Page 94 of Magic Claimed

“Like what?” Kira asked.

“Registration and relocation,” Deverin replied flatly. “Among other things. I’ve even seen blueprints in my director’s office. Provided by a new consultant who seems to havehis ear.”

A new consultant…

“What does he look like?” I inquired swiftly, my heart pounding as I sensed a potential breakthrough. If this was part of Blake’s new plan…

“Not he, butshe,” Deverin corrected. “And I’m fairly certain she’s deliberately avoiding me. The odd thing is, while I’ve only caught glimpses of her face, I could swear I’ve sensed traces of shifter magic whenever she’s been in the office.”

Traces of shifter magic…

The truth hit me like a fae lightning bolt.

She.

The voice I’d heard in the crowd of protesters.

The woman who’d called out Callum’s name during the dragon attack.

“Phone charger,” I begged suddenly, holding out my hand and making a grabbing motion. “Someone, find me a phone charger.”

Angelica produced one as if by magic, and I darted under the nearest desk for a power strip. Plugged it in. Clenched my fingers and my teeth and tried not to bite through my own cheek while I waited for it to power up.

“What are you looking for?” Callum hovered over my shoulder, his emotions clouded in worry.

“Proof,” I muttered. “I just needproof.”

The seconds seemed endless, but eventually my phone screen lit up. I unlocked it and opened my photos. The most recent ones were all from the protest, when I’d been pretending to take selfies. I scanned through them with shaking fingers, zooming in on the crowd, desperately hoping for a break…

And then there it was.

She looked very different from the last time we’d shared an office, so perhaps that was why I hadn’t recognized her. Her posture was no longer cowering, her brown hair was bleached, cut, and styled, and her eyes no longer stared only at the floor. The shapeshifter amber was concealed by contacts, but they still blazed with purpose as she shouted something with her fist in the air.

We were right. It was right here. And I should have seen it sooner.

I shoved the phone screen in Deverin’s direction. “Do you recognize her?”

He strode towards me, tilted his head, and a moment later, he nodded. “Pretty sure that’s her. How did you know?”

Callum leaned in to glance at the zoomed-in picture, then let out a whispered curse.

“Raine?” Kira’s impatient query lifted my head from the screen, and when she saw my expression, her own turned cold and rigid.

I only needed one word. “Heather.”

Faris slammed his fist onto a nearby desk in rage, while Kira’s eyes went hot and bright. Claws erupted from her fingertips, scales patterned the backs of her hands, and a wisp of smoke escaped between lengthening teeth.

“You should have let me eat her when I had the chance,” she growled savagely.

Callum just ran a weary hand down his face and sighed. “Fine, yes. You were right. Next time I’ll just hand you a fork.”

Kira’s size and temperament might make that sound like anempty threat, but her bloodthirsty expression suggested she’d been dying to make the attempt. And while I didn’t usually condone violently ingesting our enemies as a way of solving problems, I was willing to make an exception in Heather’s case.

I’d first met Heather as Callum’s assistant—a timid woman who could barely look me or anyone else in the eye. But it had all been an act. In the end, she’d been responsible for betraying him to Blake, in exchange for the magic she’d been denied by her half-human ancestry. And now she was back, clearly neck-deep in this plot to destabilize the city I called home.

Whatever she and Blake were up to, they’d taken it all the way to the human government, so this was obviously bigger than a few kidnapped teens and some inflammatory rhetoric.

I whirled to Angelica. “Can we establish a link between Heather and Greg?”