Rayna looked perplexed, but didn’t speak up. The rest shook their heads, looking at one another, before looking back at me. “Try joining your magick and then look again.”
They joined hands, some having to stretch across the table to reach those across from them. It was a sloppy circle, but we’d discovered that it really didn’t matter. The contact itself did. They began to chant softly and I could feel the level of magick in the room start to rise. This was going to be as much an exercise for me as it was for them.
“Do you sense anything yet?”
Rayna bit at her bottom lip. “I can, I think. They’re glowing. Are you all seeing this?” She looked around at the others.
Ruthann and Willa squinted, then nodded hesitantly. Selma shook her head. “I don’t see it, but I think I can feel something.”
“Trina?” I asked. She hadn’t said anything yet, but she was staring hard at the ring.
“Yes. I’m guessing it’s supposed to glow like that, right?” she asked. I’d figured either she or Rayna would be the most sensitive for this.
“Okay, we’re going to try something else. Join hands with me.” I tried to sound confident, even though my nerves were starting to sour my stomach. They’d all had practice joining their magick, but we hadn’t tried it with mine yet. In theory, it should work just fine, since I could do this with both Tess and Danai. To their credit, they didn’t hesitate. Rayna grabbed one hand and Ruthann the other. I reached for my magick, focusing on the ring as I had in the shop. Ruthann almost dropped my hand in surprise when the ring began to shine brightly.
“You are all seeing this now, right?” Rayna asked excitedly.
“Yes,” they chorused.
Now that I had more time to study it, I could see layers within the brightness. What did that mean? I reached out with my magick and started to peel the top layer back. It lifted from the layer below easily. And it felt . . . greasy. I heard the sharp intakes of breath from a couple of the women. Good. They could see it, too.
“Rayna, do you think you could either purify or neutralize just the top layer without damaging what’s beneath it?”
Someone—probably Marla—set a pitcher in front of the water witch, but I was so focused on keeping the top layer above the one beneath, I couldn’t look away.
“If you can keep that layer lifted like that, or maybe lift it a little higher, I think I might be able to.”
Concentrating, I tried to pull it away, further separating it from the other layer. It resisted. Rayna began chanting under her breath, and I could feel a very faint drain as she drew on the magick of our circle. Seconds later, a stream of water, unbelievably narrow, worked its way under the layer I still held up, slowly wrapping around the ring. It pushed the upper layer away, working patiently at every part, prying, pushing, worming its way in, until I felt the outer layer separate with a ‘pop.’ As soon as I was able to pull it completely away, Rayna’s magick wrapped around the layer I held from the rest of the ring. It began to sizzle and pop until it abruptly dissipated. If I hadn’t been sitting in a high backed chair, I would have fallen backwards from the release. The smell it left behind was less than pleasant.
“Whoa.” Willa’s hushed voice brought us back. Slowly we released our shared magick and pulled our hands back. With a twist of her wrist, a light breeze pushed the offensive smell away and up toward the ceiling vent. The awe in her voice was reflected on each witch’s face. When I looked over at Rayna, I saw the thin sheen of perspiration on her brow.
“Great work, ladies.” I slumped back in the chair, feeling the tension of separating that layer in every muscle of my body.
“What exactly did we just do? I mean, I saw what we did, but . . .” Trina’s question trailed off.
“I think Margo has some sort of tracking spell on most or all of the stuff in her shop. If I’m right, we just removed and neutralized that spell. I bought these two pieces of jewelry in her shop less than an hour ago. The spell didn’t feel malevolent, but it didn’t feel good, either. If she can track everything in her shop, I’m wondering if she could have somehow put a tracking spell on things that made it to the water fae. I can’t prove she’s involved—yet—but if and when I do, she will be held accountable. For everything.” Saying the words aloud reminded me I needed to call my aunt back over again soon, to see if she could tell me why it was I could see—and apparently now feel—magick. And everything she could tell me about Margo.
