That hope came crashing down when Jacob said, his voice a shamed mumble, “Don’t fall asleep. Sometimes, he can reach you in your dreams.”
Then, displaying a speed I hadn’t known he was capable of, he yanked the door shut and locked it.
A mindless, panicked sound tore from my throat. I grabbed the handle, but it was too late. I resisted the urge to slam my fist into the side of the car. “Tell me who he is, goddamn you! Give me something!” I shouted through the glass.
“I’m sorry,” Jacob said, the words muffled. He averted his eyes, but not before I saw the guilt in them.
My control fractured. I was about to use my powers on Jacob when he slammed on the gas pedal, and the car lurched in reverse. I heard Finn snarl as I jumped back, barely managing to avoid getting my shoes driven over. I would’ve toppled over if Finn hadn’t reached me a moment later, his body more solid than a tree. He stopped my momentum and I caught my balance by holding onto his fur. Breathing hard, I watched Jacob Goldmann drive away. My mind was already recovering, trying to think of how we could find him again.
Nothing short of a location spell would work. But Jacob had been in hiding for at least two decades. Probably longer, depending on when Belanor’s master had first come for him. A location spell required an item of meaning from the person you were trying to find. That or a piece of their body.
I’d seen his house—Jacob had been living like someone who could leave at any time. I already knew I wouldn’t find anything that could be used for the spell. Not a hair, not a picture, not a book.
He was determined to stay alive, and he was good at it.
Despite the oppressive heat, the thought made me go cold with realization. Jacob Goldmann, and whatever answers he had, were gone forever. A familiar stinging sensation filled my eyes seconds before everything went hazy, as if I were glaring at the world through a sheet of wax paper. I didn’t know if they were tears of frustration or helplessness—both, probably.
As they spilled into the open, leaving wet trails on my cheeks, I gradually became aware of my surroundings again. I turned away from the end of the street where Jacob had disappeared and looked at the werewolf standing beside me. With those extraordinary senses of his, it was safe to assume that he’d heard everything, even from outside. Finn waited patiently for our next move. His eyes were bright, his body tense. Ready for battle, like the soldier he’d been forced to become.
I stared at his whiskered face, feeling inexplicably sad. We had so much life ahead of us, and there was more to living than the next fight. More than spending hours next to a window, yearning and hoping for a glimpse of the past. My fingers crept across my body, and I traced the edge of a tree branch. I thought of my parents again. They’d fought for me, killed for me, so that I could have that life.
The next fight could wait… for one night, at least.
“C’mon, wolf.” With the fingers that I’d just used to touch my tattoo, I reached down and buried them in Finn’s coat. Like magic, his warmth began to seep into me. It traveled through my hand, up my arm, and into my chest, thawing everything that Jacob Goldmann had frozen with his cowardice. I let out a sigh and said, “Let’s go home.”
Finn expressed his agreement with a huffing sound. Hearing it made me smile, but I didn’t remove my hand as we left the driveway. Once we got to the street, the two of us faced the horizon, a Nightmare and a werewolf, our bodies covered in scars and sunlight. I didn’t let myself look back at Jacob’s sad, empty house.
If we ever returned to Florida again, it would be too soon.
We’d only taken a few steps when something else occurred to me. A detail so small that most people would miss it entirely, but Belanor’s mysterious master wasn’t most people. There was another way he could potentially complete his spell, I realized with slow dread. Another Nightmare that might be powerful enough to endure it. Suddenly my mouth was dry, my heart racing, and I moved faster, thinking only of one name now. Finn heard it through our bond, and he began to run, too.
Matthew.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Dusk shone through the trees.
I deliberately kept my mind empty, because everything I’d just learned from Jacob Goldmann swirled on the other side of the emptiness, threatening to drive me to the brink of insanity again. The last time I felt like this, I had killed dozens of people. Stay calm, Fortuna. Stay contained. I chanted this to myself, over and over, hardly seeing the woods around us, barely hearing the snow crunch underfoot.
Finn didn’t leave my side once, even when a deer bolted across our path.
Every few yards, I checked to see if there was a signal. Every time there was none, guilt and fear howled around me like a cyclone. Why hadn’t I considered the danger to Matthew sooner? Why hadn’t he been my first thought the moment I’d learned Belanor had a master using him to kill Nightmares? Clouds of panicked breaths half-blinded me, but I pushed on.
As soon as the house come into view, I scanned the vehicles in the driveway to make sure my loved ones were home and safe. When I saw Damon’s car wasn’t there, I immediately pulled out my phone. This time there were five bars in the corner of the screen. I began typing with shaking fingers. Though the text was brief, I imagined urgency emanating from every word. We need to talk. I just got home. Where is Matthew?
I told myself it was irrational, my desperate need to see him right now. Unless my nephew was an anomaly, as I’d been, his abilities wouldn’t manifest until he reached puberty. If they manifested at all. We had time. He was safe. There was a possibility that Belanor’s master didn’t even know about Matthew.
Then I heard Jacob’s harsh laughter again. You think our kind has been pushed to the brink of extinction because of hunters?
I took my phone back out. This time, I tried calling Damon instead of texting him. No answer. Any voicemail I left wouldn’t make sense, or it would terrify him. We had time, I thought again, more insistently. I’d just wait to tell Damon about the powerful, ancient creature that had been taking Nightmares for generations. We’d already been on high alert since I escaped the Seelie Court. We’d already known someone wanted one of us for a spell.
But I didn’t feel comforted. Starting toward the barn, I thought of how the creature after me seemed to do all his dirty work through servants. Åsa and Belanor were just the ones that I knew of. What if he sent someone else? What if he kidnapped a person I loved as leverage? The creature had shown that he was a killer, whatever else he may be. Nearly everyone he’d set his sights on was dead, in one way or another.
Dead.
The word set off one more chain reaction in my mind.
Decades ago, Mom and Dad ruined this creature’s plans. What have you done? the witch had said when she sensed the binding spell. Dad thought killing her would end it. But what if it hadn’t? What if Belanor’s master had gone to our house—or sent one of his many agents—to make an example of them? Or to simply get revenge?
Had this creature been the thing that killed my parents?
When I thought of the weeks leading up to their murders, I remembered normality. Quiet. Joy. Mom and Dad had been taken completely off guard when they were attacked. After those witches had performed the binding spell on me, they’d thought we were safe. It all made sense. The timing, the motive.