“That’s why you were huffy in the morgues?” Annie inquired.
“Yes. We tracked them. Never noticed a pattern. But there were so many when your people pulled that list,” he admitted. He put down the folders. “What do you need from me?”
Milo pushed a box to Annie. She opened the lid and pulled out two vials. “We need access to your wizard hall. We will first remove the memory spell we created. We want to create another one mostly to help with effectiveness of the plan. We want to remove Marielle and Armand’s powers. We will then hand them over to the appropriate authorities along with the evidence. They will spend the rest of their lives in a nonmagical jail.”
Fabien grazed the folders neatly stacked on the table as he contemplated their plan of action. His grimace turned to a sneer, his anger at Marielle growing inside. “You can have what you need,” he said.
Chapter 38
The French Wizard Hall was silent.
Annie slid into the conference room followed by Spencer and Gibbs acting as her bodyguards, prepared for Marielle should she panic and attack.
Or run.
The far wall was blank, a perfect view from the door. Annie began by setting up the computer, which ran months and months of video footage: Marielle in the mail room sending the pin, Marielle creating memory modification spells, pictures of victims laying a pool of their own blood, copies of emails between Armand and Marielle, the entire plan rotating across the screen.
“Okay, Bucky are you in?” Annie asked.
“Yeah. I’m in.” It was a comfort hearing his fingers tap against the keyboard as he set up the loop. Annie stepped outside of the conference room and smiled as all the computers in French Wizard Hall flickered on with the same video looping on each screen.
Fabien caught Annie’s glance. He was no longer confused, saddened, or mopey; anger and fury had taken hold instead. He had become a fighting wizard guard once again, and he wanted to bring Marielle and Armand to justice.
“She should be here soon,” Fabien said. They stood under the large metal pin, just below the Eiffel Tower. Annie held a crystal in the palm of her hand, the same crystal she had used when she cast the first memory modification.
Finding the spell she had used, she swiped across the crystal that lit up with a bright, intense light. She simply said, “Reverse.” As the spell flew from her crystal, she murmured the new memories. When she finished, she watched the spell slide up the rod and out of Wizard Hall.
“It’s good,” Fabien said as the last of the spell flew up the metal rod and out through the Eiffel Tower. Within minutes, the magic would find every pin on every wizard hall employee, setting the plan in motion. “Okay, Annie. Let’s get you in place.” He led Annie and Spencer to an unused cubicle beside his, placed a hiding spell on the space, and waited for Marielle to arrive.
*
A steady stream of employees entered Wizard Hall, beginning at 8:45 a.m. On a normal day, they would head to the coffee shop for coffee and croissants and to chat and catch up with their coworkers. But this morning, the flickering of the computers with the flashing pictures and videos drew their attention to the cubicles.
“What is that?” The questions began as they saw the pictures of Marielle, the recognition of the memory modification spell crossing her lips.
“What the hell? She’s performing a memory modification!”
Outrage, horror, disbelief, and then quiet.
Employees scattered to their cubicles, hiding from Marielle when she arrived. And as she walked through Wizard Hall to her cubicle, the whispers followed.
“Good morning,” she said cheerfully, as she passed her coworkers. Her face fell when they turned away, avoiding her.
She grimaced before smiling again—and stopped short as she finally took notice of her computer screen.
“Oh no,” she whispered.
Her coworkers aimed glares, glances, and sneers at her when she stepped out of her cubicle to escape the hall, but she couldn’t move; Fabien blocked her way.
“I know what you did!” he accused.
“No. It is all a mistake. This is not real,” Marielle pleaded. She glanced to the side. Her face grew pale as her personal emails flashed on the screen, the plan she created with Armand revealed on the computer for all to see.
Her eyes darted around the hall, looking for her escape.
She turned and ran from Fabien right into Annie, who was waiting for her in the hallway.
Marielle twisted to teleport away. Annie knew the look and lunged for the rogue wizard guard, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her to the floor in the middle of the cubicles.
