Heart of Malice (Alice Worth Book 1)

by Lisa Edmonds

  “Are we going in?” Malcolm’s voice made me jump. I realized we’d been sitting in front of Natalie’s house for almost ten minutes while I thought through the problem.

  “In a minute. I need your opinion.” I laid it out for him. “Thoughts?”

  “I definitely agree that we need to know how strong she is,” Malcolm said. “If she’s powerful, you’re right—telling the vamp about her might not be a good idea. If she’s mid-level or below, we’re probably safe talking to him.”

  I nodded. It was great having a partner to talk things through with, especially when he agreed with my plan.

  “I vote we tell Natalie the truth and let her decide,” he added. “I think she needs to know what’s going on and make an informed decision. I’m not sure we have the right to determine how much she gets to know about herself.”

  “You’re right. If it were me, and I found out someone had been keeping this kind of information from me, I’d be furious. I’m worried about how she’ll take the news, but she deserves to know.”

  “I think the best thing to do is tell her what we know, give her the options, and see what she wants to do. Hell, she may want us to bind her power completely. There are a lot of people who don’t want any part of magic. There are a lot of days when I’d give anything not to have it. I suffered a lot because of my ‘gift.’” He sounded bitter.

  “Do you really wish you had been born without magic?”

  A long pause. Then the ghost in my car said, “Honestly? Yes.”

  I sat back in my seat and tried to imagine my life without magic. No cabal, no blood magic. No Agency to fear. My parents would still be alive. I thought about all the pain I had endured since the day when I was four and my magic manifested and my grandfather saw in me the potential to be the strongest mage in the family’s history.

  I rubbed my face. It didn’t matter if I didn’t want the magic or not; I had it. I couldn’t change anything about my past. The dead would stay dead. As an MPI, I tried to help people, as if I could do enough good to somehow make up for what I’d done for the cabal. It wasn’t enough, but it was all I could do.

  “Let’s go talk to Natalie,” I said finally.

  *

  Once we were inside, Malcolm went visible again. Because he’d drawn energy from Natalie the night before, she could hear him now. What surprised me was that she could sort of see him too, probably thanks to the power boost.

  Natalie sat on the couch, I took the chair, and Malcolm floated three feet to my left. She was looking right at him. “I can see the outline of someone,” she said in wonder. “Like when you stare at a geometric pattern and then a blank wall, and your eyes still see the pattern.”

  I pulled a folder out of my bag. “Before we get started, we should write up a contract and talk about payment. I should have done it yesterday, but things got unexpectedly…busy.”

  Natalie’s hand flew to her mouth. “I am so sorry! I forgot completely about that. Let’s do it now.”

  We spent about twenty minutes going over the contract. She argued when I told her I wasn’t invoking the “extraordinary circumstances with personal injury” clause after what happened last night. I insisted that my burn and ruined shirt were my fault, but I let her talk me into adding a bonus for the landmine mishap. We agreed on a retainer and a daily rate plus expenses, and she wrote me a check and signed the papers.

  With the legalities out of the way, it was time for The Talk. “Natalie, before I start working on the library, there’s something we need to discuss. What’s the last thing you remember from last night?”

  She thought about it. “You’d been hurt by the wards,” she said slowly. “I wrapped you in blankets and Malcolm was going to put new wards on the library. And then I…fell asleep?” She frowned. “That doesn’t seem right. How did I fall asleep in the middle of all that?”

  “You didn’t.” She blinked at me in confusion. “Some pretty strange stuff happened last night. I’m going to tell you everything, but you might find it a little upsetting.”

  “Just tell me!” Natalie demanded.

  I told her about her fire and air magic suddenly manifesting, how Betty had suppressed her magic, and how I’d bound it again before tucking her into bed.

  By the time I finished, Natalie was pacing around the living room, her arms wrapped around her middle. She looked mad and scared. I wasn’t sure what would help her, so I waited.

