Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic

by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  “What, this?” I asked. “Not good enough for Heathrow Airport?”

  Wisteria laughed and handed me a pad of paper from the writing desk in the corner. Her laughter was a reserved, refined sound that offered a glimmer of lightness to my heavy soul.

  ∞

  The next few hours were a whirlwind of phone calls — Gran and Scarlett — and answering questions as guardedly as I could when the lead investigator showed. Mory continued to completely ignore everything, though she gushed over the clothing Wisteria brought for her.

  The lead investigator was an uppity British witch who was seriously pissed that we’d been hunting Sienna in London without telling anyone. How we were to know to report our suspicions and activities to her team, I wasn’t sure. When I informed her that we contacted the sorcerers and the so-called vampire elder, she just curled her lip at me and continued with the questions.

  It seemed that the Adept had no problem asking hard questions when investigating a crime.

  Wisteria — who outright refused to let me call her Wist or Wisty — sat next to me and squeezed my arm every time she wanted me to gloss over an event. I gathered that her reconstruction — the YouTube cube thing she was carrying around in her bag — showed what happened at the parking lot but not what led up to the disaster. Interestingly, Wisteria also refused to hand the cube over to the lead investigator until after the Convocation had seen it. She had actual written directives to back this up. Her handbag was that large for a reason. And here I’d thought it was a fashion statement completely at odds with the rest of her well-kept, minimalist appearance.

  I should have slept, but I didn’t want to relax anywhere other than in my own bed, no matter how far away that was at the moment.

  I asked about Kett.

  No one had answers.

  Wisteria scored me some MiH jeans, a green cashmere sweater, and white patent three-quarter Doc Martens boots with roses etched up the sides that totally screamed ‘limited edition’ to me. I was ready to make her my best friend for it. She didn’t seem on board with that plan, though.

  The reconstructionist used our impending flight as an excuse to haul Mory and me out of the hotel suite and into a rental car before the investigator had finished her interview. By the deadly look this garnered, I really hoped Wisteria wasn’t stepping on too many toes for my sake.

  She barely said a word to us on the way to the airport. And, of course, Mory was also honing her impression of a rock in the back seat, so I just kept randomly flipping radio stations when a song came on that I didn’t want to hear. I tried a lot of radio stations. It seemed I wasn’t interested in listening to music or talking.

  The reconstructionist pulled up to the international departures section of Heathrow, and once again I was really glad I wasn’t driving. The airport was huge and sprawling.

  “I’m surprised we aren’t under heavy guard,” I said jokingly as I stepped from the car.

  “You are,” Wisteria said. Then she pulled away without saying goodbye.

  I reached for Mory, not wanting to lose her in the pressing crowd. She deftly avoided my touch, almost knocking over a toddler with her dodge.

  Fine. I’d let her get lost at the freaking largest airport in the United Kingdom … I already was.

  I moved — slowly in case Mory did want to stay with me — toward the revolving doors, happy that I only had my satchel and katana, and wasn’t dragging the huge bags hindering the other travelers. Portals were decidedly less intimidating. Well, if I didn’t include having my life threatened by one of the nine guardians of the world if I used one … or returned to the nexus.

  Kandy appeared out of the crowd. Her hair was freshly dyed green but in a slightly different shade … darker, I thought. It almost perfectly matched the green glow of magic that rolled across her eyes when she met my gaze, saw my smile, and didn’t return it.

  Mory flung herself at the werewolf as if I was the one who’d kidnapped her in the first place.

  Something in my chest broke. I was surprised there was anything left to break so close to my heart. But I felt it snap, right in that place where I had stored all my pain over losing Sienna.

  Then the anger rose to patch the crack.

  I shoved the two extra airline tickets at Kandy’s chest. She stumbled back and almost dropped them.

  “Don’t worry,” I snarled. “I’ll get my seat reassigned.”

  Then I walked away, leaving Kandy and Mory staring after me. Yeah, maybe it was childish. Yeah, maybe I deserved their nasty shit, but I wasn’t going to take it.

