“You’ll live,” Gavin said. He turned to me, but his eyes slid to Jamie. I checked the pooka. He was behaving, his soul gleaming white where it pressed against me and swirling thunderously on his other side. “You’re next.”
“Stand down, Gavin,” Liam said. “We can see she’s not about to collapse and I’m done delaying. I evoke council and propose we revoke Brad’s powers as a warden until a formal trial can be formed.”
“I recognize,” Isabel said.
“I recognize,” Kathleen and Margaret echoed.
Disgruntled, Gavin turned to tend to Sharon, helping wheel her into an ambulance.
“Unless anyone disagrees, I disband Brad’s region and place his enforcer under custody,” Liam said.
I wiggled my jaw to pop my ears, but I knew I’d heard correctly. I wasn’t surprised. This was all part of the rogue warden’s plan. There wouldn’t be a better moment to pull Brad down. No one spoke up in protest, either.
“On what grounds?” I demanded.
“On the most offensive of charges, and don’t pretend ignorance,” Isabel said. “Brad’s done it again. He’s making a rogue army. Look at you: a brand-new enforcer who takes out a demon. That’s too fast to be normal. You poached a pooka—”
“I did not—”
“—and we all know pookas are attracted to two types of enforcers—those who are likely to be corrupted or those very strong. We can rule out strong. More damning is all the evil centered here, in your territory. Evil goes where it’s invited, and Brad rolled out the welcome mat. If we needed further proof, all we have to do is look at your office. We all sensed the evil.”
“A rogue army?” I sputtered.
“Again?” Brad asked.
“Don’t feign innocence, you monster.” Isabel lurched toward Brad with snarl. “You corrupted my sister. Cheryl was a good enforcer until you got your hands on her.”
I reeled back, startled by the abrupt change in the motherly warden. I could see from Brad’s expression he was just as surprised. He studied Isabel’s rage-contorted face, eyes widening. The other wardens looked confused.
“Who is Cheryl?” Kathleen asked.
“A rogue enforcer who worked under me years ago,” Brad said.
“My sister wasn’t rogue!” Isabel said.
My shock faded quickly, Isabel’s accusation filling in the final piece of the puzzle. Up until this moment, I hadn’t been sure if Liam or Isabel was our culprit. Both made no secret of their dislike of Brad. Both stood to gain territory if they kicked Brad out. But only Isabel had a personal vendetta, and it provided the link that illuminated a pattern. Isabel hadn’t been satisfied with stealing Jacob from Brad; she’d tried to plant doubts in my mind about my boss, too. I would bet my Civic Isabel was behind all of Brad’s problems keeping enforcers.
Brad struggled to sit up. “Bubble gum on a cream puff! You’re a warden; you should know better. I had nothing to do with Cheryl’s choices. She nearly killed me. She killed Lupe! And now you tried to kill a pooka, got your own enforcer injured, and almost killed Madison and Sharon because you blame me? You’re insane! You’re—” Brad started coughing, and Gavin forced the oxygen mask over his mouth, easing him back against the stretcher.
Kathleen and Margaret shared a look over Brad’s prone form, their faces unreadable.
“He’s the insane one,” Isabel said. Her voice shook, but next to Brad’s outraged outburst, she was the model of righteous anger. “He did this once before and got away with it. I won’t let him get away with it again.”
Liam glanced back and forth between Isabel and Brad, clearly conflicted. Like Kathleen and Margaret, he didn’t look convinced of Brad’s innocence. I wanted to yell at them all to wake up and see the facts, but screaming wasn’t going to persuade anyone. I needed to be the voice of reason.
“Mr. Pitt—Brad—has done nothing but protect those who work under him. He sent the Illuminea and Rose away today because he feared for them.”
“More likely he didn’t want witnesses,” Isabel said.
“If he was rogue, could he have fooled the Illuminea as long as they’ve worked for him? Would he have sent me and Niko to combat evil he discovered hidden in his region?”
