“Only one way to find out. Let’s check out number nine,” I said, moving quietly along the driveway. My witchmark tingled, but just enough to alert me. It was like it heard an echo rather than a threat.

  We walked alongside the big cabin, seeing no movement and no smoke from the chimney. After a tense moment of peeping through windows, it was obvious that no one was there.

  “Gone?” Tammy asked. I nodded. It had an empty feel, except for the lingering sense of something magical.

  “Let’s go around back,” I suggested. Behind the cabin was the Adirondacks, sprawling in magnificent, bony grandeur, the carpet of leaves now fading to a more uniform rust color as nature did her work. “Slowly. There’s something here.”

  “Human?” Tammy asked. She was cool under pressure, asking a question that wouldn’t occur to one in a hundred people, but then, she was one in a million as a person. I shook my head, unsure of what to look for, but it didn’t matter.

  “There,” I said with a gentle wave. A raw patch of ground lay open like a scar. By now it was familiar, if unexpected this close to a building. “Let me go first,” I said, dropping my charms into action. They warmed to my palm as I drew in a breath, readying a spell of cold. I would not be caught off guard again.

  My witchmark heated beyond any doubt, and I froze in place. With a murmur, I brought my magical sight into play, and there, across the ground, lay a tripwire crafted from magic that was barely contained.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I breathed.

  “What is it?” Tammy asked, her voice low.

  “Magic, but--- it’s like an unexploded bomb. Someone tried to place a barrier here, but they didn’t seal it with a spell. It can release at any time,” I said.

  “Did they mean to do it like that? Is it a trap?”

  “Maybe. Or it might just be an amateur playing with something they don’t understand,” I said with disgust. I was getting rather tired of semi-professional witches and their leftover disasters. “Step back. Gotta do some witchy stuff.”

  “Got it.” Tammy moved away, her eyes never leaving me. She couldn’t help me with magical things, but she was watching for everything else that might happen. Her presence let me take a deep breath, forming my thoughts into something that had pressure, and a shape, and then, after a long moment, a force.

  Rather than a word, I used a gesture, flicking my fingers toward the tripwire as I pushed with my mind. A ripple of light spread from my fingertips, crawling through the air in oily waves until it reached the edge of the pit.

  “What is that stuff?” Tammy asked. She pointed to coils of grayish material, limp and frayed at the edges. The pit seemed filled with it, spilling out over the back end to be strewn under the leaf litter.

  “Bandages?” I said, then nodded with certainty as the light from my spell began to illuminate the dark corners of the unnatural hole. “Not bloody. Just old, left to the weather, maybe.”

  A light began to flare in the center of the hole, shattering into an array of smaller points. No two were the same size or shape, but as my eyes adjusted, I began to understand what my magic was outlining.

  Human bones.

  “A body?” Tammy asked, her voice cool and even.

  “What’s left of it. Or a skeleton. No way to tell yet,” I said, following my spell forward, careful to remain back from the tripwire.

  “What’s that circle?” Tammy asked.

  “It’s—I don’t know. A ring?” I peered closer, leaning precariously over the glowing tripwire. “It’s bone, that’s for sure, and there’s an aura of magic hanging around it. It’s—”

  “What?” Tammy prompted, seeing my face freeze.

  “Blood magic. Death. It’s in the bone somehow, but there’s life attached to it, too. I don’t know what it is, but I have to look.” I steeled myself, then pushed out and down with a bubble of calming energy, drawing hard on everything I had to give. Magical tripwires were never static; they bent around like a serpent, following anyone who would pierce their protective zone.

  “Careful, kid. I don’t want to scrape you out of your boots,” Tammy warned.

  “Same.” I stepped over the wire, and it sizzled with gold light, wavering before tightening around the pit. It would not allow me passage, but my power would hold it at bay. For now.

  With slow, mincing steps, I approached the deepest part of the pit, looking in over the spitting outline of the tripwire. The magic became more agitated by my presence as I neared the bones and other debris.

  “Can you reach it?” Tammy asked.

