by Lily Webb
“No, but that’s all the more reason you should share it with us. Let us help, Zoe.”
“Sorry. I have to keep this close for now.”
Mueller stalked off abruptly, leaving me alone with Leif. I beckoned him inside and shut the door.
“What’s going on? I know you lied back there.”
I sighed and nodded. “Yeah, sorry. Flora’s one of my best friends so I should’ve known better, but I forgot about your little gift.”
“You got something more out of that message than you said, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
Leif’s expression darkened. “This is connected to Merlin’s artifacts, isn’t it?”
“Oh, you know about all that. Good. I wasn’t sure.”
“Of course. The Bureau is helping Heath protect them.”
“That makes me feel a lot better, actually.”
“It should. Anyway, what are you thinking?”
“That this Erebus person either lives in Moon Grove or has a direct connection to someone who does. I don’t know if they killed Adam, it’s too early to say, but I think they probably know more about his death than we do.”
“Yeah, I’d say you’re probably right.”
“Is there any way we can track them down over the Internet? Like with their IP address or something like that?”
Leif shook his head. “Not if they’re using ORB, which they must be if they’re on The Underworld. The site won’t work on a regular browser.”
I sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that. Then how the heck are we supposed to figure out who they are?”
Leif smiled. “Through social engineering, the old-fashioned way.”
“Uh… What’s that?”
“You’re already doing it just by talking to the people close to Adam. If you keep poking at the hornet’s nest long enough, you’ll definitely get stung a few times, but you’re also bound to shake the truth loose, eventually.”
“Maybe, but I’m running out of people to talk to. I don’t think Adam’s ex-wife did it, and I’m reasonably sure his lawyer didn’t either, so who’s left?”
“Well, think about it in terms of what we learned: Whoever Erebus is, they probably live in Moon Grove or have some connection to it; they know Merlin’s artifacts exist; they clearly had a hand in orchestrating the attempted theft of Merlin’s Mind; and they were in routine contact with Adam right until you put him in a coma. Who can you think of that might check all those boxes?”
“They were also probably in the room when Adam died, so they had to have been able to use magic,” I said and gasped when a realization struck me. “Wesley!” I shouted.
Leif’s brows furrowed. “Wesley Damon, the council member?”
“Yes, exactly. He said some things to me prior to Adam’s announcement that I thought nothing of at the time, but in retrospect were pretty odd.” Another idea crashed into me like a lunging vampire. “This is gonna sound crazy, but would it be possible for the Bureau to spy on the computers of everyone on the Council?”
“That doesn’t sound crazy at all. If you order it, I’ll make sure it gets done. I assume you’re focused on Wesley in particular?”
“Exactly, and yes, I order it. For the sake of Moon Grove as a whole, we have to clear Heath. The Supreme Court’s coming tomorrow, and I don’t know how quickly they’ll move on this. If they convict him — and based on the evidence they have, I wouldn’t blame them if they did — it will tear this town apart.”
“I agree. I promise, if Wesley’s using ORB or communicating with Erebus somehow on his work computer, we’ll find out about it.”
“I thought you said you couldn’t track that?”
“We can’t see what he’s doing within ORB, but we can see from the logs if he has it installed, if he’s launched it and when.”
“Good. Keep me posted.”
“Of course. What’s your next step?”
“To have a word with Wesley.”
Chapter Eight
Back at the Town Hall, I stormed into Wesley’s office without knocking — and Sernux, the gargoyle standing post outside, knew better than to stop me. Wesley jumped in his desk chair, smashed a combination of keys to lock his computer, and held a hand to his heart.
“Dear Lilith, you almost scared the life out of me. I assume this means you have some news about everything?”
“Not exactly,” I said as I strode to his desk. He didn’t offer me a seat — not that I ever expected him to — but I sat anyway, nearly knocking over his pen jar with my stomach. “But I’m glad we’re already on the same page because I’m here to talk to you about what happened to Adam.”
Wesley sighed. “It’s awful. Never in all my years on this Council have I seen anything like it — and to think the Head Warlock has some involvement in the death of his son? Dreadful.”
“It really is. Anyway, you already saw the letter that came from them, so I’m sure you know the Supreme Court is coming tomorrow. I’ve spent all day scrambling to find something to help me clear Heath’s name before they get here.”
Wesley’s eyes widened, though I couldn’t tell which piece of information had surprised him more. “Clear him? Zoe, forgive me if I’m speaking out of turn, but you saw what I saw, didn’t you? Heath is guilty, and I doubt the Court will think otherwise based on all the witness accounts they’ll no doubt gather.”
“I disagree. There’s much more to this than meets the eye. I can’t say much more than that, but trust me. There’s a lot you don’t know.”
Wesley’s eyes raked over me critically, and I could practically see the effort it took not to roll them. “Always the optimist. I suppose that’s why you’re in charge.” He sighed. “Though I think this is a fool’s errand, I’m guessing you want my help?”
“Exactly. I talked to Adam’s ex-wife, Morgan, earlier today about what happened to him, and she brought up a good point: it’s fairly obvious that whoever killed Adam used magic, and only a few people in the room could’ve done that,” I said and watched Wesley’s face for even the smallest hint of a reaction. Unluckily for me, his expression remained stony.