“So are we going to do the other one? If we are, I might need a minute.” Rayna took a sip of her tea, her hand shaking slightly. This must have taken more out of her than I thought.
“No. I think I’ll leave the necklace alone for now. It might be useful as it is.” As it was, I already wished I would have purchased a couple more pieces.
Selma reached for the ring, then hesitated, peering over at me. “May I?”
Nodding, I watched as she picked it up and inspected it. When she was done, Willa held out her hand for it. She squinted, trying to see the inside of the band, so I pushed the loupe over to her. Picking it up, she deftly turned the ring around under the loupe. “There are symbols around the interior and initials.” She handed the ring and loupe to me. “You might want to see this.”
I looked through the little loupe at the symbols, searching for the initials she’d mentioned. The elegantly looping initials came into focus—S. D. I sat back, shocked. Could this be one of my mother’s pieces? Of course, with those initials, it could also be my aunt’s . . . or even my grandmother’s, for that matter. Or just someone with the same initials. I could feel that there was still quite a bit of magick in the ring. Maybe if I put it in Elmer’s box, it would show up in catalogue.
The curious looks on both Sam’s and Rand’s faces prompted me to pass everything down the table to them.
While they were studying it, my phone rang. As soon as I saw who was calling, I excused myself and walked to the other end of the large room to answer.
“Is everything okay, Jeremy? We’re almost done here.”
“Jeremy gots sum’tin fer you to sees, Ms. Roxanne.” The crow shifter sounded either gruff or angry. “Sum’tin not goods, not goods a’tall.”
“I’ll wrap this up and be right down.” When I hung up and turned back to the table, the rest of the group was watching me with open curiosity.
“I’ve got to go down and see what’s going on. Anyone who wants to be a part of the search for these children, let Sam know. You’ll need to be ready to head out on short notice, and if any of you have issues with seasickness, I’ll warn you now that we’ll be out on the water.” That was something I wasn’t plagued with, thank goodness. “This isn’t mandatory, by any means, so if you don’t want to be involved, that’s fine.” Since the firm wasn’t officially involved with the missing children, I could hardly order them to help. They were already discussing everything amongst themselves before I was out of the room.
“Roxie?” Sam’s voice stopped me just short of the door and I turned back, nearly bumping into Rand. “What do you want us to do with these?” She held up the jewelry.
Chewing my lip, I decided to go with the initial idea I’d had. “Bring the ring back to the estate with you, please. Marla?” Sam’s personal assistant snapped to attention. “Would you wrap the necklace up and have it ready for pickup at the reception desk as soon as possible?”
She tilted her head curiously. “Of course. Will any special packaging be required?”
I couldn’t resist grinning. “Just make sure it’s easy for something with small clawed feet to carry, please. ”
She raised her brows and I’d swear she almost smiled as she must have realized my plan. “I’ll get right on it, ma’am.”
Jeremy waited just outside the front of the building, pacing and muttering to himself. Pedestrians glanced at him nervously and gave him a wide berth as they walked by. He practically pounced on us as soon as Rand opened the door for me.
“Come, come.” He hurried to the t
ruck and opened the passenger door. “Hurries.”
We did. As soon as we were inside, he thrust his phone at me. “What’s this?”
“You sees.” The screen was paused, the picture dark. He touched it and suddenly I was looking at a surprisingly high definition view of the front of Margo’s shop from somewhere across the street. For several seconds, nothing happened. A few cars passed by. People strolled past, stopping to window shop here and there. I gave Jeremy a side glance. What was I supposed to be seeing here? He pointed back at the screen, saying nothing, his face an unreadable mask.
Holding the phone at an angle so that Rand could see it from the back seat, I returned my attention to the phone. From the vantage point this was recorded from, several storefronts were visible. I watched as a man appeared at the edge of the camera’s range, looking around nervously. His gaze passed right over whomever was recording this, his face coming into such crisp, clear view that I nearly dropped Jeremy’s phone.
