Just like he was trying to save his father now.
“Morden might not make it back in time. Hades isn’t exactly known to have a generous nature. We need to have another plan.” Angelo scanned the group. “Has anyone else tried to get near the cathedral? Have you discovered any weaknesses?”
“No. Whenever we’ve tried, the vines shot out like a striking snake,” Lorcan said. “We’ve barely escaped with our lives.”
Alice wiped sweat from her brow, leaving a streak of dirt across her forehead. “It’s a powerful spell. Even combined, Tinker Bell and I couldn’t break through the wards. But she thinks there’s a spell book in her collection that might work.”
Worse than I’d thought. If two witches together couldn’t break the wards, we were dealing with dark magic on a level I hadn’t anticipated. And now we were waiting on a maybe—a spell book that might work. Every minute that passed, Joy was further out of reach.
My jaw tightened. “When did she leave?”
“About an hour ago. She said the book was hidden in the Nightshade Crypt, and it could take her several hours to retrieve it safely.”
I dragged my hand through my hair. “Joy doesn’t have several hours.”
Keir’s expression was grim. “If you try to approach that cathedral again, those vines will tear you apart before you get within fifty feet. All we can do is wait.”
I paced back and forth, my long strides wearing a path in the damp ground. Where the hell had Marsha learned that spell? It was obviously dark magic. My hands flexed, itching to hit something, break something, when soft footsteps approached.
Tinker Bell headed toward us carrying a thick leather tome that looked ancient enough to crumble at a touch. Finally. The tension in my shoulders eased slightly. She’d found it. We had a chance now—a real chance to break through those wards and get to Joy.
I hadn’t seen Tinker Bell in months—our paths rarely crossed in the vampire mafia world. She was striking in that effortless way some managed without trying. Her blond hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail, and she wore a faded blue T-shirt that brought out the startling blue of her eyes. She never bothered with fancy clothes or dramatic appearances, but therewas something magnetic about her understated presence. Most people made the mistake of underestimating the girl next door, not realizing she was one of the most powerful witches in New Orleans.
Alice’s face brightened. “You got it?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t easy. The Nightshades used several protection spells to conceal it.”
Lorcan looked at the book curiously. “Why did they need to use so many spells to protect it?”
“This isn’t just any ordinary book. It belonged to Merlin.”
I stopped pacing. “Merlin? You mean Knights of the Round Table Merlin?”
“The one and only. Most people think King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table were fairy tales, but they were real. So was his half sister, Morgana le Fay. I suspect Marsha has found one of Morgana’s spell books. Morgana was an accomplished witch and a mistress of the dark arts.”
Fuck.Marsha was already powerful—cunning, ruthless, dangerous. If she’d gotten her hands on Morgana le Fay’s magic, she was becoming a formidable force that might be too strong to defeat. How the hell were we supposed to fight that?
She gazed at the cathedral with the writhing vines. “As you can see.”
The vines slid over the cathedral like living serpents, growing thicker by the minute. More thorns sprouted from their bark-like skin, each one gleaming as sharp as needles in the dim light. I touched my side, remembering how those barbs had pierced my flesh—the searing agony that had dropped me to my knees.
Rose was still trapped somewhere inside that green hell. She was a born vampire, stronger than most, but I couldn't shake the image of those thorns finding their mark, draining the life from her the way they'd tried to drain mine. We had to get her out.Rose was a Nightshade witch, and without her power, defeating Marsha would be nearly impossible.
Tinker Bell opened the book and flipped through the pages with maddening deliberation, as if she were testing my patience on purpose.
It took everything I had not to scream at her to hurry up and find the damn spell. Every second that ticked by meant Joy could be suffering—or worse. A wild thought struck me like lightning. I stopped pacing abruptly. “Is there a spell in there that can open the portal to the Elder Dimension?”
She paused, her jaw tightening briefly before she continued with forced calm. “The problem with using a spell to open the portal without knowing exactly where she is—you could end up anywhere. You’d never find her.”
Something cold and lethal shifted inside me. I’d heard enough horror stories from Keir Rankin—fragments of nightmares about a place where the rules meant nothing and even the strongest predators became prey to forces they couldn’t understand. How could Joy survive?
My jaw locked, and my fangs pressed against my lips as the predator in me reacted to the threat. “I’d find her. I could find Joy anywhere.”
Tinker Bell’s expression hardened, her earlier patience evaporating. “The Elder Dimension works differently than our world, Enzo.” Her tone sharpened. “She could be gone before you even find her. Our best chance of finding her is to force Marsha to tell us what Ari’s plan is. We might then be able to pinpoint where she is.”
Angelo clasped my arm. “I know it sucks to be patient—believe me I know—but if you want to find her, we’ve got to do it right.”
I wanted to shrug off his hand, to ignore his logic and charge headfirst into whatever hell awaited. But the rational part of mymind—the part that had kept me alive for centuries—knew he was right. I hated that he was right.
