The headlights on the SUV lit the road between houses. Dastien flipped on the brights and a shiver ran up my spine.
I was wrong. St. Ailbe’s wasn’t a ghost town. The witches compound was. Grass had sprouted on the dirt road that separated the two rows of burned-down houses. A few support beams had survived the fire, but most of the buildings were just concrete foundations covered in ash and rubble. Only Raphael, Claudia, Shane, and Beth were left from this coven, and I highly doubted they’d want to rebuild here. I knew I wouldn’t. Too much evil history had seeped deep into the soil. There wasn’t enough sage on the earth to cleanse it.
Dastien had parked by a few other black SUVs, but no one was in sight. “Where’s Adrian?” I asked as the three of us got out. I didn’t want to be here for one more second than we had to be tonight. I planned to dig around in Luciana’s stuff to see if any of her magic had survived and was causing all the demon attacks, but I was waiting to do that under the noonday sun.
“That way.” He pointed toward the woods. “He said they were about fifty yards east of the cars.”
The scent of sulfur was light at first, but the farther into the woods we went, the stronger it got.
“Anyone else have a bad feeling about this?” Chris said, and I almost laughed.
Bad feeling? I had a terrible feeling about it. Whatever we were about to meet knew me by name and Adrian wasn’t sure what the hell he was, aside from not being a demon. That left a whole lot of unknowns.
A twig snapped maybe fifteen feet ahead of me. I froze. Someone was walking towards us. They took a few more steps and the moonlight hit his face.
Adrian.
His short black hair glistened with sweat, even in the cold night. His shoulders were hunched, making him look shorter than his six feet. He was wearing a pair of generic sweats that he must’ve grabbed them from the Cazadores’ stash after shifting back. Whatever Adrian had just been through, it had to have been a tough fight.
“Are you okay?” I said as he strode to me.
