She searched both offices. The computers were passcode protected, and while Moira could pick any lock and hot-wire almost any car, she knew next to nothing about technology or code breaking. The file cabinets were locked, and those she easily picked. She found little inside-though a printed copy of the membership directory might come in handy. She snatched it, glancing through what looked like over three hundred names. She prayed they weren’t all witches. Chances were only a few of them were practitioners. People like Elizabeth Ellis.
The desk in Pennington’s office drew her in particular. There was magic here, strong and powerful, and for one fear-filled moment she thought she was being watched. It took all her willpower not to cast a shield around herself, knowing that the shield might protect her for that moment, but the magic it generated would alert Fiona to her location.
She shook off the feeling, searched the office, and found a hex bag meant to curse any who entered without permission. She dumped out the bag and said a prayer, then left.
Pennington lived upstairs. Another door, another lock, and she was inside.
He didn’t actually live here-she knew that as soon as she stepped into the stale rooms. These, too, had once been offices and converted into an apartment. It was clean, smelling antiseptic, and furnished with cheap but trendy furniture. The door opened into the living room-two couches and a couple of chairs. The kitchen was in the middle and windowless, the bedroom in the rear. Again, windows faced the street. She kept the lights off; it was not completely dark yet and a few cars had driven by. The church and apartment were on a side street that dead-ended into a park. There were only a handful of businesses here, and most were closed at five. A small cafe on the corner, which she could barely see from the bedroom window, appeared to be the only place still open, and it wasn’t doing a brisk business.
Still, she wasn’t going to take chances. She walked through the kitchen, looked in the refrigerator: sparse. Cans of soda, water bottles, and expired orange juice. The freezer had more food, probably used if he had to stay for a reason.
One of the two bedrooms had been converted into an office. Unlike Pennington’s official office downstairs, this space looked well-used. She searched the desk first. There was no computer, but there was a cord to connect a laptop to a nearby printer. Nothing of interest in the desk, except the bottom drawer, which was locked.
From that drawer something magical pulsated with dark energy. She hesitated, then picked its lock. Sliding open the drawer, a wave of heat washed over her, brushing by her on a stench of evil. She shook involuntarily and barely resisted slamming the drawer shut.
Inside was an old wooden box as thick as a ream of paper, but half the size. Carved on the outside was a sigil similar-possibly identical-to the one under the altar in the main room. The wood was dark and aged, the corners worn and black. Two dark orange eyes looked in opposite directions yet seemed to look right at her-through her-like twin flames. She stifled a scream, as if the demon on the box were alive.
The box was locked and required a number code. Seven wheels-old and worn so dark she could barely make out the numbers-would need to be set exactly right to open it. She considered taking it, but as her hand neared the thing, every instinct inside her told her not to touch it. She wished Anthony were there. He’d know exactly what this was and how to handle it.
Instead, she took a picture of it with her cell phone and emailed it to Anthony with the message:
This scares me to death; I don’t want to touch it. Dark magic-the blackest-is coming off it in waves. But if you want me to grab it, I will.
She clicked Send, pocketed her phone, and turned her attention to the file cabinets. She was looking through the paper documents for property-where did Pennington really live? She’d bet her last dollar that he stayed with Fiona. Fiona liked her inner circle close.
Good Shepherd owned a lot of property, not only in Santa Louisa but all over the country. She wanted to grab everything but couldn’t carry it all, so focused on places in or around Santa Louisa.
Fiona would live somewhere private. Preferably near the ocean, but that wasn’t a requirement for her mother. Size-it had to be big. Opulent. Fiona liked to live well, and she was good at manipulating people into giving her things. Anything she wanted, including money. Moira wondered how wealthy Good Shepherd was-with three hundred church members, it was neither large nor small.
It took her several minutes, but she found three properties in Santa Louisa that seemed to fit Fiona’s criteria, at least on paper. Moira pulled up Google Earth on her iPhone and looked at the property images. The first was a Victorian house in downtown Santa Louisa. Large, on half an acre, but on a busy corner. The second was promising-in the mountains, in fact off the same road that led to Santa Louisa Mission. Fiona would appreciate that irony.
But when Moira pulled up the last property, she instantly knew this was the one. Just south of the county line, no one lived a mile in any direction. The highway was close, but no other residences were. Fiona could see the ocean, and the place had three separate buildings aside from the main house, which had six bedrooms and eight bathrooms. This was it.
If Fiona was there, so was Rafe. There had to be some way she could pinpoint where he was being held without sending out her own magical feelers.
“Use all your senses, but focus on feeling. You are empathic when you allow yourself to be,” Rico had told her more than once. “Drop the shields and feel the emotions. Search for the emotions.”
Rafe would be scared. Hurting. She could do it. She didn’t want to-she’d spent years building up her shields so she didn’t feel the emotions of others-but to save Rafe she would.
Just in case she was wrong, she grabbed the files for all three properties before leaving the room.
Back downstairs, she realized at once something was very wrong.
