by Sarah Biglow
Wallace cleared his throat. “We were hoping you had some idea of what that might be.”
“I can’t see the future. All I know is they’re killing people and, from what I’ve seen at two of the scenes, they’re resurrecting the spirits of dark practitioners killed during the Trials.”
Wallace stroked his beard in thought, never taking his eyes off me. I took several calming breaths before saying, “Look, I think it’s time you shared what you know about this prophecy I’m supposed to fulfill. I get that’s it’s coming and the time will be here in a few days when the meteor shower and the solar eclipse happen. But you’ve got to know something about what the evil is I’m supposed to put down.”
“All we know is the Order has long desired to bring their forces back into the world.”
I couldn’t resist an eye roll as Wallace prattled on. “Could you be more specific?”
“Both sides of this war were born out of the same group of Druids back in Ireland. We suspect whatever ritual they’re planning will try to invoke that ancient magic at the very least,” a gray-haired woman with wire-framed glasses answered before Wallace got the chance. If memory served, she was Marjorie Hampton, one of the researchers from my parents’ day.
“That could explain why they’re raising dark practitioners,” Belladonna murmured just loud enough for me to hear.
“Can we get back to how you’ll find this fifth location? And how do you even know these other deaths occurred on hanging sites of dark practitioners?” a dark-skinned man with a mop of thick, black curls interrupted.
I shrugged. “I may have a map and ledger of where every dark practitioner was hung. They fit the locations of the crime scenes down to the longitude and latitude. I think it’s forming an inverted pentagram so finding the last point shouldn’t be difficult.”
Wallace glowered at me. “Very well. We would like you to report back once you’ve apprehended Mr. Ellery and his accomplice.”
“I don’t work for you. Besides, once they’re in custody, it’s out of my hands.” Deciding this was enough of being a team player, I stood up and left the room.
I paused in the foyer, expecting to hear footsteps thundering after me. Silence was my only companion. I still stayed put for a few minutes longer and sensed the presence behind me before I saw who it was. Bethany stood there, looking at her hands.
“I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am for everything you’ve been through,” she said in a hushed tone. She’d never been one to speak louder than a whisper. Back before everything had gone to hell, she’d been like a second mother to me. Snippets of memories of movie nights at the Somers’ house flashed through my mind.
I tugged at my jacket sleeve as a distraction. “Thanks. I should really go. I need to follow up on a couple leads and I told my partner I’d let her know if I found anything of importance.”
“Right. Look, Ezri, I know things between you and J.T. ended badly, but I wanted you to know that, no matter what, I’m here if you need anything. I understand you are hesitant to trust us again, but we really do want the same thing.”
“And what is that exactly?”
“To stop the Order from executing whatever their plan is, no matter what it takes.”
Including my life.
“I’ll keep that in mind. But I really should go.”
She took a step toward me and lifted her arms as if she wanted to hug me, but I shied away from the gesture. She stepped back into the library awkwardly. Desmond passed her as she disappeared from view.
“Walk you to your car?” The anger had left his voice.
I nodded and we walked out to the circular drive together. We paused at the driver side door. He studied me with those piercing blue eyes. “Want to tell me how you have a map of all those locations?”
“It was with my family’s journals.”
“It’s supposed to be in the library archives.’
I shrugged. “I didn’t take it. Look, if it means so much to them, I’ll return it when this case is solved. Right now, it’s my only real lead to finding the fifth scene.”
“Please be careful. I don’t want to lose you after just getting you back, little cousin.”
“Thanks for the concern, but I’ll be fine.”
He frowned and gestured to my leg and ribs. “You aren’t indestructible, oh Chosen One.”
“I’m healing. It’s barely even noticeable anymore. Desmond, relax. I’m tougher than I look.”
He didn’t seem convinced, but he smiled at me. “I sound like a broken record, but I’m glad you’re back.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
I climbed into the car and shoved the key into the ignition. As the engine purred to life, so did my phone with an incoming text from Jacquie. “Tip line is off the hook. Get anything yet?”
‘Checking one last thing and I’ll get back to you.’
I left headquarters behind and in the rearview mirror I caught Desmond holding his phone up to his ear.
Nineteen
Afternoon was rapidly turning to early evening—the kill window—by the time I got back to my apartment. The time between kills had been steadily decreasing and even with the entire public looking for Kevin, I doubted he would be deterred. And if he was still working with his partner, people could be standing right next to him and not even notice.
There were a handful of spots on the map that looked like they could be in the vicinity of the fifth point on the pentagram, but I needed to view them in comparison to the spots we already had. I tried pressing the map to the Google map on my laptop, but the backlight of the screen made it impossible to see and my eyes crossed from the effort.
Some frustration and fighting with the install disc for a never-used printer later, I had a Google Map printout and far more success. Tracing the dots of the other four crime scenes, all but one of the remaining potential sites was ruled out, leaving one that sat squarely at the intersection of Charles Street and Tremont Street in Downtown.
