by Eva Chase
I had to laugh even as a lump rose in my throat. It wasn’t as comforting an answer as I could have hoped for, but it was fair. I didn’t think I could stand to lose another of my consorts.
Maybe Gabriel had just been overwhelmed. Maybe he’d come back—today, even—and we could talk it out properly. He couldn’t have really meant what he’d said about Frankfords’ group being right to want to control my magic, could he?
I shouldn’t dwell on that question. Like I’d said to Ky earlier, there wasn’t time for moping around. After a brief cuddle longer, I got up to shower and get dressed.
I was halfway to the stairs to rejoin the others when my ringtone went off. My heart skipped a beat at the thought that it might be Gabriel. But the number was a Portland one I didn’t recognize. My spine stiffened as I answered it.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Lady Hallowell?” the woman at the other end said. “This is Investigator Ruiz from the Assembly’s Justice Division. We spoke a few days ago.”
The tension in me relaxed but only a little. “I remember,” I said. “I told you everything I could then.”
“I’m sure you did. But there’s another matter I need to discuss with you. Have you had any contact with a witch by the name of Thalia Ainsworth?”
My back went rigid all over again. Thalia had never said it in so many words, but from her anxiety at the thought of being tracked here and the precautions she’d taken, I could be pretty sure she didn’t want anyone knowing where she’d gone. I couldn’t promise I could protect her if the Assembly and her husband knew she was here.
I hadn’t told any outright lies to Ruiz last time, but if that was what I had to do now, so be it.
“Ainsworth?” I said. “No. I don’t think I’ve ever met her. Why?”
There was a skeptical note in Ruiz’s voice. “I gather she left her house rather suddenly… Her husband says she’s been having some episodes of confusion—he’s worried about her and wants her home. I only wondered since you have been collecting stray witches lately.”
“Well, if she does show up here, I’ll be sure to let you know,” I said.
“Uh huh.” She wasn’t even trying to hide her skepticism now. “Lady Hallowell… I do want to help, you know.”
I swallowed hard. I believe you, I thought. I just don’t believe you can.
“I’ve seen things, heard things,” she went on in my brief hesitation. “I know not to trust the official take on everything. I asked to be assigned to your case because I feel there’s more here we need to understand. If you have another side to the story—to any story—I’ll listen and give it due consideration.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, but she’d sounded sincere enough that I had to add, “and I appreciate that.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing else you can tell me?”
My hand tightened around the phone. “I’m trying,” I said. “If I’ve got a story I can properly tell, you’ll be the first one I call.”
“All right. I can’t ask for much more than that. You’ve got my card. Stay well and may your spark glow brightly, Lady Hallowell.”
It was an old formal farewell, the kind recorded in witching fairy tales, not really used much these days. Hearing it, I really wished I could have told her something more.
When I hung up, the soft clearing of a throat behind me made me jerk around. Thalia was standing in the doorway to the bedroom she’d been hiding away in for most of the last two days.
I took her in with a whisper of relief, seeing the steadiness of her stance. For the first time since she’d arrived, there was an energy in her eyes that fit the forty-something years old she was, not the aged weariness she’d shown before. I’d been starting to worry that our newest arrival might have had her nerves permanently fractured.
“Hi,” I said. “How are you? Did you want me to bring up some breakfast—or to come down?”
Those questions seemed to slide right by her. “That was the Assembly,” she said, nodding to the phone I’d just lowered.
I tucked it into my pocket. “It’s no problem. No one’s realized you’re here.”
“You lied to them for me.”
The words held more weight than I would have expected. I paused. “I did. I thought that’s what you’d want me to do.”
“It is. But I—” Her mouth twitched. I couldn’t tell if it was moving toward a smile or a frown. “I wouldn’t have asked that of you. They could arrest you just for that if they find out. You hardly know me.”
Was that all she was worried about? “It’s nothing,” I said. “Really. You came here because you thought it’d be a safe place, and that’s what I’m trying to make it, as much as I can.”
She studied me. “Why?” she asked simply.
It took me a moment to find an answer that felt true enough. “I wish I’d had someone in the witching community I could turn to when I needed them,” I said. “Everyone should have that. At least I can give it to other people, so they can feel a little less scared than I did.” My stomach twisted even without thinking too hard about all the trouble I’d been through with no one who fully understood to turn to.
Something about the answer must have sat right with Thalia, because her grip on the doorframe eased. She tipped her head toward her bedroom. “Come in? I feel there’s more we should talk about.”
Inside the bedroom, she sank onto the edge of the bed, and I sat on the stool at the cherry-wood vanity.
“It is good to see you up,” I said, not sure how else to start.
Thalia let out a sharp breath. “It’s good to be up. I’m sorry for being such a lay-about the last few days—I didn’t even know I was that worn out until my head hit that pillow…”
“The kind of magic you’ve been doing, it took a lot out of you?” I ventured.
Her gaze held mine with a knowing expression. “Yes,” she said. “You could say that. I was hoping… You’re not entirely safe here, are you? There’ve been difficulties. If there’s anything I can do, anything I can offer, I’ll do whatever I can for you.”
