“Rise and shine, sweetheart,” she said. “You slept in late. I want to leave in half an hour.”

Groaning, I slowly sat up in bed and glanced toward Josh’s bed. He was sitting upright, already dressed. Through the window behind him was a bright, cheerful morning. Blue skies, not a cloud in sight. My kind of weather.

Since I’d already cleaned myself last night, I didn’t bother getting in the shower. I just went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, do my hair and get dressed. I felt nervous as I thought about the day ahead. A visit to the area where the IBSI’s base was located. I had no idea what we might find, but hopefully we would not be detected by anyone.

Shayla ordered up some breakfast. She and I stuck with cereal and fruit, while Josh would only drink a milkshake.

Then we gathered in the center of the room. Shayla placed a hand on my shoulder as well as Josh’s. A moment later, the hotel had disappeared, and we were hurtling through air at the speed of light. Traveling by the witch’s magic really was not the best thing to do right after breakfast. I was glad that I hadn’t eaten too much.

It took a few moments to orient myself as my feet hit solid ground. As I gazed around, we were standing on the sidewalk, along a long, wide road lined with graceful oak trees. On the opposite sidewalk was a high, spiked fence that stretched the entire length of the road. Beyond it was some kind of grand estate consisting of dated stone buildings. They’d been renovated recently, by the looks of it, with tinted glass windows.

It looked like it might have once been an old, prestigious university, maybe even a monastery. There was one large structure toward the center of the compound shaped like a cathedral, and other, smaller rows of pointed buildings clustered around it.

“So this is it?” I whispered. I was so used to the usual oblong, brownish, custom-made buildings that the hunters usually set up at their bases. This came as a bit of a surprise.

Shayla nodded, her focus on Josh. She gripped the handles of his wheelchair and began pushing it forward. “Any of this at all familiar to you?” she asked.

“Not yet…”

“Okay,” she said. “I’m going to make us invisible and we’re going to cross to the other side to get a closer look.” Shayla and Josh disappeared from my sight as the witch performed the spell. I kept my grip on the wheelchair so that I wouldn’t lose them. We reached the other side and peered through the fence.

When Josh still didn’t say anything, we continued walking along the road until the fence gave way to a towering gate. There were two small buildings on either side—more modern than the ones located in the main compound—and I could make out security guards through the windows.

We ought not get too much closer, or we might trigger alarms.

We kept moving along the road. When we finally reached the end of it, we took a right turn, following the compound fence round the corner at a ninety-degree angle. We emerged on a smaller road this time and continued circling the compound while our eyes remained fixed on the gaps in the fence’s bars. Since we moved slowly, it took us about two hours to circle the compound—it consisted of not only buildings but also fields and training grounds. When we arrived back where we’d started, Josh still hadn’t said a word, and I was already writing off the idea that he was from London after all. Heck, maybe even the idea of him being a hunter was all a stupid speculation, too.

But as we walked the final stretch of road, past a vast parking lot, finally Josh spoke. “Clyderly,” he murmured.

Shayla and I stopped walking abruptly.

“What?” we both demanded at once.

“Clyderly. That’s what it says on that van.” I looked toward a large cluster of black vans in the parking lot. They had “IBSI” painted on their sides in bold white letters, and beneath, in smaller type, were printed the names of various locations. “Leicester”, “Southport”, “Oxford”… “Clyderly.”

Clyderly.

My nose wrinkled. Where was Clyderly?

“I’ve been there before,” Josh said, his tone intensifying. “Clyderly. It rings such a bell. It’s in… Scotland, isn’t it?”

Shayla let out a breath before quickly moving us to the other side. She took us behind a tree before making us all visible again, so that we could both take in Josh’s expression. It was that of deep thought and wonder.

“Yes,” Shayla breathed. “Clyderly is the location of one of the IBSI’s bases in Scotland.”

“I’ve been there before.” He squinted, his whole face contorted as though it took everything he had to recall the memory. “It’s… it’s in the Scottish Highlands. A base. Lots of buildings. Brown buildings with lots of glass.”

Shayla’s gaze shot to mine. “We must leave for Clyderly. Immediately.”

Grace

Although we had paid for another night in our London hotel, Shayla managed to convince them to give us a partial refund. We hurried back to our rooms, where I packed up all of our stuff again, and then we left the hotel like normal people—through the main exit, before heading down to the small lane that we’d first arrived at near the hotel. It was here that Shayla vanished us.

When we landed this time, my teeth chattered. A harsh wind howled around us, penetrating through my clothes. My feet felt like ice cubes. I feared for Josh. I reached instinctively for him and readjusted his scarf, wrapping it more tightly around him, as well as making sure that his hat covered his ears. We were standing in the middle of a snowdrift, rolling hills and mountains surrounding us for as far as I could see. Behind us was a road, whose tarmac I could barely make out beneath the snow. It wound down the mountain we were standing on toward what appeared to be a small, quaint village, about half a mile away.