A Catastrophic Theft

by P. D. Workman

  Letticia pulled around Reg, out the road that Reg had used coming in. Reg turned her car around as quickly as she could and followed Letticia out. They bumped over the roads, much faster than Reg had traveled them on the way in, bouncing around and bruising her tailbone. She didn’t really have good shocks. She shuddered to think what the roads were doing to Letticia’s expensive little convertible.

  But Letticia pretty much lived off the grid and couldn’t have had many more expenses than the taxes on the land she lived on, so maybe she could afford to replace her car or her car’s suspension every year or two. They zoomed back toward Black Sands. Reg was happy to hit the familiar roads again. She’d half-expected to get lost in the forest and never return.

  The tribunal was held in a hotel meeting room. Reg had expected some dark dungeon or a gathering in a clearing in the woods. And she was happy to be meeting during the daylight hours rather than at midnight. Maybe the warlocks were not quite as uncivilized as she had expected.

  Letticia bustled Reg up to the front where the members of the tribunal were gathering and speaking with each other.

  “Regina, I’d like you to meet Davyn Smithy, my counterpart in the coven of the Black Sands warlocks.”

  Regina nodded to Dave Smith. “We’ve met. So do you have one name for warlocks and another for non-magical folk?”

  Dave looked a little awkward. He nodded. “Dave Smith is nice and normal and anonymous for day-to-day use. Davyn is my real name.”

  “Uh-huh.” Reg knew the benefits of being able to stay anonymous and fly under the radar when your business or personal life were unconventional. “Got it.”

  Davyn offered Reg his hand to shake and she didn’t take it. Davyn looked at her, then over at Letticia, giving a wide shrug. Letticia raised one severe, querying eyebrow. “Do you really expect her to show you any social courtesies after her experience with Corvin?” Her mouth drew down at the corners into a deep scowl. Davyn swallowed and dropped his hand back to his side.

  “You may be seated over there, Miss Rawlins,” he pointed to a chair prominently isolated at the front of the room.

  Reg looked at it and shook her head. “No. I don’t think so.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I’m not on display here. I’ll sit in the audience until it’s my time to speak.”

  He opened his mouth and seemed to be at a loss as to how to react to her defiance. There was a snicker from another warlock who had not been introduced to Reg, which she thought was rather rude.

  “This is a formal hearing, Miss Rawlins. There are protocols to be followed.”

  “I’m sure there are. And I’m sure that trying to humiliate witnesses or victims isn’t one of them.”

  “Of course not—”

  “Then I’ll be sitting where I choose.” She looked at Letticia. “Where are you going to be sitting?”

  Letticia gestured to a couple of rows of chairs angled in the front corner of the room. “Over there, with the tribunal.”

  Reg didn’t want to be sitting with the tribunal, either. So she walked over to one of the audience chairs, near the front and on the aisle, so that she could easily get up when she was called upon. She sat down and made herself as comfortable as she could under the glares and laughter of the other warlocks who had witnessed the whole process.

  She sat back, folded her arms across her chest, and watched the warlocks prepare for their meeting. Davyn Smithy looked her way a few times, but each time he found her glaring back at him, he looked quickly away.

  Her anxiety grew as the chairs behind her filled. She hadn’t expected so many spectators. Why would any of them care what Corvin had done or how she had been victimized? They didn’t even know Reg.

  She hadn’t seen Corvin come in, but looked up and saw him watching her. He ventured a little smile when he saw her, and crooked a finger for her to join him. Did he really think she wanted anything to do with him? That she would let any of the others in the room see her consorting with him? He looked around him to see what the others were doing, then approached her chair. He again gave a warm reassuring smile.

  “Regina. I wondered if I could get a private word with you.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “Just for a moment, I won’t take a lot of your time…”

  “No.”

  “I just want a moment the two of us could be alone for a minute.”

  “After everything, why would I do that?”

  “Because I think that you and I could work something out that was mutually beneficial…”

  “What is this, a plea bargain?” Reg couldn’t even believe he was approaching her. Surely doing so was against some rule? And trying to get her alone as the minute of his trial approached…? It didn’t make any sense.

  Corvin shook his head. “I’m not going to do anything to you. Look at all these witnesses…” he gestured to the gathering crowd.

  “If you want something, you can tell me right here, because this is where I’m staying. I’m not going somewhere else with you and I don’t care about privacy. My whole life is about to be put on display here.”

  Corvin considered for a moment, then slid into the chair in front of her, casually turned around to talk to her face-to-face.

  “I know that you can’t be much happier about this whole thing than I am,” he acknowledged. “Neither of us wanted it to come to this. I made a mistake, and I’ve apologized, and I think we both just want to go on with our own lives, not to have to deal with this whole… circus act.”

  Reg’s anger, already at a low bubble just being in the same room as Corvin, flared up.

  “You think I just want to forget about this? I don’t want to forget about it. I don’t want you to forget about it.”

  “And I’m not going to. I’ve learned from it. I didn’t realize that I was so weak. I’ll make sure… it won’t ever happen again.”

