“Detective, you’ve harassed me and accused me of several different crimes. Why on earth would I do you any favors?”
“Fair enough.” He smiled and spread his palms wide in a “your move” gesture. “But I believed you were the sort of woman who’d want to know the truth behind any strange events on her premises.”
“If I thought there was anything strange about what happened yesterday, I’d investigate. But I think you’re blowing it out of proportion. I really don’t want to talk about it anymore. Mrs. Eisen was a long-time customer and—”
“So you knew her? Why do you think she snapped?”
“We don’t have to answer your questions,” Judy said.
“I don’t know,” I said at the same time. Judy glared at me.
“This is what I think,” Acosta said. “I think Mrs. Eisen was involved in something…unusual. Something Ms. Carlson wanted stopped. Advanced technology, maybe. Or…that doesn’t matter. What matters is I think I was wrong about your store, Ms. Davies. The Mob is far too mundane an explanation for what’s going on here.”
“And what’s that?”
“I don’t know yet. I don’t suppose you’d be interested in telling me?”
I almost told him. I was tired, emotionally and physically; I’d been this close to having my head blown off by a jolter; Acosta was persistent and annoying and I had a feeling he’d learn the truth eventually, so why not tell him now? But I held my tongue. I didn’t owe Acosta anything and I certainly wasn’t responsible for satisfying his curiosity. Also, Lucia would roast me over a slow fire with an apple in my mouth if I did.
“We’re an ordinary bookstore,” I said. “Sometimes strange things happen here, true, but I doubt there’s a business in Portland that hasn’t had at least one weird thing happen on its premises. I think you should look elsewhere for your big break.”
Acosta laughed. It was such a cheery sound coming from him that I was taken aback. “All right, Ms. Davies, I’ll go. But I’ll probably be back. This isn’t about making a name for myself anymore. I don’t like unsolved mysteries, and I’ll do whatever it takes to solve this one.” He turned and left before I could say anything else.
“What in the hell was that about?” Judy pulled out her phone, but hesitated before dialing. “I don’t know who to call first.”
“You call your father, and I’ll call Lucia,” I said. “I don’t know if Acosta’s change of heart makes him more dangerous, or less, but either way I think the two of them need to know he’s on our trail.”
“He’s far too observant,” Judy said. “Most people, when they see an illusion like that one, dismiss it as overexcitement or something. And he knew the jolters were the same thing, even though they had different effects. I thought he was just a dumb detective.”
“It makes me wonder what his partner thinks of all this. I can’t imagine Acosta getting permission to investigate disappearing bears.”
Judy nodded and put her phone to her ear. I listened to Lucia’s phone ring with half my attention, the other half focused on Acosta and his conclusions. If he thought he was dealing with advanced technology, that was good. It was certainly more plausible than magic. On the other hand, if he kept prying, he’d eventually run into something technology couldn’t explain. I left a message for Lucia, as concise as I could be under the circumstances, and hung up. It wasn’t my problem.
“—otherwise,” Judy was saying. “I just wanted you to—yes. All right. I’ll see you in an hour or so.” She hung up. “He actually sounded pleased. Like he was looking forward to running rings around Acosta. I think the assassination attempt has his blood up.”
“I think—” My phone rang.
“So Acosta suspects Abernathy’s of being central to some kind of spy operation,” Lucia said.
“Um…I guess that could be what he’s thinking. I don’t know what to say to him.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I thought you’d be more upset about this. Acosta’s really close to figuring out the truth.”
Lucia chuckled. “You’re a movie lover. Ever see The Matrix?”
“It’s not really my kind of movie, but yes. Why?”
“I’m not saying Acosta is The One, but he might prove useful. Like I said, don’t worry about it. I have plans for the detective and maybe his partner, depending on how things play out. If Acosta comes back, answer his questions honestly. All his questions. If Green shows up alone, deny everything. Got it?”
“All right, but—”
“I don’t have time to explain it to you. I have to worry about these disappearances.”
She hung up unceremoniously. I lowered my phone and said, “Lucia can be really annoying at times, don’t you think?”
“You know I do,” Judy said.
“She said something about disappearances. Do you know anything about that?”
“Father said people have been vanishing. They think they might be undiscovered shadow cabal members, fleeing before they can be arrested. Or worse, they’re being kidnapped by cabal members—almost all of them have had positions of authority.”
“I’m just afraid of where they’ll strike next. They tried to kill your father—Lucia could be next.”
“If they can strike at her in the heart of the Gunther Node, nowhere is safe.”
“Let’s just hope they’re not that powerful,” I said, but I couldn’t help thinking of seventy-six dead steel magi, of Malcolm’s bloody face, and felt it might be a false hope.
11
I curled up in the corner of my couch and stroked its velvet upholstery. Its soft touch was soothing to my anxious spirits—anxious for no good reason. I’d spent the last two hours cleaning, not because I thought Malcolm would care, but because I needed something to do while I waited for him. He’d come home from the hospital three days ago, had spent those three days undergoing magical healing, and Derrick had called at five to let me know Malcolm would come to me at eight. I was as nervous as a girl going on her first date.