  No one had any freaking idea what I was feeling. No one had any idea what it was like to hunt your own sister, your best friend, and fail to bring her to justice — even though according to the investigators, that wasn’t my job. It was my responsibility.

  And you know what? I didn’t drag Kandy, Mory, or Kett into any of this … I’d walked through the Loch More portal two and a half days ago with every intention of finding Sienna on my own. And maybe, just maybe, if it had been me facing her alone, all that other terrible shit wouldn’t have happened.

  Now we’d never know.

  I paused. The airport was teeming with people. Glimmers of magic floated all around me, but nothing substantial. We Adepts were a minority by a long shot in this world. I was one of a kind. I could walk through portals. I didn’t need to sit on a plane for eight hours. I could be home in minutes.

  If I knew where the London portal was … if I could get away with using it. I was under the impression that Pulou could block portals against certain users if he so desired. For the doorways he’d specifically structured, at least. So the Loch More portal would be open … and Suanmi had more important things to do than sit in wait for me to use a portal. There were, after all, only nine guardians for the entire world. They were overworked if not underpaid. But then, I wasn’t entirely sure how guardian powers worked or even what abilities they encompassed … the London portal was exclusively Suanmi’s — I’m sure it was how she’d arrived in the city last night, so she’d probably know the second I used it.

  Kandy stepped up beside me, her face tilted to the departure board above us. “Looks like the plane is on time,” she said.

  “I’m not interested in playing shapeshifter dominance games with you,” I said, not looking at the werewolf. “If you’re here by my side, then you’re here as a friend, not as a follower and not as a protector.”

  Kandy, still not meeting my eye, bared her teeth. But then she seemed to shake off whatever reaction had seized her. She nodded. “Check-in is this way,” she said. “They have to pack up your sword and special check it.”

  “Yeah.” I wasn’t happy about handing the katana over. At least security would be unaware of the invisible jade knife at my hip.

  Mory pressed against my left side as we cut through the crowd after Kandy. Her ears barely came up to my shoulders. I didn’t acknowledge her further. I’m sure she had a lot of shit to work out. I could lead her through this crowd, but I couldn’t heal her.

  “My necklace is broken,” she said to the back of my left shoulder.

  “It’s just dented, not broken,” I responded. “I’ll fix it.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay.”

  And that was that.

  We checked in, boarded the plane, and left London. Supposedly, I was to never return. Part of me hoped that Sienna was still somewhere beneath me as I looked out the window at the airport green space, and then the houses and buildings of London growing smaller and smaller. Maybe the investigative team would find her.

  Except she would kill them all, and probably become more powerful than ever.

  No. Sienna was on her way to her next target, and I had to get in her way … somehow.

  Kandy and Mory undid their seat belts, lifted the arm of the seat between them, and curled up together to sleep. Thankfully, Kandy didn’t seem to have a scratch on her that I could see. But then, m
y wounds had healed on the outside as well, so that was no way to tell, really.

  I pulled Blackwell’s duplicate demon history book out of my satchel. Then — starting with page one — I began memorizing the bloody thing. I had no idea if Sienna would return to the same source material, but it was the only lead I had within my grasp.

  Thankfully, the steward had Lindt chocolate on board. It wasn’t Valrhona or Amedei, but it would do. I bought every bar over 60 percent cocoa that he had, ignoring his flabbergasted response.

  I had work to do, and it was time I started applying myself as diligently as possible to the job. Chocolate was damn fine at focusing me.

  ∞

  The moms were waiting at the international arrivals gate just beyond customs at Vancouver International Airport. And though I was twenty-three-going-on-twenty-four, I was relieved to see Scarlett’s strawberry-blond hair seconds after I cleared customs. When the taste of my mother’s magic hit me — strawberry and white chocolate over her grassy witch base — I knew I was home. Which was odd, because Scarlett hadn’t really raised me.

  Mory’s mom, Danica Novak, opened her arms — her face already puffy with previously shed tears — and the teenaged necromancer flung herself, sobbing, into them.