“Thank you,” I said. “It’s— We’re safe here on the estate. But it has been an increasingly tense situation. People who have reason to be afraid of what I know—they’ve been attacking us in roundabout ways. Ways I can’t really prepare for. If there’s anything you can say from what you’ve been through, anywhere you can point me to that we could find proof to expose what’s going on or take them down some other way…?”
She looked down at her hands. “It’s hard,” she said. “They were afraid of what I could say too. I’m so bound up. The power they have… It’s much stronger in the source, but it still gives them something they shouldn’t.”
The demons had a strong magic that didn’t totally transfer to the men who borrowed it, I suspected she meant. But it was still power. Tainted power. We had to fear not just the witches but the witching men as well, in more ways than I was used to.
“Maybe we can get somewhere talking about the things and the people who aren’t the problem,” I suggested. “If I knew who I definitely didn’t have to worry about, who you can freely talk about because there’s nothing bad you could say about them, that would let me know who to turn to for more help.”
Thalia raised her head again, her face brightening. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, that could work. Do you have some paper? This might take a little while.”
Chapter Seventeen
Kyler
“I don’t know how else to explain it,” Imogen said, twisting one of her red curls around her finger as she frowned in thought. “It was just a feeling I got. The way the guys they brought around looked at me. The way they talked more to my aunt and uncle than they did to me, as if they were deciding whether to marry them… Nothing more obvious than that. That’s why it’s so hard to talk about it. It’s not like I can say, ‘See, of course I was scared when they said this horrible thing.’”
I looked up from my tablet where I’d been poise
d to take notes. The open document was blank, because Imogen hadn’t been able to offer any data that would get me anywhere. “That still sounds awful,” I said. “Regardless of why they were doing it. I might not have been part of this world for very long, but I know you deserve a consort who’s interested in you.”
She shrugged, her mouth twisting. “We were a small enough family to begin with, and my parents weren’t around to make any kind of name for themselves. It’s not like there’s a lot to gain from marrying me.”
“I didn’t gain anything from—” My voice cut off before I could say marrying Rose, the magical vise of the oath clamping around my vocal chords. I coughed. Imogen should be able to fill in the blanks after the amount of time she’d spent in our company. “From marrying who I married. Except for getting to be with a woman I think is amazing. That’s what marriage is supposed to be.”
“For some people. You don’t know what it’s like. Anyway, I’m sorry I can’t help more.” She paused. “You know how worried I have to be, don’t you? You know something about what my aunt and uncle are mixed up in. That’s part of what you’re not allowed to talk about.”
My tongue went heavy as lead in my mouth. What could I say to that without bumping up against the magical restrictions laid on me? Normally I was a pretty even-tempered guy, but right then, the frustration that had been growing in me over the last several days seared through my stomach. My hand clenched around the tablet.
For fuck’s sake, I should be able to tell this one girl her family had been ready to sell her into virtual slavery.
“I think you’re right to have come here,” I managed finally. “I think you’re safer away from them.”
“Yeah. That’s all Rose will say about it too.” Imogen grimaced and flopped back in the armchair.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I know it’s not your fault. If I think of anything specific, I’ll tell Rose, okay?”
I nodded, tension still churning in my gut. “Thanks.”
I got up and walked into the front hall, but then I didn’t know where to go. I’d already talked to Lesley, who hadn’t been able to give me any details I hadn’t heard the first time I’d talked to her, and Rose had related everything she’d learned from Thalia, the older witch who’d only just arrived. We had a list now of several high-ranking Assembly members who we could be decently sure had no loyalty to the Frankfords—a couple who might even be actively antagonistic to them.
We just didn’t have anything to give them that would let us take that demon-feeding faction down.
I’d been working through the files and pursuing leads for more than a month now with nothing useful to show for it. And the Frankfords were closing in. They’d almost killed my dad—they could have killed my brother. They’d burned down Jin’s home. Who would they hurt next?
Jin was working on paintings to bring to each of our parents’ houses, but that wasn’t going to do them much good when the enemy witches were attacking them in the most convoluted ways to get around the oath anyway. And there was nothing I could do to help.
I couldn’t even bring Gabriel back. I’d tried texting him and then calling him yesterday, but I’d gotten no answer and then a “not in service” recording. Where the hell had he gone? Why the hell had he gone, and like that? I’d known he was worried about Rose, but how could he have lost faith in her that quickly? How could he have abandoned her?
It didn’t seem like him at all. Maybe the Frankfords had gotten to him in some other underhanded way, but I hadn’t been able to determine that either.
In short, I was useless all around.
I was still standing there when Rose came down the stairs. She smiled, seeing me, but the gesture didn’t remove the sadness from her eyes. I had the feeling that emotion was going to linger in her face for a long, long time. What even happened if someone a witch was consorted to just left? I hadn’t wanted to break her heart more by asking, and that wasn’t a question I could ask an internet search engine.
“Hey,” she said. “Finished with your interviews?”
“Yep,” I said, putting on my best optimistic expression even if it didn’t reflect how I was feeling.
