Oh, goody. Tonight was just full of good news.
I nodded, my voice flat and hoarse. “Great. Thanks. I’ll tell her.”
I started out the big double doors.
“Sorry,” Quentin called after me.
I lifted a hand and gave a little wave before yanking one of the doors open and heading outside. I jogged down the stone steps, passed the angry protestors and the fountain in the square, and headed down the mountain toward home.
I shook my head at myself as hot tears tracked down my cheeks. What had I been thinking?
I’d allowed myself to hope that Ludolf might actually be able to cure me. I knew now that was beyond unlikely. He was just trying to string me along to keep doing his bidding. And now, after I’d broken “shifter code” or whatever by turning in Mrs. Abernathy, I was sure I was in a heap of trouble with him.
Plus, I’d revealed my secret to a cop who clearly saw me differently now. Oh, Jolene, you dumb dumb for ever thinking Peter could have real feelings for you.
Though I felt about as low as bottom-feeding algae, I had one consolation prize—I’d done the right thing. I snorted. And a whole lot of good that’d gotten me.
31
THE SECRET
I banged on the door to Will’s clinic, a half-empty bottle of potion in my other hand. I hiccupped and swayed slightly on my feet.
This was my second bottle—I’d downed the first one while still inside the bodega on the corner before checking out. I’d ignored the judgy looks from the two ladies who ran the place—if they’d had the night I had, they wouldn’t blame me.
The eye hole slid open and Heidi’s eyes smiled out at me. “Hey, Jolene!”
Locks clicked, and the door swung open. I stumbled inside.
“Hey, girl.”
She crinkled her nose and looked me up at down. “Are you—drunk?”
I winked—or at least tried to. “Maybe.” I looked around, then stormed through the swinging double doors to the exam room. “Where’s Will? He’s going to want to hear this story so he can give me the world’s most deserved ‘I told you so.’”
The back room smelled of lemon cleaner but was empty. I whirled around to face Heidi, who stared at me with wide eyes.
“What happened?” she breathed.
I narrowed my eyes, still hung up on Will’s absence. “Is he on another one of his ‘house calls’?” I made air quotes and spilled some foamy green potion on the linoleum.
Heidi’s brows pinched together. “Uh—yeah. He just left a second ago, actually.”
I sucked in a breath. “Really? Which way did he go?” I grabbed Heidi by the sleeve of her lab coat. She wore a bright pink spandex bodysuit underneath with a fanny pack around her waist. I dragged her outside, and she stumbled after me.
“Uh—that way.”
She pointed down the alley, and I dragged her in that direction. We passed a side lane and I spotted Will, still in his white lab coat of course, just rounding the next corner.
I spun to face Heidi and pressed a finger to my lips.
She grimaced. “I’m not sure we should be—”
But I ignored her and crept after Will. She huffed behind me, then followed.
We tailed my friend through some off-the-beaten-path alleys of the Darkmoon until we reached an industrial area. Will stopped under a twisted fire escape. Heidi and I dove behind a stack of crates and peeked around the corner. Our bear shifter friend yanked a metal door open and disappeared inside.
Heidi licked her lips. “What do you think he’s doing?”
I raised a brow and took another swig of my potion, polishing the bottle off. I tossed it to the side, and it clinked against the cobblestones and rolled away. “I don’t know, but we’re about to find out.”
Heidi gasped. “We can’t go in there.”
But I’d already crept halfway to the door. “Why not?”
“Jolene!” she hissed.
I turned and raised my brows. “You coming, or what?”
She rolled her eyes, then stepped out from the crates and jogged toward me, grinning sheepishly. “Yeah, fine, I want to know, too.”
I waited till she’d joined me, then slowly opened the door. It squeaked and we froze, then slipped in through the narrow crack and closed it softly behind us.
The space was dark, and I stood still until my eyes had adjusted. It definitely used to be an old factory or something. Metal scaffolding rose overhead, and strange machines littered the edges of a big room with skylights in the tall ceiling. Pale moonlight streamed in, and magically floating torches illuminated a circle of about twenty men and women in the middle of the empty warehouse floor.
Heidi clutched my shoulder and gasped. “Is Will in a cult or something?” Her eyes widened. “You don’t think this is one of those freaky suicide pacts, do you?”
“I doubt it,” I whispered back. “But let’s get closer and see.”
Heidi let out a little whimper but crouched down and followed me as I skirted the shadows, closer to the group, and crouched behind a dusty piece of machinery.
“Can you hear what they’re saying?” I turned my ear toward them.
“Nope,” Heidi said brightly. She drew her wand and winked. “But we will soon.” She murmured a spell, her wand glowed, and suddenly the voices of the group sounded as loud as if we were standing among them.
A man spoke in a calm voice. “Let’s begin. Who’d like to go first?”
“I will—what have I got to lose.” Will stood.
Heidi whirled to face me, eyes wide with panic, as our friend shrugged off his lab coat. She jumped out from behind the machinery and screamed, “No, Will! Don’t do it! You have so much to live for!”
Our friend whirled around, and I sheepishly stood up beside Heidi and wiggled my fingers at him.
“Oh, for snake’s sake.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.
The first man who’d spoken
