Page 93 of Enchant the Dawn

“Would you like to get married again?” Maddy asked.

“Perhaps,” Ava said with a shrug. “If the right man came along.” She glanced at the clock over the mantel. “I’m going upstairs to do a little research on the Dark Entry Forest and then rest for a few hours.”

Dominic sent a sideways glance at Maddy, hoping she’d missed the reference to the Dark Entry Forest, but her expression revealed nothing.

“She isn’t going up to rest, is she?” Maddy asked.

“No. She’s just giving us a little more time alone to say goodbye.”

Dominic slipped his arm around Maddy’s shoulders and leaned in for a kiss. In spite of the reassuring words he’d given Maddy earlier, he had his own doubts about their success.

* * *

Claret arrived on the stroke of midnight.

Ava glanced at Dominic. “Are you sure taking her along is a good idea?”

Dominic shrugged. “We need all the help we can get.”

“I don’t like you either, witch,” Claret said with a sneer. “But I like the Brotherhood even less.”

Ava snorted. “So the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Is that it?”

“Like he said, you need all the help you can get.”

Ava frowned thoughtfully. And then she smiled. She’d been wondering how to get inside the stronghold. Claret’s presence would solve the problem. “You’re welcome to join us, as long as you do as I say, when I say it.”

“Fine.”

Due to the time change between Portland and Connecticut, it was a little after three a.m. when they arrived on the outskirts of the forest. No animals stirred in the underbrush. Night birds were eerily silent. Dark clouds covered the moon and the stars. An overpowering sense of danger and evil rode the wings of the night.

“Can you feel it?” Ava whispered. “That sense of evil?”

Dominic nodded as he scanned their surroundings. The air felt heavy, oppressive. “A lot of people have died here. This place reeks of death and fear and old blood.”

“That’s true of most places,” Claret muttered. “How do we find the stronghold?”

“Leave that to me,” Ava said. “We need to find a safe place for you to spend the day first. If you go up in smoke when the sun rises, you’re liable to start a forest fire.”

Claret glared at her. “That’s not remotely funny. And you needn’t worry about me. I’ll go to ground before dawn.”

Ava shuddered at the thought of the vampire burrowing into the earth to spend the day.

Claret smiled at Dominic. “A little of your blood would help me rest better.”

She had a one-track mind, he thought with wry amusement. “Maybe tonight.”

“No harm in asking,” she replied.

“All right, you two, that’s enough.” Chanting softly, Ava waved her hand over a deadfall. A moment later, the wood was transformed into a square table. Lifting the bag she carried with her, Ava reached inside.

Dominic watched as she withdrew a cauldron, a dagger, several small jars filled with pungent herbs, four black candles, and her wand.

She set them out carefully—the cauldron in the middle of the table, the candles around it at the points of the compass. She placed the dagger at one end of the table, with the blade pointing toward the cauldron, and the jars at the other end.

A flick of her fingers lit the candles.

Chanting softly, she poured the contents of the jars into the cauldron. There was a hissing sound as the herbs caught fire. A plume of blue-gray smoke rose from the container, hovered in the still air for a moment, and then slowly drifted to the ground.

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