by Jasmine Walt
Was it one of the coven members? Hell, it could even be the warlock who’d nearly tried to kill me. Maybe he wanted to talk about my plan to destroy the channel, while Darcia was out.
“Good afternoon, ma’am,” a familiar voice said when the housekeeper opened the door, and I froze. It was Detective Jake Brasher, one of the detectives from the Salem PD. “I’m here looking for a woman named Brooke Chandler. Have you seen her?”
Shit!
Heart hammering, I darted for the stairwell as quietly as I could, tucking myself behind the wall so that Brasher wouldn’t be able to see me. Jesus. Whoever thought I’d be hiding from the police someday?
“I don’t know anybody by that name,” the housekeeper said smoothly, not a hint of fear or uncertainty in her voice. Good. She’d been trained to expect this. “This is Miss Darcia Lacey’s home.”
“I see.” Detective Brasher was silent for a heartbeat. “I’d like to speak with Miss Lacey. Is she home?”
“No,” the housekeeper said. She sounded as if she was about to say more, but fell silent as car tires crunched up the gravel drive. A moment later, a car door slammed and heels clicked up the small cement pathway to the front porch.
“Can I help you, Officer?” Darcia said in that smoky-sweet voice of hers, sounding close enough that she must be at the door.
“It’s Detective, Miss.” Brasher’s voice didn’t sound as cop-flat as it should have—Darcia was probably turning on the sex appeal. “I’ve come here looking for a woman by the name of Brooke Chandler. I’ve heard that she may be staying in your home.”
“Oh?” Darcia’s voice held the perfect mix of surprise and skepticism. “And who told you that?”
“Anonymous tip.” Detective Brasher’s voice hardened. “So you know her?”
“I’ve heard of her, of course,” Darcia said, sounding bored. “My friend Thelia knew her, and I think she even came forward as a witness regarding a case involving Brooke. She’s some kind of wanted criminal, isn’t she?” she added in a dispassionate tone. “I suppose even the police department isn’t squeaky clean.”
“She’s wanted for questioning,” Brasher said. There was a short pause. “Why don’t you let me come in and take a look around?”
“Do you have a warrant?” Darcia asked pleasantly.
“Do I need one?”
“You do if you want to go traipsing around my property.” An edge entered Darcia’s voice. “Now if you wouldn’t mind, Detective, you’re blocking my front door.”
“I’ll be back soon,” he warned. “With a warrant. And if I find that you’ve been hiding Miss Chandler, I’ll have you arrested for obstruction of justice.”
“Have a good day to you, too,” Darcia said sweetly. There was a sharp snap as the door closed, and my shoulders sagged with relief.
I waited until the cop’s car had pulled out of the driveway, before easing out of the stairwell. I walked down the hall to see Darcia still standing in the foyer. She stared out the window, stock-still and stone-faced as Brasher’s car disappeared down the road.
“What do you think that anonymous tip was?” she asked, finally turning to me. Her beautiful face was hard, her eyes like ice. “Have you been sneaking off the premises?”
“Of course not.” I scoffed, trying not to sound as if my heart was trying to punch a hole in my chest. “When would I have had the time for that? Just ask your housekeeper. I’ve been here the whole time.”
Darcia huffed, tearing her gaze away from me. “The leak must have come from within, then,” she hissed. “I will ensure it is taken care of, immediately.”
I said nothing. It was very possible one of her coven had tipped the police off about my presence—Thomas wasn’t the only one who’d been displeased about me, and I had a feeling Darun was right about his suspicions. At least one of those witches wanted to take Darcia’s place, and getting her in hot water with the police was as good a place to start as any.
On the other hand, my lawyer had gone to the police station. So they were aware I was back in town, or at least nearby. It was entirely possible the anonymous tip had come from an innocuous source. But there was no point in telling Darcia that—I didn’t want her to know about the lawyer.
