“Good morning.” He held out a paper-wrapped sandwich, and I could smell the eggs and bread. My stomach grumbled.

“Thank you.” I took it, appreciating the gesture. He was always feeding me, though he looked kind of annoyed by it. Almost like he felt compelled to care, but he didn’t want to.

“Dawn is coming.” He turned toward the door. “Let’s go.”

I followed him out of the tower and across the quiet courtyard. Guild City was just beginning to wake up, and I could see movement behind the window of the coffee shop across the way. As much as I’d kill for a coffee, now wasn’t the time.

The cemetery was silent as we entered, our footsteps disturbing the mist that hung low over the ground. The headstones watched us silently as we made our way toward the back. This morning, it was creepy. Nothing like last night.

As we walked, I kept a lookout for my mother’s headstone. I hadn’t visited it since her burial, though I’d often wanted to. But if I were caught here, how would I explain it?

The sorceress waited for us by the crypt. Today, she wore a simple black cloak and had her hair pulled up in a complicated knot atop her head. Severe black eyeliner and pale lipstick completed her look, and it was definitely cool.

She solemnly gazed at the two of us. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

Lachlan nodded. “We need to know what happened here.”

“All right. I’ll turn back time as far as I can. It will be easier if it happened recently.”

“I believe it did.”

She nodded and reached into the large leather bag that hung over her arm. As the morning light turned pale gray, she removed large colored stones and placed them in a semicircle around the entrance of the crypt. I watched, intrigued, as she anointed each stone with oil from a tiny silver vial.

She looked at Lachlan. “If you’ll remove the door now, we can get started.”

He strode toward the crypt and lifted the stone without trouble, setting it aside so that it leaned against the wall.

“Thank you.” She took her place directly across from the entry to the mausoleum and gestured for us to stand behind her. We did as she asked, taking up a position that allowed us to see through the doorway into the crypt.

She removed her black gloves and dabbed some of the oil onto the backs of her hands, then tucked the silver vial away in her bag. As the first rays of sunlight began to turn the clouds pink, she raised her hands and began to chant. The language was unfamiliar—it didn’t even sound modern, in fact.

Magic sparked on the air, coming from all around us.

I shivered. The graves—that had to be it.

Blue light began to glow from the ground, rising to the surface to gleam in the mist. The sorceress chanted louder, and the light rose up in arcs, traveling from the graves to the stones that she’d laid out. The brilliant blue light was almost blinding as it sliced through the air, forming a lattice dome around the entrance to the crypt.

When the sun shone directly onto the dome, the air popped, magic sparking so hard against my skin that I winced and stepped back. The glowing lattice faded, and a faint wind picked up. It blew straight across the walkway, and my head spun. It felt almost as if it were pushing time along.

The sorceress watched with bright eyes, continuing to chant.

When the shadowy, nearly transparent figure appeared, I jumped. “He’s dressed the same as the guy who attacked me,” I said. “Same size, too.” Unfortunately, he was still wearing the hoodie that obscured his face.

Lachlan stepped around to the side, trying to get a better view, but judging by the frustration on his face, it didn’t work. The man kept his head lowered and the hood carefully concealing his features. Lachlan stepped closer, as if he were going to cross the blue light barrier, but the sorceress gestured him back, murmuring, “Too dangerous.”

His mouth tightened, but he nodded and stayed put.

The shadowy man strode toward the crypt and removed the stone door as easily as Lachlan had. Then he entered and stared at the coffin for one long moment. My heart lodged itself firmly in my throat as I watched him shove the lid off the sarcophagus. The stone slab fell to the floor and shattered.

The next moments were chaos. He lost his shit, smashing the sarcophagus to pieces, picking up slabs of stone and swinging them against the wall. The rage in his movements made me slightly nauseous. When he started to tear the skeleton apart, I felt my stomach really turn, and I flinched when the attacker threw the wolf skull right against the wall.

I glanced at Lachlan, hating the way his dark eyes were shadowed with pain. For someone who had avoided emotion for so long, he was really getting hit hard with it lately.

The spectacle continued for ten minutes, until I was desperate to ask the sorceress to end it. Instead, I bit my lip. We had to learn from this, and so I forced myself to watch, to search for any clue we might find.

Finally, the man exited the mausoleum. I caught sight of the wolf’s claw clutched in his hand.

That bastard. It was a memento.

As he approached, I ducked low, trying to catch sight of his features. Unfortunately, he was extremely good at keeping his face tilted down. I could see nothing but the sweep of a pale nose and brilliant, dark eyes.

Entirely black.

Just like the apothecary had said. Just like I’d seen in the alley.

The Dark Moon curse.

No question. Especially with the way he’d destroyed the sarcophagus. The sheer madness of the act had been visible in every movement.

As he neared me, I searched his body frantically, looking for any kind of clue. Why couldn’t he be wearing a free shirt from his accommodation, stating the name of the block of flats?

Of course he wasn’t.

But his trousers…

The cuff of one of the legs of his jeans was rolled up slightly, the hem flipped as if it had caught on something. And there, tucked inside the denim, was a flower. It looked like it had got lodged there when he’d been striding through a garden bed. And damned if it wasn’t distinct. Tall and slender, with brilliant red droplet-shaped petals—I’d never seen anything like it.

I knelt down and yanked my mobile from my pocket, determined to snap a picture.

“That won’t work,” the sorceress said. “Best memorize it.”

I did as she commanded, using the next few precious seconds to commit the bloom to memory. I tried to store away every little detail. It was a flimsy clue, but I had to take it since no more were coming my way.

A moment later, the man stepped out of the magic circle and disappeared.

I heaved a sigh and looked down, praying that the flower would be enough.

Lachlan strode over to rejoin us. He thanked the sorceress and arranged payment. When she’d departed, I looked at him. “I’m going to try to find out what kind of flower was in the cuff of his trousers. Maybe it can lead us to a place he’s been.”

Lachlan nodded. “It’s a long shot.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I have a meeting with the Alphas of some of the other packs.” He looked back at the mausoleum. “That was targeted. Whoever is killing people in our clan is extremely angry with my father.”

“Did he have a lot of enemies?”

“A few. He was a hard man, intractable. And he spent a good bit of time before becoming Alpha on the security force at Glencarrough. I didn’t think much of it before now, but he’s clearly a linchpin in all of this.”