“‘Discovered hidden’? More likely he realized he was about to be unmasked for the despicable human he is, and he sent you to get rid of the evidence.”
I squeezed the blanket in my fists, stretching it tight around Jamie and myself. The pooka shifted. I didn’t have to look to know he mirrored my agitation. I willed him to remain calm. Isabel had the perfect response to every argument, and the wardens were far from convinced. Brad glared over the oxygen mask, but he didn’t try to speak. It was up to me to prove his innocence.
“If Brad was rogue and using atrum to increase his power, why would he spread it all over?” I asked. I’d realized Jacob wasn’t rogue when I’d applied this same logic to him. “Why not accelerate just our region? And why would he make himself look incompetent at a time when his job is already on the line? If anything, he would have undermined Liam and Isabel since they both openly oppose him. He would have used his strength to discredit them.” I appealed to Kathleen and Margaret, but neither appeared swayed by my logic.
“You’re deflecting, and it’s pathetic. We’re standing outside your headquarters. Both your souls are weak from cleaning up the evidence before we arrived.” Isabel turned to the other wardens. “We’ve decided to disband the region. Let’s get on with it.”
Liam frowned at me, but he stepped forward, his soul rotating to float around his waist. “We can sort out the details after this region is under proper protection once more.”
Kathleen nodded, brow furrowed. Margaret crossed her arms, but she didn’t protest.
“What about the giant turbonis?” I asked, desperate.
“Explain,” Margaret said. Was it my imagination, or was she eager to slow the proceedings?
“The turbonis I spent the morning unraveling,” Niko said. He strode from between parked cars, his soul gleaming like a coat of armor. I couldn’t take my eyes from him. He was safe. I’d been silly to worry. The man probably ate a turbonis for breakfast each morning and walked on fire to warm his toes.
Niko took in the scene in one sweeping glance, lingering momentarily on my wet hair and Jamie plastered to my side under our shared blanket. He rested a hand on the stretcher near Brad’s head.
“Brad discovered it last night, thanks to Madison.” None of Niko’s earlier censure at the unsafe method Brad had used to gain his insights bled into his tone. “It was in Brad’s new region, contained by powerful lichtwands, and it’d been there awhile. Far longer than Brad had the region.”
“Are you accusing me of something, Niko?” Liam demanded.
“Whoever put the turbonis there—and there is no question it was intentionally placed—planned to unleash the turbonis across Liam’s territory.”
“I certainly wouldn’t do that,” Liam said.
“But Brad would,” Isabel said. “Everyone knows you two don’t get along. It would have made you look bad, Liam, and Brad would have gotten off scot-free.”
“Not with such an obvious trail pointing straight back to Brad,” Niko said. “He would have implicated himself.”
“No one is accusing Brad of being smart,” Isabel said.
The wardens turned thoughtful eyes on Brad, but I didn’t look away from Isabel. She’d had years to plan this day, and she had considered every angle. She met my eyes with a small smile. She thought she’d won. Despite everything we’d discovered, we didn’t have proof. I needed more.
“Brad told Niko about the turbonis first thing this morning, right when he discovered it.” All eyes focused on me, but I maintained my staring contest with Isabel. “He never lied about evil in his region, unlike you. I found a huge clump of atrum, vervet, and imps in Isabel’s region last night.” According to Val, wardens lost their edge as a by-product of using too much lux lucis, and a warden trying to hid
e her interactions with atrum would have to use a lot of lux lucis to cover up. Jacob’s comment about Isabel’s scattered nature seemed a lot more sinister now.
“I didn’t have time to report it,” Isabel said. “If you recall, my enforcer was hospitalized by that pooka. We were scrambling to cover the region.”
“Maybe you were scrambling because you were losing control. Maybe you didn’t report it because you were so busy distributing evil, you couldn’t keep track of your own region. Your soul’s corrupted, just like your sister’s.”