“Is that who I think it is?” Rand asked, his voice incredulous.
He knew as well as I did that it was, so I didn’t bother with an answer. Jeremy obviously knew who he was, too. The man stopped to take one last look around before quickly ducking into Margo’s store. I squinted at the small phone screen, trying to see past the glare off the windows, but I couldn’t make out anything inside. The recording went on for several more minutes with only more cars and idle window shoppers. Finally, Jeremy reached over and touched the screen to pause it again.
I was shaking with anger. How could this be? Only earlier today I was told this should be impossible—or close to it anyway. This person should be far outside my territory, but here he was, walking into Margo’s shop. That could not be coincidence.
“Who’s recording this?” I asked, handing Jeremy his phone. “And when was it recorded?”
The crow shifter shrugged. “Jeremy figgered good idea to watches dat womans. So Jeremy gots peoples dat do. Dis happen jus’ when you inside der.” He nodded to the law firm’s front door.
My head was spinning with questions. Should we head back to the shop? What did this mean? Was this man somehow involved with the disappearance of the water fae children? With a sinking feeling deep in my gut, I knew he had to be. There was no way he would just show up out of the blue to meet up with Margo. Then another disturbing thought occurred to me. How had he gotten his memories back? If he was back, he would have had to have somehow recovered them, wouldn’t he? Danai said it would take a strong witch to undo what I’d done, and from all accounts, Margo wasn’t a very strong witch.
“So am I the only one wondering if he’s the only stooge back?” Rand’s low voice was almost a growl.
“Jeremy’s peoples din see de o’ter two, but dat don’ mean anyt’ing.”
I sent a quick group text to the others with the who, when, and where details. They all knew about the three thieves who had been posing as housekeepers when I first met my aunt, as well as what had happened when I’d wiped their memories and sent them far outside of my territory with instructions never to return.
“Can you send that video—and the link to wherever it’s coming from—to our phones, Jeremy?” Rand asked.
“When Jeremy gets back to his place. No can do dat ‘ere.”
“Should we go back to Margo’s?” I wasn’t sure who I was asking, Rand, Jeremy, or myself.
“If Jeremy has eyes on him, I don’t think we need to go back just yet. Can you have someone tail him, Jeremy?”
Jeremy was already sending a text to his ‘peoples.’ “Done. Dat idjit no hide from Jeremy now.”
Idjit. It fit. I think I liked that better than stooge. I didn’t question Jeremy anymore about his ‘peoples.’ I knew he was well connected enough to know most of what went on in the area. That this had gotten past him probably angered him to no end.
My phone vibrated and I read the message that had just come through. “Let’s get back to Tess. Sam’s going to catch a ride with the guys as soon as she wraps things up here.”
We were all quiet on the way back to the resort.
Chapter 8
Cappy and the Sea Witch
“So, it looks like there’s been a lot of kid’s stuff ordered over the last several months. Toys, mostly. And there’s one local delivery service out of the city that delivered all of it. I’ve got a printout with pictures and descriptions of some of the toys. Maybe it will make it easier to match some of the stuff up.”
Tess had several copies of the lists organized and ready to go by the time we arrived. She’d already been to see Gretchen and Wade, as well. Her voice was a little . . . puzzled when she spoke of the visit and how they’d practically rushed her off after she’d told them about what was happening. They’d had books covering nearly every available surface of their trailer, but when she’d tried to look at any of them, they’d acted nervous and started closing them and putting them away. When I asked her if there was a problem, she gave me a dismissive wave.
“It’s probably nothing. It looked like they were researching vampires or something. The first book I looked at talked about a vampire god. As if! Wait.” She suddenly looked unsure. “You don’t think there really is anything like that, do you?”
I started to say no, then stopped. “Tess, I honestly can’t say. Until a year ago, there were no such things as ghosts, witches, shifters, or any of this, not that I knew of anyway.” I shook my head.
