“Yup,” I said. “Lock the door.”
She arched an eyebrow. “What if they come to check—or Rita does?”
“Hopefully we won’t be here still,” I said, setting my empty glass down and facing toward the hallway.
Phoebe set her glass down too. “Can you warp in there, site unseen?”
“It helps that it’s not far and I know exactly where the door is located. I need a moment to visualize the area.”
Phoebe didn’t respond, so I hopped to it, closing my eyes and visualizing the hallway. Mentally, I moved toward the end, and then opened the final door on the right. I had no idea what was inside, but the strange energies still vibrated within me, and my demon mark burned dully.
“Okay, when the warphole is open, let me go through first. When I say the word, you follow.”
“Got it.”
I wasted no time altering the surrounding energies, pushing and reshaping them so they formed a tunnel through space.
When the warphole was complete, a rush of heat washed over me. I opened my eyes. It was getting much easier, even if it still took loads of concentration. My lessons with Tittelbaum were paying off.
“Let’s do this,” I said and stepped through the warphole.
The moment I emerged on the other side, my heart stopped.
“We hit the jackpot.”
Chapter Seventeen
“What’s going on in here?” Phoebe breathed as she scanned the space on the other side of my warphole.
“I’m not sure, but that thing must be what we came here for.” A circle lined with bones and lit votive candles was in the center of the room. A glowing gem that I couldn’t take my eyes off of rested in the middle. On one wall, an altar of sorts held various golden goblets, and although it was possible one of those was the item we’d been sent here for, every bone in my body screamed that the stone was our quarry.
“Let’s grab it and get out of here. Something in this room feels very, very wrong.” Phoebe glanced at the banners that hung along each wall, all of which portrayed wolves in violent acts, and shuddered.
I couldn’t agree more. My demon mark burned like the dickens, and the very air in this space seemed to vibrate with malice. I wanted nothing more than to leave, and we would, as soon as I got that glowing stone.
I walked carefully toward the circle, trying to suss out any wards or harmful spells before I entered. It was unlike shifters to interact with magic other than the kind that allowed them to shift—but something was different about this pack. The fact that they were making circles meant that magic was not out of the question. They were dangerous too; the burn of my demon mark assured me of that much.
Phoebe stayed back, her hands directed at the door in case something happened, so I crossed the bone-and-candle threshold alone. The moment I did, the creeptastic factor intensified.
My scar seared, as if I had set my ankle on a stovetop. An image of Ishtar flashed in my mind, and the ruby red gemstone in the center of the circle glowed even brighter.
My heart began to thunder, and my pace quickened. I’d reached the center of the circle when the doorknob jiggled.
“Girls! Are you in there? This room is off limits.” On the other side of the door, Rita’s voice was high and falsely cheery.
“Odette . . .” Phoebe shot me a glance.
“I know, I have to make su—”
Before I could even bend down to pick up the massive hunk of ruby, a key clicked in the lock, and the door swung open. I whipped around to find Rita, her nose transforming as she took on wolf shape. There were other shifters at her back, already in their snarling wolf aspects.
“Well, well,” Rita sneered. “I see you two aren’t what you seem either.” Her eyes changed color to match the otherworldly glow of the red stone.
My mouth went dry.Oh shit.We were in major trouble.
I lowered into a squat to scoop up the gem.
“Stay away from my demon stone!” Rita screamed.