“My sister was a saint.” Her calm facade cracked. I drove my next words into her like a knife.
“Your sister was a murderer.”
“Don’t talk about her! You didn’t know her.” Isabel stepped around the foot of Brad’s stretcher, fists clenched. My heart hammered, but I clutched Jamie’s arm when he shifted to step in front of me. This was my chance. Isabel had manipulated events with masterful skill, but her control over her emotions was her weakness. I pressed my advantage.
“I know Cheryl almost brought Brad to ruin, and I’m not going to let you do the same. You need to answer for killing the prajurit.”
“I didn’t kill the prajurit. Brad did.”
“You’re a murderer. Just. Like. Your. Sister.” The chill in my voice almost frightened me.
“Brad is a murderer! He poisoned them! You want proof? I’ll show you the titan arum he used as bait.”
For one moment of silence, Isabel held her dramatic pose, arm outstretched to point at Brad. Then her face crumpled when she realized she’d incriminated herself—I had never mentioned the titan arum, only that the prajurit had been killed.
She lunged for me. I shoved Jamie aside, and he fell, tangled in the blanket. Isabel’s fingers closed around my throat and squeezed.
“It’s all your fault!” she screamed. Atrum gushed into her hands, then speckled down her soul. “Why couldn’t you see Brad’s evil?” Her eyes flared with insanity, fingers curling into bruising claws. I grabbed her wrists and tried to tear her hands free, but she clung to me with freakish strength. Gasping for air, I jerked a knee into her pelvis, but Isabel fell back with a cry before I connected.
“Die, murderer!” Lestari shrieked, swirling around Isabel’s neck, slashing a dozen cuts into the rogue warden’s flesh. Isabel released me to clamp her hands over the wounds, wailing.
Wheezing, I stumbled into Jamie. He sprang to his feet, eyes locked on Isabel. A deep dog’s growl rumbled in his human throat, lifting the hairs on my neck.
“No,” I croaked. Tension corded his forearm into steel bands beneath my shaking fingers. Everyone was shouting, trying to grab Isabel and block Lestari’s blows. No one paid Jamie and me any attention. I tried to force the pooka to meet my eyes to break his focus on Isabel, but he’d turned to stone.
Giving up, I stretched my free hand to brace against a tree, holding my body ready to intercede if Jamie pulled free. Lux lucis seeped into me from the tree, and I used the energy to banish the cold taint of atrum Isabel had wrapped around my throat.
The rogue warden swerved closer to us in an effort to use Liam as a shield against the enraged prajurit. In a blink, Jamie pinned me to the tree, using his body to shield me.
“Oof!” The same strength that had lifted me earlier when Lestari had mistakenly attacked me held me squished against the rough trunk. Jamie fixated on Isabel with unnerving intensity. My ribs creaked under the pressure, and I fought once more to breathe.
I shoved Jamie’s back, and when that didn’t work, I reversed tactics. Lifting a hand to the nape of Jamie’s neck, I gently stroked his exposed skin. The impact with the tree had jarred me back to normal sight, and his pale neck was shockingly warm against my icy pink fingers. The pooka turned to me, startled, and I sucked in an unrestricted breath.
“We’ll make sure she gets what she deserves, but the human way, okay?”
Jamie blinked, golden eyes shifting from hound to human. I shivered, and not from the cold December wind chilling my wet clothes.
Lestari buzzed Isabel, screaming in a language I didn’t know. Her wings glistened in the overcast light, but her dark clothing almost blended into the background, making her hard to track—and harder for Isabel to dodge.
“It wasn’t supposed to kill so many,” Isabel said, now cowering behind Liam. “I swear. The flower wasn’t supposed to be so strong.”
