“What did you see when you touched it?” Will asked.

“A huge house surrounded by trees,” she described. “Inside, there are sculptures, paintings, pieces of bones that belonged to dead saints, jars of cursed coins, trinkets dripping blood magic…. These images came in flashes, but I repeatedly caught glimpses of a leather-bound book with no title or author name on the cover. This book may not be Nathaniel’s copy of the grimoire, but I believe if you go to the town this envelope came from, then you can find Ethan Stone.”

“Let’s go for it,” Will said. “It’s our best lead.”

I nodded. “Marcus, you in?”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “I’ll give Ava a call.”

“I’ll ask Cadan to join us,” I added. “I know that doesn’t make you happy, Will, but our little team is one less with Sabina gone. We need all the help we can get and he’s strong. We’re lucky to have him as our ally.”

His mouth was a tight line for a few moments before he spoke. “No. You’re right. Call him and tell him we leave tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll get plane tickets for the two of us. Marcus, would you and Ava travel or fly using…other means…?”

He laughed. “Do you mean fly by wing instead of machine? It wouldn’t take as long if we traveled by plane and would be much less exhausting. She and I can get our own tickets. We’ve got the identification we’ll need to travel. Not the first time we’ve taken a plane.”

“Then we roll with what we have,” I said. I was nervous about undertaking this mission, but I’d have my friends I could count on at my back.

“So you’ll be gone for a few days?” Kate asked.

“Yeah,” I explained. “We’re going into this one a bit blind, so it may take longer. I’m counting on figuring out Stone’s location once we get to Saugerties.”

“Will you let me know how you’re doing?” she asked.

“Of course,” I promised with a smile.

It was no trouble to purchase two plane tickets into the Albany International Airport and book a couple of rooms at a gorgeous bed-and-breakfast in Saugerties. The trouble was figuring out what to do once we got to Saugerties after two in the afternoon. While I took a shower to get rid of my jetlagged-ness, Will looked up the location of the post office on my phone. Marcus and Ava wouldn’t arrive for another two hours, and Cadan was flying in after dark, of course, so it was just Will and me for now. I dressed in the bathroom and took my blow-dryer out into the room to finish getting ready.

“Any news?” I asked Will. I plugged in the dryer and sat down on the edge of the bed.

He plopped down beside me and eyed my blow-dryer. “You tell me. You’re the one with the satellite dish.”

“What?” It took me a moment to realize he was talking about the diffuser attached to the end of the dryer. “It keeps my hair from getting frizzy.”

“It doesn’t receive messages from space?” he asked, his voice ringing with sarcasm, and he took the blow-dryer from my hands to examine it.

“Give me that,” I grumbled and grappled the dryer back from him. “You’re ridiculous. So, did you get an address for the post office, or what?”

“Of course.”

He winked at me. I turned on the blow-dryer and blasted him in the face. He pinched my side and I couldn’t stop the squeal that escaped me. The entire time I dried my hair, he was right next to me, watching me curiously, touching the warm, dry, wavy locks of my hair, playing with my sleeve…. Finally, I turned the dryer off, set it down on the bed, and stared at him.

“Do you want something?” I asked him with an impatient huff.

He gave me an innocent look. “Never.”

“Then quit pestering me.”

“Never,” he replied with a grin and inched a little closer.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m going to kick you out of the room and ignore you.”

“Never.”

He was so close now that I could taste his breath and when he kissed me, it sent a rush of electricity to my toes. It only took seconds for the heat between us to flame, his body scorching against mine, pushing me into the bed. I wiggled toward the pillows and away from the edge of the mattress, and he followed me, molding his body to my shape. Kissing him now, feeling his lips against mine and his tongue against mine, reminded me of how long it had been since we were alone together and truly happy. The kisses we’d shared in his dreams felt tangible at the time, but now I knew that nothing could substitute for the feel of Will’s body in the real world. I’d missed him so much, missed the smell of his skin and the warmth and roughness of it brushing my own. I wondered what he felt when he kissed me back, if there was anything better than this to him. The brief moments I was able to forget why we were in that hotel room together were relieving, but there wasn’t time for this yet.

“Will,” I said, prying my lips from his to gasp for air.

He grinned at me before he buried his face into my neck, nuzzling and mumbling in response.

I laughed and untangled myself from him. “Will. Hey.”

His eyebrows raised questioningly and he gave another gruff, unintelligible answer. I pressed a hand into his chest, guiding his back into the bed, and his hands ran up my thighs as I positioned myself over his hips. Now that I was in control, I raised a finger at him to let him know that I was serious.