“I feel bad,” I murmured to Ms. Terwilliger, stepping away from the others. “Getting all these people involved.”
She pushed her glasses up and smiled at me. “It’s like I told you in the Ozarks: This is a problem for the entire magical community. You have nothing to feel bad about. It’s Alicia’s fault, not yours.”
I sighed. “I just hope waiting to come here was the right course of action.”
“While you were magically exhausted, just like she wanted you to be? No, Sydney. All you would’ve been doing is giving yourself to her. Even if we don’t find her today, at least you’ve had a chance to rest and prepare for what’s next.”
I simply nodded, certainly not about to tell her that my last few days with Adrian had been anything but restful. Maybe I was no longer magically exhausted, but I was certainly mentally drained. Hopefully that wouldn’t hurt in the hunt for Alicia.
Coven members I’d met at my initiation had all turned out, dropping whatever it was they’d had planned today in order to track down Alicia. Maude, Trina, Alison, and others whose names had slipped my mind in the last several months. Equally astonishing was that members of other covens had also come to join us, verifying Ms. Terwilliger’s insistence that this was indeed a problem for the entire magical community.
“We’re certainly not going to leave a mess like this for a newcomer like you to deal with alone,” snapped Inez Garcia, coming up to me as I started to turn from Ms. Terwilliger. Inez was perhaps the most surprising addition of all today. She was a venerable old witch notable both for her powers and her refusal to join any coven. She was the witch Ms. Terwilliger had gone to about the wooden box. Her acerbic wit was also legendary, though she’d taken a mild liking to me (which was about as much as she liked anyone). Catching sight of Rose and Dimitri chatting near Trey, Inez gave a small snort of amusement. “No surprise you’ve got dhampirs with you. What happened to that Moroi boy you had in tow last time? The one with the nice cheekbones?”
“Oh, he’s over there,” I said, flushing slightly. “I, uh, married him.”
Inez’s pointed eyebrows rose. “Did you now? Well, good for you.”
Maude, one of the senior witches in the Stelle, called everyone to attention. We gathered in a big circle as she cast a spell that created a miniature map of the Salton Sea on the ground in front of us. The plan was simple, for now, mostly because we didn’t know for sure what to expect. Between Ms. Terwilliger’s magical recruits and the “muscle” I’d provided with Trey and the dhampirs, we had nearly thirty people. We were going to divide into smaller groups to investigate as much of the shoreline as possible. Some parts were easier to get to than others, so today’s goal was checking out the public areas. Theoretically, Alicia would’ve had the same limitations. The groups were divided up based on those who had strong affinities to detect magic in general and those who were good at casting spells to detect hidden enchantments. The dhampirs were distributed among the groups, just in case physical force was needed. Ms. Terwilliger wanted Adrian and me to stay with her, and Eddie insisted on remaining with us as well. Although Jill was his main priority, he still felt responsible for us.
It looked as though Ms. Terwilliger’s predictions were spot-on, that Alicia might very well have abandoned her plan when I didn’t immediately take the bait. If she had left a magical trap around, she’d also done a great job of eradicating all trace of it. Our search parties scoured all the public areas we could, checking some of them twice, without finding anything. Undaunted, we took a small break for lunch and then reconvened to explore the less accessible regions around the lake. Even getting into those areas required magic—mostly invisibility spells—and that took a fair bit of coordination. As evening rolled around, however, those clandestine searches proved as fruitless as the easier ones. No sign of Alicia or magical traps.
Maude and Ms. Terwilliger thanked the other covens for their help and sent them home for the night. “Maude and I are going to run a few errands to gather some spell components that might be useful,” Ms. Terwilliger told me. “I’d like to lay some protective spells around where you’re staying, just to be safe—unless you and Adrian would like to stay at my place?”
I smiled at that, thinking of Declan. “Things are a little complicated right now. I’d better stick to Clarence’s.”
“Fair enough,” she said, “especially with those dhampirs of yours around. I like you having that extra protection, just in case Alicia attempts something we don’t expect. In fact . . . well, I have another suggestion to help you out. I’d like you to stop by Malachi’s home on your way back. You remember how to get there, of course?”
“Malachi Wolfe?” I asked, as if she could be referring to any other Malachi.
She nodded. “I’ve already spoken to him. He’ll lend you a weapon—just in case. I trust your magic but would feel better with something extra guarding your back.”
I didn’t like the idea of a gun, but Ms. Terwilliger had a point. When it came to Alicia, we couldn’t take any chances. I glanced back at my gathered friends. “No need for all of us to go—especially since one of us should get home and check on your mom, Adrian.” I could tell from his expression that he understood my meaning perfectly—that it was actually Declan we needed to check up on.
“Well, as much as I’d love to see Wolfe, it’s probably better you go to him, in case he demands another ‘skill test’ before letting you borrow a weapon,” said Adrian. “I’ll get back home to Mom. You guys . . .” He glanced at the dhampirs.
“I’ll go with Sydney,” said Eddie. “I want to finally meet this guy.” He’d taken our lack of results today hard, so I was surprised to see him enthused about anything.
Of course, Malachi Wolfe had become legendary among my friends—most of whom had never met him and were only going off of the stories Adrian and I had told about our time in the Wolfe School of Defense. In fact, it was clear from Trey and Neil’s faces that they wanted to come with Eddie and me, but Trey needed to pick up Angeline and had come out to the Salton Sea in Neil’s rental car. The two of them decided to get that straightened out while Rose and Dimitri went with Adrian. That left Eddie and me, and after telling our friends goodbye, we set out for Malachi’s compound on the outskirts of Palm Springs.