“Come with me,” Darcia said imperiously, turning away. She wore a sapphire blue dress that hugged her generous curves, and the skirt swished around her toned legs as she walked. I followed her down the hall and into a small study with honey-oak furniture and curtains the color of forget-me-nots. Various objects of power sat on the shelves lining the walls, and I had to make an effort to tone down my magic-sight to keep them from dazzling me.
Even so, Darcia noticed my glances. “I see your magic-sight is working,” she said as we sat down. “Much better than I anticipated. I think it is time we put it to work.”
“Oh?” I sat forward in my chair a little, careful to appear curious, but not eager. “What did you have in mind?”
Darcia leaned back in her brown leather chair, studying me silently for a moment. “A few centuries ago, Cane Lacey, a famous local warlock, managed to establish a permanent channel that connected the human world to the fae world. It could be used for passage between both, and to siphon magic directly from Faerie.” Her dark eyes gleamed. “It was an incredibly powerful resource, and one that put Cane and his coven head and shoulders above the others in our area.”
“Wow.” My eyes widened. “Siphon magic directly from Faerie? Wouldn’t that give someone an unlimited power source?”
“Yes, and my ancestor knew that very well. He conquered several nearby covens with ease, swallowing up their members into our own, and was preparing to take over the entire Eastern Seaboard with his growing power. Unfortunately, he died before he could make that happen.” Darcia’s eyes grew stormy.
“How?” I asked, even though I had a feeling I already knew.
“He was killed while he was out fortifying the channel,” Darcia said tersely. “And the channel was blocked off and hidden away from us on the very same day. I strongly suspect it was a powerful shadow—it’s the only explanation I have for why we are completely unable to sense the channel.”
“How do you know that the channel is there at all?” I asked on the slim hope I could discourage her from searching. “How do you know it was hidden instead of destroyed?”
“We did think it was destroyed, for quite some time,” Darcia said. “But Thelia has the gift of prophecy, and she recently saw a vision showing that the channel would be re-opened again soon. We’ve been looking for it ever since, with no luck, but now that you’re here…” She gave me a crafty smile. “I am really looking forward to putting your talents to good use.”
I cleared my throat. “Do you think the person who closed down the channel might have had a good reason to? I mean, what if you guys end up sucking all the power out of Faerie? There won’t be any left, and then all witches will be powerless.”
Darcia laughed. “What a silly notion,” she said, tossing a long lock of dark hair over her shoulder. “It would take us centuries to drain all power from Faerie, and that was if we were using it recklessly. No, we will manage our use of it.”
“All right,” I lied. “I’ll help you find it.”
What Darcia said made sense—they would want the power to last as long as possible. But I wasn’t convinced they would be able to ration out the power for the length of time Darcia suggested—not if that greedy gleam in her eyes was any indication. I needed to destroy that thing, stat, before they got their hands on it and started siphoning power. Even if they didn’t take it all away at once, I had no doubt that it would have an immediate impact on fae lands, and not in a good way.
Chapter 22
Darcia summoned Thelia and the other women in her entourage, and the six of us climbed into a spacious luxury SUV and headed for Salem. I did my best to hide my nerves as we pulled up to the very same spot Maddock and I had parked at a few days ago—I could already feel the channel, humming faintly from
somewhere deep within the forest.
“It’s a bit of a walk,” Thelia said as we disembarked from the vehicle. She glanced at the sturdy boots I was wearing, along with jeans and a thick jacket. “Glad to see you brought proper footwear.”
I shrugged, then followed them in beneath the trees. Darcia had warned me to wear appropriate clothing and shoes, though I hadn’t needed the advice since I knew we were going. A sense of déjà vu went through me as we walked along the exact same path Maddock and I had followed—it was a cold, but sunny day.
And we ran into the same warlocks at around exactly the same bend. The only difference between that day and today was I wasn’t using a glamour. The warlocks were seeing the real me for the first time.
“Mistress Darcia.” They bowed low, showing much more respect than some of the other coven members.
“Report.”