Excitement coursed through me at the realization that I was one step away from catching our killers and thwarting the Order with a few days to spare. The energy flooded every nerve in my body and synapse in my brain, urging me onward. Halfway back to my car I called Jacquie.
“I have a lead on a potential attack site,” I said, the words tumbling out of my mouth as I climbed back in the car.
“Where?”
“Charles and Tremont.”
“How’d you figure this out?”
“Does it matter? If I’m right, we can catch them.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
“Where’s our friendly FBI shadow?”
“Taggart hasn’t been around for a few hours.”
His absence sent up red flags in my brain. If he was, in fact, working for the Order, then he could try to head us off.
“Okay, just meet me there,” I said and ended the call.
Whatever good traffic karma I’d been having all week deserted me on my trip into the city. The sun was well below the buildings around me as I fought through the pedestrians milling around the theater district off Tremont Street.
“Come on, move,” I groaned as the light finally turned green.
My car tires screeched as I took the turn onto Stuart Street harder than I probably should have. Only two more streets and I’d reach my destination. I prayed I wasn’t too late. One block up, I abandoned my hope of getting to the site by car. I pulled into an available spot and took off on foot, weaving through people heading to and from nearby restaurants. I stopped with Charles Street in sight. I took a moment to clear myself of all the residue of Belladonna’s and Desmond’s magic from my senses and body, ready to follow anything that leapt out at me. With hurried steps, I traversed Charles back up toward Tremont, scanning every face for recognition.
One minute everything was empty, devoid of magic. Then, as if I’d run headlong into a brick wall, my senses were overwhelmed with the familiar scents of our killers. Dizziness
gripped my body and I swayed on the spot, fruitlessly grasping for something to steady myself. I felt the spell caster’s intent wash over me, trying to direct me away from whatever horrors were going on within its boundaries, but I pushed through, exerting enough of my own power to break through the barrier. I felt it harden around me and shatter like glass. Whether it was permanently gone I couldn’t tell. My attention was focused on the dead body lying prone on the sidewalk. A middle-aged woman with jet-black hair and way too much make-up lay there, chest concave and blood trickling from her mouth. I was too late.
Training kicked in and I un-holstered my gun, holding it low to my side. I scanned the surrounding area, but no one was in view. Whoever was powering the misdirection spell had to be close by, but there was no visible sign of them. And for all I knew, the spell was protecting Kevin’s appearance from view too. I knelt by the body and pressed two fingers to the woman’s throat. No pulse but the body was warm. Her death had just happened. The air was thick with Kevin’s magic and another familiar scent.
Brimstone and burning flesh.
Another sightless spirit stood just out of reach. Her dark lips curled into a sinister smirk and she actually waved at me. Trying to see through the decomposition, I thought she could have been young, maybe even a teenager, when she’d been hung for her crimes. With more flourish than her predecessors, the girl waved both arms and flames whooshed up around her like a cloak, obscuring her face before she vanished.
“Damn it.”
I dug my phone out of my pocket with one hand, the other still gripping my service weapon. Without looking, I hit the second speed dial on my contact list—the precinct—and waited while it rang.
“Dispatch,” a vaguely familiar male voice answered.
“This is Detective Ezri Trenton, Major Crimes. I need to call in a homicide at the intersection—”
Pain radiated down my spine and stars flashed before my eyes. Dark spots popped and everything went weak. Intellectually I knew I’d fallen face first into a dead body, but my nerves had stopped sending signals to my brain. Sluggishly I tried to turn over to confront my assailant, but everything was too fuzzy and I could only make out a vague shape. My nose was still working and the wretched scent of garlic smothered me. My attempts to lift my gun failed and then a new origin of pain overtook the throb at the base of my skull. Something like ripping cloth hit my ears and then something red poured down the front of my shirt. If my brain hadn’t been so rattled, I would have seen the punch coming in time to block it. As it was, my head thudded against the concrete and everything went dark.
I OPENED MY EYES to blinding brightness. The shock to my retinas overwhelmed me and I shut them again as fast as possible. I counted to ten in my head and cracked one lid a second time. Introducing the light slowly seemed safer. The light dimmed but never fully faded. Where was I?
“Hello?” I called out through parched lips and a raw throat.
“Sweet girl, I’m here,” my mother’s voice said from right beside me. My head whipped around and there she was, kneeling at my side looking exactly as she had the last time I’d seen her alive.
“Mom.” Tears poured down my cheeks, dripping in fat drops off the tip of my nose. I reached for her and she wrapped me in a tight embrace. “I miss you so much.”
“I miss you more.” She wiped away the tear tracts with her palms as she’d done when I was a child.
It didn’t matter where we were because I had my mother back. She was okay. As her hands broke contact with my cheeks I became aware of another presence. Something was wrong with my senses because I couldn’t pinpoint the direction of their approach. My shoulder muscles tightened in response to whoever was coming, but my mother’s hand pressed down hard on my arm, reminding me that I wasn’t alone. I could face whatever came next.
A woman appeared before us and she looked familiar. Her slate-grey eyes reminded me of Desmond’s, but her russet-colored, shoulder-length hair was all our side of the family. It was held back at the nape of her neck and she wore a simple dress. She couldn’t have been more than a couple of years older than me. I tried to place her, but my thoughts were still sluggish.
