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“Me too,” Gabe said. He rubbed his abdominal area. “More powerful than before. I guessed you getting with Travis has everything right back on track.”

Travis smirked. “Who knew my dick could change lives?”

My mouth dropped, then I laughed. Loud. I pushed his shoulder. “Just follow the fucking pull. I bet it’s going to take us right to Liam and Dupre.”

Travis’s gaze narrowed at the road in front of him. He blew past yellow lights and rolled through stop signs. It became obvious we were being pulled toward the wharf area of Salem.

“Hopefully this means we’re not too late,” Gabe said.

“We’re not too late,” Randy said, his voice terse.

I moved forward and put my hand on his shoulder. He reached behind and covered mine with his big mitts. Heat flowed off him. He was burning up.

We were getting closer. The pull was at its peak, and that could only mean we were almost at our destination. “No fucking way,” Gabe said.

“What?” I asked, peering through the windshield.

“We fucking checked here,” Randy said.

I looked up at a big building, stone, and ancient, sat against a backdrop of the ocean. “What is this place?” I asked.

Travis maneuvered the Jeep to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. He sat back in his seat as he jammed the shifter into Park. “This is where we stripped Jax. We haven’t used it since.”

“Another headquarters?”

“Kind of,” Gabe explained, pulling me out of the car. “It’s not our secret headquarters. This is official Order business offices. The witches around Salem know about it and come here when they think they need us. We haven’t really used it much after Jax.”

We all stood outside the Jeep, staring up at the building. For them, this all meant something deeper. Travis’s face was pale when I looked at him. I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “You couldn’t save Jax, but we can save Liam.”

His gaze hardened, and we all strode forward. A blast of fresh rain aroma hit me in the face as Gabe did the visibility spell to see what we had going on inside. Sure enough, Liam and Dupre were there, locked in a magic battle. We started to run, Randy barging in through the door and leading us all to an enormous room. A huge painting that reminded me of the Last Supper adorned one wall above a row of chairs. In the middle of the floor where Dupre and Liam currently fought was an enormous pentagram.

“And here they are,” Dupre said. He sent a zap of magic toward Liam that knocked him on his ass.

I gasped. Liam. Poor Liam. He looked like absolute shit. He had bruises and cuts all over his body. His usually short hair had grown out and was wild around his face. His glasses hung crookedly on his nose. I ran toward him. “Liam!”

Travis pulled me back. The serpent familiar on Liam coiled in and around his skin. Liam sat up, eyeing us, but there wasn’t anything recognizable in his features. His eyes were hard, his gaze was cold. My heart split jaggedly as if ripped apart. He looked as if he’d barely recognized me.

“Look, Liam, they’re here to save you,” Dupre prodded.

He laughed darkly. “Save me?” He shot to his feet and smirked. His eyes glinted red as he pulled on his magic, forming a fire ball in his palm. “I’m perfect. I’m strong, I’m powerful. Look what I can do now.” The flames rose upward toward the ceiling in a quick burst. It heated my face, and we all stumbled back. I tripped over my own feet, as my body surged, some of the magic leaving me and flowing into Liam’s trick. He raised his eyes to the ceiling in awe. No doubt it had never been that big before.

“I’m going to need that familiar back now,” Dupre said.

Liam matched his disdainful tone. “That’s not going to happen. We’ve bonded. We understand one another.”

Randy stalked forward. “Don’t say that. You’re not like that familiar. You’re good.”

Liam’s gaze narrowed at Randy. “You just want to keep me the shy, unimportant piece of shit I was, so you could have all the girls to yourself. You’re just trying to keep me down.”

“You have Norah.”

Liam’s gaze flicked to me. “And you still involved yourself in what we had. She wouldn’t even want me if you weren’t there either.”

“That’s not true,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s not true at all. Is that what the familiar is telling you? It’s a lie, Liam.”

“No, it’s not. The Liam before didn’t get girls like you. I’m just a charity case. I’m a member of the coven, so you have to be with me too. Well, I’m not just the shy, smart one anymore.” His eyes glittered as he threw the flames to the side of the room where they exploded and made a charcoaled dent in the wall. “I can do things now other than recall information and look stuff up on the computer. I’m not going to be the guy who just sits around and waits for you all anymore. I’m not going to be the outsider again. The weak one. The one everyone takes pity on.”

Gabe moved forward, his hands outstretched. “You were never that person.”