“I’d like to say that’s why STAT didn’t pick up on them, but the truth is, Marko found a way to obscure what he was doing and keep anyone from noticing the crimes outside the small area where they occurred,” Davina said. “It was pure chance that someone in San Antonio contacted STAT directly, or we probably would never have stumbled on any of this at all.”
Kat could practically hear the alarm bells ringing as Connor and his pack mates abruptly realized how dangerous Marko and his coven could be.
“I tracked the first ritual murder to a small town in west Texas called Gail,” Davina continued. “The body was found in a shallow grave in late February, but the autopsy and forensic evidence was able to pinpoint the time of death to the twenty-first of December—winter solstice for those of us who care about that kind of thing.”
The picture of the victim was small when it popped up on the screen, but Kat could still tell that it was a boy of maybe sixteen or seventeen. It was soul crushing to imagine someone murdering the poor kid.
“Next was a girl from Kingfisher, Oklahoma,” Davina said, another red dot highlighting for a moment on the map along with another picture. “She was kidnapped and killed on the twentieth of March—the spring equinox.”
Davina didn’t even pause this time as another dot was highlighted on the map and another picture appeared off to the side. “This one was in Northpoint, Arkansas, this time, killed on the first of May—Beltane.”
Kat groaned to herself, picking up on the trend. Beltane, or the May Day festival, was celebrated by a lot of different cultures around the world, but it was especially important to witches and warlocks. To them, it was a celebration of the coming together of male and female energies to create new life. Taken by themselves, the dates of each murder could have been a coincidence, but when Davina threw in the winter solstice and spring equinox, it was obvious that Marko was working his way down the list of every important day on the calendar.
“The fourth body was found outside DeRidder, Louisiana, on the twenty-first of June—the summer solstice,” Davina continued. “And then, most recently, there was the one down in San Antonio. The medical examiner puts the victim’s death as the first of August—Lammas, the first grain harvest of the season.”
Kat continued to stare at the map on the screen with the pictures of so many kids and the dots that represented the location of their makeshift graves.
“Davina, is it my imagination, or does the positioning of those dots seem a little too perfect for chance?” she asked.
“You noticed that, too, huh?” Davina leaned forward to tap something on her keyboard. A second later, red lines appeared on the screen, connecting the dots until they formed a pentagram. With Dallas dead center in the middle.
“I assume that the figure we’re looking at has some special significance for witches and warlocks?” Connor asked.
Davina nodded. “Pentagrams are an important symbol for us. The five points of the star represent earth, water, air, fire, and the spirit to our followers. The circle that’s typically shown around the outside of the pentagram represents protection and the ever-changing, everlasting circle of life, nature, eternity, and infinity. I doubt Marko cares about any of that, though. When a witch uses pentagrams, one point of the star is always facing up—that’s critical to us. You’ll notice Marko planned out his murders so there are two points facing upward, and he’s made no attempt at a protective circle. By using the inverted pentagram and murdering those kids on our most special days, he’s spitting on everything we believe, twisting it to suit his own purposes.”
“What kind of purpose?” Hale asked. “Any idea what he’s trying to accomplish with all these killings?”
Kat could only shake her head at the way these werewolves thought. Most normal people would be freaking out and yelling that this was all insane. But the Pack had been dealing with the odd and supernatural for so long, they didn’t even bat an eye at what Davina was telling them.
“After doing a little digging in my library, I’m almost certain that by conducting these ritual sacrifices at these specific pentagram locations, Marko is creating nexus and terminus points. The only reason a mage would do something like this is in order to create their own ley lines.”
“That’s not possible,” Kat said immediately, disturbed at the very thought. “Ley lines simply exist. You can’t make them!”
“It would seem that Marko and his coven feel differently,” Davina said, the map they’d been looking at for the last several minutes disappearing to be replaced by the other witch’s very concerned expression. “There’s no other explanation for what he’s done. Marko has figured out how to create and harness ley lines.”
Trevor frowned. “What the hell are ley lines, and what does it mean to us if Marko is able to harness them?”
“Ley lines are ancient pathways that exist along the earth’s surface,” Kat said, remembering all the books her grandmother had made her read on the subject. “They’re found around all the old magical sites—Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Giza, and Machu Picchu—but they’re also found along any path that humans or animals trod in large numbers, like the Oregon Trail. There are even ley lines in places like New York and Chicago, where people walk to work day after day for years on end.”
“Okay. But I still don’t see the relevance,” Connor said, sounding slightly exasperated. “Why would Marko want to make something like that for himself?”
“Because ley lines carry a huge amount of magical energy,” Davina said. “A near-unlimited amount of power that would be constantly recharged by the presence of any life near those lines. With the familiar curse he put on Kat, Marko was trying to use her and her coven’s inherent gifts for channeling magic to access the naturally existing power around her. More than he could ever channel on his own. But if my understanding of what he’s trying to do with this pentagram is correct, Marko won’t simply be harnessing the power around him. He’ll be able to tap into the magic of every living creature anywhere inside the lines.”
“Crap,” Kat whispered, feeling a shiver run up her spine. “He’ll become the most powerful magic user who’s ever lived. He’ll be unstoppable.”
“If he’s figured out a way to regulate the huge amount of raw power that exists within those lines, yes,” Davina murmured. “Otherwise, he’ll turn himself into a burned-out husk.”
Connor, Gage, and the other werewolves spent an inordinate amount of time trying to pin down exactly what she and Davina meant bythe most powerful magic user who’s ever lived. They seemed obsessed with having Davina describe all the different ways Marko would be able to use that power against them while Kat silently focused instead on how all of this could have happened. If Marko had succeeded in making her his familiar, would he have even bothered to attempt this pentagram thing with the ley lines? Would those poor kids still be alive? Was this all happening because she’d escaped? Would she ultimately be responsible for even more deaths?
“I think I’ve come up with a way to find out who Marko’s fifth and final kidnapping victim is going to be,” Davina announced suddenly, the words yanking Kat out of her reverie and turning everyone’s attention back to the most important matter facing them. “Hopefully in time to stop them from grabbing the kid.”
“How can you be so sure there’s going tobeanother victim?” Gage asked. “How do you know Marko doesn’t already have enough kids?”
“Because the ley lines are in the shape of a five-pointed star and create a five-sided pentagon shape around Dallas,” she said simply. “They’re going to need one sacrifice from each of those locations. The symmetry is impossible to ignore. On top of that, there are the birthdays of the missing kids.”
Connor leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “You mean they weren’t random?”
“No,” she said. “They were each born at noon on those holidays I mentioned earlier. Addy Lloyd on the winter solstice, Ben Sullivan on the spring equinox, Cheyenne Owens on Beltane, and Anabella Gutierrez on the summer solstice.”
