When I’d anchored the grid myself, it had resulted in Mory’s magical surge. The junior necromancer had reported that she and Burgundy had been playing board games at Tony’s — who turned out to be Tony Talbot. The twins and Bitsy might well have been belatedly reacting to that same event. And then it had happened all over again when Burgundy took my place in the grid.
It was all guesswork, of course. But it was the parts of the puzzle I couldn’t piece together that were my primary concern. At least for the moment.
Why had one elf stayed behind? And had there been more than three? It might have been the case that there were a number of Adepts contained in the other two cells. But either way, while the others fled, the elf had remained. To deal with Burgundy?
Or to deal with Kandy, Warner, and me?
Magic shifted in the open doorway. Warner stepped onto the white tile, stumbling slightly as his magic was stripped from him. He quickly retreated, rolling his bruised neck. Keeping his feet firmly planted on the honed stone floor beyond the door, he cast his grim gaze around the white-tiled room.
I straightened from the fissure, sighing.
“Pulou,” the sentinel said darkly.
“Yeah, Pulou.” I gestured toward the shattered tile. “I’m thinking the cell was compromised when Shailaja took him down? Just as all the portals tied specifically to Pulou were inactivated.”
“Likely.”
“I’m also thinking that this breakout, this sort of thing, is similar to what you’ve been running around taking care of for months. With my father and Haoxin. And whatever called the guardians away from the party tonight?”
“Also likely. Though it would have been nice to know what we were dealing with when wading in.” Warner cranked his neck left, then right.
I winced at the sound of cartilage and ligaments snapping and crackling.
“He sent me a summons tonight.” I sighed. “Pulou. I ignored it. Actually, I told him to screw off. Again.”
“Understandable.”
I laughed involuntarily. Trust Warner to back me even when I was being stupidly, willfully blind and pissy.
“I suspect Vancouver was the least of his concerns,” I said.
Warner nodded his head. “He knows you are here.”
I ignored the flush of warmth that came with the compliment. Pulou almost certainly didn’t think of me that highly. “Do you think this is why my trial was resolved so swiftly?”
“One of the reasons. Plus the fact that it should never have been called for in the first place.”
I glanced around the room, making sure I wasn’t missing anything. But aside from the damage in the corner, the cell was spotless.
“Have you ever wondered why there was a portal in the basement of the bakery? A portal of Pulou’s construction?”
Warner grunted. “Now we know.”
“Three elves, then?”
“It would make sense. Three cells.”
Silence fell between us. If there were more elves to fight, then Warner was about to be on the front lines. Elves or whatever other entities Pulou had locked away … and perhaps even more compromised prisons or dimensional doorways around the globe.
“Remember you have a wedding to attend,” I whispered. Not looking at him, not wanting to guilt him. But needing to say something.
A wide grin spread across his face. And despite the pain of having the magic that was still trying to heal him stripped away, he stepped into the cell, closing the space between us in two quick steps. “I’ll be there.”
Lifting up on my tiptoes, I brushed a kiss against his lips. Carefully. Not wanting to reinjure his neck.
“The witch can’t stop gushing about how you took the elf down. One moment you were talking, and the next he was dead.”
“There was a little more in between.”
He chuckled.
“You and Kandy need to train together,” I said. “Seriously train.”
“Yeah …” Warner rubbed his neck ruefully. “A lesson I’d prefer not to repeat.”
I touched the edge of the massive bruise slowly spreading across his neck, remembering the tattoo that had once edged his collarbone. And the duties that had come with that magic embedded underneath his skin.
“Why do you think the elf stayed behind?” I asked. “To distract us so the other two could get away?”
“Again, that would be a terribly logical guess.”
“He was hurt already. A long-term wound that hadn’t healed, probably because they’d been locked away here … without access to their magic.”
“He would have slowed the other two before he had the chance to heal. Assuming their magic works like that in this dimension.”
