“We did verify that there are vents in the cliff,” Avraham began. “But most importantly, it’s miles from the cliff to the rock outcroppings. We’re going to have a time figuring out how to set the traps without them knowing. Even the opposite entrance, we can get in there and set off jinx bombs that would force them out from the main cavern.”
“We’re working on a theory that I don’t want to discuss yet; in case it doesn’t pan out,” Cham said. He glanced at Annie, who still wore a smile on her face.
The screen switched to show the smaller entrance at the bottom of the cliff. It was rocky, with difficult access into the cave system but plenty of places to hide.
“If we have a way to get them out of the cave leading them to that entrance, we will have more protection,” Michael said.
“That’s actually good news. Let us work on a theory we have. If it works, we might be able to lead them out that way,” Cham said. “If you don’t need Shiff and Brite anymore, send them back. And I promise we’ll have something for you by the end of the week.” With the end of the call, Cham turned back to the team. “We originally thought we’d have to go through the smaller entrance to set off the magic, lead them out the large entrance. If we can do it through that amazing portal…”
*
Cham looked over Kathy’s shoulder as she prepared the arrest warrant for Melichi Davis, as per his name on Emily’s list. She noted that he was the leader of the Fraternitatem of Solomon and listed his crimes: the murder of Benaiah Portman, and sending operatives to the United States against a magical agreement made with the U.S. Wizard Guard.
She signed the arrest warrant as an agent of the law department and stamped the parchment with the seal of the law department as well as the seal of the Wizard Council United States. When the document had dried, she handed the scroll to Cham.
“You’re going to walk this to the Cave of Ages and expect Melichi to come?” she joked.
Cham chuckled. “No. I just wanted an official document,” he said.
“How’s Annie holding up?”
“She’s practicing with the magic, trying to burn it off. It helps with the itching and her blood pressure. I think she’s ready for this to be over.”
“What about Emily. When this is over?”
Cham shrugged. “Annie’s confused. She doesn’t know what to think about her mom or Jason.”
“Just be good to each other. It’s going to be a rough ending, I’m afraid,” Kathy said.
*
Samantha watched Annie from behind the window in the wall separating the gym from the morgue.
Annie saw her and waved but remained inside the gym. She turned and shot a powerful spell at the practice dummy, blowing it to pieces. She hit a second and third consecutively, then looked at her hands. The magic had stopped trickling from her palms.
She turned quickly and stopped just as fast. Samantha was heading toward her.
“Hey.”
“Hi, Sami. What’s up?”
Samantha walked through the dummy stuffing, touching what was left on the stand. “Who cleans this up?”
“I’m not sure. They keep kicking me out before I can.”
Annie turned and shot a spell toward the ceiling where a dummy was hanging loosely. The spell was different this time. It came from her hand and burned a hole in the dummy’s stomach with pinpoint accuracy.
“That’s scarily exact,” Samantha said.
“Just takes practice.” Annie’s left hand flew out as she shot a spell into the first dummy; the spell was so strong it blew through the first dummy and landed on the one behind it, knocking it over.
“Does it help?”
Annie held up her hand. The magic was minimal, almost nonexistent. “I’m not itching,” she said.
“That’s something.”
As Annie walked toward her sister, she held her hands out and collected the debris, pulling it into a large pile at the center.
“What’s up?” Annie asked her again.
“Mom.”
“You saw Mom and Shiloh?”
Samantha nodded. “I went with Kathy.”
“And?”
Samantha fiddled with her hands, unable to look Annie in the eyes. “It was one thing to see her breakdown at the safe house. It’s another thing to…” She walked around the stuffing and touched the nearest dummy stand. “I missed her every day. Every day for twenty years. Mother’s Day lunches, growing up, buying my wedding dress, the wedding—I felt their loss, both Mom’s and Dad’s.” Samantha wiped tears from her eyes. “I was so mad at you for not feeling it. And then I sat there with her and Shiloh. I saw how loving she was to him. How she guided him, even with the magic that you taught him. I could barely look at her, let alone talk to her. How do you sum up twenty years to the one person who should have been there with you, when she chose to leave?”
Annie smiled and wrapped her arms around Samantha. “It’s one thing to hate her for leaving, regardless of the reason. But it’s very confusing watching her mother him. But really, I don’t remember Emily back then, so it’s hard to miss something I don’t remember. What now? I’m not giving up Kathy. She raised me.”
“I get your viewpoint now. It was hard. She’s—she’s mom, but she’s not our mom. She’s his mom.” Samantha lay her head on Annie’s shoulder.
“And that boy is our half-brother,” Annie said.
“So, what do we do? When you have the Fraternitatem, what then?”
Annie still believed there would be a moment that would trigger something in Emily. Though she had no proof or any reason to think so, she was fearful that her mother would still come after her. For now, Annie chose not to share that with Samantha.
“Don’t worry about it yet. If we win, and the Fraternitatem is put away, I’m not sure what that will mean for Emily or Shiloh. One problem at a time. Okay?”
Samantha nodded. “You’re not as okay with this as I thought.”
