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“It’s near Ramstein,” Zeke said, breaking into the brief silence that had fallen. “I can see the city. I’ve been there.”

“So have I,” Rick said, his tone grim. “And I think I know exactly the castle you’re seeing.”

Zeke pulled his hand away from the stone and opened his eyes, nodding. “I think I do too.”

There had only been one building like that in the area of the giant air base.

And after seeing the direction in which the city lay from the window, he knew the direction in which to look for such a structure.

It made sense. It was the castle they’d all joked about being Dracula’s lair or something equally silly.

It was easily seen from certain parts of the base, sitting on a hill overlooking the area.

“Kettering.” Zeke grumbled the word. The man was scum. That his name had popped up more than once today probably wasn’t a coincidence. The ancient seat of the Kettering family was on that hill, far above Ramstein Air Base. Everyone in Special Forces knew it and couldn’t do a damned thing about it.

So what if Kettering’s illegal arms were out there in the world, being used against them?

So what if he was allied with terrorists and other forces of darkness?

He was rich, and that made him all but immune in this modern world where money spoke louder than actions sometimes.

At least among the human governments and bureaucrats.

“Wait.” Lynn shook her head. “You’re telling me this stone was made in the Kettering Castle?”

Zeke nodded at her. “By a woman, in a workshop, in Kettering Castle,” he confirmed.

“She also trained at least two others. The ones to whom she gave the bracelets. But I get the idea that she was working up to doing something as a group—her and her two apprentices. Only, that one apprentice lost the stone out of her bracelet at the crime scene.”

“Then, this stone ties Kettering to the Venifucus ,” Lynn breathed.

“Thanks to you, Zeke, we not only know that he was the money behind at least one of the teams sent after your unit, but we now have our proof that he’s allied with Venifucus mages.

I mean, we suspected it, of course, but this is actual proof.

” She turned back to Rick. “We need to share this information with the Lords and with Kinkaid right away. Their Alpha needs to know. Kettering just went from nuisance to confirmed enemy of both your unit and of the Light. He and the mages who wear the bracelets have earned death sentences under shifter law for killing two of Kinkaid’s own. ”

“Really?” Rick asked before Zeke could.

“Shifter law is harsh, just, and fair, Granny always said,” Lynn replied.

“Come to think of it, she needs to know about the artisan mage too. It’s a very specialized sort of magic, and she might be able to tell us more about the maker of the bracelets.

In the meantime…” Lynn carefully scooped up the stone without touching it, sealing it in a cotton bag and then placing it in a little box that had what looked like magical symbols carved into the wood.

“We’ll just keep this evil thing under wraps in my protective box so none of its malice leaks out to affect us. ”

Zeke raised his brows at her words. He wasn’t completely comfortable with all the magic that they were learning about these days, but he supposed he’d have to change with the times if he wasn’t going to get left behind.

“If you ever need to store something magical, use only natural fibers. Cotton, wool, linen. And don’t handle it with metal of any kind.

Too conductive of magical power. A wooden stick will do.

Don’t use plastic either. Magic can’t be blocked by man-made materials, but nature provides, as my granny always says,” Lynn instructed those in the room.

The more Zeke learned about magic, the weirder everything felt to him.

He was way out of his element with everything that had happened to them since the desert, but he was going to have to figure it out.

This was his life now. His world had expanded to include magic and some really terrible bad guys who were worse even than the terrorists they’d been tasked to stop before.

“Got anything else for me to read?” Zeke asked, hoping the answer would be in the negative. He needed to get out of this room and get some fresh air.

First, though, he had to deliver the locket in his pocket to its rightful owner.

Seeing Celine would help settle his restless mind even better than being outdoors, he thought.

She had a calming effect on him that was hard to explain.

He just liked being in her presence. And if she realized she’d lost the locket, she’d be frantic.

He didn’t want her to feel that way for one second longer than she had to.

“That’s all for now,” Rick said, already making notes in a paper file. “Dismissed.”