She pursed her lips, then shrugged. “It was just weird. They were really concerned about the missing children, though. Wade promised to question the local ghost population and let us know if he heard anything even remotely important.”
That would have to be enough for now.
Jeremy hurried off right after dropping us off at the restaurant and retrieving his new ring, saying he would be back shortly. Suzette popped in, saw Tess without the ring, sighed dramatically, and told me I needed to Make more of them before abruptly disappearing again, probably to go after Jeremy. The fact that she’d said it without rancor surprised me.
“You know, she was super helpful while you were gone. She’s pretty good at figuring things out, too. She even knows her way around the computer and has all the passwords memorized, so it kept me from bothering Jeremy every few minutes.” She chuckled. “Not to mention she taught me a few colorful phrases I never would have dreamt up.”
Suppressing a groan, I went back to looking over the lists. The items ordered had come from all over. There didn’t seem to be any common thread that tied anything together there. When I flipped to the last page and saw the delivery service—the same one for everything, as Tess had said—I frowned. It wasn’t any of the big ones everyone knew. It was only listed by its acronym—P.P.D.S.
“What’s this stand for?” I asked, showing her the page.
“Paragon Parcel and Delivery Services. It’s newer, local to this area and handful of others, and is subcontracted by some of the bigger companies. There’s not a whole lot of background on it, from what I could find. Suzette says they only just started delivering within the last five or six months.”
“Do you think Harris and the other two would have known about the water fae or the pixies getting deliveries?” Rand mused.
I considered this, trying to remember any interactions I’d had with Stella’s housestaff. “I’m not sure. I didn’t even know about the pixies until the day of the funeral when they came to pay their respects.” Would Zara know?
Without missing a beat, my familiar responded. Stella never told them about either and I never saw any hint of it in their minds, but I never searched that deeply, either.
I stopped to think. What was it they were searching for?
They were looking for jewelry, but only a couple of specific pieces, at first. Once they discovered how well off Stella was, they deviated from their search and tried to figure out a way to get at her fortune. You foiled that when you showed up out of the blue.
How did I not remember this? I mean, I remem
bered my first visit, of course, but the rest . . .
Much has happened between then and now, Roxanne. You were thrown into this world with no preparation. It’s understandable.
Jeremy’s voice carried through from beyond the office and we all looked up as he and another man came through the door.
“Ms. Roxanne, dis Cappy. He takes ever’one out on da boat. He say boat ready ta go now.”
The short, stout man who looked to be in his mid-to-late fifties stepped forward, took his hat off, and held out his hand. As I shook it, taking in his shock of red hair spiked with patches of grey, he said, “It’s an honor ta finally meet ya, er, Ms. Roxanne.” Jeremy must have informed him of my aversion to being called by a title. “When do ya expect we’ll be ready ta shove off?”
I found the man’s accent absolutely charming. It sounded either Scottish or Irish, I couldn’t tell. Maybe he was related to Merv. “Oh, um, I’m not exactly sure. We’re still working all of that out.”
Tess bumped my shoulder, grinning mischievously. “We should probably at least go check it out, don’t you think, Rox?”
We were here, so we might as well. Cappy led the way to the marina, Tess asking him questions the whole time as the rest of us trailed along behind. Suzette stayed close to Jeremy’s side, murmuring to him as he listened attentively. I smiled. She looked more sedate than I’d ever seen her before. And Jeremy, he just looked . . . happy.
“What’s that smile for?” Rand asked.
I tilted my head back at Jeremy and Suzette.
He nodded, looking contemplative. “You know, you did really good back there, at Margo’s and with the witches. I’m proud of how you’ve taken all of this in stride. Not a lot of people could handle everything you’ve had thrown at you over the past year.”
His words echoed Zara’s, only minutes before. Where was this coming from? “Thanks?”
MAKING MAGICKAL ALLIANCES: A Paranormal Women’s Fiction Novel Page 10
