Ru headed off in the direction she’d gestured in, and Cutter followed behind, watching as she picked her way through the dense foliage, stopping from time to time as if she was trying to sense her way forward.It took nearly half an hour over the rough terrain for Ru to see something in front of them and hasten her pace. Cutter didn’t see it a first, but once the fog lifted a bit, he saw where she was headed. In front of them, three trees, remarkably shaped even more oddly than the others, stood out against the black backdrop. Unlike all of the other twisted, tangled trunks, whose bark was deep brown or even black, these trees were a dirty white, as if they’d once been made of chalk and had grown dingy over their years of standing amidst their darker neighbors.Ru stopped about ten feet away from them where there was a clearing. The fog here was thinner, more like a mist, and it didn’t encumber their vision at al

Clearly, Liddy was not expecting that question, nor the commanding tone in which it was asked. The shocked expression on her face lingered for a long moment. If Cutter had taught Ru anything it was that she was more powerful than she’d ever given herself credit for. “Cutter grew up in the same town Seraphina did. He knows her mother. He came here looking for me, Mom.” It was difficult to let the word slip out of her lips, but then, she’d been choking on it for years. “I’m living with him and three other people now, all of them from the same place. And we’ll be going there in the next few days, looking for clues as to where she might be.” She said all of it with her jaw set, her gaze even, her insides on fire.Shaking her head, Liddy said. “I have no idea why you would do something so reckless, Ruin. And totally unnecessary. To give up everything you’ve worked so hard for to find a woman who cast

“They’re definitely gone,” Raven said, her voice cutting through Nat’s thoughts like a heated blade through a block of ice. “Where they’ve gone, we can’t say for sure, but we expect it’s likely to their village.”“I would think that would be easy enough to establish.” He had his back to her, so rolling his eyes would lose its effect. That didn’t stop him from doing it anyway. “Check the airlines, Raven.”“Right. Anything else?”Rather than turn and address her, he dismissed her with a wave of his hand and listened for her footsteps to echo down the hall.It had been weeks since his failed attempt to take Rune in the woods, and since then he’d had nothing but time: time to reflect, time to regroup, time to regret. He’d been so close, and yet he still wasn’t sure exactly what it was that bet

The ride to Los Angeles from Jackson would take about four hours and would take her through scenic views Ru had only imagined or seen in textbooks. The landscape around her was so different than Upstate New York. They wound through peaks and valleys, plateaus and mountains, climbing in elevation, making their way further and further from civilization. The trees here even looked different, although Ru realized the twisted trunks of the forest etched in her mind were not reality compared to the typical varieties that grew in most areas of New England. Still, the wide-open spaces, the clear blue sky, and the fresh, crisp air captured her attention for most of the drive, calming her spirit at least as well as Cutter’s mind tricks.She sat in the middle row next to Ivy. Lyric was in the back next to the luggage, and the men were in the front, Rider insisting on driving. For the most part, the rest of them were quiet as well, and she assumed they were le

Nana made her way to the first doorway, which wasn’t too far away. She took a moment to collect herself before she pushed it open. The door creaked, as if it wasn’t used to being called upon to reverse its stance, but it let go of the jamb and revealed a tiny bedroom still decorated as if a teenage girl would be returning to her early ‘90s abode in a few minutes.Ru stepped in and took it all in. It was as if Sera had just hung the Johnny Depp poster by the bed this morning. A book was open on the nightstand, and upon closer inspection, Ru saw that it was a Sweet Valley High book. There were several others in the series on the shelf across the room, next to the worn white dresser with little yellow flowers topped by a handful of stuffed animals. Though not all of the books were as innocent as the one her mother had been reading; some of them were the books about magic her grandmother had mentioned before when the team had been investiga