Magic Runes

by Devyn Jayse

  “I don't know.”

  He slammed the photograph and drawing on to the desk with a bang that made me jump. “What do you mean you don't know?”

  “I removed the spell and she left.” I leaned back at his reaction.

  My words seemed to make him more agitated. “Are you sure you removed the spell? You’re absolutely certain? Can you explain exactly what you mean?”

  I frowned at him. “I removed it. It was hooked into her power but I reversed it and the blue mark disappeared. I could tell the hold on her had left.”

  “You’re sure there’s no chance that the spell will reassert itself again?”

  “I’m thorough with my work. I know you don’t know me, but I’m good with spells and have studied runework intensively. I’m fairly certain this spell won’t return. That said, I’ve never seen this before, so anything’s possible.” I didn’t know what else I could say. Despite myself I could hear the edginess creep into my tone. I never liked anyone questioning the quality of my work.

  A chuckle made me look at Rafael. “Careful Joe, it's never a smart idea to question a witch’s work. She may spell you just to show you how good she is at it.”

  “That would be unethical,” I said. It wouldn’t be right, no matter how much anyone annoyed me.

  Joe ignored Rafael. “I need you to tell me exactly what you did, but before you do I need to call somebody.”

  He picked up the phone and dialed a number. I looked at Rafael and he gave me a small shrug. He didn't seem to know who Joe was calling either.

  Joe spoke into the phone. “Hi. You need to get here. You’ll want to hear the woman I’m with.” He listened for a few seconds. “Drop whatever you’re doing. This may be the break we've been waiting for.”

  He hung up and we waited. I wondered what they were working on. I bit my lip again. It was clear that I had stumbled on to an ongoing investigation. This was exactly the opposite of what I wanted. All I wanted was to report the misdemeanor and move on. But like most things in my life, it wasn’t going to be that easy.

  Joe kept opening his mouth as if to ask me something and close it again. Rafael appeared amused. I tried not to let my anxiety show. We didn’t have to wait long before a tall man walked into the office.

  His dark brown eyes took us all in. I felt a magnetic pull and I stilled. Whoever he was, he had a large reserve of power. To us magic users, it was like catnip. You wanted to indulge in it. If he sensed my reaction, he didn’t acknowledge it. He ignored both Rafael and myself. “Joe, I was in the middle of an interrogation. This had better be good.”

  Joe couldn’t contain himself any longer. He burst out, “Trust me Adrian, you're going to want to hear this. I didn’t believe it myself but the photographs don’t lie. You’ll probably want to sit down for this.”

  Looking skeptical, Adrian took the chair across from me. Only then did his eyes slide over to me. It took a blink but I thought they widened slightly. His gaze slid over to Adrian so I doubted it.

  Joe turned to me, “Please tell us again what happened.”

  I frowned. How many times would I have to repeat my story? “I was at my store when I saw a girl with a blue mark. I took her into my store and removed the spell.”

  A chuckle came from where Rafael leaned. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you this, but you need to work on your storytelling skills.”

  “I didn't come here to tell stories I just thought somebody should know that this was happening.” I glared at him.

  “Oh, trust me, they know.” Rafael said drily.

  “Did you hear that?” Joe asked Adrian. “She removed the spell.”

  Adrian looked at me and then back at Joe. “The girls?”

  “Yes,” Joe practically bounced in his seat. “She saw a live spell and managed to save the girl by removing it. She removed the spell. On a live girl. Spell. Removed.”

  Adrian looked at me, his gaze disbelieving. “How did you get rid of it?”

  “I reversed it.”

  “What does that mean?” He frowned at me, his expression severe. “How can you reverse a spell unless you knew how to cast it?”

  I bristled. “Are you accusing me of something? I think you’ll find your interrogation in the next room. I’m just here to tell you that someone’s going around making trouble.”

  “No, no,” Joe assured me. He gave Adrian a pointed stare. “He wasn’t. He just wants to know how you managed to do it. We’ve been trying to reverse it and haven’t gotten anywhere.”

  “It’s a technique I was taught at an institute in Iceland.” I admitted. “They only accept select students there, with a focus on runes. They made us practice until we learned to reverse spells practically with our eyes closed.”

  “Why haven’t we heard of this before?” Rafael asked the room. Neither Joe nor Adrian replied.

  “It’s a runework specialization,” I offered an answer. “It’s a rare skill set. You have to know the right people in order to get into the program.” I left out the part about my background that made me eligible to take it. The SBI didn’t need to know that. The attention my appearance had generated was already bad enough, I couldn’t afford them taking a closer look into my background.

  “But we had someone in the Magical Division try to reverse the spell,” Adrian said. His expression was still suspicious. He watched me as if he couldn’t figure me out. That was dangerous.

  “Maybe it didn’t work because the girls were dead.” Joe muttered, shifting through the photographs on his desk.

  “You keep saying dead.” I turned between the two of them. “Who are these dead girls?”

  “We’ve got an active case. Girls have been showing up dead with no obvious cause of death except for that symbol you just drew for me.”

  “You knew someone was cursing girls and didn’t send out an alert?” I let my accusatory glare take them all in.

