Page 40 of Adepts and Alchemists
“We stole Lydia’s soul back,” Marty explained, mainly because I couldn’t. “Darla needs time to complete the ritual to keep Lydia from flying off to the hereafter.”
“There’s a curse incoming, and I don’t have the juice to stop it,” I added.
Marty nodded. “The only people in this Hollow who might be able to deflect it are both faerie royals.”
“And since Fox is still recovering from his stint in your aunt’s care, I’d say you’re my best bet.”
Taliyah pinched the bridge of her nose, completing a jerky circuit of the room before jabbing a finger into my face. “This iswhy we talk to each other, damn it! I could have been on standby if you’d just pick up the fucking phone!”
“I’ll keep that in mind for later,” I said acidly. “But I need your help now before I explode. Literally. Are you going to give it to me or not?”
Taliyah stalked toward the door, slamming her hands against the glass in answer. It froze solid almost instantly, frost fanning out from her fingertips in successive waves. It spun into sparkling being, forming a layer of rime across every available surface at first. In mere moments, there was already a rapidly building layer of ice on the walls. It was just transparent enough for me to see the warding on the door and walls flare to vibrant life. I could tell which had been spelled by the Depraysies. They flickered crimson alongside the blue, whites, and golds of the other witches in Scapegrace. The result was a localized aurora borealis, magic swirling visibly through the room to touch the stunned police officers.
“What the hell is that?” Officer Kelley asked, reaching out a shaky hand to touch the strand curling past his shoulder.
“Magic, I reckon,” Roland said with a shaky smile. He looked nearly as spooked by the display as Kelley, but at least had a little forewarning. I wondered if he’d entertained the idea that Taliyah was crazy and he needed to humor her. Now he had the undeniable proof. His Chief was a Queen. A damn powerful one too.
Roland shook his head slowly, the smile blossoming into the real thing after a moment of thought. He laid a hand on the stapler on his desk. It was encased in a block of solid ice. It would have made a dangerous projectile if he needed to lob things through the door at the enemy.
“Magic,” he repeated in a hushed, reverent tone. “That’s really something, Chief.”
“Compliment me when we all make it through this,” Taliyah said through gritted teeth. She’d dug her fingers into the ice up to the knuckles, using the arctic wall to anchor herself against the might of the oncoming curse. Then her attention was on me once more. “It’s not a guarantee. This guy is powerful. What did you say he was again?”
“We don’t know for sure,” I admitted. “We’ve been looking into this group for decades. There were strings of suspicious deaths, but Mother never had all the pieces to make them fit together. Not until Indigo showed up.” I had to pause to take a painful breath. “We don’t know if they’re so insanely powerful that they manage to keep everyone in line for those years, or if anyone who turned on them died before they could make it to us. I’m inclined to think it’s the latter. Mother is the only one who stands a chance of rooting them out, and they know it. They deal with betrayal with extreme prejudice.”
“Who’s Indigo?” Officer Kelley echoed. “What’s going on? Chief, tell me what the hell is happening!”
His eyes darted this way and that, showing too much white. If he started waving his gun around in a blind panic, I was going to slug him. I wouldn’t be nice about it either. I’d take the gun and crush his nose with it. We couldn’t afford a single agent of chaos in this mix. We worked together to survive this or we all died.
Even though I was rapidly losing my energy, I managed to round on Officer Kelley, seizing him by the shirt. He made an inarticulate sound of protest when I dragged him forward over the ice. He ended up in an undignified sprawl, only saved from landing on his ass by my grip on his clothes. I tugged him forward until we were nose-to-nose.
“You don’t get all the answers, Kelley!” I snarled. “Not right now. The thing pounding at the door has already killed at least one woman and horribly. If it breaks through your boss’ door,it will reduce all of us to chunks of brain, blood, and bone. If you make her lose focus for a goddamn second, we are dead. And if we die here, there’s no one left standing between it and the people in town. You know, those people you signed up to protect? If you have friends or family here, they are depending on you to keep your fucking mouth shut and follow orders. Do you understand?”
I shook Kelley so hard that his teeth rattled. He let out a soft curse before pushing me away. I let him do it, watching him closely when he sagged over his desk. For a second I thought he’d be sick, but my words had the desired effect. I saw him swallow a few times, nod, and straighten, hands at his side once more. It was only then that I fell back against the wall, suddenly exhausted.
“Okay,” he whispered. His voice didn’t sound any less frightened, but it was productive fear in his eyes now. The kind of fear that made you take up arms and enter a hopeless fight. Not because you thought you could win, but because it was the right thing to do. “I can do that. What do I do?”
I jabbed a finger in Darla’s direction. She’d knelt dutifully in the back, flattening herself to the icy floor when the building shook. She kept eyeing the ceiling nervously, as though she expected it to collapse. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say it was beyond the realm of possibility. It had looked and sounded like a bomb blast the first time I’d witnessed it. He took the vial I offered him after another slow blink.
“Darla here is a medium. We need her to channel the ghost in this vial. I need you to keep her safe while she works her magic.”
Kelley shot me a doubtful look but did as he was told, shuffling to Darla’s side. She gave him a sheepish smile before taking the vial from his outstretched hand. She had to brace against the floor when the building shook once more.
Taliyah sucked in deep breaths, expelling an excessive amount of profanity on each exhale.
“I’m going to kick your mother’s ass for sending you to my town,” Taliyah grunted, slamming the tension building in her shoulders into her spell.
The temperature in the room had dipped to near freezing. My breath plumed in the air in front of my face. The cold was going to get dangerous at some point, but I preferred dying an enchanted icicle than a red smear across the floor. At least my mother would recognize my remains when she got them.
“She knew you’d need me. I’m not a warlock, but I can do something yours can’t. I’m a tracker. Nearly foolproof, when I get a sample of someone’s aura.”
“You can scry?” Taliyah asked.
I shook my head. “It goes deeper than scrying. When something is wrong, I justknow.It’s a sixth sense.”
“So you’re a magical bloodhound?” she shot back.
I thought about it for a second before letting out a bleak laugh. “Yeah, I suppose you can say that. It sometimes comes through as smells.”