Page 170 of House of Pain
When the smell of burning weeds reached her nose, Alecto opened her eyes to see the flame in the bowl. After a moment, it died down, expelling a gulp of smoke into the air. In the ball of smoke, an image of Rogue walking through the woods appeared.
He was rushing, looking around him nervously, and the Book was tucked neatly underneath his armpit. At first, Alecto couldn’t recognize the forest around him, but then the old ruins emerged.
“He’s meeting someone at the ruins,” Jolene observed.
The smoke swirled. Rogue’s figure stayed clear while everything else blurred.
“What the fuck…” Blaze trailed off as the smoke parted, and now Rogue was moving through the long corridor in the Dean’s building.
Val cursed under her breath.
The smoke shifted once more, revealing Rogue striding down the hill to the Blood Lake, their Book tucked under his arm.
“Motherfucker,” Alecto scoffed. “He knew we would perform the locator spell. They want us to split up.”
“We can’t do that,” Andro blurted out. “We split up, and we’re going to be fucked.”
They exchanged glances, letting their hands fall to their sides.
“We go together and swipe every location,” Val said. “One by one.”
They were going to lose time this way. It might be too late if they got unlucky.
By the time they reached him, he might be gone. And the Book with him.
“Have you tried tracking the Book?” Alecto asked. “Maybe it will give a precise location.”
“It doesn’t show up at all,” Val said, shaking her head. “I’ve tried.”
Only one way to go then.“Okay, where do we start? I think the Blood Lake is the least possible location.”
“I agree.” Jolene nodded.
“First, we go to the ruins,” Val said, “then we move to the Dean’s building. If that doesn’t work, we’ll head to the Blood Lake and hope that the sirens got to Rogue before we did. For his own sake.”
55
The moment they stepped foot in the Blessed Forest, the smell of magic hit Alecto’s nostrils.
It was thick and sickly sweet, not the magic from the wards around the ruins that still lingered since the Equinox.
Silently, the five of them made their way through the dark forest, the dried leaves and forest moss crunching under their feet. Alecto found it hard to focus on anything with the thoughts swimming in her head.
The moment she had a grasp on one thought, it slipped away, melting with the rest of the chaos. It had been a hard night, one she hadn’t anticipated.
And maybe it was her fault.
If she had listened to her gut about Rogue, if she had paid him more attention in the last three months, then maybe right now they would be in a very different place.
If she hadn’t lowered her defenses, then maybe she wouldn’t have had her soul shattered by the devil walking a few steps away from her.
Stupid, stupid bitch.
When the ruins emerged in front of them, the remnants of the last revel still lingering around the perimeter until next year, they came to a stop.
Alecto strained her ears for any sounds. And soon enough, there was a rustle of leaves. A movement flashed between the walls of the ruins, a laugh following.
“Here for your Book?” Rogue teased, appearing from behind the wall.
