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trustworthy,” Vital added. “But he’s jut a kid, and Lanca doesn’t know him.”
    “Yeah, well, I’d bet anything that they’re back at Dunne ai Dorn secretly plotting something now that we’ve left them alone.”
    Vital silently chuckled.
    “Sometimes I forget that she’s a queen, and she’ll do what she has to for the clan,” he said thoughtfully. “Whenever I remember that, I’m always glad we’re on the same side.”
    “I just wish we had reached the time when we didn’t have to choose sides anymore,” I said quietly.
    I knew Vital agreed with me. The paranormals were becoming more fractured by the day, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary.
    “Let’s go,” said Vital. All we could do right now was the task in front of us.
    When we reached Vampire Locke, the horses wandered off again. Razor didn’t even look at me as he trotted away.
    “This is wrong,” said Vital, surveying the rocks in front of us. Sip had transformed back into her human form and had braced her hands on her hips.
    “Didn’t you say there’d be guards?” she whispered.
    Vital nodded. “All the other times I’ve come here there were. Lanca ordered me not to come in on my own, and I probably couldn’t have anyway, but this door was always heavily guarded with demons, Nocturns, and vampires.”
    “Now there’s no sign of any of them,” I mused.
    As we stood there looking at the mountain, worry started to shape itself into a pit in my stomach. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that we were walking into a trap.
    “Is there any chance they know we’re coming?” Sip asked.
    Vital shook his head. “How could there be? The only other paranormals who know we’re here are Lanca, Lough, and Ricky.”
    “Maybe it has nothing to do with us, then,” I said. But even as I said it, fear prickled the back of my neck. “I say we stick with the plan.”
    “I love plans,” said Sip. “So, where’s the door?”
    Vital smiled. We planned to get inside the fortress using the same door through which Lanca had let us into Locke when we’d come for her coronation.
    “She’s been sneaking around since before she was queen,” said Sip fondly. “Only way to get anything done when there are so many busybodies.”
    “You wouldn’t know anything about busybodies, would you, Sip?”
    She grinned at me as Vital pulled the door open.
    We peered inside, but there was nothing but blackness.
    “Come on,” said Vital, going first. He quickly disappeared, and Sip and I followed.
    “This doesn’t feel familiar,” I whispered to my friend. She nodded in agreement. I had thought Vampire Locke would feel like we were coming back to something we knew, but it didn’t.
    The smell was dank and stale, like old flesh. There was also the faint smell of smoke. I tried not to breathe too deeply.
    Sip blinked rapidly, her eyes starting to water. Vital kept moving, seemingly unaffected.
    Quickly I lost track of where we were. Lanca’s first request, that we get her crown, would be easy to fulfill. The second, to find out what exactly was happening at Locke, was going to be harder; we had known that all along. But we hadn’t expected to be mystified as soon as we walked in the door.
    Eventually Vital paused in his slow, careful progress forward and ushered us into a small room off the dark corridor down which we had been making our way.
    “Lanca’s bedroom is below,” he whispered. “The crown should be hidden on one of her bed posts. Before she left she painted it black so that it would meld perfectly. She thought she’d have better luck hiding it in plain sight.”
    “Makes sense,” Sip whispered.
    “One last thing,” said Vital. “There aren’t enough demons patrolling the halls. My guess is there’s something major happening somewhere in Locke, probably in the coronation room. Either avoid it at all costs, or if you’re in trouble, go find Lisabelle. I’m sure you’ll be able to make your own decision on the fly if need