“What is it, child? Something has upset you.”
I struggled to speak. “One of the wardens training me—Lucille—she died today. I was with her.” I lowered my gaze. I knew that if I looked into the chancellor's kind eyes, I would fall apart.
“Sweet Hecate,” the chancellor said. “And you are unscathed? The gods are merciful.”
“I don't know if I would say that,” I replied. “It wasn’t in combat. She picked up some kind of infection. We don't know what.” I stopped talking. The lump in my throat had grown too large to continue.
The chancellor slid back her chair and came to comfort me. She placed a warm hand over mine. “Dear child, it is not a sign of weakness to show emotion over the loss of a friend. I would be concerned if you didn’t.”
I needed no further encouragement. Tears spilled from my eyes and coated my cheeks. I cried so hard that it became difficult to breathe. The chancellor simply held my hand and let me be until the sobbing subsided.
“It is important for you to experience these emotions,” she explained, and handed me a handkerchief. “Without feeling, there is no healing. And yes, I am well aware that it rhymes.”
“Lucille was so nice to me,” I choked out. “She complimented me on something every day. She was exactly the kind of agent I want to be.”
The chancellor inclined her head. “Why do you think we paired you with her?”
I gulped for air. “You chose her for me?”
“I had help, of course. I always do. The wisest creatures in the world request help when they need it. Everyone I consulted on the matter suggested Lucille and Nicholas for you. I'd say it was the right decision.”
I wiped away the tears. “Even in the short time I spent with her, I feel like I’ve learned so much. I just feel so guilty that…” I trailed off, unable to finish the thought.
The chancellor peered at me. “You feel so guilty that you survived while an immortal has perished? Is that it?”
I nodded. I hadn’t wanted to admit the thought to myself, let alone out loud. As usual, Chancellor Tilkin was able to put my feelings into words.
“Amelia Holmes, tell me. Why is it that you value yourself so little? How has the world managed to convince you that you are of lesser value than Lucille or Nick or Danielle or Bryn? This right here—this moment is what I want this year to change for you. It is not your abilities that we have questioned, though I know you believe it is. It is this attitude that you are less than. Make no mistake. You are not simply highly valued for your skills, Mia, but you are also greatly loved by all who come into contact with you.”
Her words hit home for me and I swallowed a cry. She was right. I never quite believed her when she complimented me, or when anyone complimented me for that matter. I was beginning to understand that my reaction was due to the negative way I viewed myself.
“If you feel that you would be better suited moving to a different agent for your next training assignment, I would be happy to oblige you. This is a traumatic experience for any agent, never mind a trainee.”
I shook my head vigorously. “Absolutely not. I'm not going to abandon Nick now, not when we need to figure out what killed Lucille and Percy.” I scrunched the handkerchief into a ball, fighting to regain my composure.
The chancellor patted my hand. “I have every confidence in you, child. If you need my assistance in any way, don’t hesitate to ask.” She paused. “You might want to consider making an appointment with Alana. As you know, she’s very good counseling those who’ve suffered traumatic experiences.”
She was. Cerys was still a regular visitor to Alana’s house or office—or anywhere the druid deemed suitable for a session. I knew that Cerys valued her greatly.
“I’ll keep it in mind,” I said.
“Permit yourself time to grieve,” the chancellor advised, “but also permit yourself to move on when you’re ready. Grief is not a place to dwell for any length of time.”
“Thank you, Chancellor.”
I left the chancellor’s office and went directly to the top of the turret for privacy. There I could grieve in peace. A gentle breeze caressed my back as I sat huddled in a corner of the rooftop, recounting every kind word Lucille had said to me—my small way of celebrating her.
“I heard what happened.”
My head jerked up to see Declan standing in front of me. “How?”
He shrugged and loosened the buttons on his coat to sit beside me. “I have my sources.”
“How did you know to find me here?”
Declan leaned closer and I inhaled his familiar scent. “Figured you’d want to be as close to the open air as possible,” he said.
“I’m grieving,” I announced.
He offered a vague smile. “I can see that.”
“It’s healthy, apparently. Feeling results in healing, or something like that.”
“Sounds healthy to me,” he replied. “A lot of warriors fail to heed that advice and suffer for it.”
“Percy died, too,” I said. “The thief.”
“Any thoughts on that?” he asked.
“Other than the fact that it’s unusual?”
“Vampires don’t keel over and die from a typical infection. Great Aengus, they rarely succumb to illness of any kind.”
“The AMF is running tests on Lucille’s blood to see what they can find out,” I said.
“Any mention of poison?” he asked.
I examined him. “Why so interested? I thought you were only concerned with your oracle’s vision.”
“I can multitask.” He turned his gaze to the sky above. A brilliant sunset painted the horizon with streaks of red, orange, and gold. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I tucked my chin on my knee. “Do you ever wonder how many of these you’ll get to see before you die?”
He grunted. “Depends on your species. I bet Lucille lost count a long time ago.”
I smiled to myself, trying to imagine Lucille pausing to admire a sunset. Probably not her style. “I wanted to tell her about the paintings coming to life, but I didn’t get the chance. That she would have loved.”