Annie shook her head. “No, I’m not. I’m a mess, and the magic keeps going wonky, and I feel sick.” She turned and shot a spell. The practice dummy slid across the floor and crashed into the wall.
“What do you mean IF we win?”
Annie pulled her arm around Samantha and walked her from the gym.
Chapter 31
The plan was to keep Annie away from the Fraternitatem forever, if they could; if the Fraternitatem couldn’t get to her, they couldn’t kill her. And with that, moving her to the Snake Head Letters became an all-out project.
Shiff and Brite landed on the roof of the store, ducked below the perimeter wall and hid themselves behind the duct work. They scanned the rooftops beside them and across from them and crossed the rooftop in the shadows, positioning themselves in a darkened corner with a clear view of the street below.
“Across the street,” Brite whispered as he stared at the roof directly across from them, where two men were watching the Snake Head Letters.
“They don’t seem particularly concerned about being spotted.” Shiff surveyed them through binoculars. There was enough light from the streetlamp that he could clearly see them eating.
“They don’t look like they’re really watching, either.” Brite sat back and sent a text.
“The Fraternitatem had centuries to plan and they send them?” Shiff joked.
Brite chuckled to himself and scrolled through his phone. “Knuckleheads aside, the Fraternitatem picked the right location to spy on Annie and the magical community. I’d love to know how they convinced the owners of the stationery store to up and leave,” he whispered.
“It’s a stationery store. I can’t imagine it was that hard. You can buy that stuff online a whole lot cheaper,” Shiff noted as he continued to keep an eye on the shadows across the street.
*
The Fraternitatem occupied the empty stationery store across from the Snake Head Letters. At the time, it seemed like the perfect location to spy on Annie Pearce and the magical community. Little did they know;
other cases were keeping Annie away from the store. They would only see her three times in the four months of surveillance.
While Melichi had originally wanted to kill the owners and steal the shop, Levi King-Solomon convinced him rather easily to torment the owners with easy-to-perform “pranks.” It started simply: scaring away customers with menacing stares, offering discounts to other establishments, letting loose a box of live rats that ran through the store and chewed up the merchandise. Each trick made Levi laugh louder, even as it made Melichi grimace and threaten him to get on with it. But in the end, the owners “with much sadness” closed up shop and retired.
Melichi hadn’t thought of sending his best foot soldiers; they’d be needed for other things. Instead, he sent five two-person teams to spy on the Snake Head Letters, taken from a pool of dregs and thugs who thought they were better than they actually were. That decision was his first mistake.
The roof offered them a good view of the comings and goings of patrons. They could even see the items customers purchased—or they could if Mortimer didn’t place the items in a bag. It was boring and tedious. To stave off the boredom, these low-level Fraternitatem members brought books, magazines, and food to keep themselves busy.
Their lackadaisical attitude toward the work was the reason why, on the day they finally saw Annie come into the store, the Fraternitatem missed her and the wretched owner of the establishment managed to escape.
When these men returned to the desert, they did so with their tails between their legs, their heads hanging in shame as Melichi reproached them. They were taken off of the surveillance team and sent to a remote corner of the desert to look for King Solomon’s artifacts.
The team on the night Brite and Shiff watched was no better. They, too, found the work to be boring, useless, and a waste of time. They’d glanced down at the store, ensured it was empty, and returned to their musings, unaware of what was happening around them.
The men took sips from a shared thermos and ate their dinner in silence. Every few minutes, they checked the store front but quickly returned to their food. For a moment, the largest of the men thought he saw movement on the roof of the Snake Head Letters, so he picked up his binoculars but saw nothing. Deciding the store was abandoned and they were alone, he continued to attack his dinner instead. Neither man knew what happened when they were both hit with a jinx from behind.
*
Lial and Spencer landed on the roof of the former stationery store. They scanned their surroundings and noted that both men surveilling the Snake Head Letters were so preoccupied with their midnight snack, they hadn’t heard the air rushing from the space the wizard guards now occupied.
Squatting out of view, Lial and Spencer raised their palms and cast jinxes at the two men. Their bodies jerked forward and slipped from their chairs. One of the men landed against the perimeter wall, his face smooshed against the dirty brick, while the other slipped to the floor. The wizard guards moved quickly, checked the pulse of each man, and searched their pockets for any form of identification. They texted their findings to Bucky, who was awaiting any new information at Wizard Hall. Then they each grabbed a man by the collar and teleported the Fraternitatem members to Tartarus.
*
“They’re gone,” Shiff whispered, once Lial and Spencer removed the men from the building.
Brite glanced off into the darkness. He was about to send his next text when he noticed a man and woman strolling down Howard Street. “Odd,” he whispered. It was 12:30 a.m.; very few people were usually out at this hour.
The couple walked past the Snake Head Letters, heading east. They turned at the cross street and walked back down Howard on the opposite side, past the former stationery store.
“Awfully late for a causal stroll down this street,” Shiff agreed.
The pair repeated their stroll several times, keeping the same speed and making no motion to turn away and return home. By the third pass, Brite grew anxious and texted Cham an update.
*
Cham read the text message, sighed. “There’s a slight issue. Jason and I need to go now. Someone else will come for you.”
“What it is?” Annie asked. Everyone knew she thought this was overkill.