“That’s true. The gargoyles took everyone’s wands for that very reason, but that means nothing by itself.”
I raised my eyebrows. “It doesn’t?”
“No, of course not. There are multiple paranormal species that can use magic without the aid of a wand. Take, for instance, demons.”
“Fair enough, but I already talked to Virgil, the only demon in the room, and I’m reasonably sure he had nothing to do with this — which leaves me with those who had their wands. That includes you.”
Wesley roared, a bellow from deep in his stomach. “Surely you’re joking! What reason could I possibly have to want to murder the Head Warlock’s son? Don’t you think that could have negative repercussions for my career?”
I shrugged. “People have done crazier things for less around here, and you seemed pretty convinced that forcing Adam to make an announcement was unjust.”
“Zoe, with all due respect, listen to yourself! You’re not making sense. Are you really suggesting that I killed Adam Highmore to prevent him from confessing to his crimes? That’s insane!”
“I have to consider all possibilities.”
Wesley scoffed. “I can’t blame you for wanting to believe something other than what your eyes saw, but I have to say I think your relationship with the Head Warlock has blinded you. He’s not a perfect man, though I don’t doubt he’s tried to convince you otherwise.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Wesley smiled, pleased with himself. “Everyone has skeletons in their broom closets, including Heath. You’re still relatively new in town, so you probably don’t know the whole story, but Heath has had a rocky relationship with his family for a long time. Haven’t you ever wondered why he isn’t married? Or why he never seems to talk about his personal life?”
Now that he mentioned it, I realized the thought had never occur
red to me. In fact, I’d never stopped long enough to notice that Heath wasn’t married. Then again, until he’d told me about Adam coming out of his coma, I knew nothing about his son either — aside from the fact he had one.
Wesley chuckled. “I can see the cogs turning on your face. You know I’m right.”
“What’s the ‘whole story’ you’re referring to?”
“The Highmore family has historically had ties to magic we haven’t considered acceptable in Moon Grove for many, many moons. Heath is a unique warlock, but the most unusual thing about him is that he’s one of the few members of his family who’ve resisted the darkness that seems to run in their blood.”
I gulped as both Adam and Seth’s descents into darkness came to mind — two of Heath’s direct descendants — and the fates their descents ultimately brought them. Still, two bad apples didn’t make a pattern or tarnish a whole family.
“While it’s true that Heath is an extraordinary asset for Moon Grove and the entire magical community, I wonder how difficult it must be for a powerful warlock like him to resist the voice in the back of his head whispering about the greatness he could achieve if he gave into it. After what happened to his wife, no one could blame him if he did.”
Though I was afraid to know the answer, I had to ask. “What happened to her?”
Wesley sighed and shook his head. “Someone assassinated her, right before Heath’s election to Head Warlock. He was never the same afterward, but in some ways, I think the incident empowered him to go after the evil in our world with the vigor that he has.”
“Who would want to kill his wife? And why?”
“We still don’t know, and I don’t think we ever will. Serena was an amazing witch, an equal to Heath in every way, and all of Moon Grove loved her. Most assume it was a revenge killing by one of the many people Heath prosecuted. Given that, I can’t imagine how it must have crushed him to learn that Adam had become the sort of warlock Heath has spent his life fighting.”
A chill rippled across my entire body, and the twins in my stomach must have sensed my dread because they stirred. I rubbed the taut skin to comfort all three of us and couldn’t help thinking what I might do if one of my kids turned out to be something awful. “Are you saying…?”
Wesley shrugged. “I’m saying nothing other than I wouldn’t blame Heath for silencing Adam before he had the chance to further sully the Highmore name. You said yourself that you had to consider all possibilities, so consider that one.”
I almost fell out of my chair because, for the first time, I had no choice but to face the question I’d been trying so hard to avoid: Could Heath really have been the one who killed Adam? It seemed unthinkable based on all my experiences with him and everything I knew about him — but really, how much did I actually know about him? If even half of what Wesley told me was true, it wasn’t much at all.
It took a few moments, but I finally gathered myself. “Wait, you said Heath’s family has ties to ‘unacceptable’ magic. Did you mean dark magic?”
“Yes, among other things. If you were to go to Veilside’s library and look through the records of convictions and the history of Moon Grove’s relationship to banned magic, you’d find several Highmores listed. In fact, Veilside expelled Heath’s brother, Hendrik, while they were attending together. Though the school never disclosed why, it doesn’t take a master in Divination to connect the dots.”
His brother? Yet another thing I didn’t know Heath had. Suddenly it’d become painfully clear that he and I needed to have another conversation. I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to talk or think about the darkest parts of his past, but how couldn’t he have shared them with me now that I was Head Witch? We were supposed to trust each other and have one another’s backs, but as I sat staring at Wesley and mulling his revelations, I felt Heath’s knife in my back rather than his hand.
