“Can’t this thing go any faster?” I yelled.
“It’s a bus not a race car,” Callan said. “Relax, we’re nearly there. We’ll get there in time.”
Maybe so, but it wasn’t a matter of being punctual. We actually had to stop him from completing the ritual.
I climbed down the spiral staircase. “Close enough,” I called. I didn’t want to tip off Dashiell that we knew the location. Let him be complacent.
Stevie parked the bus on the side of a dark stretch of road and we filed out with our weapons in hand.
“Sneak attack, my favorite,” Kami said, smiling like a lunatic. Everybody had at least one crazy friend and Kami was mine.
“I thought this would be a steep climb,” Neera said. “This hill is barely perceptible.”
“It’s the highest point in the city,” I said. “It serves the druid’s purpose.”
“I’m disappointed,” Ione said.
Kami groaned. “Fine. Next time we’ll dump you off at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. Have fun with that.”
“Mount Kilimanjaro doesn’t exist anymore,” Ione pointed out. Some mountains failed to survive the Great Eruption.
I shushed the group as we approached a flickering light where no light should be. “He’s there.”
We crept low until we arrived at a clearing. Dashiell was crouched on the ground creating a stone circle. I gripped Callan’s arm when I spotted the stone in the center of the circle. The vampire nodded in acknowledgment.
“Looks like he found a replacement for Davina,” the prince said in a low voice.
I was so intent on locating the stone that I missed the pyre Dashiell had built in the background. I also missed the familiar woman tied to it.
I sucked in a breath at the sight of Mona.
The bastard had taken my landlord?
How? When?
There was no time like the present. Every minute that ticked by was one minute closer to the New Moon.
I charged ahead. “What did you do?” I yelled. “Go to my flat and kidnap the first person you found?”
Dashiell rose to his feet and smiled as though he’d been expecting guests and wanted to welcome them to his party.
“I went looking for you, yes. I thought it would be fitting if you took the place of the princess. An expression of gratitude for your interference.”
“Such manners,” Mona said from the pyre, plainly besotted.
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing yet. Miss Mona was kind enough to let me in the building. You weren’t there, of course. We started chatting and discovered common ground.”
“And you decided she’d be peachy keen with being your victim?”
“She volunteered,” Dashiell said. “You’d be surprised how many are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.”
“I don’t see you with your hand up,” I said.
Mona looked directly at me. “If it means the return of the sun and the end of vampire rule, then it’s worth my life. It’s worth a million lives.”
Wow. I had no idea Mona felt so strongly.
“I can’t let you do this,” I told her. “There’s more at stake than you realize.”
Dashiell stepped forward and blocked my path. “I think you’ll find there’s more at stake than you realize.”
He didn’t fire a warning shot. The druid simply raised his hands and the earth trembled beneath our feet. Trees tore themselves from the ground by their roots and marched toward us.
“Imagine what I can do once the ritual is complete.”
The other knights and Callan fanned out behind me and took on the trees while I tried to persuade the druid to stop the madness.
“This isn’t the way,” I insisted. As much as I understood the desire to overthrow the vampires, this wasn’t the right path. This druid craved power the way vampires craved blood.
I had to get that stone no matter what it took.
A bleating sound reached my ears and I froze. I turned to the side to see my pygmy goat tethered to a tree.
“Herman?” The flare of fear mixed with anger quickly morphed into a burning rage. “You kidnapped my goat?”
“Goats make excellent sacrifices,” Dashiell said matter-of-factly.
I ignored him and pinned Mona with a death stare. “You went into my home without permission and took my goat?”
Sacrificing herself was one thing. Sacrificing my goat crossed a line.
“You can thank your big-eared cat for these marks.” Mona held up an arm with bright red streaks. “He didn’t appreciate my unannounced entrance.”
Sandy had tried to defend the fort. Bless that temperamental fennec fox.
“A family could live for a week on that goat,” Mona said. “You’ve been selfish to keep it as a pet.”
“So it’s okay to serve up a goat in the name of survival, but you hate vampires for surviving on human blood. Anybody else see the hypocrisy there?” I looked left to right. “No? Just me?”
Mona lifted her chin. “Do what you must, Dashiell.”
“Mona, it won’t do any good to hurt yourself. The ritual isn’t effective unless they kill you. Suicide doesn’t count.”
“Why not? Isn’t that even more of a sacrifice?”
“I hate to tell you this but I’m not even sure a human sacrifice will do anything. He’s experimenting and he’s using you to do it. Your death could be for naught.”
“I don’t care.” Mona jerked her head to the side. “Why are you helping them? You’re not a vampire.”
I wanted so badly to explain my intentions to her, but I couldn’t. She just had to trust me.
Kami stormed past me, moving too swiftly for Dashiell to stop her. She ripped the ropes from Mona and set her free.
Mona spat. “Stupid woman.” She folded her arms. “I’m not leaving.”
Kami threw the stout woman over her shoulder and started walking. Mona pounded on her back, demanding to be set free.
The ground shook again and a blast of air knocked Kami to the side. Mona fell to the ground and crawled out of reach. Dashiell hit her again with another gust of wind. She blew across the clearing and slammed into the trunk of a walking tree.
Dashiell turned and launched a ball of fire at the pyre setting it aflame. Everything happened so fast, I barely had time to register it, let alone react. As the flames licked the stalks of wood, Mona leaped onto the pyre. Her screams pierced my ears as well as my heart. I wanted to cry, to scream and wail, but no sound came to my throat. No tears filled my eyes. Mona had made her choice and it had been the wrong one.
A delayed scream tore from my throat. “No!”
“A noble sacrifice.”
I whirled around to face Dashiell. “I think you mean stupid.”
Dashiell extended a hand. “You’re a smart and talented witch. Join me. There’s still time to see sense.”
“Sense boarded the station to LocoLand when you murdered your colleague and stole the stone.”
Dashiell peered at me. “Surely you understand why that was necessary. You see what’s at stake.”
“I do understand,” I said quietly. “Which is why I can’t let you have the stone.” I gathered my magic and compressed a piece of it into a small but lethal ball and let it go.