  All the same, he couldn’t seem to talk to her without laying on the charm. It came off of him like shimmering heat waves over the sidewalk.

  Reg stared away from Corvin, not wanting to seem friendly toward him and not wanting to take the chance of being pulled in by him yet again.

  “Whatever you’ve got cooked up, the answer is no,” she said firmly. “I’m not letting you off the hook. You deserve whatever discipline they decide on.”

  “Of course, I know. I agree. Whatever they judge is just… I’ll accept.”

  “You’d better go get ready, then, they’ll be ready to start in a few minutes.”

  “You still haven’t heard me out.”

  “I’ve heard enough.” No matter how sorry he said he was, Reg saw no sign of repentance. No indication that he was going to change or try to act differently in the future.

  “Reg.” He said her name more firmly and Reg felt a shift, as if he’d put handcuffs on her or whispered a command. She stared at him, waiting for him to finish so she could move again. “I really think we can help each other out. What you say here has an effect on my future. My freedom and ability to practice. Just like you don’t want to have your freedom restricted by getting thrown in jail.”

  Reg couldn’t believe he would be so bold. “I don’t see what one has to do with the other.”

  “Oh, don’t you? I could be of service to you, in taking care how I tell my story about you and Starlight and the missing necklace. And you can be of service to me by taking care how you tell them about my… mistake.”

  “You want me to trade my testimony, and you’ll keep me out of jail if I do.”

  He smiled, nodding. “You see? It really is simple. I know that you don’t want to go to jail for stealing Sarah’s jewel.”

  “I wouldn’t even be on the suspect list if you hadn’t made up that nonsense about me training Starlight to go into the house and help me to steal jewelry away from Sarah. How ridiculous! Does anybody really believe it?”

  “The more witnesses there are, the more difficult it becomes for you to avoid what will
certainly come.”

  “You put Marian up to witnessing against me. And who knows how many other people you’ve tried to tempt into helping you. But they won’t, because it’s all made up.”

  Corvin’s jaw clenched. He stared at her, anger clear in the heat of his gaze. He had thought he could talk and cajole her into shading her testimony to not portray him in such a bad light, sure she would do it in order to get out of the way of the police and their spotlight.

  “Nobody is going to put me in jail for stealing that necklace,” she told Corvin with more certainty than she felt. “I’m not serving a day, because I didn’t steal it, and you know it.”

  He got to his feet, saying nothing. Reg had done it this time. He could no longer even pretend to be saying and doing nice things for her. He was done with the charm.

  ⋆ Chapter Sixteen ⋆

  T

  he session is called to order,” Davyn Smithy declared. “Please take your seats and refrain from speaking unless you are called upon.”

  Women settled into the seats next to Reg’s, casting surreptitious glances in her direction. Even though she was sitting in the audience, people clearly knew what her role there was.

  Reg clenched her teeth and pressed her lips together hard, trying to look calm and collected. She needed everyone to think that she was there of her own choice and was calm and clear-headed. They didn’t need to know that she had forgotten about the trial and would probably have missed it if Letticia hadn’t needed to be there too.

  Reg was not the one on trial. Corvin was on trial, because of what he had done to her. It was her chance to turn the tables on him and make him pay for what he had done.

  Davyn outlined the various charges in a monotone. He looked out over the room and stopped for a minute, waiting for the audience to quiet again.

  “Corvin Hunter, what have you to say about these charges?”

  Corvin was sitting in one of the lone chairs at the front of the room. He got to his feet, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Just how far could he throw those charms? Reg had usually been right next to him when he had turned his glamour on her, but she had been able to sense when he entered a room. Was he warming up the charm now, seeing if he could influence all of them? Such an endeavor would surely fail. There were some people that seemed to be immune to his charms. One day, maybe Reg would be one of them.

  “I challenge the validity of the charges,” Corvin said in a warm, resonant voice. “I challenge the fairness of laws made requiring me to resist my own nature.”

  Reg looked at Davyn for his reaction to this position. He gave no indication whether he approved or disapproved. He picked up a quill, dipped it in an ink pot, and wrote long words and sentences. Reg watched, fascinated. She’d never actually seen someone write that way, even though she knew it used to be done all the time. The advances in writing instruments, computers, and other methods of communication had killed off those old, traditional methods. Or at least, that was what Reg had assumed up until that moment. Apparently there were still some pockets of people practicing the old ways.

  Davyn laid his pen down. “Do you wish to address the appropriateness of the laws at the beginning or end of the hearing?”

  “I’ll wait until the end,” Corvin said. “I think most of you have heard these arguments before, so it is best if I just refresh you at the end.”

  Reg clenched her fists. She, too, had heard his argument of how it was unjust to ban someone from doing what came naturally to him. She had been swayed before by his hunger, by his intense need. She had since had a chance to reconsider that position. There had to be laws to protect the innocent. Those with baser instincts and desires could not be allowed full rein to do whatever they wanted, harming others. The laws were needed to protect those who were vulnerable.

  “I believe we will get right into it, then.” Davyn got to his feet, stretching a little. “I call Miss Regina Rawlins to present her testimony.”

