“You coming?” Sturtagaard asked.
She glanced at him with a confused expression. “You want me to see what you’re up to?”
“No, but the sooner I hand you the market, the sooner I’ll be free of you,” he jeered.
“I’m sorry your family died and I’m sorry that caused you to destroy mine. But you playing the martyr doesn’t inspire me to kill you. I’d just as soon let you wallow in your pain long after I’m dead.”
Annie and Robin exchanged glances; Robin bit his lip to keep from laughing. Sturtagaard stormed off to the left, past a booth filled with several large baskets holding a variety of large eggs. At first look, Annie thought they were ostrich eggs. As she followed the vampire, she noticed the purple and green striations throughout the shell.
Dragon eggs. It’s not the time to raid the place.
The outer passage contained four booths busy with customers, selling nothing of consequence to Annie’s quick glances. She assumed they’d be stopping at one of the booths, but Sturtagaard had a specific location to which he was searching.
As they passed the final booth at the end of the aisle, Annie stopped short. Sitting inside was a man named Joseph, whom Annie had met while investigating the murder of Princess Amelie almost a year ago. He saw Annie and smiled.
“Give me a second,” Annie said to Robin and Sturtagaard as she turned to Joseph’s booth.
“Hi Joseph,” she said.
He looked at her and offered a large, wide smile. “Annie Pearce. What a surprise,” he said.
She glanced inside his booth, which was far different than the one he’d kept at the original market. While that one was a hodgepodge of magical junk in various sized piles, this one was well organized. Shelves lined three sides of his tent, filled with items neatly housed in several baskets. Even the table separating the pair was neat and clean. She could easily tell he was selling herbs and potions, but to her trained eye, nothing appeared illegal or seemed like items that were normally sold at the market. “You’ve changed how you do business, I see. Selling anything I should be worried about?” she inquired.
He offered a hardy laugh. He was a different man than the first time they met. He no longer seemed fearful of the Wizard Guard questioning him. He waved her across the barrier.
In the corner, he held an index finger across his lips, looked toward the entrance of his tent and then back to Annie.
“There’s much I did not tell you the last time we met,” he said in a low yet booming voice.
“I gathered something was up,” Annie admitted.
Hearing footsteps come to the edge of the tent, she turned. “It’s okay, give me a sec,” she said to Robin, who discretely moved away.
“Okay, what’s up?” she asked, looking back at Joseph.
She watched Joseph hold his hand on his tent wall, applying a muffle spell. It flew from his hand and whipped around the canvas walls, keeping their conversation private. When he finished, he tossed a spell into a locked box; a drawer sprung open. He reached inside, pulled out what looked to be a law enforcement wallet, and passed it to Annie. She opened it, revealing his wizard guard ID in the name Joseph Agrante, wizard guard level one.
He’s too old to be first level…
She glanced at the other side of his wallet and saw a shield stating he was from the Wizard Guard, South Africa. She looked at him.
“I estimate you’re about forty-five or fifty years old. You’re too old to still be a level one. When did this happen?” she asked, handing back his identification.
He chuckled as he tossed the ID back in the drawer, slamming it shut. “Well, Annie Pearce. When I first met you, I was in the black market as an informant to the South African Wizard Guard. They pulled me from the market before it fell. After that, they felt I had something to offer and trained me as a guard, and here I am.” He opened his arms wide and welcoming, and laughed again.
“Well, congrats. So you’re back at this market. I’ll leave so I don’t draw attention to you.” She nodded once.
He grabbed her arm. “Actually, Annie Pearce, I am here because of you.”
She frowned. When she returned to the present, the United States Wizard Guard had sent word to all of the Wizard Guard units across the world, explaining about the Fraternitatem and what it was planning on doing with Annie’s powers. She looked at Joseph. “How much do you know?”
“I know that you met the Fraternitatem of Solomon in March. You quite possibly know more than anyone about where they are, who they are, and what they look like. We are also aware that you went to the past to fight the demons and were rewarded with a power. How am I doing so far?” He chuckled again.
“You’re right on. We’ve been letting all wizard guards in on what happened,” she said.
Joseph sat on the edge of his wood desk and folded his hands. “Exactly. All Wizard Guard units are mobilizing the best we can. While we’re not as big as you in the States, we are trying to find as many of the markets as we can. We found this one, and I’ve been working here, learning as much information as I can.”
Annie glanced around the tent. His training appeared to be helping.
“What’s the biggest thing you’ve discovered?” she asked.
“Nothing specific. But it’s a new market system. There are rumblings of different factions wanting control and the Fraternitatem of Solomon wants your power…” he shrugged.
“To be honest with you, I’m not exactly sure what this power can do. I don’t know how it’s different than the magic I was born with.”
Joseph looked at her. The magic slowly trickled from her palms. “I’m rather surprised you hadn’t researched that.” He pointed to the magic rising from her hands.
Annie glanced down before matching his gaze. “You’re right. Though, I’ve only been back a few weeks and they’ve been rather hectic.”
“So have you learned of any new powers since you’ve been back? Anything out of the ordinary?”
Annie chuckled.
I can’t tell him all the truth.
