Page 111 of Grave Beginnings

“You don’t think the resurgence of witch magic, just as this clueless spook shows up on our team, is at all suspicious?” Ezra demanded.

“No,” Hanna said. “I requested Holt. I asked for him twice before his variance was recognized. Both times over the last year.”

“What?” I asked, stunned. Had I met her before? Ezra stared at her as if she’d sprouted an extra head.

“Your record speaks for you, Holt,” Hanna said. “Don’t prove me wrong.”

“Yes, ma’am, no ma’am. I’ll do my best.”

She waited, unflustered, arms folded across her chest, gaze on Ezra.

He growled and stomped back to the truck. Wade sighed as Ezra left without him.

“Sorry,” Wade said. “I’ve been trying to talk him down.”

“Not your fault,” Hanna said. “We all have our personal demons to fight. Unfortunately, this is not the first time we are finding remnants of spell casting.”

Angel’s brow furrowed. “I’ve not had anything flagged in our case files.”

“We’ve been funneling it higher up,” Hanna said. “The last thing we need is a second war.”

Angel gasped and took a step back. Wade frowned. “It’s that bad?”

“Escalating.”

“Fuck,” Angel cursed. I tugged on his arm, fearing he’d reject me now that something he feared and hated was rising again, even if I was no part of it. But he slid into me, arms wrapping around me until he could bury his face in my neck and breathe me deep. Surrounded by a bunch of SED agents and media, it should have bothered me, but it didn’t. I sank into his touch, enjoying the warmth and calming melding of our magics.

“Holt, can you head to the station?” Hanna asked. “As long as you see nothing else for our people to dig up, I’d like for you to sit down with the animated.”

“Sure,” I said. “Though I’m not sure what I’m doing. Will he just talk to me? Maybe you should call that goddess, Lilith?”

“If you can’t get anything from him, then yes,” Hanna said. “I try not to call the living dead when possible. The more they cross to this side of the Veil, the more likely it is to tear.”

“Which is why we don’t want them casting spells,” Angel said. “They summon shit over here.”

“What were they trying to summon?” I asked.

“That is the million-dollar question,” Wade said.

“I have a practitioner on the way to examine this area,” Hanna said. “Hopefully, they will give us more details. If not, then all we have are one animated corpse and a lot of dead bodies.”

“I’ll take Jude and Wade back to the office,” Angel said as he released me suddenly. I would have stumbled if Wade weren’t right behind me.

“Should I ask?” I asked Wade. He shook his head at me.

“Unless you need Wade here?” Angel asked. There were almost two dozen people with SED vests moving around thefield. It was going to be a while before they pulled up all the bodies and cataloged the evidence.

“Go,” Hanna instructed. “See if you can get the corpse to talk.” She waved us off, her expression unreadable.

Angel grabbed my arm, his grip firm but not unkind. As we turned to leave, I glanced back at the field, where SED agents swarmed like ants over a carcass. My stomach churned.

38

The station swirledwith noise and movement, the most activity I’d seen since I started. Fluorescent lights buzzed, casting a clinical glow over the sterile walls and long halls of flat carpet. The air smelled of antiseptic and magic.

Angel strode ahead of us, leading the way into the building with a purposeful, though resigned, stride. Wade kept to my side, a silent but steadying force. That he’d said no to booting me from the team meant a lot. If my gut wasn’t doing a dance of anxiety on spin dry, I might have tried to make light talk with him to ease the tension. But the weight of Ezra’s anger hung between all of us, or maybe it clung to me as though it were a phantom dagger biting deep.

Angel’s clenched jaw, tight shoulders, and silence made me worry. I longed to ask if he was okay. Ifwewere okay. But the words stuck in my throat. My heart pounded hard at the thought of him walking away. Would he hate me now that he was tied to me? Aspook. Ezra had spat the word as if it were a curse.