An End of Night (A Shade of Vampire #16)(23)

I had to think carefully about what my next step should be.

One option was just return to Lilith now, perform the ritual without Magnus, and hope for the best. But I hated the idea of yet another defeat. And we were much more likely to succeed if we had Magnus present. There was no doubt about it.

I have to find that damn vampire.

Having just left another pack, I entered the woods and paced up and down among the trees, breathing deeply and trying to clear my mind.

It was only after a few minutes that I realized that I had come full circle back to the mountain where I had put Magnus into slumber. I wasn’t sure why, but something made me vanish myself back up to it. I entered through the open wall. I looked around the dark quiet chamber. I moved toward the open container where the vampire’s body had lain.

I asked myself for what felt like the hundredth time: how had he escaped?

At the time, I had thought that I had secured him so expertly. Could I have been so delusional in my capabilities that even a mere vampire could escape my spells? I just could not believe it possible. As I looked around the room, I remembered how much effort I had put in to making sure there were no loopholes. Not even a skilled witch of the Sanctuary could have broken through the spells I’d put on this place. I was sure of it.

Now that I was taking more time to think—and I had recovered from the shock of seeing the container empty—I realized that I had acted too rashly before. Searching among the werewolves had been a waste of time. I felt like a fool. Of course they had not seen him.

Because Magnus had never escaped this chamber.

I should have realized what had really happened here right from the beginning…

Chapter 16: Mona

“You can’t just say that,” Ashley said. “We are relying on you.”

I stood up, looking over them all with a heavy heart. “I can’t lie to you. I have no idea where we go from here. We have hit a dead end.”

Magnus could be anywhere within this whole supernatural realm—heck, he could even be back in the human realm. It was worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack.

And now we didn’t even have any more leads. Not even a single straw to cling to that might lead us to his whereabouts.

“So what? We just… give up?” Rose asked.

“We can’t give up,” Derek said. “We have to end Lilith, or all that has happened until now will only be the beginning of our troubles.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” I snapped. The pressure was getting to me.

Because I had spent so much time with the black witches and I knew most about them, it felt like the responsibility fell on my shoulders for leading everyone in the right direction. I wished that someone else could take on this burden for a change.

“Where is the nearest realm to this one?” Kiev asked. “Perhaps Magnus made it there, and perhaps they might have some clue as to where he is.”

I was sick and tired of traveling from realm to realm, only to meet with more failure.

“But Kiev, for all we know that merman could have just been lying to us—hoping that the wolves of The Woodlands would finish us off. It’s possible that Magnus was never anywhere near here.”

I was about to slump down again on the rocks and bury my head in my hands to try to ease the headache that was now coming on full blast when a female voice spoke behind us.

“Excuse me.”

We all whirled around and found ourselves staring at a short woman with long wavy hair. She had a red scar across her cheek.

“Yes?” I said, stepping forward.

“I heard what you are here for,” she said. “You’re here because you are trying to end the black witches, isn’t that right?”

“Yes,” several of us said at once.

“Well, I just spied that same warlock—Rhys—hanging around one of the mountains. I was the werewolf he first caught—he took my child hostage and forced me to lead him to my pack. He is still hanging around this place. I’m not sure what he’s doing, but… I thought perhaps it might be useful to you since my chieftain cannot help you at all.”

“He is still in this realm?” I asked, my mouth falling open. “How long ago was it that you saw him?”

“About ten minutes ago,” she said. “I rushed straight here to see if you had left yet. I can take you to where I spotted him.”

“Yes,” I said, without even consulting the others. “Take us there.”

It wasn’t like we had any better ideas. We had hit rock bottom, and anything seemed better than standing here—even the prospect of meeting Rhys again.

We hurried with the female wolf to the spot where she had seen him. As soon as we arrived, we crouched down among the trees, making as little noise as possible as we peeked through the leaves at the nearby mountain.

“He was hanging around on one of those ridges,” she whispered, pointing upward. “It’s possible he is gone now.”

“There is only one way to find out,” I said. “I will go up there. The rest of you, stay down here.” I didn’t hang around long enough to give Kiev a chance to object.

I vanished myself as close as I could to where the wolf had indicated, keeping myself invisible in case the warlock was still up here. I was surprised to see a gaping hole in the wall. Before walking inside, I looked all around outside the cave—upward, sideways, downward—just in case Rhys was standing elsewhere. The last thing I needed was to get cornered by him.