The Last Apprentice #10: Lure of the Dead by Joseph Delaney

I gave this tenth book in the series a rating of five out of five. Tom learns a way to defeat the Fiend forever, but he needs an artifact from the Dark and will need to sacrifice Alice's life. That plot will take place in a future book. In this book, Tom and the Spook travel to a nearby town to buy books for the Spook's new library. However, it's a trap. The Fiend has servants from Romania attack the Spook in the night and show Tom his severed head. They have magic that Tom has never seen before. The creatures will make the Spook suffer unless Tom convinces Grimalkin to return the Fiend's head. Once again, the task of defeating the enemy seems impossible.

Tom is the main man in this plot as he takes over the role of a real spook. The battle with the Romanian witches is the main conflict, but subplots deal with Alice, the Spook, and another former apprentice. The author increases the suspense as the protagonists are forced to fight the enemy alone, and in some cases, the victims fight them too.