“Yeah. I conjured a ghost and turned him corporeal without knowing how I did it.”
Joseph offered a serious stare. “That’s major power. You do you know what the Fraternitatem could do with that?”
Annie looked at him questioningly and then shuddered. “Raise an army of the dead.” Wolfgange Rathbone tried to raise an army of zombies in an attempt to gain control of the U.S. Wizard Council. It had been a slow process for him because reanimating the dead was tricky. The spells were complicated and you needed to have the necessary numbers of dead bodies. In contrast, Annie had easily conjured Jason. She’d simply whipped her hand across his ethereal form and he became corporeal.
“If they had the numbers, they could surely control the market,” Joseph said.
“He who controls the market could in effect control the whole wizard world.” Annie glanced through the tent flaps and saw both the vampire and Robin watching her. She held up her finger to signal one more minute. “That doesn’t leave me with a good feeling.”
“Well, I’m sure, Annie Pearce, you will learn in time what powers you have. It has to be written somewhere. In the meantime, you should go. I can’t have the Wizard Guard hassling me.” He chuckled and pointed to Sturtagaard and Robin.
Annie handed him her phone number. “Welcome to our side,” she said. “I’ll admit, I’m not sure why the vampire dragged us here.” She smiled, shook his hand, and returned to following Sturtagaard down the passageway.
*
Sturtagaard closely reviewed each glyph along the perimeter wall as if he were searching for something in particular. He punched the wall and grumbled to himself as he moved to the next section. While he anxiously searched the graffiti, Annie and Robin took pictures of the glyphs until they met back where they started. They observed Sturtagaard for a moment and glanced at each other.
“Is he losing it?” Robin asked.
Annie shrugged and found Sturtagaard tappin
g the wall. “What the hell are we doing here?” she asked impatiently.
“The portal is here somewhere,” Sturtagaard announced.
Annie looked at the vampire incredulously. “You’re losing your touch. These glyphs are in all of the markets,” she said.
“My contact promised there was a portal to the main market in this market. These pictures lead to it,” Sturtagaard said.
“Dumb shit. If the market is hidden, why the hell would the portal be out in the open?” Annie asked.
“Then where is it?” Sturtagaard shouted, drawing attention to them.
Annie glared at him before glancing around the market.
“Well?” Sturtagaard snapped.
“Oh, shut up,” Annie said as she scanned the walls.
“I doubt there will be any in the booths.” Robin followed Annie’s gaze. “The outbuildings?”
Annie and Robin walked to a storage building in the far corner, a five-foot-by-five-foot shed tucked so closely into the corner that there was only room for one body in the space. They shimmied their way around the structure, scraping against the steel wall. “Do you feel a portal?” Annie asked as she turned the corner, exposing them to the market.
“No. I’m just hot and cramped,” Robin groused.
“And Godfrey was positive it’s here?” Annie asked.
“Just as sure as Sturtagaard is.” Robin faced the back wall. “There’s enough room to open a portal.” Robin poked against the back wall searching for an anomaly. “I don’t feel it though.”
Sturtagaard came to them. “Is it here?”
“No chill or magic anomaly,” Annie said.
Sturtagaard pushed her aside and searched the wall himself, falling to his knees. “My contact said this was the location of the portal to the market. It was drawn on the walls. Are you going to help look for it or just stand there like an idiot?”
“Did your contact tell you what to look for? I see lots of glyphs here,” Annie said.
“You’re so fucking smart, figure it out!” Sturtagaard jeered.
“Get out! Now!” Annie pulled the vampire up and yanked him from the narrow space and tossed him on the ground. He sneered as he watched them work.
Annie and Robin used their crystal high and low as they searched for magic. With no magic, their crystals remained dull. “Okay. Where the hell is it?” she asked.
“And that’s the conundrum, I would say.” Sturtagaard smirked as if it were a joke and stood to face Annie.
“You want me to punch you, don’t you?” she said. Behind her, Robin chuckled lightly.
“Not so smart, are you?” Sturtagaard said.
Annie leaned against the storage unit and stared at the pictures, noticing two of the same.
What does this mean?
She stared again and found a third glyph like the other two. “See this picture. It’s here… and here,” Annie said as she pointed to the three.
“Maybe there’s a pattern,” Robin suggested.
They searched for multiple glyphs, attempting to find any patterns. Robin summoned a thick piece of chalk and began to mark the first picture, which appeared to be a dove. Four of them were randomly scattered across the wall.
“No pattern,” Robin said as he erased the marks and tried again with a picture of a triangle. Again, no pattern emerged. Robin and Annie tried several more glyphs, none of which formed a pattern that piqued their interest. They moved on to a picture of a square with a dot at the center. After finding three additional pictures, they discovered the four glyphs formed a perfect square.
“And that’s a pattern,” Annie said as she snapped a picture of the wall.
“What is that? A square with a dot at the center?” Robin moved closer but saw nothing of consequence in any of the pictures.
“I’m not sure what that is.” Annie reviewed all glyphs inside the supposed square. The steel was cold and lacked magic of any kind. “I still don’t see or feel a portal,” she said.