  Reg stood up. Davyn gestured to the chair he had indicated she should sit in earlier.

  “If you would,” he encouraged.

  She did as she was asked. Her mouth was as dry as cotton, but she was sweating buckets. She had no idea what she was going to say and how she was going to convince them that Corvin needed to be punished. She deserved recompense.

  “Miss Rawlins, could you describe for us what happened on the date in question?” Davyn Smithy picked up his papers and read off the date of the party.

  Reg nodded and swallowed. She explained how they had gotten there to the party and what they had done once they got there. Davyn nodded his understanding. His face was clear of any emotional response.

  “Now before we go forward, Miss Rawlins, let us review the facts. You were aware of Mr. Hunter’s powers.”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you become aware of these powers? They are… something of a taboo to talk about in the community.”

  “I don’t get that,” Reg said, shaking her head. “It would have been much better if people had explained everything to me, instead of just saying to stay away from him.”

  “We will get to that before too long. If you could answer my questions in the order they are asked.”

  “Okay… what was the question?”

  “How did you become aware of Mr. Hunter’s powers prior to the date of the party?”

  “Oh. Well… because I was tricked into relinquishing my powers to him before.”

  There was a burst of noise from the audience. Clearly, they had not been expecting that tidbit. Reg kept in mind the one thing that everyone agreed upon about men like Corvin who sucked the gifts out of unsuspecting victims. Once they took someone’s powers, they never gave them back.

  “You had relinquished your powers to him before,” Davyn said, as if stunned.

  “Yes. I know… that doesn’t make any sense to you, but it’s true. He took my powers away completely, so I was…” Reg shook her head and tried to describe the horrible feeling of waking up to silence. No voices in her head. No feelings. No chatter. It had all just stopped. “I was so… empty. And quiet. I didn’t know what he had done at first. I didn’t know what to do. But then later, Corvin helped me… I was being tortured by this man… this Hawthorne Rose. He wanted something… I no longer had.”

  “One of your powers?”

  “Memories. But I could only remember them or pass them on if I had my powers, and I didn’t anymore. It was all just a blank.”

  “And this torture prompted Corvin to give you back your psychic gifts.”

  “Yes.”

  There was another murmur through the crowd. It wasn’t good for Reg’s position. The fact that Corvin had given her her gifts back meant that she owed him. That’s what he had told her.

  “I didn’t ask for them back,” Reg clarified. “He did it spontaneously, because he wanted to stop Hawthorne-Rose.”

  Davyn stroked his beard, thinking it through. “We’ll leave it at that… for now. But we may need to revisit this point. So… you were aware that Corvin could take your powers because he had done it before.”

  “Yes.”

  “So after that… you avoided being near him.”

  Reg nodded. “Yeah.”

  “For how long?”

  “What?”

  “How long did you avoid being around Mr. Hunter? Once you had your gifts returned to you, you stayed away from him for… how long?”

  “I don’t know. I avoided him the best I could, but sometimes I’d run into him… or we would need to work on a case together.”

  “How is that?”

  “What?”

  “What kind of cases? You are not a police officer, are you?”

  “No. I was just consulting… and the police needed Corvin’s input too. So… we were both there at the same time.”

  “That sounds awkward. You didn’t ask the detective on the case for you to appear separately, so you didn’t have to run into each other?”

  “No. I didn’t think
it would do any good and we were kind of in a hurry. Lives hung in the balance.”

  “I see. So you avoided Mr. Hunter…. unless there was some sort of business that the two of you needed to discuss.”

  Reg shrugged. “We did talk,” she agreed.

  “You did more than talk.”

  “The night of the party, you mean?”

  “You did more than talk to Mr. Hunter the night of the party.”

  “Not to start with.”

  “You danced. Surely that wasn’t ‘business.’”

  “Well… no. But we were just talking.”

  “Were you? I would suggest that there was a lot more going on than just talking.”

  Reg wiped her forehead. She desperately wanted a drink of water but no one offered her one.

  “It was Corvin’s idea to dance. He kept begging me.”

  “So you gave in.”

  “No… I told him that I would only dance with him under certain conditions.”

  “Conditions.”

  Reg caught a glimpse of Corvin as he watched her testify. She could have sworn that he was laughing. Anger lightninged through her chest and she tried to control it.

  “Explain what these conditions were,” Davyn requested.

  “I told him that he couldn’t use his magic on me. That if he used magic, then I didn’t consent to him doing anything, to taking my powers. If he used magic to make me say yes, then I still didn’t consent.”

  “An interesting thought. And how did this go over with Mr. Hunter?”

  “He didn’t like it. He stormed off. But after a while, he came back, and he said he’d agree to my terms. He said he wouldn’t use his magic on me. That he just wanted to dance with me.”

  “I see.” Davyn picked up his pen and wrote down several lines of information. Everyone waited, watching him intently, shifting restlessly in their seats.

  “So did you feel confident that you would have no further trouble from Mr. Hunter?”

  “Uh… no. Not at all. I asked Sarah what she thought. She said that everything should be fine if we were just dancing and we stayed where there were other people. She said that he wouldn’t do anything if there were other people around.”