  Finally, she turned to face me. “What am I supposed to do?” she demanded. “Yesterday I found out my grandmother was a powerful mage who left killer wards behind when she died. I saw you hurt twice from what she did. Now you tell me I have magic too, but that my grandmother put spells on me so I wouldn’t know I had it.”

  Malcolm and I waited quietly while she struggled to process what I’d told her. Finally, she dropped back onto the couch and sighed. “Okay, I can deal with this. Tell me what we need to do.”

  Briefly, I outlined the problem. “I’m pretty sure we can keep your magic bound. If you want no part of this life, I’m about ninety percent certain I can keep your magic from manifesting. I think the reason it flared last night is that Betty’s spells weren’t maintained after she passed away. They might have been tied to the library wards; I’m not sure.”

  I suddenly had a revelation. “You know how you told me you thought you were being poisoned because you’ve been sick and losing weight? I’m wondering if your magic trying to escape the binding spells might be causing you to be ill.”

  She looked shocked. “You really think so?”

  “It’s a possibility. Have you felt better today?”

  She thought about it. “Well, yes, I guess I have. I ate a big sandwich for lunch, and normally I’m not that hungry. I thought it was because I got a good night’s sleep.” Suddenly she seemed more energized. “Well, that’s a relief! One less thing to worry about. I guess nobody is really trying to kill me after all!”

  “I’m not sure I’m right; it’s just a theory for now,” I said before she could get too excited. “The binding spell I put on you is tied to our wards, which are at full strength, so your situation should be stabilized for a while.”

  “Will the spell always be tied to the wards?” Natalie bit her lip.

  “No. There’s another way. A better way.”

  “How?”

  “A tattoo.” I pushed up my right sleeve and pulled down the back of my shirt to show her some of my own tattoos, including a dragon coiled around my upper arm and the phoenix on my back. “A tattoo can hold a spell pretty much indefinitely. It wouldn’t have to be very big—maybe two inches square. Your own aura will power the spell.”

  “Would it have to be a particular design?”

  I shook my head. “There would be runes, but a good mage tattoo artist can make them practically invisible within most any design. You could get pretty much whatever you want and put it wherever you want. I can take you to the mage who did my tattoos.”

  “You said ninety percent.” Natalie seized on something I said earlier. “Why not a hundred percent?”

  “Unfortunately, every spell has counterspells, and I can’t anticipate every possibility. Most government buildings are protected by wards that disrupt spells, even ones anchored by tattoos. If you crossed one, the binding might fail. If you ever touched a null—”

  “What’s a null?”

  “A null is a mage who can drain someone else’s energy by touching them. They’re not common, but they’re out there. If you bumped into one on the street, you’d lose some or all of your magic and the suppression spell would fail. If you didn’t get to me or someone soon to redo the spells, your magic would be uncontrolled as it regenerated.”

  Natalie closed her eyes.

  “If you’re looking for guarantees, I can’t give them to you,” I said. “That’s life, pretty much. You’ll be as safe—and nonmagical—as anyone can make you, if you decide that’s what you want.”

  “And if I don’t want it bound?” N
atalie opened her eyes and stared at me. She might be tiny, but she was feisty.

  “You’ll need training. First, I need to know for sure what kind of magic you have, and how strong you are. Once I know that, I can find someone to take you on as an apprentice. You’ll learn how to control your magic and use it. You don’t have to become a practicing mage. Your life won’t have to change much. Once you learn control, it will be just like any other ability, like being able to paint or sing.” Well, that was oversimplifying things, but the gist was true.

  “How do we find out how strong my magic is?”

  “Two choices. I can put you back in a sleep spell and Malcolm and I will find out, rebind you, and wake you up to tell you. Second option: you stay awake and find out at the same time we do.”

  “Which do you recommend?”

  “It’s up to you. One thing you might want to think about is that you have no memory of having magic, of how it feels. I can imagine it might be frightening for you if you’re awake when we release the binding spells, which is why I suggested you be asleep. You might prefer to make the decision without the memory of being afraid.”

