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her.”
    Kestrel nodded and hummed. He rummaged through the kitchen until he found a fine-meshed sieve. He made a scooping motion above the potion and filled it with the thick, yellow, soupy steam. Kestrel held it out toward me. “Ready?”
    I nodded and murmured, “ Dod o hyd I .” I focused on the memory of the witch’s magic, the feel and smell and sense of it as I ran my hand through the steam.
    “ Dod o hyd I, ” Kestrel repeated and dumped it out on the map. It swirled across the grid lines, searching every inch of the city before making a circle around the north of downtown. The steam ebbed and flowed growing smaller and tighter until it ringed the Seattle Center.
    The Seattle Center. And tonight was the full moon.
    I felt the blood drain away from me, and I put a hand on the counter to steady myself.
    “Too much too soon,” Kestrel said. “We could have waited, Morgan. We can make another spell tomorrow and find her. You’re in no condition to—”
    “It’s not that,” I whispered.
    “What then?”
    “Some witch is holding a full moon ritual at the Seattle Center tonight. Lila said she was going. Whatever the witch is doing, she’s doing it tonight.”
    We both looked out the window. It was dark out, but not yet late.
    Kestrel had his phone out and was calling Lila before I could order him to do just that. He set it to speaker phone.
    It rang and rang and rang.
    When it switched over to voicemail, an old and distant voice spoke. A voice full of bitter hate.
     

 
     
     
     
     
    8
    The Hounds of Hell
    “If you want your pathetic acolyte back, surrender yourself to me, Morgan.” The voice was ancient, malicious, and female.
    Goose bumps rose across my arms and neck. My lips curled instinctively back into a scowl. I knew her, yet when I searched my damn memories, I could find no trace. She knew me, of that I was certain.
    “Revenge,” I whispered. “This witch came to town for revenge. Against me.”
    “You don’t recognize her voice?” Kestrel asked carefully.
    I shook my head.
    Kestrel let out a long, low sigh. “It seems you are her intended target.”
    “No. I am ever the hunter, never the prey,” I said.
    Kestrel hung up the phone and called Adam. It went straight to the wolf’s voicemail.
    Kestrel frowned. “Adam always picks up for me. She must have Adam.” He sighed. “The witch must not know his connection to me, else she would have left me an equally nasty message.”
    “So she knows you as well as me. Who is she?” I asked. Anger began to boil in my gut. He had kept information from me. He had put Lila in peril, by keeping his secrets.
    Kestrel opened his mouth, licked his lips, and then shook his head. “I made a promise not to tell,” he said slowly. “A promise that is important to me, and that I will not break. But I will tell you this: this witch is cunning, but she is no match for Morgan le Fay. And I will be fighting alongside you. She stands no chance against the two of us.”
    I glared at him for a long moment, cataloging all the spells I could throw at him to make him speak the truth. But there wasn’t time. I rubbed my forehead, already starting to plan for what I would need to save Lila. To stop this witch. To guard myself against any treachery Kestrel might be planning against me.
    “We’ll swing by my store, and then get to the Seattle Center.”
    Kestrel nodded as I marched into the other room where I found my cloak and zipped up my long leather boots.
    The magician met me at the door carrying a black satchel at his side. We strode down the hotel hallway together, both fidgeting as we waited for the elevator to take us down to the parking lot.
    “She won’t hurt them. They are her bargaining chips,” he said in the elevator. “She won’t truly hurt them until we show up. All she wants to do is make you suffer, not them.”
    “So you say. I don’t have the luxury of having any information on this witch. I know not what she will do or why.” I