  “I don’t need to.” I held out my charms, their warmth a comfort in my hand, and then I waved my fingertips through the air just as my ripple of magic began to settle around me like oil on an angry ocean. Cool blue and gold flowed down into the pit, filling it like a bathtub with the viscous energy of my slow spell.

  The bones rose, floating on the surface of my magic, and in the middle of their terrible truth rested a ring.

  It was carved of bone, and when I plucked it from the rippling surface, I knew why there were hints of life around it. Human skin clung to the surface of the bone from whoever had been made to wear it. It was a cursed thing, black of purpose and reeking with evil.

  It was also decaying before my eyes. The spell, along with the object it was cast upon, was the magical equivalent of a lucky guess. It was frayed at the edges and coming apart, and I knew in my heart that someone made it with the intent of causing harm.

  “Carlie? What’s that light?” Tammy asked.

  The ring began to pulse as the magic unwound, conflict with my power causing the inevitable destruction of amateur blood magic. Waves of black pulsed outward, vanishing like smoke after a few inches. The stench was familiar. It was an ancient smell, made from things that were meant to be kept in a grave.

  “It’s a mummy band,” I said. “Or it was. In a second, it won’t be anything.”

  “What does that do? Make mummies?” Tammy asked. There was a note of disgust in her voice, and she was right to put it there.

  “It does, and against the will of the person who wears it. It’s a curse band, steals the life and ages you, makes you into a vessel of dust before you know it. Nobody in their right mind would ever attempt such a thing, but here we are,” I said, waving at the band as it spun to pieces in the air before me.

  “Is it contagious?” Tammy wondered.

  “No, but whoever made it is going to die.”

  “From the magic?” Tammy drew back, her normal shell of toughness cracked by the presence of the ring, as well as my reaction.

  I stared at the ring as it faded to dust, the bits falling into nothingness as the last of the toxic magic dissipated. “No, from me. I’m going to kill whoever made this thing, and then maybe their victim can return from the land of twilight. This spell isn’t complete. It has someone held between worlds, like purgatory but with pain and loss. I can’t imagine what they’re going through right now, moving in our world without truly being alive or dead. For that reason, and a lot of others, yeah. I’m going to kill the maker.”

  “Good move,” Tammy said. “They have it coming.”

  Then the tripwire exploded, and everything turned to fire.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: Bell Shock

  “Carlie?” I heard a voice, but it was distant, like I was underwater. Maybe I was. Everything hurt, and I smelled something like burning flowers.

  “What?” I asked. My voice was barely audible. I opened my eyes to see Wulfric looking down at me, his face a mask of worry. “Babe.”

  “Hi. Don’t move. I’m checking you over. Before you ask, Tammy is fine. She called us,” he said, running his hands over my arms, legs, and then resting gently on my cheeks. “You’re bruised, but not hurt badly. You got the wind knocked out of you by the. . . by whatever it is that exploded.”

  “Magic. Tripwire. My spells weakened it until. . .boom.” I said.

  “Gran is here. She’s making something for you. She made one for Tammy, too. It’s a healing draught. Here she comes,” he said, drawing back. I noticed, for the first time, that it was dusk. I’d lost several hours. That wasn’t a good sign.

  Gran appeared at my side, holding a small silver cup. “Can you sit up?”

  “I think so?”

  “Gently, Wulfric. Like she’s made of platinum, if you please,” Gran said. Her voice was calm, but underneath, in my returning hearing I could detect a note of raw fury. It was the first time in my life I’d ever heard that kind of anger come from her, and it scared me.

  “I’m okay. Just took a pop to the chest.” I moved my head gently, revising my opinion. “And everything else, but I’m just sore. I think my charms buffered some of the blast.”

  “I think they did too, judging by the ground around you. What was it?” Gran asked.

  “They left a trap, set around a pit where a mummy ring was cast. There were bones and some kind of leftover magic, Gran. It turned a person into a mummy. I could tell. There was skin left in the ring.”