They rose. “No one has tried to breach the barrier since our last report,” one said. “We’ve been vigilant with our patrols.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Darcia said. “We’ll be going in today to do another search. Make sure no one passes the barrier while we are gone—not even another one of our coven members. I will call you if I send word to any of the others to come.”
“Yes, Mistress.” They bowed again, then stepped aside for us to pass.
My skin was tingling like crazy—we were approaching the barrier. I could spot the faintest green glimmer ahead, and I belatedly remembered I’d turned down my magic-sight. I mentally flipped the switch, and the barrier flickered into brilliant life, blazing brightly. It stretched out to either side for miles, curving ever so slightly the farther out it went, and I could tell it was forming a perimeter. I wondered how they’d determined where to narrow the search—had Thelia seen something else in her vision that had given them a clue?
“Thelia,” I said as we approached, “Mistress Darcia said you had a vision. Didn’t it show you where the channel was?”
She shook her head. “There weren’t really any specific markers to identify which area of the forest it was in,” she said, a hint of frustration in her voice. “I’m afraid I’m not much of a tracker. Nature isn’t my thing.”
“Too bad.”
Or damn lucky, I thought to myself.
Darcia and her fellow witches passed through the barrier without even a pause, but I hesitated for a split second. After all, I was half-Unseelie—the barrier might catch onto that and reject me.
You’re shaded, I reminded myself. You should be fine.
Right. I was always shaded, and it had become second nature to the point I forgot there was a layer of magic hiding my magical signature. Shaking off my apprehension, I passed through the barrier easily, then continued on the path with the rest of the witches.
“Well?” Darcia asked me after we’d walked some ten minutes through the snow-covered path. “Are you sensing anything yet?”
I shook my head. “No. The only thing I sense is the barrier.”
Which was kind of disappointing—I’d hoped to get a lock on the channel the moment I was past it. But there was a lot of forest; I probably wasn’t close enough. We would just have to walk around long enough for me to detect roughly where the channel was, and then I’d do my best to steer them away from it.
We trekked through the forest for two hours without sensing even the tiniest hint of magic. There was only an endless wave of trees, interspersed with the occasional wildlife sighting. Truthfully, I didn’t mind hiking through the woods—I enjoyed nature, and the snowfall was lovely. But Darcia’s eyes were boring into my back the entire time, and the other witches complained about the icy conditions and the freezing air. Not exactly conducive to a peaceful nature hike. I was glad I was ahead of them, because otherwise, they would have caught me rolling my eyes at their antics on more than one occasion. Jesus, these were grown women, all older than me, and they were acting like whiny children!
“Maybe your vision was wrong,” I finally said to Thelia as we stopped in a small clearing for a breather. The witches used their magic to clear the snow off a couple of logs so they could sit on them, but I remained standing. “Maybe there’s no channel here after all.”
“My visions are never wrong,” Thelia insisted. Her cheeks were bright pink from the cold and exertion. “If I see something, it always comes to pass.”
“What if it wasn’t what you thought?” I suggested. “What if there’s some other channel somewhere else in the world that’s about to be opened, and we’re looking in the wrong place?”
“You can’t be serious,” Carina sneered, and my cheeks colored. Okay, so that sounded far-fetched even to my ears.
Darcia raised an elegant eyebrow at me. “Are you saying you want to give up, Brooke?” she asked. “Persistence is the trait I value most highly. I won’t have a coven member who turns tail at a little bit of resistance.”
I lifted my chin. “Of course not. But it seems like some of the others aren’t dealing with the cold very well.” I pointed to Laura, who was wiping a red, sniffling nose. She’d been complaining the loudest of the five of them. “I could always continue the search on my own and call you when I find something.”
“That is a generous offer,” Darcia said smoothly, “but you are only a probationary member, Brooke. I am not quite willing to assign such a large responsibility to an untrained witch.”
There was an edge to her voice, so slight I would have missed it if I wasn’t trained to read people. The gleam in her eyes told me she was starting to suspect my motives. What she really meant was, ‘I don’t trust you,’ and I sensed she didn’t care if I knew that.