Magic, active magic, vibrated off the walls. Moira could practically see the energy building in the room. Where was it coming from? It wasn’t directed at her, and it was coming from all around. Coming into the building.
She was at the center of an energy vortex. Someone was drawing in the energy. This didn’t happen spontaneously.
But no one was here.
She listened, then discerned the voice chanting. Downstairs? There was a basement?
Moira searched for another door, but there wasn’t one inside the building. She pictured the alley next to the church. And there had been another door to the right of the church’s rear entrance. She should have checked it out, but she hadn’t planned on being here this long.
She ran outside. The door was closed but not locked. She said a prayer, along the lines of I hope you’re in a helpful mood, Big Guy, because this feels very bad right now.
Moira pulled open the door. Incense swirled around her as she silently stepped inside. Candlelight flickered down below.
From the top of the stairs, she recognized that this was a permanent ritual spot. Many spells had been cast here, most so black that fear nearly made Moira run. How could she, one person, fight such dark magic?
She hesitated, listened to the voices. Felt the magic around her. Most of the spells were old. Lingering, but harmless. She focused on the spell being cast now. The energy being drawn into this room, the energy she saw upstairs. The vortex.
Ari Blair.
Was Jared still with her? Among the shadows and candle flames Moira couldn’t clearly see what was happening down below. Then she heard a male voice chanting along with Ari. Jared. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or pissed off or worried. Probably all three.
Ari was calling on a variety of names to aid her, using a mixture of Latin and English, common among amateur Wiccans. Moira listened to the words, and only a moment later realized what Ari was doing.
It was a reversal spell. Relatively simple and easy if a witch wanted to reverse a curse or illness, but trying to recall the Seven Deadly Sins? Ari was not only going to get herself killed, she was risking the release of mor
e demons.
Moira rushed down the stairs. Ari and Jared knelt in a pentagram surrounded by a double circle, candles all around them.
“Stop!” she shouted.
Ari looked up from the chalice she was incanting over. Fear, then irritation, crossed the girl’s face. Jared saw Moira and sighed in relief.
Ari scowled. “You need to leave.” She tried to sound tough, but Moira heard the hesitation in her tone.
“You need to stop right now. Turn over the chalice and tell me exactly where those three altars are so I can destroy them.”
“No!” She glared at Moira. “They killed Chris!”
“One of the Seven Deadly Sins killed Chris, and one or more of them are going to kill or possess you if you don’t stop playing around with black magic.”
“I’m a white witch.”
Moira shook her head. “That’s what I used to think. Until a demon used me to kill my boyfriend.”
Ari sucked in a sob. “I didn’t kill Chris!”
“You might as well have. It was a demon from the cliffs who touched him.”
“But Chris wasn’t there.”
“You were, though you were safe in the protective circle. Everyone else in the world is in jeopardy.”
Ari was listening, and Moira was relieved. The magic was stagnant now, without the continuing ritual to build it up.
But Ari was unconvinced. “That’s why what I’m doing here is so important! I’m sending the demons back so they can’t hurt anyone else. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I never wanted anyone to get hurt.”
Moira continued to walk forward. She stood on the outside of the circle. “I believe you. You don’t want to harm anyone.”
“Do no harm. That’s what we believe.”
“That’s what you believe. It’s noble. You didn’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t think you planned on releasing demons.”
Ari nodded. “I want to do good. I created the energy vortex. I researched it, plotted it out, and it’s working! Don’t you feel it?” She put her arms up. The crystals on her wrists drew in the energy, practically drugging the teenage witch.
Moira was losing the argument. “I feel it. And you need to stop it right now.”
“No,” she snapped petulantly.
Moira said to Jared. “Follow me.”
“Please don’t go, Moira,” Jared pleaded. “They have Lily! They’re going to hurt her just like they did Abby.”
Moira said, “Jared, Lily is with Anthony. Safe. No one can get to her.” I hope. “Ari is playing with fire, and she doesn’t want to listen to the truth.”
“Lily’s okay?” Jared asked, rising from the floor and walking over to Moira.
“Jared, no!” cried Ari. “Don’t go. None of you understand the power that I have!”
Moira lost her temper. “You don’t think so? I understand it better than anyone, even better than Fiona. I know what the power does to people. To people I love and care about. I also know what it does to you. You feel invincible. You believe you can do anything. You’ve probably left your body, floated among the clouds, watched people. That was my favorite part of being a magician. Flying. And I still miss it.”
“Then help me if you can!”
“I’m trying.”
“You’re trying to stop me, not help me!”
“That’s the only way I can help you. I have to stop this now.” For the last several minutes Moira had been feeling the energy turn from neutral to black. Something was coming. She had to convince Ari to break the circle and destroy the chalice. If Moira walked into the circle, the energy would be drawn to her, because of her blood. “The energy is changing. Don’t you feel it, Ari?”
But Ari was already drunk with the power, and said, “I’m getting stronger.”
“You’re losing control!”
Ari put her arms up and chanted the end of the ritual.
“Under the stairs!” Moira commanded Jared. She didn’t have to tell him twice.
