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The potion gave me heartburn. Horrible heartburn. It felt like I’d drunk the free trial of Rue’s blue-spider acid, the concoction she’d promised would eat through metal bars. I even double-checked the bag to make sure that smaller vial remained inside.

“Is true love worth this?” I flattened a hand over my breastbone.

Jasmine offered the bag of Doritos. We still stood in front of the stone building as full darkness settled over the forest. The irritated wolves had stopped howling. Now and then, a chilly breeze swept through, whistling across the old chimney.

“Love?” Jasmine asked. “I thought you just wanted to have sex.”

“He’s good company too.”

“Because of the accent?”

“Just… because.”

“Have you told him he’s cool to hang out with?”

“Not in so many words. I’m usually busy threatening to have his van towed.”

“Adults are weird about relationships. ”

“Bitter divorced adults are. But aren’t you twenty-four or twenty-five now? You’re an adult too.”

“That can’t possibly be true. I’m still living at my parents’ place because rents in the real world are ridiculous.” Jasmine said something else around the crunch of a Dorito, but my esophagus started to tingle, and I missed it.

At first, I thought the potion was trying to come up again, but the tingle didn’t hurt. It caused the heartburn to ease and reminded me of the way magic felt under my skin when the wolf came over me. The sensation spread from my esophagus to my entire chest, and I had the urge to turn east, toward the snow-smothered Cascade Mountains. Even without the influence of the moon, I could see their white silhouettes between gaps in the trees.

Was Duncan off that way somewhere? Within ten miles? The wolf howls had come from that direction, so it made sense.

“My esophagus wants me to go that way.” I pointed.

“Mine usually wants me to go to the grocery store.”

“The snack food section?”

“Naturally.”

Thinking of the wolves, I said, “Why don’t you stay here?”

“Alone at the haunted mushroom farm?”

“Since when is it haunted?”

“The windows are bricked up, the light keeps flicking on and off, and the wind is paranormal creepy as it blows across the chimney.” Jasmine pointed her chip bag toward the roof.

“Mushrooms like it dark, the light is motion-sensing, and the wind isn’t paranormal . Besides, you’re a werewolf. You’re scarier than any ghost.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. You’ll be even scarier if you wipe the Dorito cheese dust off your chin.”

“Ha ha. Your heartburn is glad I brought them. ”

“It’s turned into a warm tingle now, and it’s guiding me in that direction.” Again, I pointed toward the mountains, then grabbed the sword out of the truck. Most likely, if trouble found me, I would need to shift into a wolf, but Duncan might be tickled if I showed up to his rescue with it. Maybe I should have stopped to buy a superhero cape along the way, but that wasn’t in the budget.

“Is it wise to go in the direction suggested by tingling heartburn?” Jasmine asked.

“Just stay here and call someone to help if I don’t come back. Here.” I handed her the keys. “Turn on the truck if you get cold.”

“I’d feel guilty wasting your gas. I’ll turn into a wolf if I get cold. Or spoon with the raccoon.”

“Yes, they’re into cuddling up with predators.” I lifted a hand in parting. Not sure how long the potion or its tingle would last, I took off at a jog.

The movement kept me warm, but it wasn’t long before the uneven ground and lack of a trail had me tripping in the dark, my human vision not up to traversing the forest on a cloudy night. I second-guessed bringing the sword and my clothes. This would have been easier in lupine form.

When the agitated howls sounded again, the same hunch that had told me Duncan might be out here told me to hurry. Whatever he was doing to irritate those wolves might escalate into an attack.

“He can take care of himself against a pair of normal werewolves,” I told myself.

Of course, because I’d only heard two howling didn’t mean there weren’t more. I ran faster, accepting that stubbed toes and branches whacking me in the face were a fair byproduct of a heroic rescue.

Soon, I came upon an old logging road heading in the right direction and turned onto that. Was it the same road Jasmine and I had been driving up ?

“Should have taken the truck,” I panted, running on the packed earth.

Now and then, the gurgle of the stream reached my ears as I continued uphill, the snowy mountains visible beyond the trees.

The next time a howl sounded, it was close, so I slowed down, sweat bathing my face. It cut off abruptly, and I paused. Had Duncan or someone else attacked the wolf?

The howls didn’t start up again.

Biting my lip, I continued on, veering off the road and in the direction I’d heard them, the direction the tingle in my chest kept leading me. It had faded slightly, and I worried the potion’s effects wouldn’t last long.

In the trees ahead, somewhere near the stream, two magical beings ran through my awareness. Werewolves.

Again, I slowed, this time holding the sword aloft in case I needed to defend myself. I didn’t recognize the auras of those werewolves.

But they weren’t coming toward me, instead running across the route ahead. They soon passed out of my senses. Palm damp around the hilt of the sword, I headed in the direction they’d come from.

Soon, I sensed more magic. There was a being—was that Duncan?—and more that I couldn’t guess at. Artifacts? Magical beings? Whatever they were, they emitted more power than the mushrooms.

Something malevolent lingered about at least one of the things I sensed. It raised my hackles, reminding me of the magical security devices that my cousins had planted alongside Mom’s driveway, the devices that shot beams at me.

Maybe Duncan was indeed a prisoner out here.

The warmth in my chest that had guided me in this direction had worn off, but I didn’t doubt my own senses. He was out here. I just had to figure out how to reach him .

