Aiden is walking just ahead of me. I dart up close to him and press my nose against his back, winding my arms around his torso.

“Aw,” comes the deep, soft huff of his laughter. “Are you cold?”

No. “Yes.”

“Liar.”

Okay, whatever. So I just wanted to snuggle up on him for a second. He looks unbearably handsome, all stormswept like this. So warm, against a backdrop that only says cold. Even the blue of his eyes is practically tropical as he cranes his neck around to smile down at me over his shoulder.

He trips a little over my feet, given the awkward position I’ve tangled us in.

“Come here, you,” he laughs, twisting his arm behind himself to catch a handful of my flannel. He pulls me up to walk beside him, catches me in his muscled arm, and presses me up against his side. “There, that’s better.”

“God, yes it is,” I sigh blissfully. Being out in the rainstorm feels like - well, being out in a rainstorm, but being cozied up against Aiden at the same time makes it feel strangely great. Like laying on toasty warm, sunbaked rock while the rain comes down. “You’re not spending extra magic to keep this up, are you?”

“Only a little, but I’ve deemed it worth the cost. I know what it’s like dealing with you when you’re sick.”

I’ve actually gotten the impression that Aiden finds every dramatic, grouchy thing I say when I’m sick extremely entertaining. I narrow my eyes at him in a skeptical way, which he carefully ignores.

“Anyways, I’m sorry if I really did let you get cold. We’re getting close to the hotel, though, and it’s gonna look weird if someone spots us walking through the storm without really getting wet.”

“It’s okay! I feel good.” I wind an arm around his back, absorbing the warmth of him through his clothes. “We’ve also made it almost all the way back to the hotel without some kind of disaster, that’s nice.”

“Save all your disasters for the hotel,” Kasey chimes in, grinning hopefully. “The historian’s assessment is that it hasn’t taken enough damage yet.”

“Oh, Kasey, please,” Aiden says weakly, closing his eyes behind his glasses. “Don’t encourage - is there even a section of the hotel we haven’t fucked up yet?”

Ralph falls back to walk with us, narrowing his eyes in exasperation.

“Jamie, Aiden-” He drags a hand across his eyes, blinking the droplets off of his lashes. “Are you guys falling behind in a storm because you’re busy flirting? While we’re in the middle of a hunt? Or is it because you’re plotting more hotel destruction with Kasey?”

“Well, that depends,” I tell him. “Which answer would you find less upsetting?”

Ralph takes a long, slow breath, turning his face aside. “Oooookay. I’m not gonna get mad. I’m not gonna-”

“Are you guys talking about which one thing we’re gonna break at the hotel?” Noah calls, falling back to join us. “No fair, I should get a say! I got ideas just like you guys do!”

“The hotel seriously isn’t broken enough for you?” Ralph almost wails, grabbing a fistful of his soaked blonde hair.

“The check-in desk,” Noah offers urgently, determined to get his suggestions in before a decision is made. “Or all the windows, they count as one, right? Um - fire, just burn it all - don’t say yes to any of these yet, I had more ideas, it’s only the pigs already took them all! Should’ve been me who got to break that chandelier! Ralph, are we still cool with counting the entire lobby as our one thing? I still feel like that was the best idea-”

“We were never cool with that, Noosh! We’re only going to the hotel to find the Witch. We’re gonna prevent her from taking any more power, then get her to someplace where we can face her. That’s it. No need to break anything else at the-”

Ralph cuts himself off as we step out of the treeline and get a glimpse of the hotel.

“Oh, now what?” he sighs wearily.

All of the lights are out at the hotel. It’s gone completely dark. Even the cafe is closed up, but Eduardo is still there, locking the doors. Ralph immediately sets off for him. The rest of us automatically fall into step right behind him.

“Oh - hey,” Eduardo says in surprise, when he turns around to find us all rushing up to him. “Sorry, I know you guys wanted lunch, but it’s pretty far past lunchtime now, I thought-”

“Don’t worry about that,” Ralph cuts in. “What’s going on, though?”

“Weather’s getting pretty intense,” Eduardo explains, raising his voice over the growing roar of the wind in the forest. “Everybody’s headed home.”

He jerks his head in the direction of the road, where a few hunters are crossing the street with all their gear in their hands. Clearly making for their cars. Huge though the reward may be, no one wants to stick around any longer.

I’m not surprised. Night is beginning to fall somewhere behind the clouds, but it may as well have fallen already. The storm has grown heavier, the skies darker, the wind more unforgiving. Eduardo is having to half-shout to talk to us, and I have to do the same as I ask -

“You’re leaving too, Eduardo?”