  “And cause a mass panic in the supernatural community?”

  “You could have gotten tips.”

  “It would have only served to make the suspect go underground. Or hide the bodies before we got to them.”

  “And how helpful has it been to keep it away from people?” I glared at the agent.

  “We wouldn’t have been able to notify the people at risk - humans.” Joe interrupted. “Let’s get back to the details. You mentioned that the mark you saw was blue. What shade was it?”

  “The color of the sky or sea, but glowing.”

  Joe steepled his fingers and placed his chin on them. “The marks we see aren’t blue. They’re black.”

  “We need to find the girl. What’s her name? We have to ensure the spell has been fully removed,” Adrian said.

  “I don't know who she is. Her name is Thora and she was with her friend Ingrid.” I resisted the urge to repeat that I was sure it was gone. If girls were showing up dead, he had a right to want to make certain. Then I remembered something that might help. “They were part of a tour group. I don’t know the name of the tour organizer but the groups show up every day at around eleven in the morning across from my store.”

  Joe nodded at Adrian. “Get the name of her store and the street it’s on. We’ll get someone to see if they can find out who signed up for the tour. If we’re lucky we may be able to find her.”

  Adrian’s frown remained on his face. “If they haven’t left Barcelona yet. Why did you let her go?”

  “I had no reason to hold her against her will.” I replied testily.

  “Well, you're going to have to show me what you did.”

  “I can’t show you without having the spell in front of me.”

  “Why not? Are you one of those witches?”

  “What are those witches?”

  “The type that doesn't like to share knowledge.”

  I really didn't like this guy. “No, it's not that. It's just the type of thing where it has to be in front of me so that I can unlock its. It's like a Rubik's cube, you have to see the pattern in order
to put it back together.”

  Joe nodded, understanding what I meant. Adrian still stared at me as if I was intentionally trying to obstruct his investigation.

  “Well, whatever it is you need to do, moving forward you're going to need to work with us on this case.”

  “What does that mean?” I looked back and forth between him and Joe.

  “It means that you have to be there when we need you.”

  I prickled at his words. Rafael pushed away from the wall. “Please excuse Adrian. He’s not eloquent when asking for help. We need you. Before you showed up all we had were dead girls. With your help maybe we could turn the tide and save some of them. And hopefully we will find out who is doing this.”

  Joe jumped in. “Yes, we’d really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and of course the bureau will compensate you for your time. You would be saving lives and like Rafael said, we’ve had too many girls die recently because of this and I’m going to admit that we have no idea where it’s originating from.”

  “We may figure that out soon with the help of Professor Forsberg.” Adrian interrupted him.

  “He calls himself a runes expert and teaches the subject at the university and yet a random witch off the street has told us more about this spell than he has.” Rafael said casually to Adrian. “Don’t glare at me like that. How come she identified the runes and managed to reverse them when the so-called expert couldn’t?”

  “He didn’t see a live sample. He’s only seen the photographs of the dead ones.” Adrian said.

  Rafael turned to me. “We need any leads and help we can get. Anything to get closer to finding the culprit and locking him up. Please help us save lives. I know you already want to, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

  He had me there. Most of my resistance was the idea of working with Adrian. I glanced at Joe. He had a hopeful glimmer in his eyes willing me to say yes. Adrian on the other hand had a frown. He did not seem pleased at the prospect of working with me despite demanding it.

  “Okay, I'm in.”

  Rafael stepped forward and grasped my hand, shaking it robustly. He gave me a wide grin. “Welcome to the team.”

  Five

  A deep sense of unease ran through me. It didn’t have to do with the events of the day before. It was the fifteenth of the month and there was something I had to do. I needed to make special arrangements to meet someone.

  I looked around my apartment. Ideally I would stay here and relax, but I had to get going. I made myself a couple of sandwiches for the road and grabbed a bottle of water. I put them in my backpack, among other things. I left my apartment. Halfway down the street I stopped in my tracks. I had forgotten something. I cursed under my breath and whirled around.

  When I turned around the corner of the street my store was on, I noticed a familiar figure waiting outside.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked Mateu.

  He didn’t respond and I almost hit my palm to my forehead. Of course he couldn’t talk in public. Now that I thought about it, it was unusual that he had allowed his natural form to appear to others in the street.

  I unlocked the door so that he could step within. He shielded himself from sight before he moved so the sight of a moving gargoyle wouldn’t attract attention. However, a disappearing gargoyle seemed normal.

  “I stopped by to check something,” he answered me.

  “What’s that?” I had a sneaking suspicion I knew what it was.

  “Every three months you disappear for three days. I wondered if it was going to be the same today.”

  “You’ve been keeping track?” I wasn’t surprised. “It’s clear from your expression that you expected me to be gone.”

  “You’re still going, aren’t you?”

  There was no point denying it. He would notice when I didn’t return for the next few days. “Yes.”

  “You can keep your secrets. I have enough of my own and others.”

  A sense of relief overtook me. “Thanks,” I told him.

  He struggled to contain the disappointment that marred his features. “I didn’t want you to feel obliged to tell me. I was being polite.”

