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Passed out from trying to murder someone was what it smelled like. None of us had explanations though. Randy left my side and started another search through the house to see what he could find. Maybe he could find evidence of the type of evil magic she did and what its purpose was.

He came back empty-handed. “Nothing. It all seems to be centered around her.”

“We really have no choice then,” Travis said, his lips thinning. “We have to mark her.”

He lowered his hand to her forehead, and I panicked. “Stop.” They all stared up at me, varying degrees of surprise. “I don’t want to seem like the newbie here in all this, but it just doesn’t seem right. Doesn’t this girl look like she has the same symptoms as Anna?”

“Except Anna didn’t have the putrid smell.” Travis offered me a small smile. “It’s what we do, Norah. We’re not saying she’s guilty. It’s not really for us to decide. This is just going on the facts we have and the natural abilities we were given. The Akasha takes care of the truth, and that’s never wrong.”

My stomach tightened, and I looked up to Randy for help. He only shrugged. “Maybe nerves over your first marking?”

I guessed that could be it. I just didn’t want to be judge, jury, and executioner. Travis stared at me, his green eyes intense. “Close your eyes and feel my magic when I do this.” I did as he asked, and then his clear, concise words came up and over all of us. “By the power of the Order of the Akasha, a trial has been set to prove your worthiness. If you be true, let light live within you. If you be false, may the light flush out any darkness. To thine own self be true.”

Magic pricked my fingertips and goosebumps coursed all over my skin. The wind whipped up around us and I caught my hair and held it down before it tangled. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough that a power surge lifted me. It felt as if I was glowing.

I opened my eyes to see Travis’s red magic pulsing out around us along with the smell of cinnamon thinning the nasty aroma this area carried. The magic had burned a symbol into the woman’s forehead. An O with an A inside of it etched into her skin there as if Travis had written it with dark ash. I frowned down at it. “It’ll disappear if she’s found innocent,” Travis said.

“And if not?”

“Then, it’ll be visible to anyone magical as a symbol of their disgrace.”

I glanced at Liam without even thinking. My eyes going straight to his forehead. Of course, he was clear, but he did stare back at me, his lips a straight line and with dark, dark eyes that sent a shiver up my spine.

Randy threw an arm around me. “You’ll get used to it.”

Gabe needled me in the side. “You’re going to have to. You’re stuck with us now.”

It was most definitely the other way around. “So, what do we do now?” I asked, staring down again at the barely moving body. Her chest rose and fell, but beyond that, she looked—and smelled—like death.

“Now we take her to headquarters and wait for her to wake up, so we can perform the trial.”

“Should we take her to a hospital?” I asked. It was what we’d wanted Murphy to do with Anna. Maybe an IV to get fluid pumping through her would do her good.

“A hospital isn’t going to make a difference in the magical world, Norah,” Gabe said. “This has evil magic written all over it. We just have to see if it was her doing, or someone else’s.”

I didn’t like the idea of just leaving her like this. It seemed cruel, especially when we weren’t sure if she was the one who’d used the bad magic. “Can we stop by the shop? I’d like to pick up some healing herbs to see what I can do for her.”

Travis and Gabe grabbed the body, both putting an arm around the shoulders. “Yeah. Randy, you take Norah to the shop and meet us back at headquarters. I’d like to get this done as soon as possible.”

He didn’t say anything, but his eyebrows were drawn in. He’d said he’d known the girl. Did he think she was innocent? Or was it just that marking someone had made him think about his friend and his sister? It was hard to tell with him because Travis wasn’t one to share what he was thinking. At least not with me. Yet, anyway. Maybe all that was changing now.

Randy, Liam, and I followed them down the stairs and Randy and I sat back and watched as they all loaded into the Jeep. Gabe waved as they pulled away, but Liam had just gotten in the Jeep with his head down, and if I wasn’t mistaken, with the tail of the snake peeking out from the back of his collar.

“Was that—?” Randy started to say.

“Yeah,” I answered, knowing he’d just seen the same thing. “New update to the Liam-familiar saga. It moves on him. Oh, and he can’t stand to be around me now.”

Randy pulled me to him, his large arms enveloping me in the most enormous hug. “You know that’s not really him. I’ve been doing some thinking, and even if the familiar isn’t doing anything to Liam or wanting Liam to do anything to other people, it can’t feel good to have that thing on your skin. Think of all the hate and the evil it encompasses, and it’s on you all the time and there’s nothing you can do about it. He’s probably battling it as best he can right now.”

I nodded into his expansive chest and hugged him tighter. Liam was fighting it. So long as he had some control, he’d fight it.

Chapter Nine

Randy and I stopped briefly at the shop. I grabbed what herbs I could think of that Granny used and threw them all in “A Touch of Magic” bag from behind the counter. I tried to tell myself to remember to take these vials off the inventory list, but I wasn’t kidding myself. I knew I’d forget.

We walked out the store and stopped short when a couple of policemen were just coming out of Madame Serena’s place. They tipped their hats to us, and I immediately turned around to lock up the store. Guilt washed over me like it did every time I thought about what she’d done for us. She was just a victim, the same as us. She didn’t realize that Dupre was a monster and twisted magic to his own ugly devices instead of using it like it should be used.

We walked past, and I gave the two policemen a half smile as Randy kept a hand on the small of my back. He leaned down and whispered, “Breathe, Norah.”