“I know you,” I murmured, still trying to get my voice to work right.
A sad smile ghosted over her lips as she moved to sit cross-legged on my other side. “We have not met face-to-face, but I’ve known you were coming for a very long time.”
“Theodora?”
She shook her head and a cloud of sadness drifted over her face. “No. I am afraid not.”
There was only one other option. “Eleanor. You made the prophecy about me.”
Tears sparkled in her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall. “I knew I would never live to see Theodora’s heir fulfill her destiny.”
Her words took a moment to process through my sluggish brain. “But it talked about a Harrow daughter. You were both Harrows before you married. I’ve seen the family trees. Theodora didn’t marry until after your death.”
She patted my left hand gently with both of hers. “I never told my sister, I did not have heart enough to tell her that it was her line that would battle the darkness and not mine. I could not burden her with that knowledge.”
I looked to my mother. “Did you know?”
It was her turn to shake her head. “No. None of us could have known that.”
“I wasn’t fast enough to stop them,” I said, the realization like bitter acid on my tongue.
“What are you talking about? You have plenty of time. Still four days before the Equinox,” Mom said.
“Whatever ritual they’re planning, they’ve got the bodies they need. I wasn’t quick enough to stop them. Even though I knew who the killer was and I figured out where he’d be, I failed.” There was something else I should have been angry with myself about but it was a huge blank.
Eleanor’s touch tightened on my hand. “Your mother is correct, my dear. You have time yet to stop them from finishing their purpose.”
“I don’t know what they’re planning to do with the spirits they’ve summoned. I mean they seemed almost corporeal near the end. I’ve heard that you can make a trade with a life for a life, but that still doesn’t explain what they want to do now.”
Mom smoothed strands of hair from my face. “That doesn’t matter. All that does is that you can stop them. You know where they’ll be at the height of the Equinox. You will stop them, Ezri. I have faith in you. I always have. From the moment my heart told me that you were our Savior, I knew you wouldn’t fail. You have our blood running through your veins. You are meant for this.”
“We are always with you. You just need remember that and you will never be alone in this battle to come. You must remember that,” Eleanor murmured.
“I will.”
Shadows danced just beyond the edges of the brightness surrounding us and for the first time since I’d opened my eyes sounds filtered through, hitting my eardrums with a delayed reaction. Steady, rhythmic beeping and the murmur of low voices. I strained to hear what they were saying, fought to identify the speakers, but everything was out of focus. Everything but the two women at my side. Eleanor let go of my hand, but I still felt the power of her touch warm me. The heady smell of burning rosemary filled my nostrils and every part of me warmed with the magic she’d wrapped around me. My mother leaned over and kissed my forehead, leaving her mark too.
“We’ll see you soon, dear girl. But right now, you need to wake up!”
March 16, 2017
Twenty
It took what must have been only minutes but felt like years to obey my mother’s command. I focused on the steady beeping to pull me from the brightness and back into the real world. I kept my eyes closed for a long time, trying to take everything in with my other senses. My head was elevated but in a comfortable position. My fingers brushed against something soft and as I inched my hands closer to my core I determined someone had put a blanket over me. The overwhelming odor of honey clung to my skin, my hair
and everything around me. It was as if someone had dunked me headfirst into a honeycomb. That scent brought back memories and I opened my eyes. The room came into focus and I found myself in a small bedroom with wood paneled walls and nondescript beige curtains that were drawn tight against the outside.
“Where …” My throat was still sore. It hadn’t just been a figment of my imagination.
The door leading out of the room was ajar and footsteps thudded on wood flooring. The door swung inward to reveal two people I didn’t expect to ever see in the same place: my ex-boyfriend and my partner. J.T.—looking just as handsome as he had as a teenager—moved to check my vitals while Jacquie took up residence in a chair at my bedside.
“Glad to have you back with us, partner,” Jacquie said.
The scent of the honey had given me a clue as to my caretaker, but what was my partner doing here? Wherever here was. Had he done anything to make Jacquie suspect that magic was real? I tried to sit up, but pain seared through my core and J.T. put a firm hand on my shoulder, forcing me back to a flat position.
“You need to keep still or you’re going to pull stitches.” Our eyes met and the hurt and anger I expected from our breakup was nowhere to be found. Only a touch of sadness amidst a lot of concern. Then again, just because my feelings had festered for a decade didn’t mean he’d even thought about me in years, despite his mother trying to reassure me earlier.
“Where am I?” I tried again.
“Headquarters,” he answered. He held up a hand to shut me up before I could say anything else. “Don’t argue with me. We’re lucky we got you here in time.”
I nodded mutely and looked to Jacquie. “This is … um…”
“I know who J.T. is,” Jacquie interrupted. “And you’re going to have a lot of questions and we’ll answer all of them, but right now you need to rest. You lost a lot of blood and things are moving faster now. With all five spirits resurrected, it’s only a matter of time before the Order enacts their plan.”