As Daisy left, Erik touched my hand to get my attention. “She lost her child, just before we showed up, which is why she can nurse him. She’s a good girl, a good mother.”

I wondered why he was telling me that. I could see she was a good sort, even with my ability to Track tamped down in the monastery. We finished eating and I sat while the supernaturals around us talked. I knew I was stalling. Peta knew a fire elemental, I had the venom and the blood, and we knew the words that needed to be said over the mixture to make it kindle.

But I just sat there, thinking. It wasn’t pain I was afraid of. No, it was that this was all happening so fast. One minute I was just a Tracker, chasing demons and trying to stop the bad shit in the world, and now I was going to be a mother of a child that I’d not planned on, yet wouldn’t deny for all the world.

I stood and left the table, left behind the murmuring voices and flow of energy that, if I was honest, was incredibly soothing. The monastery was truly a place of peace and safety. Back in my room, I found Catya sitting on my bed, her legs dangling.

“How could you leave your parents?”

She smiled up at me. They are my parents, not my keepers. I have things to do, as do those given great power. My age is irrelevant.

I was shocked as always at how grown up she sounded. That, and she was becoming more eloquent with her words every time we spoke.

“I see. Well, I need to find a fire elemental.”

Peta knows.

“Yes, I need her to lead me to her.”

Peta, who’d been stretched out on my bed, rolled to her feet and hopped to the floor. We followed her as she padded down the hallway and through to a room I’d seen before. Peta trotted into the middle of the sand-filled room and leapt onto the chest of the man lying there. He let out a grunt and opened his eyes. If I thought Zane had green eyes, they had nothing on this guy’s. They glowed green, as if there was a fire lit behind them.

“Peta, get off me.” He tried to push her, but she dug her claws in. “Ack, get off, cat!”

She let out a low growl and shifted into her leopard form, right on top of him. I watched with amusement as he yelped and hollered, twisted and tried to shove her off. Finally, he succeeded and sat up, sand falling from his back. “Damn cat. Familiars think so highly of themselves, if I can give you a piece of advice, avoid them.”

I thought about Alex. “I already have a cling-on. I don’t think I have room in my life for a familiar.”

Grunting, he stood, then looked at me. I mean, really looked at me. “Elle?”

A cold shiver swept through me, that single word hitting me hard. “That was my mom. Did you know her?”

His eyes widened and his mouth flapped several times before he managed to say anything coherent. “You look just like her. Talk about family resemblance.”

I licked my lips. “Look, I’d love to talk to you about her, really I would, but I need your help. I’m prepping a spell and I need a fire elemental to help me. Are you . . . are you an elemental?” The thing was, he didn’t look like an elemental, he looked like a hippy dug up from the sixties, his long red hair a tangled mess, lean body dressed in a Jesus robe, bare feet. Yeah, not someone who would inspire confidence.

He yawned and stretched. “Yeah, I am. Kinda. Name’s Cactus.”

“Rylee. And kinda, what the hell does that mean?” I stepped into the room, the heat in the sand seeming to reach me even through my boots.

“Means I’m a half breed. Fire on one side, earth on the other. But if you just need me to heat something—” He held his left hand out, palm up, and swept his right hand, palm down, over it. A flame opened up across his left hand, dancing along his skin.

“Impressive. And yes, I think that’s all we need.” I stepped back and he shook his head.

“If you have a spell of some sort, I say we do it here. I have a closer connection to the mother goddess and she can help if things go sideways.”

“Nothing should go sideways,” I said.

“Yeah, but if you’re anything like your mom, things go sideways whether you want them to or not.”

A smile twitched his lips and I so badly wanted to pick his brain, to find out what he knew about her. The journal from my mom had been burnt to ash in the fire that took out my house in North Dakota. Written words were one thing, but the ability to hear stories about her from someone who wasn’t in love with her—as in, not my uncle—that was pretty cool.

“Maybe later we can discuss my mom, but right now I need to do this. If you’re willing to help.”

“Anything for Elle’s little girl.”

I pulled the flask and the crystal vial out from under my coat. I unstopped them and mixed them back and forth. The blood was red, the venom a dark blue and the resulting mix was a deep purple. I held the crystal vial out to Cactus. He took it and I called on Ophelia since Blaz had left.

“I need the words, now, Ophelia, if you don’t mind.”

From dawn until dawn, from night to night, from wing to wing. Let the blood heat and hearts kindle in the fire that is life, may that which would steal our life become our sustenance, and let our breath give our love wings to fly through the darkest night and the worst storms.

I repeated it softly to myself, several times with Ophelia correcting me here and there until I had it right. I nodded at Cactus. “Okay, light it up, slow and then bring it to a boil, then I’ll say the words.”

“You sure that’s how it needs to be done?”

I pinched my lips together, thinking before I answered. “Yes. This is it.” He held the vial and slowly began to heat it, just by holding it as I whispered the words. Then Cactus switched hands.

“I’ll let it cool, and when it’s cool enough but still hot, that’s when I would drink it.”

I nodded my agreement nerves getting the better of me. “I’m scared.” The words escaped me, but Cactus didn’t know me and somehow that made it safe to speak the truth.

He gave me a smile. “I remember your mom. She was scared when she found out she was pregnant with you. Your dad, Bram, he was ecstatic, unable to believe he was going to be a father. They came here, you know. To hide until you were born.”

“Who were they hiding from?”

“From me. And the demons even then,” Erik said, coming into the room. “They hid from me because I was pissed she chose him over me. And that was when the first prophecies came to light that a Tracker would be the one to stop Orion’s plans. He’s been hunting you a long time.”