“Don’t even think about it!” Annie straddled Marielle. Her fingers wrapped around the gaudy, ugly amulet and yanked the necklace from her neck.
“It was all Armand!” Marielle screamed.
“I’m sure it was,” Annie said.
Marielle teleported, and Annie fell forward.
“Shit! Where did she go?” Annie shouted. Fabien ran, with Gibbs following quickly after him, heading to the back of the hall.
The hidden door!
Annie took up the chase, following them past the rest of the Wizard Guard, the human resources department, the maintenance department, until they all crammed in to the much smaller Wizard Hall.
Everyone in the hall wore confused expressions. Some were scared, others curious, but all peered over the wall of their cubicles watching.
Fabien grabbed Marielle and began to wrap a strong silken rope around her wrists, but he underestimated her strength and will. She pulled an arm free and shot a spell toward the pin in the ceiling. The spell swirled and traveled upwards before exploding outward, all of Wizard Hall in darkness.
Chaos emerged as the wizards began shouting. Lights flickered on and small crystals were activated, their soft glow like a trail throughout the hall.
Hearing footsteps, Annie and the others turned. In the low light, they could see the shadow of Marielle as she ran for the front door.
Gibbs, Annie and Fabien followed after as more lights switched on. The computers still flashed.
Marielle reached the tall, thick wooden doors leading outside. They had been locked shut.
When Gibbs, Annie, and Fabien reached Marielle, she was frenzied and scared; her eyes darted across the still dim space as if she were planning her escape.
“There are no more doors, Marielle,” Fabien said. “You could keep teleporting, but it will tire you, and for that you will not be granted any kindness. Not for all of this.” The icy chill in his voice made Annie shutter.
Marielle, alone and caught, hung her head and slid to the floor.
Annie pulled on Marielle’s arm, yanking her upwards. She wrapped her arms around her back and tied her hands together with her palms facing inward, using the magical rope that the disgraced wizard guard couldn’t escape.
“I think she’s all yours,” Annie said, handing her to Fabien.
“It was all Armand,” Marielle murmured. Fabien sent a lighting spell towards the ceiling, throwing the entire space into a bright light. Marielle shrunk at the glares from Jory and Roland, who followed as Fabien led her to the prison wing.
*
Annie took pleasure in watching Marielle tossed into the cell specially created for witches and wizards who had committed crimes. She bit her lip to keep from smiling when the door slid shut.
“Fabien! You cannot do this. You know I didn’t do it. Armand. It was Armand. He told me I would lose my job if I didn’t do what he wanted me to do.”
“Armand killed your mother, your family members? Not likely,” Annie said.
“But I didn’t. I couldn’t,” Marielle pleaded.
Annie pulled out a charred phone. “Amelie gave this to me before she was dusted. We expected it to be a burner phone. You know, pay as you go, no contract. But funny thing, it wasn’t. It’s actually yours. Also strange, you are the only phone number that ever called this phone. You’re just stupid, blinded b
y greed, yes?” Annie asked.
“Armand. He did this!” Marielle rattled the bars and wiped her hands across the lock, but it didn’t unlock. She shook the bars again.
“You see Marielle. We figured it out, the memory modification spells you performed on your people. Four were with the consent of Fabien, and the rest you performed after you or Amelie committed the murders. That’s why Fabien wasn’t aware of how many vampire kills there were. It was a complex plan. When did you first meet Amelie? Did the plan form then?”
Marielle sneered.
“See, we figure you killed your mother for the money. You had money issues. Gambling, was it? Or a spending habit out of control?”
Annie watched Marielle for changes in her demeanor or expression. Marielle looked down at her hands.
“So the killing was easy, the money quick. But how to do it and get away with it without getting caught. And then what? You met Louis and discovered who he was with and the plan formed? Is that how it went?” Annie moved close to the cell doors, inches from Marielle’s face. She reached inside and pulled Marielle’s face upwards.