  She looked past me into the gloom of the forest, then back down. Gran’s lips curled in a smile of relief, but her hand lingered on my shoulder for a moment, like she was listening. “Wulfric, be a dear and lift my granddaughter as delicately as you can?”

  His arms slipped under me and I was airborne, against his chest and moving toward the parking lot. I heard a noise like a distant train, and realized it was Wulfric. Something like a growl emanated from his center, vibrating right into the heart of my senses.

  “I’m okay,” I told him.

  When he looked down, his eyes were flat with cold anger. “Whoever did this won’t be. Not when I find them.”

  “Don’t leave me. Please. I don’t know who did this, but I have an idea. They’re not worth it, not now. Let’s just go home. Please?”

  The bustle of activity around me fell away as he opened Gran’s truck door, sliding me in without letting any part of my body touch the seat until I was safely in the middle.

  When he leaned back in, his eyes were softer, and less feral. “You swear you are not harmed?”

  “Honest. Just bruised. Let me think about what to do, and let’s ask Gran. There’s nothing to be done tonight. The woods are quiet, and I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking for a mummy. Not here. Not now,” I said.

  His only response was a nod, then he slid in the seat next to me. Gran said some quiet words to Tammy, who looked in on me one last time. Tammy’s expression could have broken ice, so I extracted a promise from everyone that there would be no vigilante justice before breakfast. We could talk it over like civilized humans, and then we could find Makenna and Bridget and the rest of the girls and have a nice long chat.

  The ride home was a smear of lights and movement, some of which made me grunt in pain. When we got to the door, Wulfric carried me again, and I hated admitting that I liked it. He could be strong when I was weak, and damn my pride for just one night.

  Gus agreed, Gran gave me the healing draught, and as I drank, it smelled of pine and moss. It tasted of life, both sweet and bitter. She kissed my cheek and left in thoughtful silence, and Wulfric took his place next to me, Gus purring on my pillow, his tail wrapped possessively around my head.

  For the second time in one day, I slept, but my dreams were filled with fire and the cry of a man asking for more time as his skin withered and dried. I think I might have cried in my sleep, but I don’t know, and Wulfric never told me.

  Chapter Thirty: Bloodhound

  Gran’s draught and fourteen hours of sleep were too much for the effects of my magical mishap, but I was stiff and thirsty when I woke up just as the sun was slipping away for another night’s rest.

  Wulfric sat in a chair, watching me. “You know you act a lot like Gus when you’re worried,” I grumbled.

  His smile was tight, but it was there. “I do not cough out those disgusting hairballs. He’s a barbarian, despite his lustrous coat.”

  “At least you didn’t slight his magnificence. He might do something mean. Like leave a hairball on your side of the bed.”

  He leaned forward on his elbows, an air of hesitancy around him. “You worry me, love.”

  “I worry myself, but I’m okay. Honest. I wouldn’t even try to lie about it, not with everyone hovering.” I breathed, assessing myself. The results were good. “Where’s Gran?”

  “She’s gone to her house to get something. She sat up with you all night—Tammy did during the day, too. I sent her home. Her makeup needed freshening,” he said with mock severity.

  “What’s Gran going to get? Not another draught, I hope. I don’t think I can tolerate the flavor of any more pine needles.” One healing potion had been quite enough. I’d rather my body do the natural work of healing. Magical augmentations always came with a cost, no matter how honorable the intent.

  “She wouldn’t say, but I sense anger in her. She’s a woman who has a made a decision of some type, if I’m any guess of her mood,” Wulfric said with a shrug of his massive shoulders. Then his face went slack for a moment, and he rose, half out of his chair.

  “You can come over here. It’s okay.”

  He sat on our bed, resting a hand lightly on my forehead. “Why does magic leave people with a fever?”

  “I think our bodies fight it. That’s why witchcraft is hard. If it was easy, it would be common. Our system regards magic as an attack, which isn’t a bad idea given the number of bad spells floating around out there.”

  He kissed my forehead, pulling back to give me a searching look. “Brendan is downstairs waiting for you to wake up. He only left for a while, but I told him his excitement would have to wait, and if he woke you, I would eat him. I think he believed me. Do you want coffee first?”

