"I thought we lost them. How did they catch up with us?" She turned around, staring down the black highway behind them. Her accent was odd, overly rounded vowels and flat consonants. It was unlike anything he'd ever heard before.

He caught her gaze in the mirror and narrowed his eyes. "How do you know they're behind us?"

She drew her full lower lip between her teeth. They hadn't had much in the way of orthodontics on Eudae, but her teeth were pretty naturally straight anyway. "I can feel them, like a tingle in the center of me. It's Rue's magick maybe. The elium." She shook her head violently, curls flying. "There's so much about this magick I don't understand yet. I need a quiet place to explore it."

"Hey, it's okay." He tried to calm the edge of panic in her voice. "Just answer me one thing. Do you think they can track you magickally?"

She thought for a moment. "No. I don't think so. I'm actually not totally sure what they can do with blood magick, but if it was that easy to track me they would've found me in Chicago before the police brought me to the hospital." She bit her lip again. "Although I did move around a lot, so… I'm not sure."

"Well we're about to find out. Hold on." He swerved toward an exit at the last minute and gunned the engine hard. Beside him, Theo grabbed the armrest. All the cars behind them, save a black SUV, passed the exit.

Seeing no other cars and none of the ever-vigilant Wisconsin patrolmen in sight, he ignored the stop sign at the top of the ramp and guided the vehicle down a small two-lane road into the hills. Evergreens whipped past in the glow of the headlights. Evening had settled not long before.

The trees didn't lack for water, Adam could feel it. Fire witches were always hyperaware of their surroundings and how well a place would burn. This area had received a lot of water lately. That was good. He didn't want to use fire against the demons, but if it came down to it he didn't have to worry about starting a forest fire.

"Adam." Claire's voice quivered.

Adam pushed the accelerator almost to the floor. The trees flew faster.

"Adam!"

He looked in the rearview mirror. Claire's blue eyes were wide, her already pale face paler, and her lips compressed. Every muscle in her body seemed taut as she stared at the road in front of them. "What is it?"

Theo shifted in his seat. "This is probably only the second time the woman's ever been in a car and you're trying to break the land speed record."

The black dot in his rearview was getting bigger. His gaze flicked to Claire. "I'm sorry. You can have a panic attack when we're free of these guys, okay?"

She dragged her gaze to his and forced her jaw to unlock. "It's fine. Do what you have to do."