“All right,” I said, holding up my hands. “We’ll keep going. I’m more than willing to prove my worth, whenever you ladies are ready to keep going.” Smirking, I leaned my hand against a nearby tree trunk.
And was hit by the exact same vision I’d seen back in my father’s castle.
“Shit!” I stumbled away from the tree in shock, my senses on high alert. This was it. This was the tree I’d planted over the channel. It was right here, beneath its enormous roots. I hadn’t sensed it until I’d touched the tree, but now that I knew it was here, I could feel the magic clearly, like a powerful river running beneath the earth. It was shaded heavily, so heavily even I hadn’t sensed it until I was right on top of it.
“You’ve found it, haven’t you?” Darcia jumped up from the log she sat on, excitement and greed shining in her eyes. “It’s here!”
“I—” I began, trying to come up with an excuse for my reaction. But my mind was drawing a total blank. They’d all seen me react. What the hell could I say to them that wouldn’t sound like a total lie?
“This is definitely the tree,” Thelia said, her voice vibrating with enthusiasm. The witches descended upon the tree, and I moved out of the way as nausea churned in my gut. “It looks exactly like the one I saw in my vision. I can’t believe I didn’t spot it before.”
“Yeah,” I said, doing my best to match their enthusiasm even though I felt like upchucking my breakfast. “This is it.”
“Well done, Brooke!” Darcia patted me on the shoulder, and my stomach pitched. “This is fantastic work. I knew you would be able to find it.”
“Thanks.” God, I wanted to punch her in her perfect face and tell her that she was an idiot. That she should leave well enough alone. That this channel had been sealed off for a reason, and she should move her coven along to greener pastures and stop fucking with my life.
Maybe I would have done exactly that…if I hadn’t led her straight to the spot. How could I have been so stupid? I’d been having visions all my life. I was used to keeping my cool around others, passing my “blank outs” off as daydreams or pretending nothing had happened at all.
“So what now?” I asked eagerly, as if I were actually looking forward to what came next. “How do we access the channel?”
Darcia was crouched by the roots, her eyes closed as she pressed her hands against them. “
It would be helpful if you unshaded the channel, so that there is nothing interfering with the ritual,” she said, opening her eyes and looking up at me. “But not yet. If you do it now, every supernatural creature for miles around will come flocking straight here. There is a powerful ritual spell that will undo the protective enchantment, but it requires twelve witches or warlocks of superior strength and can only be done during the full moon.”
“That’s tomorrow!” Laura exclaimed. Her eyes were shining, her runny nose completely forgotten.
Darcia nodded, rising to her full height. “We shall return home and notify the others, then start the preparations.” She met my gaze with a wide smile. “We will be having a lot of fun these next couple of days, and you’ll learn quite a few things about magic, Brooke. I guarantee this will be an educational experience.”
Great, I thought as I followed them out of the forest. I didn’t want an education on how to open the channel. The only studying up I wanted to do now was on how put an end to the damn thing, before the Daire Coven used it to destroy Faerie.
Chapter 23
Alone in my room, I pulled out my cell phone and tried to contact Maddock. He hadn’t texted me, so I assumed he wasn’t back. But there was another voice mail, so I listened, hoping it was him.
Unfortunately, the message was from my lawyer, and he didn’t exactly sound thrilled. He told me the police were out looking for me, and they refused to negotiate with him without my presence. He ended the call by urging me to call him as soon as possible so we could go to the station together.
Yeah. Like that was happening any time soon.
Sighing, I flopped back onto the bed and called Maddock. Straight to voice mail. Again. Frustrated, I called ENVY next, and the manager confirmed Maddock still had not returned. Of course, he wouldn’t tell me where the bastard had gone off to, so I just left a message to call me back as soon as possible. I tried Oscar, with similar results. Desperate, I even contacted my lawyer, but I got voice mail, too, and after trying his office, I was informed by his assistant that he was in court.