Page 48

I needed to pee more. Amusement ran down the line.Never fear, I will stagger back to the bedroom once you’re finished. Unless, of course, the blood leads to Maelle, and then I will grab a strong coffee to wake myself up, because we both know you will immediately go and talk to her.

I’m doing that anyway. I need to know if any of the dead are her people. But Monty can come with me.

Monty won’t be allowed inside, and we both know it.

Yes, but it won’t hurt to have him there.

It wouldn’t hurt to have Ashworth or Eli there, either.

Aside from being overkill, Maelle could see that as a threat.I drew in a deeper breath and then returned my attention to Monty. “Belle’s awake.”

“Ah, good. Well, good for this process; not so good for her.”

“She promised to go back to sleep once we’re done.”

She did not.

I ignored her, stepped closer to the stain, and squatted down. It was only then that I spotted the small, yellow, coin-sized charm almost hidden by strands of bloody grass. I pointed at the thing. “What is that?”

“Don’t know.” He squatted opposite me and held out a hand, letting it hover an inch or so above the token. “There’s a vague pulse of magic coming from it.”

“A spell?”

“Not any kind that I’ve come across, but we are dealing with a dark mage, so that doesn’t mean anything. It could be just residue from whatever spell was used.”

“Why would a blood mage need to use a charm in a summoning ceremony?”

“You’re asking me that like you expect me to know the answer.” He glanced up at Aiden. “You want to take a photo before I examine the thing?”

Aiden stepped forward, took several photos from different angles, then squatted next to me. “There’s some sort of image etched on the surface of it.”

“There is?” I squinted at the thing, but between the grass half covering it and the blood smudged over a good portion of the visible surface, it was hard to see anything else. But his eyes were far sharper than either mine or Monty’s.

“Yeah, though it’s faint.” He opened one of the photos and enlarged the image and showed us both. On the visible part of the charm—the section not covered by the grass—was a faint,partial figure of a man-like creature with disproportionately large fists.

“What that image means,” Monty said, his voice grim, “is that this charm is a demon summoner. They’re supposedly very rare, not only because the fuckers are extremely dangerous but because few people actually have the skill or the magical power to create them.”

“Maelle and Marie would have both, I’m thinking,” I said.

“Yes, but the question is, which one of them created this thing?”

“If there’s magical residue sitting on the thing,” Aiden commented, “it likely won’t be safe for Liz to touch it and find out.”

Monty wrinkled his nose. “Possible, but from the little I know of them, they’re inert unless activated and generally are only one-use items. But I don’t know enough about them to be certain.”

“What about Ashworth or Eli?” I asked. “Is it worth contacting them?”

“I’ll ring them while you check the blood.” He immediately rose and stepped away to make the call.

I tugged off a glove, then, after checking Belle was ready, warily brushed a finger across several strands of blood-stained grass. Nothing stirred across the psychic lines. I frowned and pressed a section of bloody grass between two fingers, but the result was the same. As I’d suspected, too much time had passed to get any sort of sense of who or what might have shed this blood.

I hesitated, and then shifted my fingers, letting them drift across the grass covering the charm. Energy burned across my skin, the pulse so bright and powerful it rocked me backward. I would have landed on my ass had Aiden not moved with lightning speed and somehow steadied me.

“You okay?” he asked. I nodded and, after a slight hesitation, he released me and then added, “What the hell was that flash?”

“A warning not to touch the charm.”

“Meaning it’snota one-off charm.”