“Do your friends know you’re up here by yourself?” he asked.
“No, they think I’m with the chancellor.”
He bumped his leg gently against mine. “Why not let them comfort you?”
“For a guy in a tough leather coat, you’re surprisingly sensitive.”
He smiled. “I can multitask.”
“I’m sensing a theme.” I stared at the sunset and marveled at what a few beams of light could achieve. There was the real magic at work. “I wish I could’ve helped her. She tried to bite me and my instinct was to run.”
“Of course it was,” he replied. “When something pointy is coming your way, that’s everyone’s instinct.”
I craned my neck to see him. “Would it be yours?” Declan had thrown the first punch at the horned demon in the art gallery. His first instinct was definitely not to run.
“I’m a lot older and more experienced than you,” he said. “It’s not a fair comparison.”
“How much older and more experienced?” I queried. And experienced in what exactly?
He stood and dusted himself off. “That concludes the Q&A portion of this evening’s Sunset with Declan. Join us again tomorrow.”
“It was thoughtful of you to come and find me,” I said. I had to admit that I felt better than I did when I arrived.
He walked to the edge of the rooftop, ready to depart. “No one should have to grieve alone.”
“Thanks to you, I didn’t.” I rose to my feet and faced the sunset as the last ribbons of light faded from the sky.
“What's going on?” I hurried into the lobby of AMF headquarters to meet Nick after receiving an urgent message early this morning.
Nick tugged on the ends of his thick brown hair. “Lucille and Percy aren't the only victims.”
I struggled to keep pace with him as he immediately headed toward the elevator
.
“What do you mean?” I asked. The elevator doors opened and we stepped inside. Nick hit the button for his floor with an agitated finger.
“We started getting reports this morning of unexplained deaths.”
“And? Why do you think it's connected to what happened to Lucille and Percy?”
“Because every single one of the reports involves a vampire and every single one of those vampires attended the event at Nonesuch.”
Sweat gathered in my palms. “All the vampires?” The doors opened and we hustled down the hall. I thought we would go to Nick's office, but he led me into a conference room where several paranormals were already assembled around the table. Robin was there, as well as a few faces I didn't recognize.
Nick pointed to a chair, indicating for me to sit. “Everyone, this is Mia Holmes. She was at Nonesuch with us.” He paused. “She was with Lucille when she died.”
There were murmurs of greeting, but no one was in a jovial mood, not that I expected them to be under the circumstances. Whenever an agent died, I imagined that everyone in the building was reminded of their own vulnerability. Even someone like Lucille, an immortal.
“How many vampires are we talking about?” I asked.
Robin consulted the paper in front of him. “Twenty and rising. Right now, we’re in the process of sending inquiries to every vampire we know in attendance.”
“And what we can't learn by phone, we’ll follow up on foot,” Nick said.
“I still don't understand,” I said. “What kind of illness can wipe out a room of vampires?” While I wouldn't pretend to be the foremost expert on vampires, I knew enough to realize that this was seemingly impossible.
“The lab results came back on Lucille and Percy,” a woman interjected. Her small wings and slightly pointed ears gave her away as a pixie. “My name is Sydney, by the way. I’m a lab liaison.”
“Come on, Sydney,” Nick said gruffly. “Don't hold out on us. What did the report say? We need something useful to work with here.” He pounded his fist on the table and I jumped slightly in my seat.
No one reacted. They all understood Nick’s devastation. It was heartening to see that they didn’t resent his outburst.
“Nick, before we continue, if I could remind you to stop in and see Shasta sometime this week,” a man said gently. “She's waiting for you. It doesn't matter when. She said she will make herself available.”
Nick gave a terse nod. “I get it. I do. But I will focus on my mental health once I figure out what the hell happened to Lucille.” He placed his hands lightly on the table. “You know me, Herb. I'll do it because Lucille would have wanted me to.”
“I’ll give you this chance, Nick,” Herb replied. “But I won't hesitate to change my mind if it begins to seem unproductive for you or the agency.”
The pixie raised a finger. “May I continue now?” She glanced pointedly around the table. “The report shows an unidentifiable toxin in their systems. The lab is still working to figure out what's involved.”
“Unidentifiable or unidentified?” I queried.
“As of now, whatever it is matches nothing in our database,” Sydney said. “They said to let you all know that they’re working around the clock to break it down.”
“That won't help Lucille,” Nick grumbled.
“No,” Herb said. “We’ve got to look ahead now, Nick. We’ve got to get this thing under control before it kills anyone else. At this point, we don't know what were dealing with. It could be an outbreak of some kind, a plague for all we know.”
Robin's brow furrowed. “With all due respect, sir, how would such an event even begin? Surely, if this infection caused by something in nature, we would have come across it by now.”
Everyone at the table remained quiet.
“The fact that it seems to have adversely impacted vampires and no one else is troubling,” Sydney said.
“Let's focus the list of all the vampires that attended the event and checking off the ones sick or dead,” Nick said.
“Do we have a copy of the guest list from the Vampire Alliance?” I asked.
