Page 48 of Gray Dawn

“The director doesn’t know that.”

“The director—” I pushed the defeat from my mind and paid attention, “—doesn’t know he was tracking Nan, not Luca.”

Okay.

Think.

The director was tracking Luca. His mention of Charlotte and Dallas was too on point otherwise. Luca had been hiding behind Nan. That was the deal with the braid in Nan’s hair. To paint her as the target.

That indicated Luca suspected the director would come after her, and she just might let him.

The ploy might have been intended to buy her time to finalize her plans for him. To set one final trap. To let him rush into it on his own without her lifting a finger to entice him. For all we knew, she had felt the shiver of a bargain fulfilled when Nan set the pill on her tongue.

“Crap.” I mashed redial before my hand caught up to my brain. “If we can preserve the braid’s magic…”

“Then we can use it to lure the director to us.”

A different person answered, which wasn’t unusual. Cleaners didn’t have personal numbers. They didn’t form relationships with the subjects of their cases or the people running the investigations. They strove for a neutrality that was impossible to achieve, but they got closer than any organization I could name.

As soon as a cleaner picked up, I put in a verbal request for custody of the evidence.

A courier would drop it off at our hotel, and I had until then to file the hard copies.

“We don’t have long.” Asa pivoted toward the door. “We need to gather the others and form a plan.”

“We don’t know how long ago the director figured out the wig was spelled. It could have been as early as yesterday, after the scuffle at the distillery.” I had to say it, had to remind myself not to let my hopes rise too high. “He could be anywhere by now.”

“Let’s cross our fingers he wants Luca enough to get careless.”

We joined the others in the suite shared by the Mayhews and Arden and cobbled together a plan that left me too anxious to sit. I paced the room from end to end, driving everyone insane, but they let me get away with it. Probably because Colby was right with me, gliding from corner to corner, raring to go.

By the time the courier arrived with the braid, Dad had returned, back from checking on Mom.

“This won’t help us find Luca.” He reached for the plastic sleeve. “She’s blocking her true location.”

“If we can lure the director to us, we can use him as bait to trap Luca.”

Tick, tick, tick.

Every second of wasted time roared in my ears, but we were so close. This had to work. Ithadto.

Since Dad was the one with the magic, I gave him space to begin reading the spell on the braid.

When Fergal indicated we needed to talk, I aimed for the seating area to avoid disturbing Dad.

“I’ve just heard from Agent Morton in Boston. Isiforos is being restrained in a guest room at The Spinnaker.” He kept it short but not so sweet. “He was torturing the Kellies with his Miserae powers when he was apprehended.”

“That makes no sense.” I sank down onto the bed. “Why would he do that?”

“Morton says Isiforos was coordinating the cleanup efforts at ground zero via video chat with the team leader when he got a call. He stood, left the chat going, and pressed his hand to the door leading into the ballroom where the Kellies have been sequestered. A minute later, their screams alerted the other agents on duty, who captured him.”

“Has anyone questioned him?”

“He claims to have no memory of the incident.”

“Make sure they don’t hurt him.” I put steel behind the order. “I can’t believe he would do this on his own.”

“You think he’s been spelled?”