  “Thanks for letting me ease back into the day. Coffee, definitely.”

  “Gently, please, if only so Gran won’t glare at me,” Wulfric said.

  “Understood, love. You asked, and I was careful. That should protect you from her considerable stinkeye. Did Brendan say what’s got him all fired up?” I asked, sliding from the bed. The floor felt cool on my feet, and Gus walked alongside me as a fluffy honor guard on my way to the bathroom.

  “I’ll tell you downstairs, so as not to lose something in translation. It’s got him more excited than that computer game expulsion park he almost lost his mind over last year,” Wulfric said through the bathroom door.

  “It’s called an expansion pack, and yes, he’s kind of nerdy.” Refreshed and with my teeth now somewhat less offensive, I made my way downstairs, where Brendan sat at the kitchen table, laptop open and drumming his fingers in frustration. “Hey. Big news?”

  “I’m glad you’re—” he began, but I sat down and waved him to spill it. “Okay. I found your girl.”

  “My girl?” I asked, taking a mug from Wulfric. There was honey in my coffee, and the taste of it was like a sweet song.

  “This girl,” Brendan said, spinning his laptop to show me. “Welcome to Makenna’s channel of all things witchy. Finding her stuff was really easy, because she’s not hiding it at all. I’ve got pics, locations, and her channel. She sure does love selfies, I’ll say that, but not nearly as much as she loves the people who subscribe to her channel. She sells bracelets, and I’m sure you can guess what they read. Sub or Die.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I spat, sending drops of coffee around me in a derisive spray. I took a good long time calming down enough, spreading my hands out on the table before speaking. “I thought—it was just a thought, mind you—that this would end up being traced back to some amateur witch in a strip mall, selling fake charms and ripping people off. I was wrong. It’s a lot worse.”

  “How can it be worse than that?” Brendan asked. He gestured to the screen, where Makenna looked out at the camera, her makeup perfect, hair on point, and lighting that most local newscasts would kill for. It was a gorgeous show in front of what looked like a movie set. There were shelves of books, and crystals, and some driftwood that looked like bleached bones, all scattered artfully about like the viewer had entered an inner sanctum where truth and light were at hand.

  For the right price, of course.

  “Carlie,” Wulfric said, his voice soft. It wasn’t a warning, because that’s not how he’s made. It was an offer of kindness put into words. He was telling me that he understood my anger but knew it would only lead me away from making a good decision right now, when I sat looking at the face of someone who treated magic like a tool to boost her social media presence.

  It was maddening.

  “I’m sorry to ask this, but why is a bunch of mushroom people running around such a big deal? Are they taking over or something?” Brendan asked.

  I felt a sharp retort coming, then cooled my tongue. He was right. My own thoughts were too insular, and I needed to explain things from the view of a witch. “You’re not wrong. The golems are gross, and troublesome, but in and of themselves they’re not going to swamp the town in doom. The cause behind is what worries me, and it’s the reason I must find this so-called witch. Then, we’re going to have a chat about playing with fire and using religion to get likes on social media. Of all the shallow, vain. . . it’s just so basic.”

  “What about the tripwire?” Wulfric asked, studiously averting his eyes after my comment. Smart man.

  “That’s the problem. I don’t know if she did it. Seriously, this chick? With the contoured makeup and fake black nails? No way I roast her without a proper inquiry, and that’s the problem. What if she has some talent, and takes offense at being questioned? If she tries to harm me with unfocused, raw magic, I have no choice. She’s as much a victim as I am,” I concluded, growing sour with each passing word.

  The door opened, and Gran stepped in, her face like a thundercloud. She was still mad, and the simple existence of that expression on her normally placid face gave me pause.

  “She is a victim, but someone who is far too foolish to be deemed innocent of all offense.” Stepping to the table, Gran withdrew a small bundle from her purse, setting it on the table with a stony thump. Without preamble, she turned to Wulfric. “How quickly can you be at the source of magic?”