Robin waved a paper in the air. “Yes, I was able to extract it from a volunteer there. They were being inundated with calls from concerned vampires.”
I looked at Nick. “What about the sundial? What if it’s somehow connected to the deaths?”
“The sundial is here in inventory,” Nick said. “I’m not even sure it was on display at Nonesuch.”
I was inclined to agree.
“I want you and Nick to carry on investigating,” Herb said to me. “We’ll hold the sundial here until we know more. Once we’ve ruled it out, the museum can have it back.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “Sydney, have the lab analyze the sundial. No vampires on the team. Vampires aren't safe until we have figured this out.”
“That's not a statement you hear every day,” Robin said.
Nobody laughed.
“Nick, I need you and Mia to take a trip into Terrene,” Herb said. “There’s a situation there that might be relevant to the investigation.”
“Terrene?” Nick queried. “Shouldn't we notify the League?” The League of Local Paranormals handled issues of a magical nature in the human world.
“That's who you’re meeting there,” Herb advised. “Do you have your passport, Mia? If not, we can expedite one.”
“I’ve got mine,” I replied. It didn’t seem right to run off to the human world when so much was happening here, but Herb was the boss and I trusted he knew what he was doing.
Herb slapped his hands on the desk. “No time like the present then. I expect a full progress report by the end of the day.”
Everyone scattered from the table like roaches from the invading light. It was time to get to work.
Chapter Eight
Nick drove us to the border where we showed our credentials to the Order of the Edge guard. The Order protected the boundary between our world and the human one, keeping tabs on paranormal visits. It was one way of making sure we didn't wreak havoc in Terrene and throw the realms out of balance.
“Where in Terrene do we have to go?” I asked. I didn't have a lot of experience in the human world, but my roommate had a pretty strong connection to it. Bryn had spent most of her life there before Chancellor Tilkin whisked her away to Spellslingers. I sometimes wondered what would've happened to Bryn if the chancellor hadn't been on the bridge in New Hope that fateful night.
“The address is in Center City, Philadelphia,” Nick said. His expression hardened. “Lucille always insisted we get cheesesteaks whenever we came here.”
“I’m surprised that was her food of choice,” I said.
“It wasn’t,” Nick said. “She knew I’d never be the one to ask to stop, so she would insist. That way I didn’t have to.”
I cast a sympathetic glance at Nick. It was going to be a long time before he overcame Lucille’s death.
“I’ve been to Center City before,” I said. I’d accompanied my roommates to Elfreth’s Alley and the Liberty Bell, among other places. It had been quite an adventure.
“We’re going to an address near Rittenhouse Square,” Nick said.
“Is that where the League office is?”
Nick parallel parked the car. “No, it's where we’re meeting them, though.” He glanced out his window. “Minotaur shit. Do you have any Terrene coins? I don't want to get a ticket or Herb will have a coronary. He hates having to scrub us from the system here. Too much hassle.”
“No, sorry. I can offer something else.” I twirled my wand in the air.
Nick smiled. “Perfect. Thanks.”
I worked a little magic on the meter and we cut through Rittenhouse Square to reach the side street. The address was a picturesque double-fronted building with a wrought-iron fence. The shutters were painted a glossy black and the door a deep shade of crimson. Pretty flower boxes adorned each window.
We walked up three steps to reach the door and Nick used the
brass knocker in the shape of a harpy’s upper half. The door opened to reveal a familiar face.
“Callan!” I said. I wasn't expecting to see the werewolf here. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, though. Cerys's boyfriend worked for the League in this area.
Callan grinned at the sight of me. “I’m as surprised as you are.” He shook Nick's hand. “Good to see you, buddy. I'm sorry about Lucille. She was a good agent. How are you holding up?”
Nick’s expression grew somber. “Thanks. I'm still in shock, I think. Lucille was always larger than life to me. I always imagined she'd be the one burying me. I used to tease her about making sure she didn't try to turn me so that I’d be stuck with her forever.”
Callan chuckled. “You were lucky to work with each other. Not everybody gets the kind of partnership you had.”
“Are you complaining about me again?” A tall woman rounded the corner of the living room. Mona. She broke into a huge smile when she spotted me. “Look at this. Our little witch is growing up.”
“Everyone is little to you,” Callan shot back.
The Amazon clasped my hand. “It's good to see you, Mia. So you’re the one saddled with this problem child.” She tilted her head toward Nick. “And here I thought they liked you over at the academy.”
“How do you know each other?” Nick asked.
“Callan dates my roommate, Cerys,” I replied. “We all met last year during our first term last year.” The circumstances had been less than ideal. We’d been on a field trip to Allegheny Forest when Cerys had stumbled across a clearing full of dead bodies. The League had sensed the magic and shown up not long after Cerys. Thanks to Bryn's blood magic, Callan and Cerys ended up being bound to each other until they solved the murders. They'd been voluntarily together ever since.
“So what other surprises do you have in store for me today?” Nick asked. “It isn't every day that the League invites me to their territory.”
He wasn't wrong. The League and AMF often clashed over territory and jurisdiction.
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