Again, I came upon the stream, ferns and thistle dense along its banks. I followed it toward a cliff with a waterfall tumbling down the face. Had there been a trail, I might have wondered if I’d reached one of the hikes on Jasmine’s to-do list. But this was probably private land, maybe still a part of Radomir’s mushroom farm.

I shined my phone’s flashlight around the waterfall, debating if I could climb up the cliff to the top, but my senses believed Duncan was inside it. In a cave? The magical items were in that direction too.

Picking my way closer, I didn’t see any openings, but my flashlight did glint off something metal among the ferns near the base of the cliff. As I approached, a high-pitched beeping started up, like a smoke detector in need of a battery change but louder. Much louder.

“That’s definitely coming from the cliff,” I muttered, wishing for earplugs.

If that had been going off earlier, it might have been what irritated those wolves. Another scan of the cliff face didn’t reveal any cave openings, but… was that a gap behind the waterfall?

“Duncan?” I called. “Are you back there? Shackled to a stone wall and being tortured by that annoying beeping?”

I didn’t receive an answer.

“There you are.” I stepped over the ferns toward the gap. I was right; it led behind the waterfall.

My toe clunked into something. I’d almost forgotten the metallic glint. It was…

“One of Duncan’s magnets?” I asked in confusion.

Attached to a rope, it appeared similar to the one Rue had wielded like a weapon in the parking lot. But Duncan hadn’t had any of his magnets with him the night he’d helped me in Augustus’s mansion. He’d brought some explosives but not a whole backpack. Even if he’d had more with him, once he’d changed into his bipedfuris form, he would have lost everything .

“Duncan?” I called again as I crept through the gap, the spray of the waterfall dampening my face. “You are a prisoner, aren’t you?”

The beeping halted abruptly.

I paused, listening, but with the waterfall roaring down so close, I could only hear very loud noises. When I tried to illuminate the darkness ahead with my flashlight, all I could see was a narrow tunnel disappearing around a rock bend.

“Duncan?” I continued forward over bumpy, uneven ground. If he was here and awake, he ought to sense me approaching.

The beeping started again, startling me.

I slipped and banged my elbow on the rock wall, almost dropping my phone. High-pitched screeches sounded, followed by flapping. A lot of flapping. A swarm of bats flew at me, their bodies glowing green.

Wings brushed my head and shoulders, and I couldn’t keep from screaming. This time, I did drop my phone as I crouched low, covering my head with my arms.

More and more bats sailed past, flying out of the cave for the night. The bodies of more than half of them glowed. It wasn’t until they all exited through the gap behind the waterfall that I lowered my arms, my heart hammering against my rib cage.

“What is this place?”

The bats had been magical, but I sensed more magic ahead. Again, this reminded me of the cave behind Mom’s cabin, some natural repository of power that had existed long before man—and werewolves—had entered the area.

Hand shaking after the scare, I took a deep breath and picked up my phone.

“Just bats,” I told myself. “Heading out to hunt.”

A thunderous grinding followed by a clank sounded. A roar came after and then a great wrenching noise.

“That’s no bat. ”

The beeping intensified, trying to pierce my eardrums. It was a wonder the bats hadn’t left a lot sooner.

The roar sounded again.

Was that… Duncan? In his bipedfuris form?

The roars came from deeper in the cave. I hesitated to rush back. If he was being controlled by Abrams and had changed into that form, he could be a danger to me. When he’d shifted into a wolf or bipedfuris of his own accord, he had defended me, but when that control device was in play, it was a different story. Since neither Abrams nor Radomir was inherently magical, they could be back there, and I wouldn’t sense them. The device also had the ability to manipulate Duncan from afar.

A cry of pain made me jump. That also sounded like Duncan.

Reminded that I’d come to rescue him, I made myself continue forward. If he turned on me… Well, he’d given me the sword for exactly that reason. With silver a part of its magic-touched alloy, it had been made to fight werewolves.

Around another bend, the tunnel opened into a cavern with a hole in the center. My foot brushed something on the ground.

Expecting another magnet, I looked down. It was metal, but it appeared to be a piece wrenched off a robot or other machine, not one of Duncan’s cylinders. More bits of metal littered the ground all around me. I spotted a couple of wheels as well, and…

“Is that a head?” I shined my light toward the edge of the hole.

It wasn’t a human head but a metal dog-shaped one, and magic emanated from it. In fact, faint hints of magic came from all the pieces on the ground. And Duncan…

Was he down in the hole? Had he fallen? I sensed him, so he was still alive, but I didn’t hear anything anymore, neither roars nor cries of pain.

When I eased closer to the edge of the hole, a pair of eyes on the metal head came into view. They glowed orange .

“I can’t believe I teased Jasmine about this area being haunted.” I skirted the head as I continued to the edge.

Haunted might not be the right word, but magic had doubtless been used to… I wasn’t sure what. Booby-trap this place? Had the robot-dog thing been a protector? Left to guard… what?

Splashes came from below. Maybe the hole was a cenote, though I hadn’t heard of them existing in this part of the world.

I peered over the edge into utter darkness. A grunt sounded, and the splashes stopped. I swung my phone downward, and the flashlight glinted on a pair of eyes.

“Shit,” I barked, fumbling and almost dropping my phone again.