It was empty.
“They aren’t here.”
“Fuck.” Atlas brought his fist to his mouth, biting on it as if to stifle the wisps of red around him.
“I have an idea.” I sprinted toward the community center, Atlas jogging after me.
When we got inside, only a few lights were on, a small group of young witches watchingHalloweentownon the projector screen. Ruby was sitting with them until she saw us. From how quickly she stood up and shuffled over as quietly as she could, she could tell something was wrong.
“What brings you both here?” she whispered.
“The bracelets the parents had tonight, was there any sort of tracking enchantment on them?”
“Of course there was.” She said it like not tracking all the parents in the coven would be the real ludicrous thing.
“I know Hazel already picked up Aspen, but we need you to track the one that was on Oakley Brooks tonight,” Atlas urged, speeding through his words with impatience.
She pulled out a large orb, a map stretched out within its depths. When she held her hands over it, she tapped in a code, probably whatever identifier was associated with the bracelet. “Hmm.”
Placing her hands on the orb, she expanded their distance, zooming out on the area. Then tried again. When that didn’t do anything, she did it once more, looking at a larger plot of land in the dome’s reflective depths.
“This is strange.” Her brows knit together. “These were spelled to have no distance limit. I’ve never heard of something that could hide its location, but the signal just keeps bouncing around.”
Fuck.
“There’s one place I know of that could work that sort of signal interference.” The words were brittle when they left my lips.
Apparently, he’d drawn a similar conclusion. The red around him still floated, but lime slips of fear swam through it. “Think Saros is with her?”
“I can only hope.” I swallowed hard. “Either way, there’s no good reason for her to be in that part of headquarters.” Another thought popped into my mind. “Our vow marks are embedded with trackers.” I lifted my arm, looking to where the star in my constellation had been laced with the rune. “Let me check his.”
I pulled out my phone, scanning over it with the camera. My Maps opened up, the signal zigzagging around the screen.
“See anything?” Atlas asked, trying to snoop over my shoulder.
“It’s ping-ponging.” My ribs pinched together, chest constricting. I gripped Atlas’s arm, giving Ruby a wave while I walked with him outside of the community center. As soon as we were away, I tugged him close. “We need to get to The Casket.”
Atlas’s knuckles were white, his usually smooth tone rippled with distress. “What would they be doing there?”
“I don’t know, but it can’t be good,” I replied with a shake of my head.
“Explain to me on the way,” Atlas said, putting an arm around my shoulder and turning me toward the pines.
We wandered deep into the woods. This was the farthest I’d ever been in the pines. We were nearing where the shifters and vamps tended to dwell, stopping when we reached the large mouth of a rocky cave. “Where are we going?”
“To get her back.” Atlas nodded at the dark tunnel ahead. “And Saros.”
I followed him inside. He clutched my shirt with one hand as we continued forward, the moonlight dissipating with each step. Then he halted, rustling in the darkness, but he never released me with his other hand, his grip deadly tight.
Whatever he was doing, it didn’t seem to be working.
He growled in frustration.
“You know, if you wanted to test the waters, you could have just asked,” I teased, trying to lighten his prickling energy. It was the only thing I saw in the pitch, outlining him within its clutches.
“Let’s save the jokes until after we’ve found them,” he replied sourly.
“Okay, no joking…” I trailed off, figuring we might as well kill time while we waited for whatever it was he needed to happen. “Are we going to talk about earlier tonight?”
