"He's totally hot," explained Kitty simply. "And he's in town."
"I'd stay even if there was the prospect of harm," said Astra.
"Suck up," said Kitty, under her breath.
Astra shot her a look. "I heard that."
"Perfect," said Étoile, clapping her hands. "If you bicker like this over dinner, no one will suspect anything is out of the ordinary. Clare?"
"Yes?"
"Take my guests to our concierge and arrange their rooms. I can't fit you all into my apartment. Besides, I'm staying here over the next couple of days anyway. If there's anything else you need, tell Clare."
"Or we'll just magick our things here," I said. "Problem solved."
"If only everything were that easy," replied Étoile.
"One more thing," I started, as Clare opened the door. "Why would a demon want a horologicon?"
"A horologicon?" Étoile shook her head, the frown lines deepening on her forehead. "No demon should ever have a horologicon. They should never have access to knowledge of the future, especially as it unfolds in the minutest detail. That would be a dangerous thing. A very dangerous thing."
Chapter Eighteen
"Here's what's going to happen today," said Étoile. The six of us were gathered in her office only an hour after daybreak. Sunlight pooled across the floor and on the back of my neck, and the scent of sweet coffee was high in the air. Kitty was yawning and checking her watch. Clare was perched on the edge of her chair, a notepad on her lap, her pen poised, but so far, she hadn't taken a single note. Étoile kept pacing the pools of sunlight, muttering to herself. When she finally sat down in her desk chair, Astra began walking the length of the room, turning automatically, like a swimmer, as she reached a wall. I was sitting on the low sofa, my eyes trained onto the large stack of documents and books that we attracted with yesterday's spell. Despite our casual demeanour, we were all listening intently as Étoile laid out her plans.
"Stella and Astra, I want you to go through every document," she said, placing both hands on the stack and barely noticing as dust plumed from the old pages. "Find me some ammunition to take down Noah, Hunter, Irina, and Georgia Thomas."
"No problem," said Astra as I nodded, agreeing even if I didn't feel it. Wading through the paperwork would take time; which, despite being narrowed down by a spell, still made finding what we needed like looking for a needle in a haystack. "They won't get away with their plot," Astra added defiantly. After a moment, she raised her fist and shook it as Étoile laughed, the mood lightening for the briefest of moments.
"Damn right, they won't!" exclaimed Étoile, pushing herself off the stack and circling the desk while she discreetly dusted her palms. "Clare, I want you to send our guards out to inconspicuously search every last inch of The Amethyst. I need to know where I am most likely to be attacked."
"I'll have the guards doubled," said Clare, rising.
"No!" Étoile paused, seeming to collect her thoughts before she continued. "No, leave the guards to their usual routines. I don't want to alert our enemies. We must continue to act as if nothing happened. Commission only a small squad."
"The guards were already set to increase when the High Council is sworn in," pointed out Clare. "Should I change that too?"
Étoile shook her head. "Everyone expects that to happen anyway. Whatever is being planned will already be in place prior to the swearing in of the High Council. We must continue as if everything is normal. Go where you please, keep your eyes and ears open, just as you would any other day in this building. In fact, I want you all to be seen often on the floors. Stella and Astra, step out of my office from time-to-time and make sure people notice you. I want our enemies to believe I know nothing; and that we're all here purely to see the newest High Council come into effect."
"Your other sister is due at noon," said Clare, consulting her cell phone. "Her husband too."
"Excellent. Come into my meeting and announce their arrival. Make sure to say that everyone is here. If news hasn't reached my co-counsel by then, seeing that my sisters and friends have arrived to celebrate the inauguration should be enough to convince them of how secure I feel here. Let's get to work."
"What about me?" asked Kitty as we all rose.
"I thought you had a date. That's what you said when you walked in."
"Still?" I asked, butting in at this latest piece of news. "I thought that was last night?"
"It was. Then he invited me to brunch today and asked me to show him around the building since he has some time off from working with the delegation."
