“There is no book,” I pointed out. “You said the book no longer exists. How are you going to trade an invisible object for your vampire?”
Zoe snorted and strode behind the bar, grabbing a leather-bound book from the counter and holding it up. “What do you mean? It’s right here.”
Whistler made a face. “That’s my drink ledger.”
“Now it’s the Archimage.” Zoe was calmer than I would have expected under the circumstances. “She won’t be able to tell the difference. I simply want her to believe I have the book. Once I see Rafael, it’s on.”
“She’ll assume that Rafael is like her vampires,” Aric noted. “They’ll be able to run free as long as the eclipse shadow is big enough. As it shrinks, they’ll have to take cover. Rafael will be able to join the fight. She won’t be expecting that.”
Zoe turned thoughtful. “Yeah. We have no way of knowing what sort of shape he’s in, though. He might need healing.”
“Sami will most likely be there,” I pointed out. “Can’t she heal him?”
Zoe’s scowl was pronounced. “If anyone sees Sami, I want you to put her in a pair of handcuffs and lock her in the truck.”
“Um, I don’t think that’s going to work out well during a to-the-death fight,” Gunner said.
“Probably not.” Zoe looked resigned. “She’s going to pop out at the exact wrong moment and put herself in danger. When that happens ...”
“She’s our top priority,” Rooster promised, awkwardly patting Zoe’s shoulder. “We’ll keep her safe. Your focus has to be on Emma.”
“Actually, Scout’s focus is going to be on Emma,” Zoe countered, shooting me an apologetic look.
“Me?” I wasn’t expecting her to cede control. “Why is it going to be me?”
“Because she’s marked you as her equal. For better or for worse, you’re the one she wants to face off with. You’re the one she’s going to be focused on. We need to give her what she wants.”
“If you mean you want us to sacrifice Scout, I won’t sit back and allow that,” Gunner snapped. He was almost snarling he was so worked up. “I understand you love Sami but I’m not just going to sit back and let Scout be hurt.”
Rather than be offended, Zoe smirked. “You don’t have to worry. We’re not sacrificing Scout. There are going to be a lot of creatures there to fight, though. Even with everybody participating, the bulk of the work is going to land on Scout and me. For whatever reason, Emma is fixated on Scout. That works in our favor. I’ll be able to take out most of the vampires and shifters while Emma is focused on Scout. She’ll never be alone. She’ll have all of us with her, including me, the entire time. There’s no reason to fret.”
Gunner rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t fretting. And I don’t think I like that word. It’s kind of weenie.”
“You’ll survive.” Zoe watched Raisin happily dig into her root beer float. The teenager appeared to have put the fear she experienced when Sami invaded her dreams behind her. “We can’t know their exact plan. Emma is strong and she’s been working against us the entire time. In a nutshell, we underestimated our enemy. We can’t do that a second time.”
“Do you expect her to call you?” Rooster asked. “Is that the assumption we’re working on?”
“It is.” Zoe bobbed her head. “She’s going to call, but we’re not simply going to be waiting around. We’re going to be gathering more allies.” She focused on me. “You said there’s a powerful witch out here, one who has been around a long time. I want to meet her.”
I was caught off guard. “Mama Moon?”
“I don’t recall her name.”
“It’s probably her. She’s been around forever, and she’s really strong. She’s not part of our group, though.”
“That’s irrelevant. Rafael was tapping contacts the other day. I’m betting she was one of them.”
“What do you expect to get from her?”
“I have no idea. I want to talk to her. You never know, she might be more help than you realize.”
“Okay, but I’m just warning you that she has a pet bear. His name is Barney and he’s huge. I don’t want you to accidentally blast him when we land because he’ll likely kill us before the big fight if we’re not careful.”
“Really?” Zoe’s smile widened. “A bear?” She shrugged. “I’ve always wanted to ride into battle with a bear on my team. This might work after all.”
MAMA MOON’S SHOP WAS A WRECK when we arrived. Something had obviously gone down, and it wasn’t good.
“She’s quite the housekeeper.” Zoe’s expression was grim as she walked into the store, her head cocked and her hands raised in case she needed to unleash a torrent of magic.
My stance was similar, but I was barely through the door when I recognized that whoever had attacked Mama Moon was long gone.
“She’s not here.” Gunner checked behind the counter just to be on the safe side. “Do you think they took her?”
Zoe moved to the wall and ran her fingers across a set of scorch marks. “There’s no body here, which means they either took her or she escaped. Where would she go if injured?”
I didn’t have an answer so I looked to Gunner.
“She’s a loner,” he replied. “She does what she wants when she wants. She’s kind of an eccentric. She still rides a huge hog with a sidecar. She once tried to train Barney to sit in the sidecar, but he refused. Last time I heard she was trying to find a domesticated cougar to sit in it, but apparently that’s still a work in progress.”
Zoe barked out a laugh. “Well, now I definitely want to meet her. She sounds delightful.”
“She’s crazy,” Gunner countered. “She’s also a good woman. I don’t understand why Emma would’ve taken her. She’s already grappling with us. Why take on Mama Moon at the same time?”
“Because
