Page 102 of Shadow's End

I glanced at Belle. “I don’t like the thought of her sitting behind me.”

A smile twitched her lips. “No, though I doubt she’ll attempt to taste you until she’s dealt with Marie. But I’ll sit beside her, just in case. If she so much as twitches the wrong way, I’ll freeze her.”

I nodded, walked over, and climbed in. The back of my neck crawled with awareness, and tiny sparks of magic danced across my fingers. I did my best to ignore both, started the SUV, then did a U-turn and headed out of Castle Rock.

Belle’s phone pinged about ten minutes later. After a second, she said,They’ve just left Monty’s, so they’re not far behind us.

Good. The less time we have to wait in the car with Maelle, the better.

She might not be saying or doing anything, but the closer we got to our target, the deeper and darker her emotional statebecame. Which only made me suspect she did indeed know exactly where her maker was.

So why, if she was now so determined to break her oath and confront Marie, hadn’t she done it earlier, when Marie had been distracted by summoning and sending those stick golems? Why wait for us to chauffeur her there?

Backup,Belle said.She may be confident that her skills are greater than that of her maker, but she’s taking no chances. If she can’t kill Marie, she wants to make damn sure someone else will.

Which we certainly would. Hell, I wasn’t even sure we could leave Maelle alive. Not now. I continued on at speed, and we quickly reached Newstead. The post office was a cream-colored weatherboard building with a rusting tin roof, and looked more like an old house than a place of business. I parked opposite, turning off the headlights but keeping the engine on so that we could still run the air con.

Maelle immediately said, “Why do we stop? This is not the meeting location.”

A statement that confirmed my suspicion that she did indeed know where Marie was. “We’re waiting for the other three witches. They can deal with any other traps or nasties Marie might have waiting.”

“Which she undoubtedly will. She is not one to take any chances.”

Silence fell again. Maelle remained a dark blot of furious turmoil that neither moved nor even seemed to breathe.

Just over ten minutes later, a car swept around the corner, pinning us with its headlights. A heartbeat later, Belle said, “That’s Monty. He said to lead the way.”

I started the SUV and drove off again. We sped through Newstead, then turned left onto the Creswyn-Newstead Road. About halfway down, we turned left again, this time onto a dirttrack that wound up toward the darker gloom of a forest. I followed the track until we ran out of road and then stopped and climbed out.

The minute my feet touched the ground, Katie appeared.A house lies through that path to your left. It looks abandoned, and no one is there at the moment, but it shows signs of being occupied until very recently.

I’d bet everything I owned that the house was the same one that I’d seen in my last astral journey, the one from which Jaqueline had been ejected.And the dead zone?

Two hundred or so meters behind it. Darkness stirs through the trees, though.

Spirits or demons?

She hesitated.They feel the same to me, so I cannot be sure.

Huh. I turned as everyone else climbed out of the vehicles. “Apparently there’re creatures a-roaming, so be ready for an attack before we get to the meeting point.”

“She will not attack the two of us before we reach her dead zone.” Maelle’s voice was calm and assured, everything the turbulent net around her was not. “Shewillattack once we are within.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Maelle, but I don’t think we can take your word on this matter.”

She glanced at Monty, her gaze glacial and amused. “That is only wise, young witchling. Let us proceed.”

Belle held out my backpack.Monty’s put a half dozen stakes in there. Thought they might come in useful in case your magic is totally leashed in that clearing.

I hope he’s left a couple for everyone else. We still have no idea how many vamps Marie has left.

Oh, trust me,she said, mental tones wry.The man ordered enough to stake an entire vampire army.

I couldn’t help but chuckle.Let’s hope that’s not what we’re walking into.

Though, in many ways, a vampire army might actually be easier to defeat than the monsters Marie would undoubtedly send our way.

I swung my pack around my shoulders and headed down the path Katie had pointed out. The night closed in, thick and shadowed, and the silence was oppressive. Nothing stirred in the area—no night creatures and no insects. It was as if the evil that waited ahead had scared them all away.

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