Theo stared at him, mouth set in a grim expression. Barely banked rage clouded his eyes with magick—turning them a deep, earthy brown. A tornado turning up top soil.

"She said a woman, but we don't know if it's Ingrid or not," said Adam, finally.

"Doesn't matter who it is, they're all friends. Fuck."

It mattered. Adam could see it in Theo's eyes. A normal person didn't sleep with someone and then not flinch when they heard they might be dead. Not even Theo was that cold.

"Is it a message or is it magick?" Theo asked. "Are they using the witches for some kind of tracking spell? Or do they know what direction we took and they're leaving a grisly message to inform us?"

"I have a feeling it's both." Adam pulled his wallet out and threw some bills on the table. "Either way, we'd better get moving." He stood.

Claire walked to them, face pale. "I have to tell—"

"We know." Adam pulled her against him, wanting to protect her against everything coming their way. "The waitress told us. We have to get the fuck out here." He turned and walked toward the door, pulling her behind him.

"No!"

Adam stopped and turned.

She shook her head. "I'm not running anymore. The Atrika are probably using the aeamon for spell-work. That means the others could still be alive. We have to try and get them back."

"Yeah, I suspect the same thing. I'm through running too, Claire."

"It's a trap," said Theo, standing. "They're using them as bait."

Adam rubbed his chin, thinking about a strategic course of action. "I know. It's time we made a stand." He turned on his heel and walked out of the restaurant.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

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Adam glanced at Theo and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "As a witch, I don't feel good about stopping in a place named Salem, even if it's in Missouri."

Claire had to think for a moment before she got the reference to Salem, Massachusetts, and the witch trials. It had been a part of her education, stuffed away in the back of her brain.

She often felt one step behind everyone else. In the car between Ames, Iowa, and the restaurant in Missouri where they'd received the bad news, he and Theo had talked about something called a Slinky and it had perplexed her for a good half hour.

They were making their stand in a rented cabin out in the middle of the woods near Salem. A town selected because it had a store that dealt in rare weaponry and antiquities. Theo had found that out by searching for stores that met their needs on something called Google accessed from a small electronic box he called a PDA.

They were fortunate enough to locate a mecca for collectors, a store that boasted lots of copper weaponry, among other things. Adam was delighted to find a copper sword. All the copper weapons Theo and Adam had brought from the Coven had been left at the house in Crocus Hill.