to it, I searched everywhere for the Black Claw, but didn’t see a sign of them.
I carefully approached the cave. I expected to hit a magical boundary wall like I did before, but instead, nothing.
I continued walking forward. My shifter eyes adjusted, enabling me to see in the dark. Yet the farther I went into the cave, the more empty it felt. My paws echoed as I walked across the stone, giving off a lonely sound that resonated within my bones.
I got to the end of the cave. It halted in a circular alcove a hundred feet across. It was big enough for a base, but there was no one here.
I took a deep breath. I could smell remnants of cultists. Sorceresses had been here only days before. There were still scents of things like incense and burnt candles drifting through the air.
And blood. I smelled blood.
I changed back into a man and cast an illusion spell. Sparkling bits of light scattered from my gloved fingers, illuminating the cave. I turned in a circle, observing what had been left behind. Crystals, charms. One cauldron. A few items of clothing, like a black cloak and a singular shoe. Stains of red littered the stone from the cult’s sacrifices, but the blood was long past dry. They’d picked up and gone in a hurry days ago.
They’d moved their location. But how? I searched the cave, looking for clues as to where they might have gone, but they’d left none behind. I was back at square one.
Dammit! Every time I took a step forward, it was like the cult was five steps ahead.
The White Rose. She must’ve warned them. There was no other way.
I bared my teeth. This woman was becoming a problem. I’d finally located the cult’s base and had a chance to shut them down for good, and it was ruined by the White Rose’s interference.
I had to deal with her. Before she caused anymore trouble for me.
Tonight was a bust. I might as well go home. I walked out of the cave, my form tense. Lately, the Phantom was just as powerless as Prince Ethan.
I shifted into a wolven. But instead of going back to Arcanea University, I changed my mind and headed in the other direction, creating tracks in the heavy snow. I wasn’t done yet. I had to learn something new about the cult, in order to avoid making this night a waste of my time.
I was more or less being pathetically desperate— I didn’t think I’d find anything— but instinct drove me on. For some reason, I followed my intuition south, toward the boundary wall that surrounded Malovia.
It wasn’t too far off— a few miles, mostly. I couldn’t explain why... but it felt like that was where I had to be right now.
I reached the border. I expected all to be quiet and uneventful. I was wrong.
The border wall surrounding Malovia to keep monsters in was invisible. But an Arcanea could feel its magical energy pulsing through the area when it came near. Yet something was wrong. The boundary wall was weak... as I drew closer, I felt its power draining. There were holes in it big enough for monsters to step on through.
The Black Claw had to be doing this. They were creating holes in the boundary wall, so monsters could walk freely through and terrorize the human world beyond. But why? And for what purpose?
The sound of a roar cut through the trees. I crouched down. My eyes widened in shock as I observed the scene ahead.
There was a monster near the boundary wall, tied with ropes and chains. The creature was a bukavac; a type of strange reptile. It resembled a warty toad, with six legs that ended in razor-sharp claws. Two massive horns stuck out of its head, and sharp teeth jutted out of its bulbous lips. The monster had to be twenty feet tall or more.
Bukavacs were water monsters. They resided in swamps and were known to eat large game like bears that came by the streams to drink. They remained underwater, and didn’t jump upon their prey until it was too late. They weren’t necessarily common, however— not at this time of the year. Bukavacs hibernated in the winter in massive caverns until it was time to emerge in the spring. What was one doing out here at the end of January?
The people holding the ropes and chains were the Black Claw. Male cultists, in both their human and shifter forms,