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Damian shifted his weight and looked at me. “You can’t take your car. I’ll borrow the truck again. You can take that.”

“You’re sure?” I said.

“Yeah. He thinks I’m moving lumber. It’s on the coast three days out of five hauling deck boards and nobody’s looked twice at it in fifteen years.”

“Okay,” I said. I’d never driven a truck before. But I hadn’t done witchcraft in a sea cave before, either, so I wasn’t about to get precious about it.

“You need to get there early, before the guests arrive and the roads are being watched. By seven at the latest.”

“Seven? So what, we hang out in a cave for hours?” I said.

“You can’t risk being seen,” Damian said, pushing up the sleeves of his Henley.

“I’ll bring my Kindle,” I said.

“I’ll drive the road twenty minutes ahead of you,” Damian said. “I’ll wait at the junction at the top of the grade. When you come through, two flashes of my headlights means the road’s clean.”

“And if there’s no flashes?” Callie said quietly.

“Then don’t stop. Don’t slow down. You’re four women in a work truck who missed the turn for Shelter Cove. Just keep driving.”

“And where do you go after the junction?” Callie said.

“I’ll loop back and come into the campsite from the south.”

“And you?” Callie said, looking at Kai.

“I’ll come in from the north, alone. I can’t risk them seeing me drop you off.”

She nudged at the ground with her toe.

I didn’t like the sound of any of it, and looking at the subtle tension in Damian’s jaw, I guessed he didn’t either.

“There’s a fire spur half a mile short of the trailhead,” he went on, while Kai threaded a leash cord through a board.

“It’s gated, but the gate’s been broken since March. If you tuck the truck up the spur, nose out, nobody sweeping the road will see it.”

Callie crossed her arms against her chest.

“What’s the beach access like from there?” she said.

“From the landing, you’ll hear the ocean, but you won’t see it,” Kai said, drawing it out with his finger on the counter. “There’s a skid trail off the south edge of the clearing, about a quarter of a mile through the salal. Stay on it.”

“How do we know we’re on it?” she said, her forehead creasing.

“It’s the only place the ferns aren’t trying to kill you. It ends at the bluff. You’ll see the beach from there, and you’ll see the headland north of you. There’ll be a light behind it. In the fog it’ll just be a blur.”

“That’s the camp?” I said.

“Yeah.”

“But how do we get down the cliff?”

“There’s a creek gully, maybe two hundred yards south along the edge,” Kai said. “The creek’s cut a ravine. It’s steep but climbable. Keep to the south side of the water. There’s a rope on a tree for the last pitch.”

I looked at him. “A rope?”

“I left it there,” Damian said. “You’ll be okay. Just tread carefully. Hand everything down. Don’t climb with it. At the bottom the creek runs out across the sand and you’re on the beach. The cave’s five minutes south under the cliff. The strand to the headland runs north. You’ll be standing exactly between the two. Don’t look north longer than it takes to know where it is.”