Marielle pulled away. “It was all Armand,” she murmured.
“No, it wasn’t Armand. Your words are all over those emails. You weren’t aware enough to use a fake email address or avoid writing the emails at work? You left a paper trail everywhere you went. Even Remy. You hired him to work in computer security, and yet he doesn’t really work here. Does he?”
Marielle paced like a caged animal. She threw a spell, but only a weak spark flew from her hand to land on the floor. She lunged for the bars, her arms reaching through them, swiping at Annie, who remained just out of her reach.
“You blew up our lab with that pin. Interesting spell,” Annie said.
“You were supposed to investigate in your cubicle like we do,” Marielle sneered.
“Did you not research your enemy? Had you done that, you would realize that we are so much larger than you, and we have facilities—many of them—that allow us options. You only destroyed our lab. Thankfully, no one was injured.”
“That’s a shame. I was hoping to kill your entire Wizard Guard. You know too much,” Marielle said.
“You got too greedy.” Annie summoned a chair.
Marielle looked on, her face drawn and confused. Gibbs and Spencer entered the hallway as Annie waved her hand at the cell door. When it slid open, Marielle attempted to run but was grabbed by Gibbs and Spencer, who held her arms behind her.
“What? What are you doing? Let go of me!” She kicked out her legs as they lifted her up, as Annie dropped the metal chair. The wizard guards slammed Marielle into the seat.
While they held her down, Annie tied Marielle around the chest to the back of the chair. When she was secure, they tied her arms behind her. She squirmed against the restraints, unable to move. Spencer and Gibbs held each leg as Annie tied both of them secure. Once Marielle was completely incapacitated, Annie showed her a vial containing a purple liquid.
“What’s that?” Marielle asked as she pulled against the restraints. The chair jumped up and landed against the stone floor.
“Binding potion. You see, all the evidence is neatly organized in a police file for the Département de la Sûreté/Sécurité Territoriale. We will be handing over the evidence to them. You left a lot of dead nonmagicals. We need to produce a murderer for all of these victims. I think there have been too many memory modification spells performed recently. And this”—she waved the vial in front of Marielle— “this potion will take away your powers so you can’t hurt anyone or escape from the nonmagical prison you will spend the rest of your life in.” Annie smiled as she popped the cork on the vial.
Marielle clamped her lips together so tightly her jaw tensed. She shook her head roughly. Annie understood the look, the fear of what was about to happen. No magical ever wanted to be without magic. It was who they were, it was what they did, and to lose the power was like losing a limb.
To dump a magical into a nonmagical prison without their magic was the worst possible punishment. It rendered them vulnerable. and alone. If they tried speak their truth, they would at best be locked away in an asylum. It wouldn’t be an easy path.
As a punishment, it was used sparingly. Your crimes had to be great, to have something that would endanger all of magic. Marielle did, as did Rathbone eight months ago.
There was much shame in the punishment, and it came with the loss of friends and families who wanted nothing more to do with the disgraced wizard.
Annie grabbed Marielle’s chin and held it steady. Using a freeze potion, she pulled on Marielle’s jaw and opened it. Unable to move her head, Marielle tried to jerk her body from Annie. Annie climbed on her lap and held her legs in place as she poured the binding potion down Marielle’s mouth.
When the liquid was gone, Annie clamped Marielle’s jaw together and held her head backwards.
“Swallow it or I will make you swallow it!” Annie said through gritted teeth. Her arm shook as she continued to hold Marielle’s jaw closed. Marielle’s eyes darted across the room. She was still unable to move her head.
Annie pushed up on her jaw, jerking her head backwards. Weakening, Marielle swallowed and slumped.
With one last measure, Annie summoned Marielle’s phone and shoved it in her back pocket.
Stepping off of the other woman’s lap, Annie exited the cell and slammed the door shut.