Étoile paused. "He works for Noah Wilde?"
"Well, sure. Why else would he be here?" Kitty asked.
Étoile ran a hand through her hair and shrugged. "I really didn't think about it, but now you've mentioned it, how high is he in their ranks?"
"Pretty low, I think. He said he just runs errands for his uncle, who knows somebody that knows Noah."
"Okay." Étoile mused that over while we waited for her to come to some kind of decision. "I do have a job for you."
"Cool. I don't mind cancelling my date. We can meet up another time."
"No, go on your date, but I'd like you to ask him a few questions. Get an idea about the others in the delegation. Find out who is just muscle and who has the brains. Whom do we need to watch more closely?"
"How am I supposed to do that?" Kitty wrinkled her nose in distaste.
"You'll think of something. Just pay attention and maybe a clue will click."
"First time for everything," said Kitty as she stuck her tongue out, lightening the mood again.
"And Kitty, be careful. This guy might have the hots for you, but if he gets an inkling that you could have any ulterior motives in your questions, he might be reminded that his loyalties lie elsewhere."
"Noted," said Kitty, her voice grave. "Don't let this kitty get eaten. I'm nervous about that... my palms are a dead giveaway."
"I'll have eyes on you the whole time. Fortunately, your heart rate will be as easily explained as your clammy palms. He'll just think you have the mad hots for him."
Kitty wrinkled her nose and stifled a giggle. "He wouldn't be wrong; but at least, he won't be suspicious."
We were quiet for a moment, all contemplating the gravity of our tasks. Or, at least, I was, before I caught Astra's eye when we both glanced away from the books and papers. There was no time to get this wrong, no time for missing crucial details. If we didn't have some answers for Étoile today, it might be too late by tomorrow. Too late for all tomorrows.
A loud clap from Étoile made me jump, and a nervous giggle was heard around the room. "Get to work," said Étoile. "Good luck, everyone. We're going to need it."
"Where do we start?" asked Astra, as the room emptied, leaving just the two of us once Clare trailed on Étoile's heels. "The papers here are a foot deep! Can we even read them all in one day? Even with two of us?"
"I don't know," I replied honestly, reaching for the first stapled set of sheets before handing it to Astra. I took the next set for myself. "I guess we start here and just keep going."
"I'm scared I'll miss something vital. The building will get blown up. Étoile will be dead; and it'll all be my fault."
I shivered at hearing Astra's resignation to her panic. "That's not going to happen," I told her. "We've come this far. We're going to find a way to get through this, and no one, I mean no one, is going to get blown up. Start reading."
Astra looked at me as she took the sheaf, and surprised me by smiling with admiration shining in her eyes. For the first time, in a very long time, I felt in control of something, even if my nerves were fizzling pure energy. "Yes, ma'am."
"Plus," I added, with a shiver, "we both know that Étoile would haunt us for the rest of our lives."
"Oh, man," groaned Astra as she focused on the pages.
It was an hour before either of us raised our heads. "This stuff is fascinating," I said.
"You found something?"
&nbs
p; "Nope, but there's all kinds of things about demons and how their magic intersects with ours."
"Is there anything about their kryptonite?"
"Kryptonite?"
"Like Superman. Have you found any weaknesses?"
"Not yet. Only that they aren't stronger than us, like I always thought. They're just different, I guess. Witch magic is every bit as powerful in combat as theirs. Wait... there's something about some herbs that can weaken them, and in the right mixture, temporarily disable their magic."
"Get out! What stuff?"
"I don't know. The pages are water-stained. Maybe Seren and David could decipher them?"
"Whatever these herbs are, you can bet the demons don't want anyone to know about them. How'd the writer find out?"
I grimaced as I scanned the pages. "He or she tortured a demon, by the sounds of it. There's a bunch of details for some experiments... oh, crap!"
"What?"
"The rest of the pages are too stained to make them out. I don't know what happened next."