  Natalie was quiet. “How long can I think about this?”

  “As long as you need,” Malcolm said. “Your magic is bound. I know Alice would prefer that we at least find out today what kind of magic you have and how strong you are, but really it’s up to you. If you want to do that today, and then decide later whether or not to bind the magic permanently, that’s okay. For whatever it’s worth, if it were me, I’d at least want to know that about myself before I made any long-term decisions.”

  Natalie took a deep breath. “Okay, let me think about this.”

  I stood up. “In the meantime, Malcolm and I are going to take a look at the library.”

  “I’m going to make some tea. You want some?”

  “Sure.”

  Malcolm and I headed back to the master bedroom, and Natalie went to the kitchen.

  We looked at the wards we’d put on the library the night before. I could see the beautiful green lines of Malcolm’s spellwork and the darker colors of my own magic.

  “What are you thinking?” Malcolm asked.

  “I’m thinking we need strong containment wards. Whatever’s in there, we don’t want it getting out.”

  “I can do that. Can you take down your wards?”

  I reached out and brushed my fingertips over the doorframe and my wards fell. Malcolm’s fingers moved quickly, and in a few minutes, the library perimeter hummed with a strong containment spell. Nothing short of the magical equivalent of a nuke was getting out.

  “Whew,” Malcolm said. “I feel like I have so much more power today. Whatever spell you used, I like it.”

  Yeah, I like it too. I didn’t say a thing.

  I took a deep breath and opened the door to Betty’s library.

  Chapter 9

  Yesterday, when I tried to walk inside, Betty’s wards swatted me like a fly. Today, I felt only the prickle of the containment spell as I stepped across the threshold and flipped on the light.

  The windowless library was as large as Betty’s bedroom. Three of the walls were floor-to-ceiling bookcases. A heavy antique desk with matching file cabinet and a love seat took up the fourth wall.

  The floor was hardwood, like the master bedroom, but a large rug lay in the center of the room. I felt a distinctive itchiness and a sudden urge to back away and walk around it. I gritted my teeth, lifted a corner of the rug, and flipped it back, revealing an inscribed circle. Even though Betty had been gone for months, it still hummed with stored energy. My fingers went numb from touching the spelled rug.

  Natalie appeared in the doorway, a mug in her hands.

  “Don’t try to come inside,” I told her.

  “I never knew that was there.” She stared at the circle. “I never even thought to look under the rug.”

  “There’s an aversion spell on the rug.” I rubbed my tingly fingers on my jeans. “She didn’t want you to look.”

  Natalie sighed. “Here’s your tea.”

  I came to the door and took it. “Thank you. Where were the missing books?”

  She peered into the room and pointed, staying clear of the doorway. “Bottom shelf, second bookcase on the right. You see how the books all have gaps between them? It looks like someone took some books and then spread the rest of them out so there wasn’t a big hole. I know that shelf was stuffed full.”

  “When did you notice the gap?”

  She frowned and thought. “I’d say about two weeks ago, but I can’t say for certain when they might have disappeared. All these books and papers were my grandmother’s. Most of my books are on my e-reader or in the bookcase in my room. I’ve really never looked at any of these books. There’s no reason to.”

  The sudden flat quality of her voice made me look at her in surprise, then stare suspiciously at the bookcases. I immediately got a strong feeling that I didn’t need to look at any of the books.

  I scowled. “Aversion spells on the bookcases too. Malcolm, would you be so kind?”

  “No problem.” After checking for hidden spells, Malcolm went to work unweaving the aversion spells in the library, starting with the rug, and then moving on to the bookcases.

  “Start with the shelf where the books are missing.” He dutifully went to the bookcase Natalie indicated.

  I turned back to my client and sipped my tea. “With those spells in place, I’m surprised you even noticed the books were missing.”

  She pursed her lips and thought. “I was sitting in the love seat reading. I remember I just saw it out of the corner of my eye and thought it looked wrong. All those shelves were always crammed full. I used to tease my grandmother about it because she always bought more and never seemed to give any away.” She smiled at the memory.