  “She made me. She made me,” Mory said.

  Danica’s eyes reminded me of Rusty’s, but her hair was a shade lighter. The taste of her magic — sugared violets — was a more pungent version of her son’s. The necromancer powers were usually strongest in the female line.

  I reached out for a brief but fierce hug from my mother. Scarlett then turned and hugged Kandy, a gesture the green-haired werewolf accepted more enthusiastically than I would have expected.

  Gran stepped around Scarlett, and I was shocked to realize I hadn’t seen or felt her beneath all the other magic around me. She grabbed me and didn’t let go.

  “Your magic,” I cried before I could stop myself.

  “It’s all right, Jade,” Gran whispered. “You’re home.”

  That didn’t answer my question, so — still captured in Gran’s grasp — I looked to Scarlett.

  My mother smiled one of those tight smiles edged in sadness that she was getting too good at. “The transportation spell. It’s not really my kind of magic, so Pearl took the brunt of it. Normally, we’d gather a coven, but time was tight.”

  “I didn’t realize … I’m sorry, I didn’t mean …”

  Scarlett interrupted my confused apology. “Don’t be silly, my Jade. We did what we wanted. It was the least we could do … we couldn’t … didn’t … We wanted you home.”

  Gran pulled back from the hug and cupped my face in her hands. Her silver hair was pulled back into a loose braid, which fell down to her lower back. “I’m so proud of you,” she said. Her tone was defiant and fierce, as if she was ready to argue against anything I might try to say.

  Tears welled in my eyes, and slipped down my cheeks. I couldn’t do anything to stop them.

  “No, no,” Gran said. She wiped her strong, capable fingers across my cheeks to dry my tears. “A batch of cupcakes will sort out my magic, and a good sleep will do you some good.”

  She linked her arm through mine. Scarlett did the same on the other side, and together they pulled me out of the airport toward the short-term parking lot across the main road.

  “A grilled cheese sandwich would be nice,” I said as we dodged traffic and Scarlett stopped to pay the parking fee.

  “With ham,” Kandy added. The werewolf was striding alongside Gran. Mory and her mother were trailing along behind us, still quietly weeping.

  “What? No. Gross,” I said.

  “I’m sure we can figure out something for both of you,” Scarlett said as she led us toward the car.

  Gran squeezed my forearm, then released me to dig around in her purse for her keys.

  We paused at Gran’s car and I watched Ms. Novak settle Mory in her car, two spots farther down from us. She looked up, caught my gaze, and nodded. Well, that was a step in the right direction. I’d been worried about her proficiency with death curses for over three months. Not that anyone would confirm or deny whether such a spell were possible, even for a necromancer of power. I wasn’t sure how powerful Danica or Mory were, because I didn’t know any other necromancers with which to compare them.

  “I need to cast a circle tomorrow,” I said quietly to Scarlett before she slipped into the driver’s seat. It was the first time I’d ever seen Gran not drive. My mother nodded and ran her fingers down my arm, leaving the soothing tingle of her magic behind.

  “Pearl and I will come to you. I gather you have a plan?”

  “The start of one. A guess, based on something Blackwell said.”

  Scarlett pursed her lips but then nodded. Blackwell was not her favorite subject. “Tomorrow morning. After sunrise to allow Pearl’s magic another cycle to replenish.”

  We climbed into the car and Scarlett drove us home.

  ∞

  Except for the new orchid plant on the granite countertop of the kitchen island, my apartment looked exactly the same as it had before I’d taken off for Portland. Scarlett hadn’t added a thing in the three months I’d been gone, even though she’d bought something new every week in the three months previous to that. Though my room was suspiciously cleaner than I remembered.

  I skipped the grilled cheese and slipped into my bed, only stopping to remove my boots. It took me longer to fall asleep than I expected. I lay there for a while, feeling Kandy’s, Scarlett’s, and Gran’s magic in the kitchen and the comforting magic of my apartment wards all around me.

  I wondered where Sienna was tonight.

