The sound of his phone woke him. Zeyang sat up, dazed, looking around before he could refocus on where he was.
He spotted the phone on the side table and reached for it, moving the blanket from his legs.
"Hello?"
"Li, they've found a lamb killed like a sacrifice," Lombardi's voice said. "I need you to check if there's residual magic."
"Okay, boss, I'm on it."
"I'll send you the location. Grab a coffee. Liam will get you there."
"Mhm."
Zeyang ended the call and leaned back against the sofa. He closed his eyes and finally remembered the previous evening. "Lu Shen!" he exclaimed, reopening them.
But the sorcerer, of course, wasn't home. A faint disappointment passed through him at that absence. With a sigh, he got up, drank some hot water, and noticed the kitchen, clean and orderly. He smiled, shaking his head.
Finally, he grabbed the car keys and jacket and left the house.
---
The place he arrived at was isolated in the countryside south of the city.
He left the car and waited for Liam, then they ventured together into the oak forest, following the path.
"Who found this sacrifice?" Liam asked, looking around.
"Lombardi wrote me that it was a hiker. The officers questioned him during the first survey. We're here to see if it was a real ritual and if magic was used."
They reached a wide clearing. In the center lay the animal, its throat cut, with several symbols traced in blood around it. Zeyang approached. The lamb still held faint remnants of magic.
He had knelt to examine one of the symbols more closely when a surge of magic hit him, knocking him to the ground.
---
Liam regained consciousness with a terrible headache. He sat up, looking around. But he couldn't see the detective. He got up unsteadily and called for him.
Receiving no answer, he called louder and reached into his pocket for his phone, but it wasn't there. He searched himself, unsuccessfully, while continuing to scour the clearing and the surrounding forest for his superior.
Alarmed, he decided to return to the car. He turned toward the path they had taken and began walking along it, still calling Zeyang.
He checked his watch. It was late morning. He realized he had been unconscious for hours.
He kept walking, but after a while, he realized something was wrong: he was taking longer than it had taken them to get there.
He started running, but couldn't find a way out of the forest. He stopped, panting, and let out a frustrated shout.
Then he heard a voice calling both him and the detective.
"I'm here!" he called, setting off again. Matt and Andrea appeared around a bend, and he ran to catch up.
"Zeyang?" he asked, looking at his colleagues.
Matt looked at him. "He was with you."
"I lost consciousness. When I woke up, he wasn't there, and I couldn't get out of this damned forest!"
"There's a spell wrapping him. But it's fading; maybe that's why we were able to find you," Andrea said.
"There's residual magic on you too," she added, examining him. "You were stunned with a spell."
"We need to go back and find the detective!" Liam urged, turning, but Matt stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Wait, we could all get lost." Then he pulled out a tag and waved it in the air. After a moment, writing appeared: maze spell.
"Let's alert Lombardi."
---
Lu Shen was about to leave the house when his phone rang. "Hello?"
"This is Antonio Lombardi, Li Zeyang's superior. I need your help finding him."
The sorcerer's heart skipped a beat, and his limbs went cold. "What happened to him?"
"I'll explain everything when we meet."
Lu Shen immediately regained his composure. He told Ling to cancel all his appointments and then got into the car.