I’m falling asleep in my chair when Kara throws back her head with a groan and says, “There’s like a thousand different meanings for that symbol, even without the vines.” She balances her laptop on one hand and scrolls down a page with the other. “Spirit, mind, body. That’s too easy. Father, son, holy ghost—ha, not that one—past, present, future. That sounds spirit-y. Oooh, this sounds important: creation, preservation, destruction.”

“And, of course, the Otherworld, the human world, and the celestial world,” Rose adds, pointing to the page she’s currently reading. “Also, this book is quite upset about its current placement. I think it’d do better on a shelf with less sunlight.”

“Have you found anything about people attached to the symbol in history?” I ask, barely able to see them over the stacks of books around me. Anna gave me a hard time for it, to which I told her there’s nothing wrong with being a bibliophile, before having to explain that it means someone who loves books.

“I am not a bibliophile,” she’d said dryly.

“It doesn’t come up as being tied to anyone,” says Kara.

I start to say we can’t give up, but Kara cuts me off. “Yeah, yeah, nobody was going to give up.”

“He’s right, though.” Anna puts down her pencil from where she’d been doodling in a book. “We don’t even have two weeks until Samhain, and who knows what Kaden and his boss are up to in the meantime.”

Kara slumps deeper into the couch. “Probably looking for another Raven since they can’t reach Colin.”

“If he is, he’s not having any luck,” Rose says as she relocates her book to a dark, dusty shelf. “Nora and Aunt Elaine spent all last night making phone calls. The other Ravens haven’t had any wraith encounters, and they didn’t know anything about Kaden or his employer.”

“No, they aren’t coming to help,” Kara says before I can ask. “A couple offered, but Nora told them we had it under control. With so many gone already, the Shield is really weak, and she wants to make sure they stay safe.”

“Did anyone in town know anything?” Anna asks, but Rose only shakes her head.

“Gran tried a tracking spell on the wraith venom from your wound,” Kara says with a nod at my arm. “But it looks as though Kaden got himself warded. That’s why we can’t find him.”

My hands ball into fists. We have so many questions and so few answers. What is Kaden up to right now? Who does he work for, and who was the man in my vision? It feels like we’re driving down a narrow road at night without any lights and it’s only a matter of time before we crash.