“He is in the stone circle,” says Gray from right beside me.
Holy fuck! My heart pounds, and it feels like I just leaped ten feet in the air. Where did Gray come from? I didn’t hear or see him enter the room.
“What stone circle?” asks Red while clutching Brodie’s hand tightly.
I love how absolutely nobody is questioning how the demon knows. We are all simply accepting it as the truth. Which is probably wise.
Gray points south. “Five leagues.”
“How far is a league?” says Red, turning to Pink.
“Umm…about three miles.”
Carter is tapping furiously at his phone. He holds it up to Gray, with a photo of a stone circle on it. “This one?”
Gray nods.
“Great,” says Carter. He looks at everyone in the room. “It’s called Stanton Drew. It’s fifteen miles south of here. On the edge of a small village.”
“Is it an old fey portal?” I ask.
All eyes turn to me. It is damn hard not to squirm, but I’m made of stern stuff. I can handle a few stares.
“Probably,” croaks Pink as his eyes widen in alarm. “Most stone circles are.”
“What made you think of that?” asks Red. His face has gone deathly pale.
Carter’s arms tighten around Lello, and the kelpie bites his bottom lip. Yeah, this can’t be fun for him, considering his herd tried to sacrifice him to open a fey portal.
I have no idea why everyone is so shocked at my suggestion, I would have thought the fey scribbles all over the wall were enough of a clue, but clearly not. Maybe my friends were in denial and I can’t blame them for that.
I shrug, “Just a hunch.”
More secrets and lies. I seem to be made of them. It is all that I am. I haven’t told anyone about Baltazar’s concerns about Jade. It didn’t even cross my mind that maybe I should. And even now, my instinct is to keep quiet. I truly am a deceiver at heart.
“I suggest less chatting, more action,” says Carter.
Exactly what a former Enforcer would say. But he does have a point.
“Everyone, get in a car!” calls Red. “Gray, come with us, don’t go shadow walking. We need to stick together.”
The room bursts into movement as we all scramble to do as Red says. I run to my room, throw some shoes on, and grab my phone. I make it to the driveway just as Pink is getting into Carter’s car. Everyone else is already stuffed inside. Looks like I’m the last. A quick glance at both cars shows me there is slightly more room in Mal’s, so I jump in.
Another frigging happy couple. Gray is off on a midnight mission, so of course his mate has gotten out of bed and is driving him.
It’s only after the door shuts and we speed off, does it hit me that perhaps I should have squeezed into the other car. But Mal has his eyes fixed on the road, as does Gray. Neither of them seem the least bit bothered by my presence. So I think our little disagreement is well and truly forgotten.
Mal drives like the dangerous man he is, and the miles fly by. We are going to be there in no time at all. To where Jade is probably opening a portal to the fey realm.
Fuck.
I feel conspicuous as hell as I pull my phone out of my pocket, but nobody is paying me any attention, and besides, everyone is so phone addicted these days, staring at one is pretty much invisible behavior.
Nevertheless, my fingers still shake as I fire off a quick text to Baltazar. Just the name of the stone circle, but he’s a clever vampire, I’m sure he will figure it out. And if Jade really is about to open a portal, we are going to need all the help we can get.
Mal turns the car into a tiny, unlit gravel car park. Carter’s car is just behind us. Everyone piles out and wordlessly climbs over the gate. I don’t need a map to tellme that the stone circle is across this field, and in the small scrub of trees. Unusual magic is itching at my skin. It’s pulsing from the trees like a beacon.
We hurry across the dark field and into the woods. The stone circle is easy to find. It’s utterly unmissable.