A tornado of dark gray smoke rotated along the perimeter of the circle in which Ari stood. Ari held her hands up and commanded the spirit to go back where it came from.
The whirlpool of evil rotated faster. Every candle went out except those within the circle. Moira’s hair blew all around her; she could barely stand upright against the pressure. She had her flashlight in hand, but it was all she could do to hold on to it.
The entity didn’t obey Ari’s commands, just as Moira feared. She had no idea whether the demon was one of the Seven or a completely different devil. But with all the energy being directed into the center of Ari’s circle, the demon either didn’t know Moira and Jared were there or didn’t care.
Moira’s arsenal of weapons wouldn’t work until the demon took a physical form. She knew the exorcism prayer by heart, but the demon wasn’t trapped. As soon as she began it, it would turn on her. She wouldn’t be able to help Ari, or Jared, or save Rafe, if she were dead.
Ari held up a crystal.
“Smash it!” Moira screamed at her. “Break the crystal and you’ll break the spell!”
Whether Ari couldn’t hear her over the demonic winds or whether she ignored her, Moira couldn’t say, but Ari said, “I command thee, as it is above, it is below. I command thee to come-”
“No!” Moira shouted helplessly. “Don’t!”
It was too late. Ari had invited the demon into her circle. The girl screamed silently as the demon invaded her body. The resulting silence as all the air seemed to be sucked out of the room terrified Moira.
The possessed Ari stared at Moira, her eyes a red-tinged opaque.
“I know you,” it said.
Fiona cast the circle, but nothing was working the way it was supposed to. Her anger mounted as her coven grew wary. They were doubting her, she felt it in her pores, and that doubt, that mistrust, infuriated her nearly as much as the weak circle at the Rittenhouse furniture showroom.
She turned to Serena. “This isn’t working! We should have returned to the cliffs.”
Serena was upset, as she should be since her error had cost them valuable time.
“We leave. Regroup tomorrow night at the cliffs-”
“Wait,” Serena said.
Fiona despised being interrupted or contradicted, but she stopped just short of backhanding her daughter. Serena was in a half-trance, pulling information from the psychic energy in the region.
“It’s Ari,” said Serena. “Her magic. I told you she was stronger than you wanted to believe!” Serena put her hands up, trying to discern what Ari was up to. “She’s drawing energy to her location. She created a …” She closed her eyes, her fingers on her temples as if in pain, but Fiona pushed.
“What?” she demanded.
Garrett stepped over to her. “Fiona, let her be.”
She glared at Garrett. He was too soft on Serena. He stepped back from them, and Fiona turned back to her daughter. “Serena, what did Ari do?”
“A triangle. She is drawing in all energy within a perfect two-dimensional prism.”
“How can that little witch do it?”
Serena didn’t answer. Instead, she said, “All the energy is being directed toward Good Shepherd Church.”
“The fool!” Fiona paced. “She doesn’t know what she’s doing. Only the strongest of magicians should attempt even the most minor spells. All our work! She’s going to destroy it! Garrett, you and Nicole. Go.”
“I could do it faster,” Serena said.
“I need you here. We’ll work together to break the triangle.”
Serena stared at her, mouth open. “You’ve never said that before.”
“What?”
“That you needed me. That we are stronger together.”
Fiona frowned. “Of course I have.” Had she?
Serena shook her head. “Maybe you thought it, but I can’t read your mind.”
“That must be it.” Fiona touched her good daughter on the cheek. “I am hard on you, Serena, but that is nece
ssary to make you strong. Let’s continue.”
Serena smiled. “Yes, Mother.”
Though Anthony wanted to leave Father Philip and Lily at the mission, where he felt it was safest, he worried that leaving them alone anywhere was just as dangerous as bringing them with him.
The tabernacle he needed was in a secure storage room of St. Francis de Sales in downtown Santa Louisa. Two years ago, the parish priest died of a heart attack. Since then there had been five priests assigned, all leaving for a variety of reasons, which now seemed odd. The priest with the longest duration was Father Isaac, who had come out of retirement to tend to the dwindling flock. Anthony had never before considered that witchcraft had been involved in keeping the sole Catholic church inert and inactive, but now it seemed the only logical reason-other than general human apathy.
It was after seven p.m. when Anthony arrived. The church was dark; the parish house next door had a single light in the living room. Father Isaac would retire for the night by eight. Anthony brought Father Philip and Lily with him to the door, not wanting to leave them alone in the car.
Father Isaac took several long minutes to reach the door. When he opened it, Anthony felt the waves of pain coming from the old man, who looked even older now than he had when Anthony arrived in town two months ago. “Are you well?” he asked.
“I’m old,” Isaac replied. “My suffering is less than many.”
“Father, this is Philip Zaccardi of St. Michael’s in Sicily.”
Isaac’s eyes widened as if he were meeting a saint. “Reverend,” he said with a deep nod. “It is truly an honor.”
Isaac had been a supporter of St. Michael’s efforts, but like most priests not affiliated with the Order, he remained quiet about it.
“Thank you,” Philip said humbly. “We are in need of a tabernacle.”
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