I sighed. “Why wouldn’t Pulou have killed them? Or sent them back to their own world?”
“A question for the treasure keeper. Though I’d guess that it has something to do with how they got here in the first place.”
I snorted. “Do you really want me questioning Pulou?”
Warner laughed harshly. “No. But I’m certainly not going to try to stop you.”
Kandy stuck her head through the doorway, then rapidly retreated a step. “Right.” Rubbing her arms, she scanned the four corners of the cell, then met my gaze grimly. “So the next time either of you go missing for more than a couple of days, I should check here?”
“Yep. Apparently Pulou has a thing for imprisoning people who piss him off.” I was going for a teasing tone as I said it, but I didn’t make it all the way.
Kandy nodded, unyieldingly grim. “The witches are here.”
“Clean-up crew,” I said.
“Yeah, though the leech hasn’t left anything for them.”
“Just white powder?”
“Not even that. And Angelica Talbot masked the bulk of the fight. From the view of the street, at least. With a mirror spell that the witches are currently cooing over.” Kandy shook her head ruefully. “Then she called in Liam. Just in case a police presence could help mitigate any neighborly concern. So I guess we owe both sorcerers our thanks.” With that update abruptly delivered, she took off down the tunnel. I didn’t blame her. The cells disturbed the hell out of me as well.
I reached for Warner, twining my fingers through his. “Ignoring all of this until after the wedding probably isn’t going to be an option.”
“Would you want to ignore it?” He grinned knowingly.
I threw my head back and laughed. I couldn’t deny it. There were two more elves in Vancouver. And I’d be there the moment they stepped out of line.
Gleefully.
I was a warrior, to the bittersweet end and dragging as many cupcakes as I could in my wake. Whether I wanted to be or not.
Are you interested in baking the cupcakes from the Dowser Series? Well, now you can!
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Acknowledgments
For Michael
For supporting my choices, even the ones you knew would bring me harm.
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With thanks to:
My story & line editor
Scott Fitzgerald Gray
My proofreader
Pauline Nolet
My beta readers
Terry Daigle, Angela Flannery, Gael Fleming, Desi Hartzel, and Heather Lewis.
For their continual encouragement, feedback, & general advice
Heather Doidge-Sidhu
SFWA
The Office
The Retreat
About the Author
Meghan Ciana Doidge is an award-winning writer based out of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada. She has a penchant for bloody love stories, superheroes, and the supernatural. She also has a thing for chocolate, potatoes, and cashmere yarn.
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Also by Meghan Ciana Doidge
Novels
After The Virus
Spirit Binder
Time Walker
Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1)
Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 2)
Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser 3)
I See Me (Oracle 1)
Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic (Dowser 4)
Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser 5)
I See You (Oracle 2)
Artifacts, Dragons, and Other Lethal Magic (Dowser 6)
I See Us (Oracle 3)
Catching Echoes (Reconstructionist 1)
Tangled Echoes (Reconstructionist 2)
Unleashing Echoes (Reconstructionist 3)
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Novellas/Shorts
Love Lies Bleeding
The Graveyard Kiss (Reconstructionist 0.5)
Dawn Bytes (Reconstructionist 1.5)
An Uncut Key (Reconstructionist 2.5)
* * *
www.madebymeghan.ca
CHAMPAGNE, MISFITS, AND OTHER SHADY MAGIC (DOWSER 7)
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Copyright © 2017 Meghan Ciana Doidge
Published by Old Man in the CrossWalk Productions 2018
Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada
www.oldmaninthecrosswalk.com
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All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be produced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, objects, and incidents herein are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual things, events, locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Library and Archives Canada
Doidge, Meghan Ciana, 1973 —
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Champagne, Misfits, and Other Shady Magic/Meghan Ciana Doidge — SMASHWORDS EDITION
Cover design by: Elizabeth Mackey
ISBN 978-1-927850-71-8
Champagne, Misfits, and Other Shady Magic (Dowser 7) Page 25