“There’s more than one surveillance team. Just let us take care of it. Okay?” He kissed her cheek and teleported from their house to the alley beside the Snake Head Letter.
Jason and Cham hid in the shadows of the alley and watched the pair pass, walking to the east toward the lake. They peered around the corner and watched as the couple turned at the corner, walked across the street, and headed back down to the west.
This team, a man and a woman, were only a slight bit more competent than the others. The two of them caught sight of Jason and Cham, who hadn’t ducked back inside the alley quick enough. In a panic, they ran west, away from the lake.
“Damn,” Jason said as he and Cham took up the chase. Running past the cross street, they let their jinxes fly. In quick succession, the jinxes hit their targets, jerking the man and woman forward until they were both on the ground. Cham and Jason lunged across the street. Cham ran to the nearest of the two, jamming his knee into the lower back of the tall, strong woman, who tried to shake him off. He yanked her arms behind her back and tied them with magical rope. He stood to help Jason and watched in surprise as Jason cast his own spell.
“Ghosts are just energy. You shouldn’t have magic,” Cham said. In the light of the streetlamp, he noticed for the first time the ravages of time that had appeared on his face. Jason’s wrinkles had deepened and his hair was peppered with gray.
Jason pulled on the magical rope. “My magic came in. Promise me you won’t tell Annie that I’m not a corporeal ghost.”
“I can see it in your face. I’m sure she has too.”
Jason frowned and held his finger to his lips. “If she knew for certain, she wouldn’t let me go and protect her. Please just don’t say anything.”
Cham shrugged. “It’s a bad idea.” Both men cast jinxes, rendering the Fraternitatem members unconscious. Cham scanned the neighborhood, assessing if anyone else was lurking about. Deciding they were alone, Cham and Jason teleported the man and woman to Tartarus.
*
Spencer rushed from the prison and picked up Annie at her house. She was pacing the back hallway and nearly bounded from her house with nervous energy when she saw him.
“Two groups had eyes on the Snake Head Letters. Brite assures me no one else is on the street,” Spencer updated her as he wrapped her in a hug.
“This is a lot of trouble to get me there.”
“At least you’ll be safe.” Spencer teleported Annie across the miles to the Snake Head Letters.
The roof top was quiet; Shiff and Brite were waiting for her predetermined knock before exposing their location.
She knocked as they had agreed, and Shiff and Brite stepped out of the darkness.
“See, that wasn’t so bad,” Brite said.
Annie grimaced. “Easy for you to say.”
“I’m going to sweep the store again to make sure it’s still empty.” Shiff said.
Annie rolled her eyes as he descended the staircase, his footsteps softening the farther down he walked. After a moment, they heard scuffling and a thump.
“Who’s in the store?” Annie whispered.
Spencer’s hand tightly gripped her shoulder, ready to teleport her from the rooftop. Below them, footsteps crossed the linoleum floor. A door squeaked closed, and then the person crossed again and walked up the staircase. After a moment, Shiff appeared in the doorway. While his lanky form was easily identifiable, Spencer didn’t release his hold on Annie.
“Is someone else down there?” Spencer asked.
“I have him unconscious and tied up. We should have covered the broken window with more than a sheet of plywood. I’ve got a bookshelf across the door, so hopefully that’ll slow them down. You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m ready to see this amazing portal
,” Annie said.
Shiff led them down the stairs, Spencer still holding Annie’s arm, Brite keeping up the rear. When they reached the back of the store, Shiff’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket and read a text.
“Everyone’s upstairs and coming down,” he said. “So, how do we get in?” He glanced at Spencer who pulled on the hidden latch and pulled the door open.
Cham, Lial, and Jason joined the group and stared into the hidden basement.
“It’s down there?” Cham asked.
Shiff shined the light inside. Spencer and Lial led the team into the tight space; Annie, Brite, Shiff, Cham, Lial, Spencers and Jason crowded themselves inside, standing in a circle around the portal.
Annie held the cursed knife, which was gleaming in the light from the flashlight.
“You just plunged the knife?” she asked.
“Yep. Just pierced the magic,” Spencer said.
Annie plunged the knife into the portal and tightened her muscles as a powerful wind swirled out at her. Her hair flew around her head and she held her athame tightly as she glanced inside the portal. She found herself staring at the new main market.
“I’m at the market.” Annie smiled, stepped aside, and let the others stare through the portal. When they finished, she removed the athame, closing the portal. She took a deep breath. “That’s helpful,” she said. “And you didn’t do anything else when you opened the portal again?”
Spencer shook his head. Annie glanced at her knife and plunged it inside the magic once again.
For the second look, Annie found herself staring inside of the Cave of Ages. Hearing footsteps clack against the stone, she closed the portal immediately.
“What’s the matter?” Cham asked.
“It’s the Cave of Ages. Someone was coming,” she said. She reached out and touched the magic. “One portal, multiple locations. That is unbelievable magic.” She pulled out Bega’s Book of Shadows. “I thought that since the Mortimer family had this in the family for so long, maybe the other families knew about it too.” She held it up.
Wizard Hall Chronicles Box Set Page 168