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got a point,” said Beau, no longer pacing, his hands resting on Annalise’s shoulders.
    “Fine. We’ll find him first and see what’s going on. What date is that plane ticket for?” Evan held out his hand so I fished it out of my jacket pocket, pulling the ticket out of the envelope to peer at the print.
    “Two days from now,” I said, handing it to him. I pulled a sheaf of crisp notes out, flicking through them. “There’s at least a thousand pounds here,” I said, looking up, before passing the notes over to Evan. He quickly glanced at them before stuffing them back into the envelope, along with the ticket. Then he handed the whole lot back to me.
    “It makes sense that they would hang around until at least then, to make sure Stella got on that plane,” suggested Kitty.
    “They’ve got to know that I’m not going to get on it.” Nothing about it made sense. They had to know I wouldn’t return to England willingly using their ticket, ensuring their tracking my every move. Why would I? They’d already marked me for death; it wasn’t like I would present myself to them out of mere curiosity. There was no way I’d go alone, at risk of being ambushed at any moment.
    “I’ll call some of the pack and we’ll see if we can follow his scent. I didn’t see this Jones guy, but maybe I can get a scent off Stella and work from there.”
    “Sniff her jacket, wolf,” Evan said, glancing up, his voice a warning hum.
    “What did you think I was going to sniff, daemon?” Gage fired back, holding back a laugh as he held out his hand. Shrugging out of my jacket, I handed it to him and he sniffed it, then passed it to Annalise who pressed it to her nose, inhaling, before passing it on to Beau. “It’s faint,” said Gage. “But we’ll try. Annalise, Beau, you’re with me. We’ll go see what we can find.”
    “Call me when you get something?” I asked both of them.
    “Sure thing. It’s not a strong scent, but it should be enough.” Annalise knocked me on the shoulder playfully after giving me a quick hug. “Save me some cake.”
    I looked at the thick chocolate frosting on the cake Kitty had clearly been baking all morning and pulled a face. It looked delicious. “Only if you hurry.”
    “Gage, let’s go. I’ve got a slice of cake with my name on it.” Annalise banged out the door, with Gage and Beau shadowing her. I watched them go, talking to each other, until they were out of sight. A moment later, I saw Gage’s car pull out onto the road and point towards Wilding.
    “They’ll be okay,” said Kitty, coming to stand beside me. “Gotta lotta faith in those puppies.” Kitty, my newest housemate and oldest friend, had met my neighbours for the first time a few months before. She drove out to my house after a long convalescence in hospital. It wasn’t a regular hospital, but some kind of magical unit hidden in deepest Oklahoma, of all places. Her injuries had been sustained during a battle with a rogue witch, the same one who killed the last Council leader, and the woman I’d been forced to terminate. It took Kitty a long time to recover.
    I was glad to have her back, and if I weren’t mistaken, there were a couple of members of Gage’s pack who were pretty taken with her, too. She hadn’t exactly been lucky in love, so I was pleased for her. She wasn’t the only one who had gotten herself a wolf following. Étoile also had a rather enthusiastic admirer amongst the pack. So long as they didn’t territorially cock a leg on my porch, I was cool with it.
    “Are there any kinds of spells we can do?” I asked as I glanced back over my shoulder to include Étoile in the question.
    “Not my speciality. Now, if David were here, that would be a possibility,” replied Étoile, reminding us that David, and his girlfriend Seren, had gone home months earlier. David was Kitty’s and my spell craft teacher while we were ensconced in a safe house, far from the Brotherhood’s reach. Kitty had never