  I laughed. “Let’s not pretend you’re not dying to know.”

  Mateu shrugged. “Of course I want to know, but I respect your privacy. Do you want me to keep an eye on things here?”

  “Please.” Something clicked as realization dawned on me “You’ve been doing that for the past year, haven’t you? That’s why you were visible outside the store. You were guarding it.”

  He ducked his head in embarrassment.

  I reached out and gave him a hug. “Thank you! I really appreciate it.”

  He tried to hide how pleased he was and cleared his throat. “Don’t mention it. Do you think the SBI will pass by while you’re gone?”

  “I hope not.” I didn’t want to admit I was worried about that. The last thing I wanted was to raise any questions and what I had to do required a lot of discretion. It had been a bad idea to go to the SBI. I should have waited until after this trip but then that would have inspired a whole different set of questions. They may have dug into my background to see why I waited so long.

  “Maybe you should put a sign on the door saying you’ve gone to a conference.”

  “And when they ask which one?”

  “Fine, don’t put a sign. I’ll be around to see who comes by. I’ll tell your regulars when to expect you.”

  “Thanks, I’ll be locking up in a few minutes. I just need to get something.” I didn’t want to tell him to leave the store but he understood the message.

  “Take care of yourself. I’ll see you when you’re back.” Mateu disappeared and the door opened. He slipped out.

  I went to rummage in my secret drawer. Under the rare dragon scales, I removed a small pouch. It had some items I had ordered especially for this day. I slipped the pouch into my backpack and left the store, resetting the wards as I locked up.

  By the time I had made my way to the car rental agency, it was full of customers. I had missed the early window when it would be empty. I waited for my turn and then picked up the car I had reserved. The only time I ever drove was during these three days that I left Barcelona. In the city, everything I wanted was either accessible by foot or subway.

  I drove away from the city, leaving it behind in my rearview mirror. I took the road north. As I got further and further away from Barcelona, the landscape changed but I couldn’t enjoy the pretty scenery. I was anxious at what lay ahead of me and wondered what I would find at my destination.

  It took me a few hours to cross the border into the country of Andorra. It was a small country nestled between Spain and France. They didn’t have an airport, it was only accessible by car. This was where I came every three months.

  The car traveled up the winding streets up the mountain. I never visited the same town twice. I found the hotel easily enough and checked in using an alias. I didn’t want anyone to track Carmen Rebello to this location.

  I spent the rest of the day scouting the area until the sun set. Then I retreated to my hotel and tried my best to get some sleep. I barely slept a wink due to nerves.

  As soon as it was morning, I made my way to the rendezvous point. It was a coffee shop located next to a popular thermal spa. I sat outside on a bench for half an hour, monitoring for any unusual behavior or people that didn’t belong. It was the weekend so most of the people were families with young children enjoying the nice weather. I always chose locations where I could blend in with the crowds. When I was comfortable that no one had followed me, I entered the coffee shop.

  It was a small place. I could see every corner from the doorway. The person I was there to meet was waiting for me. He got to his feet and asked, “Don’t you want to make wait longer than usual?”

  I broke into a smile. “You know I had to be certain we were alone.”

  He opened his arms wide and I stepped into his embrace. He squeezed me tight until I pulled ba
ck, then he released me.

  His eyes traveled over me, taking me in from head to toe. “How have you been?”

  “I’m doing okay.”

  “You look stressed.”

  “You know these meet ups always do that to me.”

  He nodded, his eyes sad. “It’s unfortunate that it has to be this way.”

  “Please don’t start. It’s too early for that.” I didn’t come here to fight.

  “Have you been keeping under the radar?”

  “So far, yes. Have you heard anything?”

  My companion shook his head. “Nothing recent. I thought I would reassure you in person.”

  “You know not to come if it will expose me.”

  “I know, don’t worry about that. I took the usual precautions.”

  “She doesn’t suspect anything?”

  “No, she thinks I’m fishing.”

  “You know she won’t stop looking for me.”

  “Yes, but so far she hasn’t enlisted the help of others or I would have heard about it.”

  I didn’t want to remind him about the hired investigators. Sometimes he needed to convince himself that she wasn’t as bad as I said she was. I allowed him his indulgence if it meant less friction.

  “How are you?” I asked him. He appeared a little thinner which sent a thread of worry in me, but other than that he looked great. I finally allowed myself to feel happy to see him. “Are you eating? You look like you’ve lost weight.”

  He laughed and pointed at the plate in front of him. “Yes, I am. I managed to score a full meal in a coffee shop. Aren’t you impressed?”

  “You’ve always had a knack for making people do things for you.” It was true. I was always impressed at what he managed to convince others to do.

  “You’re the only one immune to it.” His eyes grew wistful.

  The waitress came by and handed me a coffee. She noted my surprised since I hadn’t put in an order. She gestured at my companion. “He told me to start making it as soon as you walked in.”

  I focused on him and he shrugged, a small smile on his lips.

  I thanked her and took a long sip of the coffee. I sighed. I tried not to drink it much but there was nothing like a good cup of coffee.