They pulled up on a gravelly beach and Bael hopped out into knee-deep water, dragging the boat onto the rocky shore.

Ursula stepped onto the rocks. Ice slicked the stones, but the tread on her boots gripped them tightly. She glanced at Bael, who already stood at the tree line, his pale eyes watching her impatiently as she hurried up the beach.

“You could have waited,” she grumbled when she reached him.

“We were exposed on the beach.”

Before she could ask where they were headed, he started into the dark forest.

It was slow going as her boots crunched between frozen kudzu vines. She had to shield her eyes from branches that clawed at her face. After a few minutes they broke clear of the underbrush onto a narrow animal track. Bael paused, sniffing the air. A thin dusting of virgin snow covered the ground. No one had been here.

“It looks like we’re alone,” she said, more to break the tension than anything else.

“That may not be true. Most of Nyxobas’s brethren are nocturnal, and most can fly.”

In her mind’s eye, an image flashed: Abrax standing over her, his great leathery wings beating the air. She reflexively reached to touch Honjo’s hilt from where it protruded from the sheath on her back.

With Bael in the lead they moved along the path, deeper into the island, until the dense underbrush cleared. This would have allowed Ursula to see more of the interior, had the canopy not simultaneously thickened.

On her left, a dark form towered above them, but Bael hardly paused as they neared it. Up close, she could see more clearly in the pale moonlight—an abandoned building, completely overgrown with kudzu, as if the vines were trying to suffocate it. The path wound on between more abandoned buildings, totally desolate in the cold light. Ursula had a distinct feeling of déjà vu, like she was again walking between the towering blue stones on her way to her trial with the moor fiend.

At last, the path opened into a clearing. Bael held up a hand, and Ursula stopped behind him.

“What is it?” she whispered.

“We’ve reached the lair.”

Chapter 38

An enormous Victorian building towered over the other side of the clearing, its dark windows staring vacantly like empty eyes. A dark wrought-iron gate covered its door, giving the appearance of a row of black teeth. Her mouth went dry. She knew it was stupid, but right about now, she really wanted her lucky stone—her anchor. She had to wonder if all of this would have been an ordinary day in the life of F.U.

She shivered, staring at the building. “What is this place?”

“It was once a hospital. The brethren of Nyxobas live here now.”

“This is his headquarters?”