from intense avenger back to his normal, cheerful arrogance. “Hope it’s not that long. My bollocks are already freezing into ice cubes.”
It always circled back to genitals with men. “They’ll thaw,” I said dryly, and began unpacking the rest of our bags.
Half an hour later, we were redressed in the tactical gear Ian had brought, with bone knives sheathed at our belts and other weapons strapped to our arms and legs. Then we crouched behind the remains of the fallen tree and waited.
I gave the setting sun a hopeful look despite it being the third one I’d seen from my cramped perch behind the tree. Darkness meant another chance that Dagon would arrive—maybe. This would be a hell of a time for the demon to get modern and contact Ereshki by text instead of a personal visit.
We were running low on blood bags since we were both eating more to keep our energy at peak levels. We were also getting texts from Ian’s people saying that Silver was acting “morose.” I hadn’t liked leaving him behind, but an outdoor stakeout was no place for a pet. I also couldn’t risk Silver getting hurt when Dagon—hopefully—arrived and the fighting began.
“You’re sure Ereshki’s still in there?” I couldn’t help but ask. This whole time, she hadn’t once left to get food or water.
Ian gave me a baleful look. “For the third time since we started this stakeout, yes.”
He made no effort to hide his annoyance, but I was starting to wonder if Ereshki had tricked us. We’d never gotten close enough to the ski lodge to verify that Ereshki was inside since we hadn’t wanted to risk being spotted. Could she have soaked an object in Dagon’s power and left it there to throw us off her trail? She knew that Ian had the Dagon-power-sensing spell in him, so despite my vow not to kill her, she might have taken precautions to avoid being detected.
Several hours later, I was so convinced of this theory, I was about to summon my friend Leah. The ghost could enter the lodge to check if Ereshki was in there without being spotted. In fact, why hadn’t I thought of this days ago? If Ereshki had tricked us, she could be continents away by now—
Ian suddenly tensed and his aura crackled with enough energy to make me feel as if I’d been stung by a swarm of bees. I gripped his arm, anticipation rocketing through me.
“Is it Dagon? Is he here?” I whispered.
“Yes,” Ian replied with quiet savageness.
I threw the blanket off us. Then, with barely any noise, we both got to our feet. I palmed one of my demon-bone knives before I met Ian’s eyes. The last time we’d ambushed Dagon, Ian had died. I wouldn’t let that happen this time, no matter what.
He gave me a look I couldn’t read as he handed me the sparkling blue diamond. Magic crawled up my arm, painful in its potency, but we needed every bit of it. I closed my fist over the diamond, and Ian took my clenched hand in his.
“This time, we win,” he said as if reading my thoughts.
“This time, we win,” I echoed. No matter what.
His hand tightened; then our surroundings blurred.
That blur stopped moments later, revealing an interior room on the first floor of the lodge. It was stripped except for a few benches, lockers, and counters where skiers must have once checked in. Now, graffiti covered the walls and trash covered most of the age-bowed wooden floors. The stench of old urine, feces, and garbage was almost overwhelming.
But beyond that, I smelled a hint of lilacs and lavender. Ereshki’s scent. Ian was right, she was here, possibly on the second floor. Another sniff revealed the harsher scent of sulfur. She wasn’t alone. Ian was right again. Dagon was here.
I went to the far side of the room, then looked at Ian. He checked the coordinates programmed into his smart watch and nodded, confirming that I was at the center of our pentagram.
I bent down, cleared the garbage away, and slammed the blue diamond onto the floor hard enough to puncture the wooden floorboards. Magic exploded with such a tangible rush that the garbage blasted out in all directions.
I felt that magic find the stones at the five tips of the pentagram’s star and activate them. Then it found the five stones in the circle surrounding the pentagram and filled those, too. But the circle allowed the magic to go no further, so