  “That’s probably why it worked. The aversion spells kept you from looking at the books directly or too closely until the last few days, but out of the corner of your eye, your subconscious saw what the spells kept your conscious mind from seeing. Without her here to maintain the spells, they probably lost some of their power. There’s really no telling when the books might have been taken. It could have been any time in the last three months.”

  “How did someone get past the wards?” She asked the question that had been bugging the hell out of me. “And the aversion spells on the bookcase?”

  Malcolm piped up. “I think I can answer that. Something I noticed last night but forgot to mention in all the excitement, but here it is again.” He motioned me over to the bookcase, then held out his hand.

  I closed my fingers around his. I felt a moment of disorientation, and then he was showing me what he was seeing in his mind. Betty’s aversion spells had exclusions: herself, obviously, and one other. At first, it looked like Betty’s own magical signature, but I realized it was slightly different. This person’s fire magic was stronger than Betty’s, his or her air magic weaker. The magic was so similar, though, I knew it had to be a close relative: a parent, sibling, or child. I closed my eyes and reached for that strand of magic, committing it to memory so that if I encountered it again, I would recognize it.

  When I was done, I let go of Malcolm’s hand and staggered, suddenly out of his head and back into mine. “Go ahead and unweave the aversion spells.” Malcolm got to work, and I rejoined Natalie at the door. “Are Betty’s parents still alive?”

  “No, they died a long time ago.”

  “Does she have any brothers or sisters?”

  “One brother and one sister, my great-aunt Helen and my great-uncle Robert. They’re both in their late seventies.”

  “What about your aunts and uncles?”

  Natalie narrowed her eyes. “What’s this about?”

  “Someone else in your family is a mage with the same skills as your grandmother. As far as I can tell, the spells haven’t been disturbed since your grandmother passed away, so whoever is the mage is probably the same person who took the b
ooks. So tell me about your aunts and uncles.”

  She rubbed her forehead. “Well, there’s Elise, of course, who you met yesterday, but there’s no way she’s a mage. All I ever heard about from her was how evil mages are, about how all supes should be put in camps or killed on sight. She joined a bunch of those anti-supe hate groups years ago.”

  “Still, I’d better check her out. She could be hiding behind all that hot air.” I doubted it, though. Elise’s hate seemed pretty sincere.

  Natalie shrugged. “Her name is Elise Browning. I’ve got her address.”

  “Who else?”

  “My mom had two other sisters and a half brother: Deborah Mackey, Kathy Adams, and Peter Eppright. He was my grandmother’s son from her first marriage. They all live in the city.”

  “I’ll get their addresses from you and start checking them out. Any guesses as to which of them it might be?”

  Natalie shook her head. “Honestly, no. If you’d asked me that yesterday, I’d have said none of them could possibly be mages, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that I don’t know nearly as much about my family as I thought. What will we do when we figure out who stole the books?”

  “Well, we’ll find out what they took, and why. They’re your books, so we’ll try to get them back. At some point, you need to decide what to do with Betty’s books.” I gestured at the library. “You could keep them, or put them in storage, or sell them to collectors. If we find Betty’s spellbooks, you might want to save those in case you want to hand those down.” Spellbooks were usually family heirlooms. Even if Natalie didn’t want her magic, someone else in the family might want those books. I coveted them myself.

  I went to the bookcase where the missing books had been kept and knelt in front of the bottom shelf. I closed my eyes and reached out tentatively, focusing on what my senses might be able to tell me about the books that were still here, and the ones that weren’t.

  As I lowered my shields and stretched out my senses, I gasped as a punch of residual power and a wave of orange, gray, and black magic rolled over me. Dimly, I heard Malcolm asking if I was all right, but I couldn’t answer. I had to focus on not being swept away. I could feel my knees on the hardwood floor in the library, and that physical sensation kept me grounded. If I could ride it out, I’d be able to extricate myself.