“It’s got to be here, somewhere between these symbols. Only a limited number of people know how to enter,” Sturtagaard said with a self-satisfied smile.
Annie rolled her eyes. “You’re such an ass. I wish I’d staked you when I came home,” she said.
“So you keep saying,” Sturtagaard said as he slunk away.
Chapter 5
Warm, soapy water slid down Annie’s body and pooled at her feet, removing the stench of the swamp and market. She closed her eyes and dunked under the water, washing away thoughts of Sturtagaard and symbols and black markets. As the water pelted her, the magic drifted from her palms and hung around her head. Annie swatted at it, watching it dissipate.
An army of the dead.
She shuddered in the warm water as she tried to wash away that sinking feeling of danger, of what the Fraternitatem of Solomon could do with her power.
The bathroom door squeaked opened. “Hey, baby,” Cham said as he sat on the toilet beside the shower and held a towel for her. “How was tonight’s search?”
“Open my phone and check the last picture.” Annie went back under the water to rinse off.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Not sure. I sent it to Bucky. Hopefully, he’ll can tell me something about the glyph.” She shut off the water and stepped outside, shivering and covering herself with the towel. “By the way, Sturtagaard was there. He claims the portal to the market is somewhere in that smaller one.” She used the towel and wiped off the water, before wrapping it around her hair.
“Okay, that’s a little distracting.” Cham smiled.
She shrugged and pulled on a T-shirt hanging from a hook on the back of the door.
“Any humming, buzzing, popping?” Cham swiped through the pictures on her phone and followed her to the bed.
“Nothing. The portal to the small market was in the water at the edge of a swamp. Sturtagaard thinks he knows the portal is related to the glyphs on the walls.” Annie climbed under the covers while Cham stared at the picture of the four symbols that created a square on the wall.
He dropped the phone and kissed her, soft and slow, cupping the back of her head. “So nothing conclusive?” he asked when he pulled away.
“What do you expect from a bunch of vampires.” She sat up and dried her hair with a spell, leaving wild curls. When she finished, she lay on her pillow and pulled the covers to her chin to warm up.
“How’s it going with your dad?” Cham asked.
Annie grimaced and said nothing.
“He wants to bond with you. You’re throwing up brick walls.” Cham wrapped an arm around her.
The tension he referred to and his body heat made Annie’s skin burn as the magic traveled through her body; she threw off the covers and sat up.
“I told him it was hard enough to live through his death the first time. He’s a ghost in a time not his. If I get close to him and watch him leave again, I’m not sure I can handle that. Again.” Annie raised her legs and set her head on knees. “It’s really hard.”
“I’m the messenger only. I see his point, though.”
Annie glanced at him.
“Baby. How many people get a second chance to be with their dead loved ones? Even if it’s only for a short time.”
Annie reached for his hand. “Would you want see your grandpa again? You had a tough time at his funeral.”
“But I had a great life with him. He died too soon, and I’d love to spend an afternoon fishing with him and telling him about you. He’s the only one who really thought I should be a wizard guard. I’d definitely do it, if I could.”
Annie gave him a gentle kiss on his lips and placed her hand on his cheek. “Point taken.” She wrapped herself in the blanket and yawned.
“Get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”
“Thanks,” she murmured. She slid to her back and closed her eyes. “I almost forgot. Joseph from the market. He’s back. And he’s a level one from South Africa.”
Cham chuckled. “I
remember him. He didn’t seem to know much when we knew him. And it’s real?”
Annie nodded. “As far as I can tell he’s legit. Wizard guards are heeding our message and mobilizing across the planet. He implied the Fraternitatem is going to use my magic to make play for the market.”
“No one group has ever owned or run the market. That could be really bad for the magical world,” Cham said.
“I thought so too.” Annie yawned again.
“Since you found the symbol, can you pass it on to the team and see if anyone has seen it? We may need to backtrack at the markets we’ve already investigated.”
“Robin said most teams took pictures of the glyphs. He’s going to have Bucky search them for the symbols. I’ll ask around tomorrow.”
Despite how hot her skin was against his, he remained beside her. She closed her eyes, took in his scent, and drifted to sleep.
*
When the bubbling and itching woke Annie, the sun was still below the horizon. As Cham lay sleeping, she shuffled herself out of bed and curled in the corner of the sofa in the den. She pulled her family’s Book of Shadows toward her. The large tome contained all the spells, creatures, potions, and magic that the Pearce family had come across over many lifetimes. It was passed to her through her father and his mother before him. As often as Annie spent reading the passages, she recently discovered that her study hadn’t been as thorough as she believed it was. Many of the spells, stories, and entries in the book had been placed there by a long-ago ancestor named Bega. She was the same girl who had helped Annie in ancient England. Some of the potions Annie remembered using in England. She chuckled over Bega’s notations in the book.
Annie touched the ancient ink and turned the page as she sipped her coffee.
“You’re up early.”
Even after three weeks, Jason Pearce’s voice made Annie’s heart stop in surprise and anxiety. She glanced at her phone; it was five thirty in the morning, almost time to get ready for work. She took another sip of coffee. “Morning, dad. There’s coffee in the machine.”
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