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“That’s really cool of you.” Because as much as I hadn’t wanted to ask Relic for help, he was the only one offering, and I’d be a fool to say no. “I have a feeling I might need to take you up on that.”

“Good,” he said in that deep, insanely rough voice. “Now get the fuck home, it’s late.”

I mock saluted him and got in the car, fired her to life, and headed out.

But as I hit the crossroads to leave Linville, I was hit with a weird sense of urgency that I couldn’t explain. It rose up inside me, and when I went to turn for home, my gut screamed at me to go the other way.

My thigh started to tingle.

Shit.

My task. I had no choice but to go with it.

I turned right instead of left and let my instincts guide me. I drove for a while and ended up on the outskirts of the city, an affluent area where a lot of the rich and influential witches lived. I’d only been here once, to a party when I was in high school. Fantasia Cotter had thrown a graduation party and invited nearly everyone at school. It hadn’t been my scene, and they hadn’t been my people. I’d had a few beers and then called Willow for a ride home.

Nothing much had changed. It still wasn’t my scene, and they still weren’t my people.

But I pushed on, and when I rounded the next corner, I had to slow right down. There were cars, people all gathered outside someone’s house, including several reporters from Nightscape. Was this some kind of press event?

There were more people arriving as I got out of my car and headed over. Lorenzo Leone stood there, face bloodless, eyes filled with fear, hands shaking. Lorenzo had several businesses but had made most of his money from his fast-food chain.

“…send my daughter home, please. If you want money, it’s yours. Whatever your demands, you can have it, just…please, send our girls back.”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” a girl said beside me. She looked about Mags’ age.

I joined their huddle. “What’s going on?”

“Marina was taken last night. You didn’t hear?”

I shook my head. I’d been so preoccupied searching for answers about the body I’d found and thinking about a certain alpha-hole who couldn’t decide if he wanted to kiss me or kill me, I hadn’t been on social media at all. My family had been caught up with the cemetery and what was happening there, and I assumed they hadn’t seen it either. “So, this is the third witch to go missing?”

“Yeah, I can’t believe it.”

“Lorenzo isn’t on the council,” I said, mainly to myself. The last two girls had been councilors’ daughters, and I’d thought that might be a link.

“They’re all friends, though,” the girl said. “I’ve seen them at The Bank together. Come to think of it, I saw Marina there with Kristi the night she went missing. Not to talk to, of course, I’m not part of her inner circle, but they stand out, you know?”

I stayed and listened to Lorenzo answer questions while I checked out Nightscape and the two other missing girls’ feeds. Both had been to The Bank the night they went missing as well, and people were speculating about it all over the app. I clicked on one of the pictures. It was Amy, Imogen, Marina, and Kristi. The four of them had been friends since they were little. They were all smiling, and they’d put #thespecials below it. I clicked on the hashtag, and hundreds of pictures of them together came up, a lot of them at that club.

The tingling had been steadily growing stronger while I’d been talking, which meant I knew exactly where I needed to go. As I strode back to my car, my heart was going nuts in my chest, my mind spinning with questions. I knew this task was going to be hard, but I never imagined it would involve anything like this.

What did the mother want me to do? Search for the missing witches? Find whoever was responsible? Like I was Sherlock-freaking-Holmes? I was just me. I didn’t know how to do any of this.

Wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans, I got in my car, took several calming breaths, that didn’t do shit, and headed into the city. Because I had no other choice. Whatever this task involved, I had to do it.

I parked a block away from the club. My clothes weren’t exactly suitable, but I had to get in there, and it had to be tonight. That sense of urgency was at an all-time high.

I stripped out of my Hell Fire shirt, so I was just in the black tank top I had on underneath, grabbed my jacket from the back because it was cold as hell, shoved it on, grabbed my phone and wallet, and got out.

I could call Relic, but the streets were busy. All I had to do was scream and I’d have every set of eyes on the street on me.

I was perfectly safe.

The line to get into the club was insane. You would assume having three witches go missing after coming here would be a deterrent, nope. Danger was sexy apparently.

Standing out here all night freezing my nips off, waiting to get in, wasn’t my idea of a good time, though. Working in bars, I knew there’d be another way in. I slipped down the alley. Bingo. There were two doors. One would be the fire exit from the club itself, and exit only, and the other would take me into the back of the staff-only area, most likely the kitchen.

I tested the first door, and, as expected, it opened.