They were doing everything by hand. No computers that could be hacked were allowed to record these sessions. They were going old school to keep all information about the unit as secure as possible.

Zeke got out of the rig they’d had on him with Lynn’s help, then rose from his chair and saluted his superior officer before leaving the room.

They might all be friends, but they were still in the military, and with so much change in their lives, military formality during their working hours was important to keep the unit functioning.

It was all about respect, and Zeke knew that although Rick was an officer and Zeke was enlisted, the respect for each other went both ways.

They’d cemented those bonds in foreign hellholes all over the world.

Looking at his watch, Zeke realized he had about forty-five minutes until lunchtime.

He knew where to find Celine at this time of day.

She’d be in the big cafeteria kitchen, helping her grandfather prepare and serve the midday meal.

Mission in mind, he coasted down the stairs at almost double-time, eager to see her and get her property back to her as quickly as possible.

He entered the cafeteria through the public entrance off the main corridor on the ground floor of the building that had been given over to the unit.

The big room was empty, but he could see a few of the staff moving around through the little window in the swinging door that led to the kitchen.

He peered through the window first, to see if he’d been right about Celine being there.

Sure enough, she was chopping vegetables at a workstation along the far wall, near a window.

He’d never invaded the kitchen before, but this was important. He pushed open the swinging door, and the big old master chief looked up from where he’d been supervising one of his staff at a multi-burner stove. He frowned a bit and came over.

“Can I help you, soldier?” Master Chief Santini asked in his gruff voice.

Zeke could feel everyone in the kitchen watching him with varying looks of interest and speculation. Nobody was hostile, exactly, but they were surprised by his entry into what was rightfully their domain.

“Sorry to interrupt your work, Master Chief. I just need to talk to Celine for a quick moment, if she can be spared,” Zeke said politely.

He didn’t elaborate on why. The last thing he wanted was for the master chief to interfere with Zeke’s self-appointed mission.

He wanted to be the one to give the locket back to Celine.

He wanted a chance to talk to her. To tell her that he felt bad about what he’d seen, and that he would listen if she ever wanted to talk about her parents and the violent way they had left this world.

Zeke held his ground as the old master chief’s eyes narrowed on him. Zeke wondered if the master chief would demand to know why, but the older man just looked him up and down once, then again, then nodded.

“Celine,” he said, not taking his eyes off Zeke. “Visitor. You’ve got five minutes.”

Celine came over as everybody watched, then the master chief walked back to the stove, and Zeke tried to smile to put her at ease.

She frowned, and he was very conscious that everyone in the kitchen was still watching them intently and could probably hear every word that was spoken with their acute shifter hearing.

“Can we talk for a moment in the cafeteria?” Zeke suggested, wanting to get her away from those prying eyes and attentive ears.

Celine nodded and preceded him out the swinging door. She made for the far end of the cafeteria without prompting, then sat at a table against the wall. She smiled gently at him as he sat opposite her.

“What’s up?” she asked.

Celine wasn’t in the military but had been granted leave to work with her grandfather.

Zeke assumed, now that he knew more about her situation, that she had wanted to be near family while recovering from the loss of her parents.

As a civilian, she was a lot more casual in her words and clothing choices than almost everyone else who worked on the base.

Of course, there were also a few civilian spouses living on the island, both among the shifters and the unit.

Many of them worked in supporting roles, keeping track of paperwork in the various offices or doing other tasks around the base.

Celine fit into that category of civilian support staff, though she was single as far as Zeke knew.

Zeke reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the locket. Her eyes widened, and her hand went to her chest where the locket usually rested.

“I believe you lost this earlier today,” he said, passing the locket across the small table to her. She took it gratefully.

“I didn’t even realize,” she said, her voice almost a whisper. “Where did you find it?”

“I didn’t find it. Rick did. He noticed it under his table after he finished eating, and since he planned to test my new abilities today, he thought it would make a good test object.” Zeke shrugged.