Derrick had also said, “Not that I want to tell you your business, but see if you can’t get him to talk about losing his magic.”
“He still hasn’t said anything?”
“Not a word. And now it’s just awkward. If he’s going to talk to anyone, it’ll be you.”
That warmed me even as it gave me an uncomfortable feeling. “I’ll do what I can, but wouldn’t it be better coming from someone who understands about magic?”
“That’s not nearly as important as it be someone who understands him. Just…follow your instincts, all right? And don’t be shocked if he tries to do magic and fails. It takes time to adjust.”
“I wouldn’t do that.” I hoped I was right about that. Mostly I just wanted Malcolm to be with me again, to hold him close and thank God he was alive and well. Magic wasn’t everything he was.
It had been a long three days. More Wardens had disappeared, a few of the missing ones had turned up dead, and we’d received news of nodes, mostly small ones but a few Neutralities, erupting into violence. Abernathy’s had been busy the whole time, with dozens of Wardens coming in and a stack of mail-in auguries each day. The new security system on the front door remained inert. It felt as if Portland was waiting for something, holding its breath and closing its eyes against some even worse threat.
My phone rang, startling me. I snatched it up. “Hello?”
“You’ll need to let me in,” Malcolm said. “The door can’t be attuned to me anymore.”
I flushed. I hadn’t even seen him yet and already I’d made a mistake. “I’ll be right down.”
I ran down the stairs, took a deep breath, and opened the back door. Malcolm, dressed in his black fatigues, had his back turned to me and was scanning the parking lot. “All right,” he said, stepping inside, and I closed the door so we stood together in the dimness that was my stairwell.
He looked at me, unsmiling, and for a moment he was a stranger. I stared at him, at a loss for words. Th
en he smiled and touched my cheek. “Helena,” he said. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“Malcolm,” I said, and threw myself at him, putting my arms around his neck and holding him close. His arms went around me, lifting me up, those strong arms I loved—“Malcolm, what happened to your cast?”
“I made Tinsley remove it,” he murmured. “I refuse to be injured, even make-believe, for one moment longer.”
“But won’t the doctors notice?”
His lips found mine, kissing me breathless. “They won’t see me for another six weeks, at which point I could justify not needing it. I’m well and whole, love, and much as I enjoy kissing you, I think there are better places for it than this cold stairwell.”
I nuzzled his earlobe, ran my fingers through his hair. “Do you?”
He swept me off my feet without even a wince of pain, making me laugh with delight. “I do,” he said, “and I guarantee I have much more than kissing in mind.”
We ended up tangled naked together on my couch, warm and content. “Can you stay?” I asked, tracing the line of the new red scar along his breastbone. It was shiny and smooth to the touch.
“For a few hours only. I haven’t yet worked out the details that will let me spend the night. We might need a hotel room for that.”
“I see.”
“You sound disapproving.”
“It’s just…that’s what people in illicit love affairs do.”
He laughed. “This is as illicit as it comes, love.”
“I know, but…it’s silly, I know. I just wish we didn’t have to sneak around.”
His arms tightened around me, and he dropped a kiss on my forehead. “Someday.”
“Someday.” I didn’t want to think about it then, not while I was lying in his arms, surrounded by the woody smell of his aftershave and the warmth of his skin. “How did you manage it tonight?”
“Coming to see you? Nothing magical, just a car no one knows belongs to me and some careful misdirection while driving. And parking some ways away from the store. The greatest protection, of course, is that no one’s looking for me. But we can’t always assume that will be the case.”
“I see.” I took a breath. “How did you do it before?”
Malcolm was silent. Inside, I cringed. I’d thought I was being oblique. “I mean,” I began.
“Tinsley told you to ask me, didn’t he?” Malcolm’s voice was quiet. He shifted his weight so he was holding me more comfortably.
“If you don’t want to talk about it—”
“I don’t. Which means I probably should.” Malcolm sighed, and his warm breath stirred my hair. “I never realized how easy it all was. I’ve been—was a magus since I was seventeen. Almost fifteen years of wielding magic as easily as breathing. To answer your question, what I did before was generate a misdirection field, guiding people’s attention away from me, and of course the door downstairs was like an old friend, welcoming me in. And I did all that without even thinking about it. Coming here tonight…I had to rely on other skills, and was in fear the entire way that I’d forgotten how.”
“But you did it.”
“That’s not as comforting as you’d think. I was angry that it was even necessary. Anger has been my constant companion since I first tried to levitate something and it didn’t respond. I didn’t want to discuss it with my team—hah. If they’re even still my team.”
He sounded so bitter my heart went out to him. “Malcolm, you haven’t stopped being a Warden,” I said. “You’re still a fighter. You didn’t lose that with your aegis, did you?”
“Just the thing that made me valuable. My immunity to invaders.”
“That’s not what makes you valuable. Your ability to destroy half a dozen monsters without breaking a sweat is what makes you valuable. That, and how hot you look doing it.”
Malcolm drew in a startled breath, then began to laugh. “Ah, Helena, what would I do without you?”
