Chapter 31

Thirty-One

I slam the car door shut and run up the stairs. Before I reach the door, a chill slicks over my skin.

Hands flat against the wood, I feel the cold of an empty and unprotected home.

A glance to the side shows me a pile of broken dirt near the corner of the house.

Anthony had said heavy and hard.

He hadn't said anything about big.

And it would definitely take all five of them to pull a protective stone from the earth it was bound to.

That tiny sliver of hope that had lived inside of me fizzles… and dies. It's not just paranoia.

Aphrodite has them.

Beside me, the wolves whimper. I can guess why. I've been searching for them in the back of my mind this whole time, but the guys are gone. The tether we have to them hasn't broken—the wolves wouldn't be here if it had. The fact that they're still here also kills that tiny pinprick of dread telling me there's a chance she already killed them.

Because that is the end goal.

I know it as strongly as I know anything. Whatever Aphrodite wants from them, it will end with dead bodies.

I don't bother to go into their house.

Tracking around the side, between their and Mrs. Miller's homes, I hold my hand over the blank plate of the deadbolt, " Deschi, " and listen for the hard click before letting myself in through the old woman's side door.

This house is empty too.

I reach out with my mind, searching for any sign of the guys, but the wolves press close. If they were here, they would already have gone to their humans.

Stale magic hangs in the air, weak and worn out. But there's stronger veins laid beneath it… as if a spell tied to the house isn't active right now, and what I feel is the after taste of what it once was.

Aphrodite has worked her magic here—right next door—while I wasn't paying attention.

The new warnaway rests in the same spot as the old one, but I don't break this one apart. I take it to Mrs. Miller's kitchen sink.

This would be easier with a map. I can only hope that wherever she is, Aphrodite is somewhere I know by sight.

The bundle of grass is tied to her through her magic and with that thread, I can find her. I refuse to believe she's powerful enough to shield herself. And if she is…

I shake away the dread that comes with that thought.

Taking a single strand of the grass between my fingers, I twist it as I speak the words my mother taught me long ago.

They're the same words to find a lost toy or a runaway cat…

A simple spell.

Simple magic I've leaned on many times in my life…

Images fly through my mind, woods and pavement and darkening sky.

But it's not what Aphrodite sees that tells me where she's going… it's what she smells.

I feel the moment she realizes she's being watched. Drawing back, I hit the sink handle and the water turns on a moment after the warnaway bursts to flames.

I have to breathe deeply to recenter myself. And when I turn to go, I leave the warnaway in the sink.

I don't have time to deal with it.

Because Aphrodite is headed for the Carraway plot… For my grandmother's body.

I have no idea how she knows about either, but whatever she has planned, it won't be good.

Winding through the house, heading for the door I came through, I barely manage to stop when I see a shadow blocking me from my exit.

"You're breaking and entering." The woman—the same one I'd seen talking to Thomas days ago—looks me over with a gaze so dark, I know it's not natural.

"I don't have time for you right now."

With a wave of my hand, I push her back, knocking the wind from her so she doesn't follow me. Whatever spell Aphrodite has woven around her, I can't break it yet.