“Let’s keep looking, then. There’s still quite a bit of park around here.”

We set off, moving silently through the woods. Now that we’d reached the killer’s turf, tension tightened my shoulders. I reached into the ether and withdrew my bag, then pulled a potion bomb free before stowing my bag away. As Lachlan arched a brow, I shrugged. “I like to be prepared.”

He nodded. “You’re skilled at that.”

“Very.”

I crept forward, my gaze alert on the forest around us. The air began to prickle sharply, increasing in intensity until tears sprung to my eyes. “You feel that?”

“A powerful repelling charm.”

It looked like there was just forest ahead of us, but there had to be more. There was no way a charm like this would be here unless someone was trying to hide something.

“Wait here,” Lachlan said. “I can try to break through.”

“No, the pain would drive you mad. I’ve felt this kind of curse before. Made it myself. It’s horrible.”

“It’s done with potions?”

“It is. Sprinkled on the ground. You need a witch to finish it, though.”

“So he’s got a witch and a potion master on his side.”

“Could just be one very talented witch.” I raised my wrist and looked at the leather band studded with vials of potion. “I have something that will help us get through. It’s just one dose, so we’ll have to share.”

“It won’t work as well then, I assume.”

“It’ll be fine. Better than you trying to go alone.”

“You take it, and I’ll push on.”

I glared at him. “You can’t make it through without some protection. I’m serious when I say it will drive you mad. And you can’t afford that.”

His gaze turned dark, and he knew what I meant. The Dark Moon curse.

I didn’t know if this kind of protection charm carried that risk, but it really would hurt so badly that he’d go crazy from the pain. No need to tempt fate, especially if his goal was to save me a bit of pain. I could take it.

Quickly, I removed the vial from my wrist cuff and opened it, then swigged back half and passed it over to him. Cold magic raced down my limbs as he drank the other half, staring at me the whole while.

I looked away, staring through the invisible barrier.

Once he’d finished his potion, I stepped forward.

Immediately, the pain made me wince. It felt like tiny daggers stabbing me all over. My breath grew short, and tears sprang to my eyes again. I pushed onward, every inch of me in agony until it was too much. I couldn’t go any farther.

But I couldn’t step backward, either.

I was stuck, my muscles turned to jelly with pain.

Heat surrounded me, and Lachlan swept me into his arms, lunging through the last of the barrier. The pain disappeared immediately, and I gasped, trying to catch my breath.

“Are you all right?” Concern gleamed in his eyes as he looked down at me.

“Yeah.” I pushed weakly at his chest, and he let me down.

We turned to face the clearing, immediately spotting a little cottage underneath a huge tree. It looked ancient, made of stone and thatch. There was no glass in the windows, and weeds grew around the base.

“Whoa.” I jerked, surprised. I hadn’t seen it at all when we’d been on the other side of the barrier. Was he in there?

“It’s empty,” Lachlan said. “I can feel it.”

Damn it.

But part of me was grateful, too. The brief moment that Lachlan had spent holding me could have turned deadly if the killer had been in the cabin, watching.

Lachlan strode forward, and I followed, my footsteps silent on the grass.

The killer lived here. He had to. There was no other reason for it to be protected like this.

Unless it was the home of the witch who’d helped him.

But wouldn’t we know if a powerful witch lived outside Guild City? There were plenty of supernaturals living among the humans in London, and most people in Guild City knew of the most powerful ones, the same way humans knew about movie stars.

“Do you smell that?” Lachlan asked.

“Not another dead body…” The scent hit me then—the powerful stench of rotten eggs. “Sulfur?”

“Likely meant to hide his scent so that no one will recognize him.” Lachlan sounded disgusted. “It wouldn’t even help if I shifted. It overpowers everything.”

“He expected that we might find him.”

“He was playing it safe, at least.”

Damn. I stopped in front of the cottage door alongside Lachlan. We both held our hands over the door, testing to see if we felt any dangerous magic.

“Seems like we made it through the worst of it.” Carefully, he gripped the doorknob and turned.

No lock.

It creaked as its swung open, revealing the dark interior of a shabby little cottage.

“Ew.” It was a disgusting mess. Like an animal had lived there.

“He probably stays in his wolf form much of the time.”

“Then why sleep in the cottage?”

Lachlan frowned. “Maybe he doesn’t have connections like we thought. Maybe he stumbled on this place and was so mad already that it didn’t matter if he crossed the protective barrier.”

I stepped inside, prickling with awareness. There were booze bottles scattered around, along with old clothes and a dirty straw mattress. The fireplace was devoid of wood, and it looked like a family of rodents had set up house in all of the four corners of the cottage.

Lachlan pulled out his mobile and made a quick call for backup. “When we’re done here,” he explained to me, “they’ll guard the place. Our man might not come back, but I want someone waiting for him if he does.”

I nodded, continuing my search. Every minute I spent in there made my skin grow colder and my bones feel more brittle. The very walls felt like they were steeped in his madness.

“Under here.” Lachlan knelt by the mattress and held it up.

Beneath it lay a dagger stained red with blood.

“Holy fates,” I breathed.

“He used it to kill Bill.” A grim frown slashed across his face.

“I can track him with that. Maybe.”

He looked at me. “Really?”

I nodded. “That’s a powerful object. He used it to murder someone. It has enough residual energy that I should be able to make a potion that will turn it into a tracking device.”

“It would find him anywhere?”

“As long as he’s not on the other side of the world, yes.”

He nodded. “Good. That’s good.”

“Understatement much?”

The corner of his mouth pulled up at the side, one of the very rare smiles I’d ever seen him give.

“Can we touch it?” he asked.

“Maybe not with our bare skin. I don’t want to dilute the energy.”

Lachlan looked around, no doubt searching for a clean enough cloth that we could wrap it in.

There was nothing, of course. Everything in the place was utterly filthy with dust and grime.

He removed his leather jacket and laid it aside, then stripped off the shirt underneath. I looked away quickly, but not before I got a glimpse of smooth skin and a broad chest.