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Chapter Eleven

AYO

I flip frantically through the pages in Mum’s grimoire. The number of times Mum found my lost teddy bear in random places in the manor gives me hope that there’s something in here we can use. Of course, that might have just been a mum thing, but with any luck she had magical help.

I wish I’d spent more time reading this over the last ten years.

At first it was too painful, and I was too young.

Then Qadir caught me reading it one day when I was twelve.

I was about to attempt one of the spells, one designed to turn my tutor into a squirrel for an hour or two because the woman was driving me batshit crazy, and Qadir caught me just in time.

He had a long talk with me about mastering the basics before tackling the more complicated stuff. Witches and mages have no choice but to learn that way, he explained, but sorcerers can get themselves into trouble because our full power comes in really young.

I gave in grudgingly. I put Mum’s grimoire away that day and didn’t take it out again for years. I never really felt like I mastered my magic well enough to deserve to try her spells.

Now that Irving’s life could be hanging in the balance? Yeah, no question. I’ll do anything I can to find him.

A few minutes later I jump up from Ethan’s bed, grimoire in hand. “Got it!”

Ethan stops his pacing and reads over my shoulder. “No DNA needed?”

I shake my head. “Nope. I can get straight to work.”

I don’t need runes or a spell circle, either. And seeing Mum’s handwriting? Along with her notes in the margins? It’s like a warm hug from her when I need it most.

I read it twice just to be sure, then sit cross-legged in the middle of Ethan’s bed and close my eyes. Ethan stays quiet, a steady, reassuring presence next to me.

I picture Irving in my mind. Brown hair, full beard, kind brown eyes. I picture his favourite shirt and broad shoulders. Then I picture the earth as if I’m looking at it on a map or an atlas. I push my magic into the map image, keeping Irving at the front of my mind.

My mental map flickers, then disappears. My moonstone pulses weakly—a warning I’m too low on magic for this particular spell. Shit. I’d hoped I had enough left. I’m definitely not running on empty, but this is one hell of a spell.

I exhale and open my eyes. “I need to top up my magic.”

Ethan rubs his beard. “Fuck, okay. We can go back to searching on foot until it replenishes.”

Everyone knows that any depleted magic-user will eventually refill naturally, barring damage to their magical core.

I grip his wrist when he starts to get up. “Actually… there’s a fast way.”

Ethan’s eyebrows shoot up. “A fast way to refill the magical tank?”

I give a sharp nod. “My mum used to love to tell the story of how they discovered I have a sorcerer’s level of magic.

I was two, wanted to play outside and splash in the puddles, and my nanny, a fellow coven member, wouldn’t let me.

So I literally froze her, as well as everyone else who got in my way, and carried myself outside on my stubby little legs.

My dad found me passed out on the lawn, luckily within minutes. ”

“Holy shit,” Ethan murmurs. “I knew you were powerful, but so young? I’m guessing you passed out because you’d depleted your core?”

I huff. “I don’t remember any of it, but I do remember my parents deciding that rather than try to restrict my use of magic, they’d teach me how to always be able to access more.

The idea being that I could always get myself out of trouble that way, or at least avoid getting into worse trouble.

I had lessons on refilling my core before I could properly say the word sorcerer. ”

“So what do you need to do?”

This isn’t something that’s ever shared, except between sorcerers. It’s not written in our grimoires and I never even told Qadir or Nyoka about it. But I trust Ethan.

“The reason why sorcerers are more powerful than mages and witches is not just because our own personal core can store a much larger volume of magic or because we don’t need herbs, spell circles, or incantations.

We can also draw power from ley lines, which run under the earth in certain locations. ”

Ethan frowns, his eyes flashing with some emotion I can’t place. “That sounds risky.”

I grimace. “Only in that it’s addictive. I can do the spell while connected. As soon as I give you a location, I want you to convince me to let go. Whatever it takes.”

Ethan’s jaw tightens. “Why do I feel like you’re not telling me everything?”

My wolf lover is too clever for his own good.

I blink at him as innocently as I can manage. “We need to find Irving, right? The longer we wait, the more chance of him…” I trail off, unable to say the words we’re both thinking.

Yes, there are risks to connecting to the ley lines, but I know what I’m doing.

Ethan kisses me firmly before pulling back. “Keep yourself safe. I’ll be right here.”