“Be miserable and lonely.”
“That is God’s own truth, right there.” He turned me in his arms so he could look at me, though we were so close his eyes sort of blurred together and made a third one in the center of his forehead. “I won’t lie to you,” he said. “This will mean a great adjustment for me. So much of how I fight depended on magic—tactics, maneuvers. But I’m determined to make it work. If the team is behind me—”
“Of course they are.”
“Then we’ll find a way.” He kissed me, first lightly, then with a warm passion that set me tingling all over. “And I will lean on you,” he said between kisses, “for you are stronger than any aegis.”
“I’m happy to be your strength,” I said, and then we moved on to the kind of conversation that doesn’t need words.
“Malcolm?” I said in the darkness of my bedroom.
“Mmm?”
“What…happened to Ewan?”
Malcolm fumbled about until he could take my hand and raise it to his lips. “Ewan still hasn’t been cleared. I understand Lucia is reluctant to use the more aggressive test on him, because of the risk of death. My mother is furious about the whole thing.”
“Like, how could they possibly suspect a Campbell of treachery?”
“Exactly like that. Mother has sworn to see Lucia before a tribunal. Andria and I have been forced to make common cause to keep her from making a fool of herself. Though personally I think it might do her good to look ridiculous…but that would spill over onto me, and I have no interest in being a figure of fun among the magi, now that…” His voice trailed off.
I snuggled up close to him and kissed his cheek. “No one thinks less of you for having been attacked. If anything, they’re in awe that you survived. You’re one of the few who did, you know.”
“There were over a hundred whose aegises became solid only for an instant, then reverted. They all survived.”
“Yes, but of the ones whose aegises kept taking physical form like yours did, only four magi were in a position to have them surgically removed. That car accident saved your life.”
“It put you in danger, so I’m not going to feel grateful to it. But I take your meaning.”
“So what happens now?”
“You’ll have to be more specific.”
“I meant about hunting down the shadow cabal. Won’t Campbell Security have something to do with it?”
“We are in the process of clearing, or not clearing, all the Wardens in our employ. Then we will assist Lucia in cleaning house for all of the Pacific Northwest. It will take months before we can be at all certain the traitors have been rooted out.” He drew me closer, and I rested my head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat, deep and strong and reassuring. “Don’t tell anyone, but I have my reservations about Lucia’s technique for distinguishing traitors, and not just on Ewan’s behalf. I have already spoken to her about it.”
“You think she’s too strict?”
“I think we can afford to err on the side of caution. But making a mistake…either we risk killing innocents, or we give traitors power over us. Either way could be disastrous.”
“She always says this is a hard war.”
“She is correct. A hard war, with hard choices. I’ve encouraged her to look for alternatives to her current technique, and offered her our services in developing such.”
“Harriet Keller is still in custody.”
“I hadn’t heard that. I find it difficult to believe she’s a traitor.”
“Me too.”
We both fell silent. I thought about Harry and Harriet. I’d been to their house so often—they were friends, close friends—how could anyone believe the invaders were right about anything? I remembered facing the thing that had worn a human being like a suit, how reasonable it had sounded. Not that I agreed with its philosophy, its attitude that a few humans could be sacrificed to the invaders so they could share our world. It had just been so clearly convinced of its rightness…maybe that was how the traitors could have believed the invaders
. That sense of conviction. Or maybe the invaders promised them power in the new order. Either way, I just couldn’t understand it.
Beside me, Malcolm shifted position and let out a gentle snore. It made my heart ache with love for him, that someone so proud and powerful was willing to let down his guard so completely with me. If only this didn’t have to be for a few hours. If only he could stay with me forever.
I lay there, listening to him breathe, until nearly midnight. Then I gently woke him. He went from sleep to wakefulness instantly, his hand closing on my wrist firmly. “Helena—I didn’t want to sleep, I wanted to be with you—”
“You were so tired, I couldn’t bear to wake you. And I don’t mind. There will be plenty of time to spend together.”
“Even so…oh, love, I wish I didn’t have to leave!”
I put my arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. “I know. I miss you already.”
I turned on the light and we both dressed, me putting on my pajamas. “When can I see you again?” I asked.
“In a few days. I’m afraid my mother insists on knowing my every move now. I got away tonight by claiming to be on the hunt, and that’s still a good excuse she won’t challenge. The trouble is, I actually should be on the hunt some of those times. But I’ll make time for you. I promise.”
I scooped his shirt up from the floor and tossed it at him. “I know you will. And…be careful, all right?”
Malcolm paused in his dressing. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I blinked. “It means ‘be careful.’ Malcolm—”
“I’m sorry. I’m more sensitive about this than I thought. I don’t want anyone treating me like I’m fragile.”
“I didn’t mean that at all.”
“I know.” He sighed and put his arms around me, holding me close. “I love you. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“I feel the same.” I buried my face in his chest. “I’m so glad you’re alive.”
We stood at the outside door, kissing—a little desperately, it felt to me—until finally Malcolm said, “I have to leave. I love you. I’ll see you soon.”
The Book of Betrayal Page 12