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My gaze shot back to the hole. “If we were dealing with another basilisk, surely there’d be bits of it scattered all about.”

“Basilisks are demons and can’t be killed by an explosion,” Eli said. “This was more likely to have been some sort of caged spirit.”

I frowned. “Spirits are no more killed by explosions than demons, though.”

“Depends on the type of explosion, and what else was contained in that weave of threads,” Ashworth said. “Given there’s no trace of either spirit or thrall, I’m thinking erasure of both was included.”

“With me as the side bonus if I happened to be caught,” I muttered.

“Indeed, lass.”

Monty glanced at Jaz. “Have you any objections to us going down there to investigate?”

“Not as long as you’re wearing booties and gloves,” she replied. “Hang on while I go retrieve them.”

“If you’ve any climbing gear in your SUV,” Eli said, “it might be worth grabbing that as well.”

Jaz nodded and left. I bent and pressed a hand against the ground. The whispers responded immediately. The blood had gone. The body had gone. The earth no longer held the taint of either.

Which basically confirmed that Roger had indeed been killed.

I drew in a breath and released it slowly. “I’m thinking I might need to ring Maelle.”

“She would have felt Roger’s death if he was caught in that explosion,” Monty said. “Why poke the crazy vampire any more than necessary?”

“Because the crazy vampire is crazy, and we need to do as much as we can to stay in her good books. We don’t want her coming after us, rather than Marie and Jaqueline.”

“Good point.”

Jaz returned with the promised booties, gloves, and also a couple of ropes. As Monty and Ashworth kitted up, I tugged my phone from my pack—noting that only one bottle of holy water had survived being thrown onto the ground—then made the call.

It rang on and on. I was about to hang up when she finally picked up.

“He is dead.”

Her voice was cold. Unemotional. As scary as fuck.

“Yes.”

“She took Augustine from me, and now she has taken Roger. She will pay. Everyone will pay.”

I had a bad,badfeeling that “everyone” might well include us. “Who is Augustine?”

“My great-great-grandson—the one Marie turned against his will.”

“The one who triggered the coven’s destruction, in other words.”

“Yes.” She paused for a long moment. “What happened exactly?”

“We unwittingly triggered an explosion.” I hesitated. “I’m sorry, Maelle. We tried.”

“Indeed.” The silence that followed was so long that I started wondering if she’d forgotten I was still on the phone. “I am not surprised, and it is for the best. I would most likely have had to dispose of him myself had you succeeded in rescuing him, and that would have been … hard.”

Hard, but not impossible. God, this woman… “Because he was a drain on your strength?”

“It is more what they did to him. For one such as he, a wound made of white ash is unhealable. His existence would have been one of never-ending agony.”

“Ah. Sorry.” I hesitated again. “Does his death release you from the bonds of your vow not to attack her?”