"We could try the spell we used on your envelope to recreate the pages. If I had the things I needed..."
I set the sheaf to one side. "Let's look at that another time. Have you found anything?"
"Nope. Just some stuff about a family tree. I'm trying to work out whose it is."
"Let me know when you work it out?" I said as I reached for the next sheaf of papers.
"You bet."
Although the papers I picked up were interesting, they didn't say much about our present situation. Instead, they told more history about my ancestor, the witch who loved the wolf. Some parts were a history, and other parts a fairytale, it made for nice reading. When I finished, I set it to one side and reached for a book.
"Aha!" Astra exclaimed. "The witch's history I'm reading is none other than Georgia Thomas’s! Wow, she has some family tree!"
I rested the book in my lap and looked over. "Go on."
"This tree goes way back. I mean, generations. And I found an anomaly."
"What anomaly?"
"Well, a maternal ancestor is missing; and instead, there's just a symbol in its place."
"What does that mean?"
"That's what I wondered. So I was thinking about it... then, I remembered seeing it before, just once. I saw Eleanor Bartholomew write it, and when I asked her, she told me it meant ‘demon.’ It's like a really, really, old symbol. Here, see?" Astra showed me the symbol on the paper, then redrew it, larger and clearer on a clean sheet of notepaper. "You know what this means?"
"Yes," I said, puzzling over the symbol. Astra wasn't the only one who'd seen it before. I had too, but where? "Georgia Thomas has demon blood."
"It's way back, I think, five or six, no seven, generations."
"Would that make her demon blood side weaker?"
"Not necessarily. That said, it might be so weak that it's barely there. Or it could be a dominant strain. We couldn't know without testing her."
"We can rule that out. There's no way Georgia Thomas would give us a blood sample so we can confirm how strong her demon gene is."
"True. I'd love to get my hands on some though, and find out which demon family she might be related to."
"Want to place bets on Hunter or Irina?"
My stomach turned at the thought of Georgia's secret blood relatives. "I don't want to imagine for a minute that she could be related to Evan."
"I guess we'll never know, but we should tell Étoile this. I'll look for more information. This family tree was given to us for a reason."
"So far, all the spell seems to have brought us are partial clues and more questions."
"The night is always darkest before the dawn."
"Things are pretty bad," I agreed, opening the book as I made myself comfortable in the large chair. "Let's keep going."
I jumped when Astra spoke. Checking the clock above the door, I noted only forty minutes had passed, with the sunlight barely shifting from my back slightly over to one side. I repositioned myself, feeling like a cat. "I need coffee," said Astra, throwing her pen onto the desk. "I need coffee more than I need anything else in this world; and I think I found something about the Brotherhood."
"How's the Brotherhood a part of this?"
"I don’t know; I don't understand that either, but the spell brought us this stuff," Astra pointed out as she held up the thick notebook she'd been reading. "I think this belonged to a clairvoyant."
"A fortune teller?"
"No, the real deal. A psychic, or maybe a seer. Some of this stuff is just scribblings, like a diary, and doesn't make much sense. There are a lot of question marks in the margins, and it looks like the writer's handwriting, so maybe things aren't always clear, but there's some stuff that is really clear; and it looks like she had the same vision over and over."
"What kind of vision?"
"Something about defeating the Brotherhood." Astra walked over to me, crouching next to my legs as she pointed to various passages. "This looks like the first vision about burning witches." Astra turned a few pages. "And here is the same vision again, but the witch has changed. Then, the next few pages are more things about the Brotherhood, and there're drawings too."
"That's Hawkscroft," I said, pointing to a poor pencil sketch of a large house. I would have recognised it anywhere. "Auberon Morgan's house. When was this written?"
"There's a date on the front... Forty years ago."
"Forty years ago!"
"Yep. The visions get clearer until they're almost exclusively about the Brotherhood..."
"Or maybe the clairvoyant concentrated all the same visions into this one book," I interrupted.