  No loved one had picked my sister up from the airport. No grandmother had been willing to drain her magic to send aid her way. No sister was there to whisper secrets in the dark … but then, Sienna didn’t have any secrets anymore. She only had whims, and she left only devastation in her wake.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  I woke up around five o’clock, so I guess I must have eventually slept. The time change should have been confusing, but over the three and a half months I’d spent in the dragon nexus, I was never actually sure what time it was anymore, so it didn’t affect me.

  I wiggled my toes into some flip-flops and promised myself a mani-pedi later that day. I made sure to not glance at my nails. I didn’t need to melt down over nail polish right now. I exchanged my crumpled jeans for an older pair of Sevens. I needed to cinch the belt down two holes. Well, that was a silver lining in an otherwise tumultuous and painful few months.

  My room was rather tidy, not that I was generally messy. But it had a stale, unused feeling about it that I hadn’t felt in the rest of the apartment last night.

  I pulled on a heathered navy T-shirt — the logo was a T-Rex trying to do push-ups — over my tank top and padded through the living room and down into the bakery.

  I didn’t stop for breakfast. I already knew what I wanted to eat. Oh, yes, cupcakes.

  The bakery was closed today — Sunday — now that Bryn, my very accommodating and definitely underpaid employee, had stepped up to cover all my baking shifts. Sales had slowed a bit but not drastically — according to Scarlett, who’d taken over the books.

  Yeah, everyone was stepping up while I was stepping out to kill my sister. I pushed the nasty thought away, clipped my curls into a twist at the back of my head, and retreated into the pantry.

  Surrounded by the delicious smells of chocolate, vanilla, and spices, I just breathed for a moment, willing everything to be okay. Even though it wasn’t, and I was fairly sure it never would be again.

  ∞

  I hauled all the ingredients I needed out of the pantry and set them down on the long stainless steel workstation that I’d had custom made to accommodate my height. The stacked ovens and walk-in fridge were behind me. I immediately did up a batch of Lust in a Cup — dark chocolate cake with dark-chocolate cream-cheese icing — because if I
only had time for a single batch, it was going to be my favorite.

  While those cupcakes were baking, I did up a batch of Cozy in a Cup with bananas Bryn had set aside. They looked perfectly ripe for the banana chocolate chip cake. I followed that up with an experimental recipe I’d been half-heartedly thinking about, something that combined the honeyed almond of Drake’s magic and a hint of the spices of Shanghai, such as peppercorn or cumin. I only had ground coriander, so I had to settle.

  Something was wrong with the Lust in a Cups. They were almost too perfectly formed, and darker brown than I remembered. I checked the cocoa packaging, but Bryn hadn’t changed brands or percentages. I let them cool before frosting, thinking I was just out of practice.

  Except … the Cozy in a Cups looked more like Puck in a Cups. Was the baking soda old?

  I was peering anxiously at the experimental cupcakes as they baked when Kandy wandered into the bakery kitchen from the back alley exit.

  “Thought I’d find you here,” the green-haired werewolf said as she snagged one of the newly frosted Lust in a Cup. I liked to wait until the icing hardened just a little before eating. That wasn’t insanely picky when it was your own baking.

  “You’re up early,” I said, not taking my eyes off the oven window.

  Kandy shrugged. “Time change.” She took a bite of the cupcake.

  Then she spat it out.

  Spat it out.

  I stared at her, utterly aghast.

  “Um,” she mumbled as she crossed to the fridge and drank directly out of a container of milk. “I think you forgot something.”

  I reached for a cupcake, broke it in half, and tried a bite. “Sugar,” I moaned. “I … I made an entire batch without sugar?”

  “The frosting is good.” Kandy licked the dark-chocolate cream-cheese icing off the remainder of her cupcake.

  “I forgot the sugar?” I repeated, because it was an unprecedented event and bore repeating.

  Kandy was now peering suspiciously at the batch of Cozy in a Cup that I’d just transferred to a cooling rack. “What are these?”

  “Cozy’s,” I answered, feeling a little weak at the knees.