“You didn’t betray us, did you?” I asked. “This wasn’t part of the Maker’s plan to get Lachlan?”

Anger flashed on Garreth’s face, followed by understanding. “No. I have my bad moments with the curse where I seem to lose time, but I’m managing. In this state, I would never betray my brother.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Give me one of your damned truth potions, and I’ll tell you. My goal is the same as yours, Eve—take down the Maker and get Lachlan back.”

There was such truth and passion vibrating in his voice that I believed him. I could see it in him—how worried he was for Lachlan, how regretful he was that his brother had been taken.

“We just need to figure out how to get him back, then,” I said. “That will be our first goal.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Carrow asked. “Do you think he’s being kept at the same place? Can we go back for him in a bigger group?”

Garreth shook his head. “The Maker has many places he could put him. He won’t leave him where we can find him, I’m certain of it.”

“Where else could he be?” I asked.

He frowned, clearly thinking. “There are several options, but I don’t know all of them.”

As he listed out the places that the Maker used as hideaways, I listened intently, but something else caught my mind like a strange fog.

A presence.

A command.

I blinked, looking around the room. It was just Carrow, Garreth, and me…but something was trying to draw me outside, like a ghost pulling on my mind. I turned toward the door and started to walk, unable to help myself.

I was riveted by the idea of the courtyard outside. Something waited for me.

“Where are you going?” Carrow asked.

“Outside.” My voice sounded distant even to my own ears.

“Why?”

I opened the door and stepped out, then spotted the Maker immediately. He stood in the middle of the courtyard—there, but not really.

“Where is he?” I demanded.

“Who are you talking to?” Carrow asked from behind me. “I see no one.”

The Maker smiled, a cold and cruel slash of lips on his strange, shadowy face.

“Tell me!” I demanded. “I want him back.”

“You will come for the ceremony tomorrow at dawn, or you will never see him again.”

Oh, fates. “Where?”

“The betrayer knows. Our northernmost outpost. Be within the cairn at dawn, or the man’s life is forfeit.” Without another word, he disappeared.

Damn it.

I wanted to reach out and yank him back, shake him until he gave up Lachlan. Instead, I whirled to face Garreth, who’d come to stand behind me. “Where is the ceremony?”

“In Maeshowe, the chambered cairn on Mainland, Orkney.”

“What cairn? Is it special to my people?”

“I don’t know, just that he plans to do the ceremony there. At dawn, on a day when the moon sets at the same time the sun rises.”

“That doesn’t always happen, does it?” I asked.

“No, which is why this day is important to him.”

“Was this always part of his plan? Take Lachlan to draw me to him?”

Garreth shook his head. “I doubt it. I know only that he planned to get you somehow.”

I searched Garreth’s face, wanting to trust him. “Did he know you were going to betray him?”

Surprise flashed, and then he frowned. “Perhaps he did. There’s no telling what he’s capable of.”

“Either way, this is where we are.” Carrow turned to Garreth. “How do we get to this chambered cairn? We’re going to need to be prepared with enough forces to stop this bastard.”

“I’ll tell you everything I know.” Garreth winced and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Pain flashed across his face, and when he opened his eyes, they were black.

Shit. He wasn’t controlling it as well as he’d said.

“Just give me a moment,” he ground out.

I waited, heart thundering. A few minutes later, he heaved a sigh, and his eyes returned to the strange gray color.

“It happens more and more, doesn’t it?” I asked.

He nodded.

“How long do you have left? You’re in control now, but you won’t always be, will you?”

“No, I won’t. But I should be good until dawn. Past that. Once we have Lachlan back and the Maker is finished, you can put me down.”

Put me down.

I didn’t even want to think about that, so I turned and went into the tower. They followed, and we took a seat in front of the cold hearth.

I leaned my elbows on my knees and looked at them. “We need a plan.”

After several hours of grilling Garreth on everything he knew about the Maker’s plan and coming up with our own course of action, we were finally done.

We still didn’t know why the Maker wanted to make me transition, but it had to be bad. However, there was no denying the fact that I was going to need to transition, and soon. Our best-case scenario for the plan was to steal the stones, save Lachlan, and do the ceremony ourselves later.

I prayed it would work.

When we were finished planning, our group split up to rest and recover. Garreth took a spare room in the tower, but Carrow locked the door in case he lost the fight with the Dark Moon curse sometime in the night. It was unlikely, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

There were still a dozen hours between then and dawn, and it seemed impossible that I could rest while Lachlan was chained up somewhere, held by the Maker.

I went to my workshop and stared at the books and ingredients, my mind racing.

I just wanted to see him. To know that he was okay.

There had to be a way. Determined, I went to the bookshelf and pulled down several volumes. My desperation dredged old memories to the surface of my mind. I’d heard Liora once speak about spirit travel. Perhaps I could find a recipe for that.

With every page that I flipped, every potion recipe that I skimmed, my desperation grew. There had to be a way. Lachlan and I were mates. We were bound through fate. I could feel his presence when he was near, like we were connected on a plane beyond the regular world. That had to count for something.

Finally, I found it.

I’d been right—spirit travel could only be accomplished between mates, but it was possible. Anxiously, I skimmed the list of ingredients and saw that I had them all. I was running a bit short on some, but I was determined to make it work.

Hope fluttered in my chest as I worked, gathering up ingredients and mixing them together. Time dragged as I watched the potion bubble and boil, until at last, the blue smoke turned green, and I smiled.

It was done.

At best, it would give me an hour, but I would take it. Maybe I could even find out where he was. I doubted that bit—the Maker was too smart to hold Lachlan in a place he could identify in case he could get a message to us—but I still hoped for it.

With my heart pounding, I tossed the potion back. It tasted like bright, fresh fruit of an unidentified variety. Magic raced through my veins, making my skin prickle and my heart race.

As my vision blacked out at the edges, I sat on the floor. My butt had just hit the ground when my head began to spin wildly. Within seconds, I collapsed backward, my soul seeming to shoot out of my body.