Still, I couldn’t fully trust Wesley. What if he’d told me all this to drive a wedge between me and Heath? I had no reason to believe Wesley had lied, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have exaggerated. After all, it made little sense for Heath to go out of his way and risk his own reputation to spare Adam from prosecution only to murder him on the stand in front of the people and the press…
As much as I wanted to know more about Heath and why he’d hidden so much of himself from me, I doubted he’d tell me everything while he was in such a bad position — because what if the facts made his case look even worse?
But I realized with a sting of obviousness that there was someone else I could ask who probably wouldn’t pull any punches: Morgan! I wanted to slap myself for not thinking of her sooner.
Based on what she’d been through with Adam and Seth, Morgan might jump at the chance to vent all her frustrations and experiences living with the Highmore family. In fact, I might coax her to say more than she otherwise would’ve. Failing that, I’d have to go back to Heath and try to read between the lines — because no matter what he said to the contrary, he hadn’t been honest with me.
“Zoe? Are you all right?”
“Yeah, this is just… A lot to take in,” I said truthfully and gently stood. Despite my precaution, the room spun around me, so I gripped the edge of Wesley’s desk and breathed deeply until it steadied.
“I understand, and I hope you know it brings me no joy to be the bearer of bad news.”
Somehow, I found that hard to believe, but I knew better than to say so. “No, I appreciate you being honest with me, as hard as it is to hear. Anyway, I’m sorry to have barged in on you like this. I should get going.”
“It’s no problem at all. I’ll always make time for the Head Witch. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”
“Thanks, Wesley,” I said and showed myself to the door, abundantly conscious of the nausea swirling in my stomach, though I wasn’t sure if my conversation with him had caused it or if it was unrelated.
Umrea stood waiting for me across the hall, and when she spotted me, she stomped forward. “Councilwoman? You don’t look well.”
“I’m fine, I’m just a little queasy. Anyway, I need you to take me back to Morgan Talbot’s house in the Warlocks’ Quarter.”
She glared at me and crossed her hulking arms over her chest. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? You’ve had a long day and I don’t want you throwing up on me.”
I returned her glare, and though I could’ve imagined it, I swore I saw a flash of intimidation in her eyes. “We’re leaving. Now,” I said and headed for the exit to avoid giving her the chance to argue.
As soon as I stepped outside, the fresh air soothed my stomach, but I still took several deep gulps of it before I signaled to Umrea that I was ready. She nodded and gingerly lifted me into her arms, and I closed my eyes while we flew just to be safe.
“Councilwoman…” Umrea mumbled when we jerked against the ground minutes later, her voice thick with concern. My eyes shot open and found the front door of Morgan’s home hanging open.
“Oh no,” I said and scrambled out of Umrea’s arms to run inside. She chased after me, shouting at me to stop, but I crashed through the front door into pure darkness, despite the sun still shining outside. As I struggled to get my bearings, a frigid wave of air washed over me like I’d walked into a meat locker — an unsettling chill I knew all too well.
Panicked, I reached into my robes for my wand and held it above my head. “Lumino,” I whispered, and the tip of my wand flared to life, momentarily blinding me. I blinked several times to readjust, and when my vision finally refocused, I saw that Morgan wasn’t in the living room — but judging from the open door and the ransacked look of the place, whoever visited her didn’t have an invitation.
“Morgan?” I called. “It’s Zoe. Are you here?”
No one answered, so I pressed further into the house, ignoring Umrea’s pleas to do the opposite. With my hand against the wall to guide me, I followed the natural curve of the house into a hallway and the two bedrooms at the end. One’s doo
r was closed, the other open, so I chose the open one and tiptoed inside with my wand pointed in front of me.
An ear-splitting, otherworldly screech pierced the air as the beam of light from my wand swept across the room, and I tumbled backward as something rushed past me. As soon as it vanished, sunlight poured into the room and the chill lifted, revealing what I’d feared.
Morgan lay face down on her bed, motionless, the skin on the back of her neck as white as the sheets beneath her, and my stomach lurched as the nausea I’d felt earlier came surging back with a vengeance. Umrea burst into the room behind me and growled at the sight, and I bolted from the room before I lost the contents of my stomach.
As I leaned against the wall and tried to calm my raging insides, I realized that who or whatever killed Adam had killed his ex-wife too. Now no one could deny a connection between the two murders, not even the Supreme Court.
While I searched for my phone to call the police, I determined that whatever we were dealing with was a family affair, which meant it was time for Heath to spill all his deepest, darkest secrets — before they got more of his loved ones killed.
Chapter Nine
Despite Beau and Grandma insisting I stay home and rest for a day — and well out of the reach of whoever was running around killing people — I was in my office exhausted and bleary-eyed the next morning when Holly came flying inside.
“They’re here,” she wheezed.
She didn’t need to say whom she meant. I sighed and rubbed my eyes, not at all ready to deal with the enormity of the task in front of me. With any luck, the Justices of the Court would cut me some slack for looking less-than-presentable, given the situation and my pregnancy. No one could deny I had a lot on my plate.
“The Chief Justice is waiting outside. He wants to speak with you. I hope that’s okay.”
I pushed back from my computer and nodded. “Send him in. Hold all my calls until we’re done.”