“No.” A blazing look of frustration creeps into his eyes, and his hand tightens around the cafe keys. “Would love to, but Wendy made it clear that I’ve gotta stay open in case any hunters are sticking it out.”

“What, like - in case they need to take shelter in there?”

“No, sounded like it was actually about the fact that the cafe is the only part of the hotel making money right now.” Eduardo nods in agreement at the indignant expressions that just came over all of our faces. “Yeah, sucks. But it’s my break right now, so at least I can drop Ramón off at home. Keep him out of the way of the storm, and out of the way of any trouble he’d run off to get into. He was starting to collect up broken pieces of wood from the lobby. Don’t even know what he wanted that for.”

“He wants a treehouse,” Ralph answers. And then, when Eduardo looks at him in surprise, “He - mentioned it earlier.”

“Oh, really? Shit. I already made him throw away all that busted wood. Guess I dunno how to make one of those, anyways…”

“Hey, man,” Noah jumps in brightly, slapping Eduardo’s shoulder. “Me and my husband can build you a mean treehouse. Remind me to give you my number later.”

“Really? Thanks, Noah! I’ll let you know when I got the funds for that.” Eduardo shoots him a warm smile, then looks around at the rest of us. “Well - anyways, I’m glad you guys made it back before I left. I was gonna ask if you wanted a ride into town. I’m guessing you don’t want to camp through this, right? I can hang out while you get your stuff.”

We all look at Eduardo with growing fondness.

“Thanks, man, but we’ve got our own car, and we can’t take off just yet.” Ralph lowers his volume, leaning in confidentially towards Eduardo. “Where’s Wendy?”

Eduardo points to the bend in the blacktop road. “Off down the road, laying into the person who’s delivering the new generator ‘cause they got here late. As if the weather isn’t enough to make anyone late.”

It’s obvious that Eduardo is enormously enjoying all this subterfuge, even if he doesn’t know what it’s about. He leans in, too, matching Ralph’s confidential volume.

“Those two cops who’ve been around all weekend - I seen ‘em driving slowly up and down this road, looking into the forest.”

“Looking for us?” Ralph asks softly.

“Maybe, yeah. Or thinking they’ll catch the monster themselves. Heard them talking about how their chief might let them off the hook for all the damage they’ve done if they can bring it in.” Eduardo breaks into an irrepressible grin. “You guys saw what they did to the lobby, right? Were you actually there for it?”

I nod sheepishly, and Eduardo lets out a jealous sigh.

“Bet it was magnificent, man.”

“Yeah, but it’s good you weren’t there,” Noah assures him. “Bullets were flying all over the place.”

“So I heard, all part of why I’m taking my boy home.” Eduardo hands me the bulky brown paper bag he was holding. “Sandwiches and cookies in the bag. I’ll be back soon.”

He says this last part with such a dad tone of voice that he reminds me of Kent. I watch him affectionately as he bows his head and heads off through the rain, hurrying back to his car. Ramón is in the backseat with his nose pressed to the glass, looking very bummed out that he has to go home. When he sees us looking he waves at Ralph, who gruffly clears his throat and gives him a little wave back.

We watch the car pull away. Ralph waits until it disappears into the fog, then spins on his heel and sets off striding for the rain-slick road. Picking up speed as he goes, until he breaks into a trot, then a run.

“Ralph - what are we doing?” Kasey calls, rushing after him.

I repeat her question as I sprint to catch up with everyone, having taken a second to tuck the bag of sandwiches into the dry safety of the roof overhang.

“The new generator is here,” Ralph answers, flashing us an urgent look over his shoulder.

“Yeah-?” Kasey begins in confusion, then breaks off sharply as understanding breaks over the whole rest of the team. “Oh, shit-”

We all speed up, practically sprinting down the drenched blacktop until we reach the bend in the forest road. Ralph signals for us to stop, and the team collectively staggers to a halt at his back.

As one, we carefully peer through the swaying pines, taking a look at the road on the other side of the curve.

A van with the words Heavy Haul-It Delivery Services stamped on the side is parked in a miniature flash flood on the pavement. A muscular, tattooed woman is in the driver’s seat with the window rolled down, listening as Wendy rails at her from under her extremely large umbrella.

“-going to leave you a bad review,” Wendy is saying icily, stabbing a finger at her face. “I may just call your boss!”

The woman in the van seems aware that Wendy is offended by everything about her, judging by the smirky amusement revealing itself on her face. But she also looks like she’s starting to lose her patience.

