Chapter 21

Lily pulledinto Braxton's driveway and parked behind his truck. She jumped out and scanned the inside of the vehicle, looking for anything that might be a clue as to where Braxton might be, but there was nothing except their two empty water bottles. She ignored the stab of pain that pierced her heart when she thought of how she'd just been with him a few hours ago.

"What are you doing here?" a shrill voice called.

Lily glanced over and spotted Katerina standing on the top of the stairs to the garage apartment. Her hands were balled into fists, and her eyes were shooting invisible daggers at Lily. "I'm looking for Braxton. What are you doing here?" Lily shot back.

"It's your fault he's gone. I told him that dating you was bad news." Katerina stomped down the stairs, still ranting. "I warned him that something terrible would happen. If you hadn't come along, my son would still be here."

"Me?" Lily scoffed. "You're the one who made that damned curse and gave it to Lucy. If anyone's at fault, it's you, you selfish piece of trash. What kind of mother does that to her only child? You have no business accusing me of anything, you lowlife scam artist."

"How dare you?" Katerina seethed as she straightened up, and fire flashed in her eyes.

Lily took a step back, not sure what to expect from Braxton's mother. She knew that Katerina had enough skill to make curses. It meant she had some formidable power. Though likely not as much as Lily.

Before Katerina could throw a spell at Lily, suddenly the older woman was out of breath and the fire had left her eyes. She grabbed onto the stair railing and slowly sat on the bottom step.

"You're not well," Lily said.

"What gave it away?" Katerina asked with an annoyed look. "The fact that I haven't already buried you with my magic or that I'm shaking and as pale as a ghost?"

"What's wrong with you?" Lily asked.

"None of your damned business."

"Her magic has been drained," Niko said from Braxton's front porch. "I imagine it's why she came crawling back to Braxton."

Lily glanced from Niko to Katerina and back to Niko. "I'm fairly certain that Braxton doesn't know that. How do you?"

"It's my job to know what people like Katerina are up to," he said and then walked back into the house.

"Is that true?" Lily asked Katerina. When the other woman glanced away, she knew that Niko was telling the truth. "Did you ever have any intention of breaking Braxton's curse?"

"Yes," she snapped. "After he helped me get my powers back."

"Braxton was right; you really are a piece of work. Let me guess… Lucy stole your powers, and that's why you followed her here. In the meantime, you thought you could sponge off Brax and maybe get him to help you take her down, because after all, no one has a bigger grudge against her than he does."

Katerina just shook her head and slowly walked back up the stairs.

"Aren't you even going to try to help Brax?" Lily called after her.

"You, Niko, and Dante are here. You don't need my help." She walked into the apartment and slammed the door behind her.

Lily waited for a few moments to see if Katerina was going to come back out, but when she didn't, she headed for Braxton's house, determined to get answers from Niko. He'd opened a can of worms when he said it was his job to know what people like Katerina were up to. What did that mean, exactly?

But before she reached the front porch, she heard a rustling noise in the tree line to the left, and when she looked over, the large white wolf was standing there staring at her. She let out a small gasp of surprise. "You're back."

The wolf bowed its head and then swept it to the side, looking like he was gesturing for her to follow him. When he turned around and started trotting deeper into the trees, she didn't move until he looked back at her and let out a small yip.

Lily felt crazy for following a wolf into the woods, but she just knew she was supposed to. The wolf only went a few feet past the tree line before he stopped and pawed at the ground. Lily joined the wolf and when she looked down, she didn't see anything but darkness.

The wolf howled and pawed at the ground again.

"What is it?" she asked the wolf. "What am I supposed to be seeing?"

He pressed his nose to the ground, sniffed, and then darted forward, only to stop and look at her again with anticipation.

"You want me to follow you? I was already doing that."

The wolf pawed at the ground again, and Lily pulled out her phone to turn on the flashlight. When she did, she finally realized what he was showing her. There were footprints in the dirt, followed by what looked to be four-wheeler tracks.

"Did the person who attacked Brax go this way?" she asked the wolf.

He bobbed his head and whined, wanting to chase the tracks.

Lily's heart raced as she scrambled for what to do. If they were four-wheeler tracks, following on foot wouldn't do any good. Tracking them would take forever. But her car certainly wasn't going to be able to navigate the woods.

"Wait here. I'll be right back!" she called to the wolf as she ran back toward Brax's house. She burst in through the front door. "Niko! Dante!"

Niko appeared from the kitchen. His phone was pressed to his ear. "Dante is out looking for Brax. What is it?"

"Tracks in the woods. We need to follow them. Does Brax have any four-wheelers?"

"I have to go. Call me if you find anything," Niko said into his phone. Then he ended the call and was already walking out the front door when he said, "Show me these tracks."

Lily ground her teeth together, frustrated that he was wasting time, but she quickly took him to where the wolf was still waiting. The wolf snarled at Niko, but when Lily said he was there to help, the wolf stopped, but he never took his eyes off the man.

"Dammit. She just drove him out of here," Niko said mostly to himself.

"She?" Lily asked. "You think this was Lucy?"

"Who else would it be?" He stood and started hurrying back toward the house. When they reached the garage, Niko wrapped his hand around the knob on the walk-in door and turned to Lily. "I've got it from here. Go back into the house and wait for Dante. I'll call when I've found him."

"Like hell!" Lily stood her ground. "I'm going to go after Braxton, and there's nothing you can say or do to stop me. I'll get a broom from my sister's store if that's what it takes. That wolf back there is showing me the way. Not you. Me. So either we go together, or I go by myself."

"A broom?" he asked, his lips twitching into a barely visible smile. "That would be something to see." He shook his head and led her into the garage. Moments later, they were in a four-seater ATV with Niko driving. He tossed her his phone. "Call Dante and tell him what we're doing."

Lily did as he asked, filling Dante in and asking him to let her grandmother know what was going on. If they ran into trouble, she wanted to know that the powerful witches of Befana Bay would know where to look for her.

"Wait!" Katerina jumped out in front of the side-by-side, waving her hands just before they moved into the woods. "Take me with you!"

"No," Lily said, shaking her head.

Niko stopped and let Katerina run over to them. "Why would we take you?"

"Because I can help. If Lucy did this, I know her. I understand what makes her tick. I'll be able to break the curse."

"You don't have any power," Niko said.

"I can take it back from her!" she cried.

Niko shook his head. "We don't need you in order to break the curse. You're not coming. Stay here. If you try to leave, you won't get far. My partner is watching you. Understand?"

"Partner?" Lily asked. What did that mean? Was that a romantic partner or a work partner?

Niko didn't answer, and Katerina started screaming at him, but he stepped on the gas, drowning her out, and shot into the woods where the wolf was still waiting.

The moment the wolf saw them, he took off through the trees.

Niko floored it, taking off into the woods.

"What did you mean by your partner?" she asked him, her voice raised over the engine noise.

"There's no partner. I was just trying to get her to stay put." He glanced at her quickly before turning his attention back to the woods.

"You haven't been running boat charters all these years, have you?" she asked.

Niko shook his head. "I've been tracking magical criminals."

"For the Magical Task Force?" she guessed.

He nodded.

"And you just happened to get assigned to a case that involved Braxton?"

"Not exactly." He gave her a wry smile.

His lack of detail in his answers was getting on her last nerve. "Spill it, Niko. Are you here on an official job, or are you off grid?"

He cast her a sidelong glance and said, "Both."