Page 62 of Death Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Nishi gave her a look that could have stripped paint. “It’s not council wards. It’s third party.”

Eve’s eyes narrowed. “Black market.”

Tegan stepped closer, and the tracker needle spun once, fast, then stopped.

Pointing straight down.

I stared at the gravel.

Faith stared at the gravel.

Nishi stared at the gravel like she wanted to arrest it.

Tegan’s voice went tight. “It’s under us.”

Eve’s face shifted. “A tunnel.”

“Or a hidden cache,” Tegan said.

Faith looked at the warehouse door. “So why the fake ward up here?”

“Because it’s meant to distract,” I said. “Or it’s meant to make us waste time.”

A sudden chill swept over the lot, and my breath turned visible in a thick puff. The air changed, heavy and sour, like someone had spilled old incense.

Tegan flinched. The tracker needle jerked again, then went still.

“Wait,” she whispered.

The hum under my skin intensified, then snapped away as if a cord had been cut.

The tracker in Tegan’s hands went dead. Not broken. Not spinning. Dead. The bone needle lay flat as if it had decided direction was no longer a concept.

Tegan stared at it, face pale. “I lost it.”

Faith’s voice rose. “How?”

Tegan shook her head, still staring. “It’s like someone dropped a curtain.”

Eve lifted her hand, hellfire flickering at her fingertips, not thrown, just ready. “A suppression field.”

Nishi’s gaze swept the lot again, assessing angles. “Or a cloaking grid. Someone anticipated our tracking.”

My mouth went dry. “We’re standing on top of it and we can’t see it.”

Faith muttered, “That is some annoying magic.”

Tegan took a slow breath, then looked at Nishi. “We need to reset. If I try to force it here, it might burn out.”

Nishi nodded once. “We pull back.” She called her team to rescind her last order.

Faith didn’t look pleased, but she listened. We retreated to the SUV, leaving the warehouse and its quiet padlock behind like a taunt.

As we drove away, I kept glancing over my shoulder, expecting something to move in the darkness. Nothing did. That was its own threat.

Tegan held the tracker in both hands, eyes closed, whispering under her breath as if coaxing it back to life.

After a few minutes, the bone needle twitched again.