“Do you want to run through some of the practice forms—the dual ones? I was thinking we should keep that up. I mean, especially now…” She let herself trail off, her jaw tightening.
After one of her consorts had proven so thoroughly he didn’t trust her. I opened my mouth, knowing the right thing to say was yes. That was what she needed from me. But my body balked, with a ribbon of resistance that constricted around my ribs.
I was too wound up, too overwhelmed. I’d probably screw up the forms too and just make her even more unsettled.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” I said cautiously. “I’m all…” I made a spinning gesture with my hand by my head. “Trying to put all the pieces together, to find a connection we can use. I don’t know. I don’t think I can concentrate on much else right now.”
Part of me, the part that had cringed watching her torture Courtland, braced itself for her to be upset with me. But all that happened was her smile slanted and she took my hand to squeeze it.
“You’ve been running around working on that for weeks,” she said. “Maybe what you need is a break. Take a little time for yourself, get away from all the craziness here for a bit. Just… be careful if you leave the estate, all right?”
Love swelled in my chest in answer to the love she’d just shown me. My smile came a little easier. I tapped the token I was wearing under my shirt. “I’ve got you protecting me wherever I go. You might be right. Just a quick walk to see if I can clear my head and get somewhere.”
I headed out thinking maybe I’d swing by my parents’ place again. Dad had seemed to be recovering fine when Seth and I had visited yesterday, but it was hard not to worry. Of course, visiting Dad also meant visiting Mom, and she’d pulled the two of us aside yesterday to rant for a few minutes about where we’d been and who we might have been with until Seth had managed to extricate us.
No, I didn’t want to be harped on about my choice in lovers today. I’d already chatted with Dad a bit on the phone this morning.
Instead I ambled down the main road and onto the main street through town. The water was burbling from the fountain in the square. I walked up to it and stood by the base, enjoying the cool flecks that dabbled my skin while the sun glared down. Damn, it’d be nice to just soak myself in that pool.
There was that pond on Rose’s property—the one where we’d used to go swimming when we were kids. It’d always been the perfect temperature in the summer. I should revive that tradition… if her protections could extend that far. It was a bit of a hike into the woods.
That thought dampened my enjoyment of the moment. I wandered on through the square, playing a game with myself of identifying the tourists and guessing where they’d come from. A few of the locals tipped their heads to me. A couple others watched me warily. Wondering if I’d brought oddness cooties with me from the Hallowell manor? I didn’t roll my eyes at them, but it was a near thing.
The summer heat wafted off the cobblestones too. Sweat started to bead on my forehead and beneath my shirt. I ducked into the little bookstore just off the square with a wave to Marsha at the front counter. She made a hesitant gesture with her hand, her eyes going a little round beneath her bun of white hair.
Oh, good Lord, don’t tell me she was hearing—and listening to—rumors too. I’d been coming in here for reading material for two decades, whenever there was a topic the internet wasn’t supplying me quite enough info on.
I walked down the aisle, skimming my fingers over the spines of the books. The chill of the air conditioner drove away the heat that had soaked into my skin. Other than a few new popular novels that weren’t really my thing, there was nothing here I hadn’t seen before. I was going to turn around and head out again when my gaze caught on the guy at the far end of the shop.
&
nbsp; He was standing in the corner where Marsha wouldn’t have been able to see him, taking books off the shelf, paging through them, and sticking them back in their spots. But there was a twitchiness to his movements, the way he scanned the aisle periodically, that rubbed me the wrong way. And who the hell would wear a vest, even a thin one, over their shirt on a day this hot?
I meandered around to the other aisle and peeked at him through the gap in the bookcase between the rows of books. He glanced at a couple more volumes and then reached for one he’d already put back. With one more jerk of his head to check for witnesses, he slipped the book into an inner pocket on his vest.
My eyebrows shot up. What a jerk. I didn’t know him—he was either a tourist or a newcomer in town. Maybe a local from a neighboring town who went elsewhere for his criminal activities.
I leaned on the counter on my way out and murmured to Marsha, “You might want to check that guy’s vest. Just saying.”
She blinked at me, startled, and then the guy came around the corner. I gave her another wave and went out.
The blast of heat didn’t diminish my sense of accomplishment, minor as it might be. I might not be able to take on any real villains, but I’d protected our neighborhood bookstore from a little petty theft.
My feet stalled halfway down the street. The idea beamed through my head as if it’d been a literal light bulb.
I’d been thinking about my other problems all wrong. Or not wrong, just forgetting a whole huge aspect of them. Our enemies were magical, so I’d been trying to find something within their world to take them down: a crime of the witching sort. But everyone in Rose’s society still lived in the real world with all us unsparked people—and our unsparked law enforcement—too. They had to follow the laws of this nation as well as their own.
And I’d bet the clothes off my back that if the Frankfords’ allies had been breaking their own people’s rules, they’d been finding ways to cheat the unsparked systems too. They’d have just as much trouble enslaving witches like Imogen to demons from the inside of a regular prison cell. The business dealings Frankford had mentioned in his files would give me the perfect jumping off point to investigate.