The sound of swirling sand died into nothing, leaving the rest of us alone and bewildered.
Elias shifted back to human, his eyes narrowing as he watched the wraith leave. “What the hell was that all about?”
“Absolutely no idea,” I said, my brow creased as I stared off in the direction it had vanished. “But if you ask me, that was too easy. We kill a couple of demons, and the wraith just runs? That thing never flees, so what the hell is going on there?”
Elias frowned, his brow creasing as his gaze swept over the crowd, some realization creeping over him as his entire body grew tense.
“Where’s Emma?” Elias asked, his voice tight.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “I thought she was supposed to be up on high ground near the oasis.”
“She is,” Elias snarled. “But she didn’t use so much as a lick of magic. You saw the wraith. He wasn’t hurt. He just left.”
I thought back to the wraith. It had simply dodged the attacks, lashing out occasionally, going after a few stragglers or buildings. But that hadn’t seemed to be his main goal. The first time it had torn into town, it had seemed hellbent on wiping out everything in its path. This time, it was more like it wanted to be seen. Like it wanted the shifters to come after him.
“There weren’t any demons,” Drake said with narrowed eyes. “You would think that he would have brought along a few of them.”
“We know how to beat them, though,” I said. “Maybe that’s why.”
Drake shook his head, still frowning. “If I were the wraith, I would have brought them along, just for the numbers. They’re great distractors, and they can still cause a good amount of chaos. There’s no reason for the wraith not to bring them along. Unless they were needed somewhere else…”
Dread wrapped around me in tight coils, constricting like a python. I knew where Drake was going. Elias did, too. His face went pale as realization struck. His eyes went wide with horror, then narrowed in unadulterated fury.
“They went after Emma.” Elias raced toward the oasis. Just before he shifted, he called over his shoulder. “This whole thing was a trap.”
Drake and I didn’t waste any time. We dashed forward, shifting mid-stride as we followed Elias’s path. As we ran, I prayed silently that we wouldn’t be too late or that we were wrong. I prayed that we would find Emma right where she was supposed to be. But even as I did, I knew deep down already what we would find.
We changed back to human to finish the climb, clambering to the top of the waterfall. As he cleared the lip, Elias stopped dead in his tracks.
“Shit,” he said. My stomach clenched. I had never heard Elias sound that horrified.
When I scrambled up next to him, the bottom dropped out of my stomach as I saw exactly what he was staring at, exactly what had instilled that much dread in him.
Robert stared up at the world with sightless eyes, his throat slit.
Emma was nowhere to be seen.
At first, it didn’t seem real. I simply stared down at the body, trying to wrap my head around what I was seeing because it couldn’t be real. Except there it was, right in front of me.
Elias was already searching everywhere, running from brush to brush, though we all knew it was pointless. If she were here, we would have already seen her.
“Emma!” Elias bellowed, hands cupped around his mouth as he called.
No answer, just the sound of running water from the falls.
I sniffed the air, trying to see if I could catch her scent. I could smell Emma. However, another stench wrapped around it, choking it and almost smothering it entirely. The smell of burning sulfur and smoke.
“Demons have been here,” I said, covering my nose with the back of my hand as I grimaced.
Elias snarled, running his fingers through his hair.
“I’m such an idiot,” he growled, and I could tell he was struggling to hold back his rage and panic. “You heard what the wraith said. We should have known from that alone.”
“Yeah,” I muttered, coming to the same conclusion as Elias far too late for it to do any good.
Elias barely heard me, continuing to pace and snarl as he ran his fingers through his hair. “The attack was a distraction,” Elias said. “A trick. He came here for the only person in the entire pack who could hurt him.”
I didn’t say anything, knowing that nothing I said right this minute would get through to him. If anything happened to Rachel, I would probably be in a similar, if not worse, state. Just the thought of it set my wolf on edge, and I had a sudden urge to call Rachel right now to check on her. I didn’t want to worry her about this, but I did plan on telling the guy I had watching the house to stay extra vigilant. I wasn’t about to let the wraith strike twice. I was going to need all my wits about me, and the more I had to think about Rachel, the more distracted I was going to be.
