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A line creased his forehead between his eyebrows as he looked down at me, his eyes roaming my face. What was he thinking? Was this some kind of retribution for whatever it was that he and Fletcher had been arguing over? It unsettled me that we didn’t know what they wanted, and that it was escalating.

A knock sounded at the door and I jumped in Nik’s arms, startled. He gave my arms a squeeze before moving to the door and peering through the peephole. Satisfied that it was only Puck and Tess, he undid the three locks and cracked the door open, letting them in.

“That was crazy back there, brother,” Puck said as he entered the apartment, clapping Nik on the back. He made his way to the refrigerator and turned back to us with a beer in his hand, popping the top open against the countertop.

“Want one?” He looked to Tess, then me, both of us shaking our heads.

“Sure, help yourself,” Nik said as he dragged out a barstool and sat down, motioning for me to join him.

“What was that?” Tess asked, dragging out a bar stool of her own and settling down.

“You tell me,” Puck responded, taking a sip of his beer. “What the hell did she say in there?”

“A whole lot of nonsense,” I replied, propping my chin on my hand. “She kept saying she didn’t want to, but that she had no choice. That there was no help for her. She said…she said ‘she’ would never take no for an answer. Whoever ‘she’ is.”

Nik and Puck met eyes across the counter, another silent conversation taking place.

“What?” Tess asked. She had caught it, too.

“Nothing,” they replied in tandem. What weren’t they telling us?

“Does this have to do with your beef with Fletcher?” I asked Nik, “because if so, you need to loop us in. It involves us now.”

“It isn’t about that.” Nik swallowed. “I told you, I was taking care of that.”

“But did you? Because Fletcher is still creeping around school and now Ms. Finch, who was always weird but never ‘attacking people in public’ weird, came at me with a knife in the movie theater bathroom. Then she turned into a wolf to try and maul me to death. So, I think I’m missing something here,” I pointed out.

“I know as much as you do. I have no idea what she could have been talking about. Fletcher’s beef is with me and Puck, not with you. I don’t think this incident with Ms. Finch was related,” he replied.

“Then what could it possibly have been about? And how many God forsaken witches reside in this ridiculously small town, anyway?”

“At least six that we know of,” Tess said absently.

“As I told you before, the meadow with the portal to Siraleth is a hot spot of magical energy. Witches are drawn to this area. They can sense the energy residing here and they will seek it out, even subconsciously.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “The question is, what do we do now? There is a lot of heat on us right now, with Fletcher breathing down our necks. Until we figure out what tonight was about, Diana and Tess are in danger.”

“I say we get out of dodge,” Tess offered with a shrug.

“Like that’s so easy to do with school and, oh, this little thing called our parents,” I pointed out.

“Actually, it might not be that hard,” Tess mused. “I was supposed to go on a college tour next weekend. That’s the perfect excuse to get out of town.”

“And our parents?” I asked.

“I’ll tell my parents I’m going with your family, and you can tell your mom you’re coming with mine. They will have no reason to find it suspicious.”

“Will we truly go on the college tour? There’s so much going on right now. School is the last thing on my mind to be honest.” I sighed, burying my face in my hands.

“Me too,” Tess agreed, her shoulders sinking in defeat.

“I have a crazy idea,” Puck offered with a mischievous grin.

“Do we even want to know?” Nik said, propping his elbows up on the countertop and running a hand down his face.

“I say we go to Istmere.” He shrugged, as if he was suggesting we go grab a coffee or something.

“Istmere,” Nik replied, deadpan.

“Yes, Istmere. You already showed Diana the city of Siraleth, but that’s all ruins and ghosts. Tess has never been. Why don’t we bring them to Prins? They’ve never seen an actual city of witches before,” he offered. “We can keep a low-key presence and only stay a day or two. Just to get away. You have to admit, it would be pretty damn hard for Fletcher or Ms. Finch to find us there.”