*
With Marielle in prison, Bucky took the loop down, and the Wizard Hall employees grudgingly went back to work, fearful they were being watched. Anxious, eyes darted across the office space and rested on the hallways as the French wizard guards waited for Armand to come to work. He was forty minutes late.
“Is he here yet?” Annie whispered to Fabien when she returned from the prison.
“He’s late. I’ve been watching,” Fabien said.
“You think he knows?” she asked.
“I can’t be sure of that. What I do know is that she hadn’t had time to contact him without us knowing,” Fabien replied.
Annie reached for Marielle’s phone, switched it on, and sorted through her texts. “There’s nothing here from this morning. Last night, she told him to lay low, no celebrating. She said to wait until next week, to give it time to blow over. And… she couldn’t wait to hear about the sad loss of the American Wizard Guard. Ugh.”
“I think we should scry for him.” Fabien said.
He led Annie, Spencer, and Gibbs to Armand’s cubicle, pulled down a map of France stored in a basket behind his desk, and unfurled it across the tabletop. Using a large blue crystal that barely fit his palm, he summoned an item belonging to his boss: a piece of leather from a bracelet.
“Where did you get that?” Annie asked.
“He kept this in his cubicle. I don’t know why,” Fabien admitted as he pushed the crystal across the map. “He lives in Paris, so it should be… yes, he’s home. Odd, I think.” Fabien pulled down a second map of Paris only and scried over the area of Armand’s home. The crystal glowed bright, hot light. “Yes. He is home,” Fabien confirmed. “This way.”
Fabien had taken charge of the situation, of his department, and of the plan as he led them out of Wizard Hall through the back entrance. After finding the latch, he opened the door and led them into the dark tunnel.
“Let’s go,” he said with little emotion in his exhausted voice.
Annie, Gibbs, and Spencer followed him into an empty field. Though it was midmorning, the sky was gray, the sun hidden behind thick, dark clouds.
“Here are the coordinates,” Fabien said. “I will see you there.” His face was stern and determined as he teleported away.
“He’s fightin’ mad,” Gibbs said as he glanced at the coordinates and teleported out.
“Ready?” Spencer asked. He wrapped his arms around Annie and teleported his weary partner to downtown Paris.
They landed in the garden outside Armand’s three-story townhouse. Small but well
-maintained rose bushes lined the stucco wall. The gate to the garden was covered by a growing vine, which climbed up and over the trellis.
He’s well paid, Annie thought.
The house was decorated with gargoyle carvings at each corner. Morning rainwater gently sprinkled from the grotesque mouths.
Annie turned the corner to the front porch. Looking up, she saw sturdy iron balconies that hung outside each of the six windows. The crosshatch design matched the heavy leaded glass window on the front door, which was slightly ajar.
“That can’t be good,” Fabien commented. He cautiously pushed the door open and listened before entering with his palms open and ready. He waved them inside, and they followed into the unlit house.
Four sets of boots clicked against the stone floor, the only sounds of life in the eerily quiet house.
Ominous.
“Annie, you come with me upstairs,” Fabien ordered. “Gibbs, Spencer, if you head down this hallway, turn right and you’ll enter the rest of the downstairs. Call out if you find him.” On a mission, he turned and took the stairs two at a time. Annie glanced at her team, shrugged, and followed.
Her hands grazed lovely wooden hand rails that curved at the end. The newel posts made of iron were decorated with a familiar bird cage design; they were cool to the touch.
Fabien had been to this house before. Without hesitating, he turned at the top of the stairs and made his way to the front of the house, to a wide open door where light escaped into the otherwise darkened hallway. He did little to hide their presence, and he didn’t wait to give the owner privacy as he entered the room without knocking.
Annie nearly bumped into Fabien when he stopped suddenly, staring at the bed with disbelief. Armand Lefebvre lay sprawled across his unmade four-poster bed. His eyes roamed the room, settling on Fabien and Annie. If he was happy or relieved, he was unable to show the emotion on his sunken face.
Wizard War Page 36