“Look, I told you, the weather slowed me down. I’m here now. Do you want the generator or not? If you do, you have to let me pull up close to the hotel. It’s gonna get soaked, and it’s a piece of electrical equipment, it’s dangerous-”

“There are no staff vehicles allowed on the hotel grounds, certainly not on the lawn,” Wendy answers crisply, then points to the strip of pavement where Ralph’s car is parked. “You’ll park right there or idle on the curb while you make the drop-off, like all my staff do.”

“Lady, I’m not your staff, and I’m telling you-”

The argument goes on, but no one on Team Ghost Office is listening anymore. We all just spotted her at once.

She’s so well hidden in the falling darkness that she’s only a pair of eyes. Huge, hollow, full of glitchy purple fire, staring out from the forest. You’d really have to be searching through the fog to notice them.

Those eyes are fastened on the van. She must sense the new generator inside, with its battery full of power.

As we watch, she slowly begins to steal down the slope towards the forest road. Almost hidden in the fog, crawling low to the ground like a spider.

The sight sends chills down my back. I can’t fucking believe it when Ralph sets off running right for her. Sprinting through the rain-drenched forest, avoiding the road, making straight for the Witch at full speed.

We’re all at his back in an instant. Even me, bewildered as I am. It takes me a second to understand what the hell we’re doing, but I get there.

We’re the ones doing the hunting now.

And we can’t let her get to that generator, or the situation turns around completely again. We have a narrow window to prevent this, narrow enough to make Ralph run in without a plan.

We’re sticking to the trees, so Wendy and the delivery woman don’t see us, and they don’t hear us over the storm. But the Witch senses us coming. She scuttles back into the trees with a sharp hiss, her icy purple eyes boring into us.

A sweep of warm, sparkling electricity rushes over me as Aiden’s eyes light up with waiting magic.

The Witch hesitates, glancing between us and the delivery van. She does a sharp double-take as the van pulls away from the curb, with Wendy striding along after it. They must have come to some kind of agreement, because the driver is headed towards the hotel.

The Witch turns back to us, then lets out a terrifying shriek when she sees Aiden shining with waiting magic. She turns and flees, racing through the misty forest. She bursts out from the trees and begins racing straight up the half-flooded road.

“Holy shit, we’ve got her on the run!” Noah shouts over the storm, sprinting alongside Kasey. “What do we do, Ralph?”

“Don’t lose her, she’ll go to the hotel and drain the generator! Head her off, keep her away from it!”

Kasey and I break off to one side, trying to put ourselves between the Witch and the side of the street with the hotel. Ralph and Noah sprint after us up the empty road, while Aiden keeps right behind the Witch, his magic gathered in his shining hands. They glow bright in the deepening darkness. Our pounding footsteps send up bursts of rainwater, as more pours down on us from the sky.

The Witch races back off of the road before we can head her off, taking cover in the forest again.

“Freeze her, Aiden!” Noah shouts.

Aiden spreads his glowing hands in frustration. “Can’t turn a spell around on her if she doesn’t cast one!”

“Just stay on her, don’t let her get away!” Ralph shouts, as we all charge after her back into the forest. “Kasey, get up there! Don’t let her out of your sight!”

Kasey - who can’t help but do everything with a certain degree of drama - takes a few more sprinting steps, throws her arms out wide, then dives forward like she’s leaping into the ocean. She reforms as a silvery streak of light, racing across the mossy forest floor after the Witch.

Kasey’s glow lights the Witch up. Now we can see that she’s headed back towards the treeline. We’ve sprinted into the forest directly behind the hotel, and the Witch is about to make a break for it.

Aiden releases a burst of Heliomancer light from his hand. It sweeps through the darkness and stops between Witch and the treeline, separating them like a huge, delicate wall of sunlit glass. She hisses and falls away from it, then retreats further, blinking hard, flinging a crooked hand up over her eyes.

All of the lights in the hotel just switched on at once, so bright that we can see the glow from where we are in the foggy forest. The new generator has been plugged in.

Now that I can see it more clearly, I get the impression that the entire hotel is shuddering and swaying in the storm. The wind wrenches away the plastic sheeting spread over the broken windows, letting the rain through. The old timber groans in the wind like a ship in a hurricane as walls of rain hammer down on the roof.

It snaps up everyone’s attention for a few seconds, before all eyes dart back to the Witch.

She’s taken advantage of our distraction to flee. She’s rushing away through the rain, supporting herself on the trees as she stumbles past them.

“Go!” Ralph shouts.

As one, we all set off running again. Following the Witch deeper into the forest, into the darkness of the trees.