That’s a yes. I probably would have done it whether he agreed or not, to be honest, but it’s infinitely safer with someone to talk me back out.

I close my eyes and empty my mind, just like Mum and Dad taught me. It takes no time at all to use my moonstone to connect. The river of magic is deep and wide, a fast-moving pink glow flowing beneath us even though we’re fourteen floors up.

Replenishing my magic requires finesse to make sure I don’t overload my magical core. There’s no time for that right now.

Instead, I divert a tiny trickle of the ley line towards me and restart the seeking spell. Brown hair, full beard, kind brown eyes. His favourite shirt and broad shoulders. The earth from space.

My mental map zooms in so fast it makes me dizzy. It’s a really good thing I’m sitting down.

Birchester. The edge of Riverside on the border with vamp territory.

A dark alley. Why is it always a fucking alley?

I try to look for something identifying, but it looks like every other cobbled back alley in the city, hemmed in by buildings on either side.

I could stop there—it narrows things down a lot—but I’m convinced there’s another clue here if I can just find it.

I rotate the picture in my head. There!

My eyes snap open and I sway with a wave of vertigo. My voice comes out a deep rumble. “The northeast edge of Riverside. A vamp bar called The Last Drop. The alley opposite.”

My vision is hazy due to the ley line connection, but Ethan’s aura glows pure gold as he presses his phone to his ear. I’m too distracted to figure out why he’s such an unusual colour. Shifter auras are usually orange.

He relays the message to whoever he’s called, then tilts my chin so I’m looking directly into his eyes. “Let go, sweet thing.”

No, I need to stay connected. Irving needs me at full strength. I can replenish my magic faster this way. I feed the trickle of ley line I no longer need for my spell into my core.

Why is Irving in a back alley of Riverside at one in the morning on a weeknight? Surely he can’t be…

Ethan cups my face in one hand, staring at me intently. “Disconnect for me, Ayo. I need you to disconnect.”

It’s hard to think properly like this. Grief is creeping in, hinting at a truth I don’t want to face.

Ethan presses a kiss to my forehead. “ Please. ”

I take a deep breath and disconnect from the ley line. I sway again even though I’m sitting down and practically collapse into Ethan’s arms. “I think he might be…”

Ethan holds me tighter and says nothing. He doesn’t need to.

We wait in silence, holding one another. When he gets a call and puts it on speaker, Jet’s sombre tone confirms it.

“ Found him, boss. He’s dead. ”

I stare blankly at my computer screen, not seeing the details of the cat shifter whose profile I pulled up an hour ago. I’m vaguely aware of the buzzer going to indicate someone is at the main office door, but someone else goes to answer it, so I continue staring at the screen.

“Ayo?” Raj puts a gentle hand on my shoulder.

“Hmm?” I blink out of my stupor and focus on my colleague.

“The task force are here to ask you some questions.”

It takes a moment for that to sink in, then I stand so fast my chair goes flying backwards. Fortunately, Raj catches it before it hits Kit.

“Here? Now?” I wasn’t expecting that.

I mean, I guessed they might want to talk to me, because apparently Irving was coming to see me on Sunday, but it’s been days since his body was discovered.

And Ethan’s gone to see Doc P in his role as pathologist. Thank fuck he told me to stay behind this time.

I couldn’t cope with hearing what happened to Irving, let alone seeing his body, even under a sheet.

Raj sets my chair aside. “Let’s go downstairs. You can sit with them on those sofas on the ground floor. I’ll stay nearby and make sure no humans come within earshot.”

What he’s not saying is that he’ll also play bodyguard. This is the first time Ethan has left my side since I was jumped in the alley, and he doesn’t know I overheard him telling Raj to guard me with his life.

It’s only as we pass the conference room that it sinks in that Raj doesn’t want them to come inside the Soldati Security offices.

Which makes sense; the wards here are basic and I haven’t gotten around to agreeing with Ethan exactly how to upgrade them yet.

No point letting the task force think Soldati Security are weaker or more vulnerable than they are.

I make a mental note to discuss wards with Ethan when he gets back. That’s a weakness we can fix today.

Out in the corridor, I’m slightly surprised to see Nyoka has joined Fraser and Will from the task force. Raj explains where they can talk to me.

The shared lift ride down to the ground floor is full of awkward silence.

It’s only once we’re downstairs and Raj has taken up position behind my fellow coven members, a decent distance back, that anyone else speaks.