"That's possible. Every entry is dated by the month and day, with large gaps in between. If we skip twenty pages, we get to the bit about their demise."
"The Brotherhood are finally gone?"
"Well, it doesn't say that, but the clairvoyant writes about a witch who is powerful enough to defeat them. It gets kind of rambling. See here?" Astra picked her way through the pages before tapping her forefinger at one passage. "She starts talking about a prophecy being fulfilled, and a witch who can draw extra power from her circle and the elements to become some kind of ultimate witch. From what I can make out, apparently, this witch has some kind of unique ability to absorb power from anything, thereby integrating any kind of magic and wielding it. She is the Brotherhood's biggest foe and our ultimate weapon."
"I don't suppose she gave the witch’s name?"
"No, the notebook ends in a few more pages." Astra flicked forwards and showed me several empty pages making up the remainder of the booklet.
"What do they say? The last few visions?"
"More of the same. Ultimate power, destruction, the witch being feared, but she isn't one to be feared. Uh-oh."
"What?"
"There's a note here, on the last page."
"Yeah?"
"Someone made a copy of this notebook."
"Do we have it?" I asked. At the same time, Astra was on her feet, searching through the remaining papers and booklets.
"No, we don't."
"Then who else could have this information?"
Astra winced. "Could be anyone."
"We really should have refined that stupid spell."
"There wasn't time!"
"I know. I didn't mean to sound so snarky. This notebook was dated forty years ago. Maybe no one else has a copy now. Maybe whoever did forgot all about it. They might even be dead now. I just wish we knew more about this super witch."
Astra surprised me by grinning broadly. "I know who we can ask!" She closed the notebook and turned it over, pointing to the back cover. "Property of Athene Chapman."
"Who the hell is Athene Chapman?"
"I think she's related to Ariadne Chapman, a friend of my parents."
"The same Ariadne whose child was supposed to have been part of their star spell?" I paused, my mouth dropping open as Astra’s did the same. "Could that be who the su
per witch is? That child?"
"It's a possibility."
"We should tell Étoile."
"We should get coffee first."
My mouth was dry with the excitement of what we discovered, and I knew I wanted to read every bit of the notebook. However, my eyes were just as dry from the dust and intense reading. I checked the clock again, noting that Étoile would still be in her meeting and there was no chance to talk to her just yet. Coffee would be a perfect break. "There's just one problem with the Brotherhood stuff," I said as I reached for my bag. "Actually, make that more than one problem."
"Yeah?"
"The Brotherhood haven't been seen since the fire at Hawkscroft; and there's no way they can get inside this building. They could not be the ones behind the plot against Étoile. Our theory is the demons, the wolves, and Georgia."
"I thought you might say that."
"Then you probably know I'm going to say we're still at square one."
"Yup. But in a few minutes we'll be at square one with coffee."
"Lead the way."
Why someone never thought to insert a coffee stand into one of the many open seating areas around the Council Headquarters, I didn't know, but I did think about it as we made our way to the restaurant, which was the only place either of us could think of to get a coffee.
"I'm sure there's a kitchenette near Étoile's office," Astra told me as we walked. "I can't see her doing this trip every time she needs a coffee break."
"I can see her sending Clare. Or just magicking herself a cup."
"Why didn't we think of that?"
"Our brains have been stuffed with too much information in too short a space of time."
"I can go with that. I can also go for... oh, excuse me!" Astra squeaked as she rounded the corner ahead of me, walking straight into someone just as she turned her head to talk to me. "I am so sorry!"
"No problem," replied Gage, righting Astra as he gripped her upper arms. "I wasn't looking where I was going. My bad. Stella."
"Gage."
Before I could make up my mind which emotion to go with first — happiness at seeing him, or wariness at our current predicament — he drew us to one side. "Who's the guy with Kitty?" he asked.
Arcane Magic (Stella Mayweather Series) Page 21