Niko stepped into the warden riot and clamped a hand on Isabel’s bicep. With his usual aplomb, the optivus aegis took control of the situation, convincing Lestari to land on his shoulder and directing Gavin to tend Isabel’s wounds. The rogue warden quieted in Niko’s grip. Glaring at Brad, hatred twisting her expression, Isabel appeared oblivious to Gavin’s ministrations and the blood seeping into her periwinkle sweater’s soft collar. No trace of the kind schoolteacher-like warden remained. Even her previously pristine soul had altered, the rigid delineation of her region now a distorted blob murky with atrum.
“I’ll collect Jacob and Grace,” Niko said before escorting Isabel from the parking lot. Lestari went with them to preside over Isabel’s detainment.
I waited until they were out of earshot before I asked, “Why?”
“Jacob and Grace trained under a rogue warden,” Margaret explained. The events had clearly shaken her, and she huddled close to Kathleen, pulling her coat snug around her slender frame. “Their actions and loyalties are questionable, especially Jacob’s with how fast he learned. They’ll be interviewed by an inspector and face a Triumvirate hearing. If they’re lucky, they’ll be allowed to work again.”
Which meant Jacob possibly was rogue. Even if he was pure, he wasn’t a wunderkind, just an enforcer presented with more opportunity for speedy growth than was healthy. Or maybe he was special. After all, he’d handled all Isabel’s evil by himself for two years. He’d gone through the experiences and gained strength, regardless of the origin of the evil he’d fought. Yet, even if he was Isabel’s victim, I couldn’t bring myself to root for him to work again. Not every decision he’d made had been good. He had shot Jamie.
The solemn wardens matched up souls—Brad from his stretcher—and divvied up Isabel’s region. The new boundaries were temporary, until the Triumvirate sent another warden, but it meant that for the time being, Brad and I gained more territory than we had when we’d taken a piece of Liam’s region.
Despite being exonerated and expanding our region’s borders, Brad expressed no joy. I understood. I thought bringing down the rogue would be satisfying, but the victory rang hollow. Grief had warped an otherwise good warden into a monster. It gave me no pleasure to take part in her defeat.
I retrieved my blanket, and Jamie and I huddled together until the paramedics left with Brad and Sharon. Our offices were destroyed, but we’d recover, as would my coworkers. So would our region, now that Isabel was no longer poisoning it.
Once I finished cleaning up the mess she’d left, maybe I’d finally get to experience a normal week as an enforcer—no demon, no rogue warden.
My gaze slid to the pooka shivering beside me, his soul a swirl of good and evil energy except where our bodies touched. With Jamie tethered to me, I had a feeling normal would remain elusive.
Then again, normal was overrated.
25
Dogs Have Owners, Cats Have Staff
It was date night, for me and my pooka. Jamie was having his first friend date, though I’d cautioned him against calling it that in front of Sam. I owed Rose my firstborn and any other boon she requested for not only coming up with the idea but also volunteering to chaperone the outing. Jamie had left twenty minutes earlier, dressed head to toe in his brand-new clothes—including much-praised boxers—for an evening with Sam playing miniature golf and arcade games at Golfland-Sunsplash, one of the few teen-friendly locations within Jamie’s tether range of the restaurant Alex was taking me to. Right now, they were still close to my apartment at Chipotle, the first meal of a dozen I was sure Jamie would charge to my credit
card tonight.
As fond as I was of the pooka, and as much as he’d become an integral part of my life in four short days, I reveled in tonight’s freedom. For a few hours, I wouldn’t be enforcer Madison or moral referee Madison; I would just be me—excited, nervous, and horny.
I took another look around my apartment, double-checking my bedroom—which was silly, because nothing was going to happen in there, not tonight. Jamie’s enormous dog bed peeked out from beneath my bed’s skirt, and I scooted it in with my foot. The pooka liked sleeping in the nude as much as I did, and we’d compromised: nudity was permissible in Great Dane form only, hence the dog bed. I would continue to sleep in my pajamas.
Everything else in the room looked good. I paced back to the front room, trailed by Mr. Bond.
“It’s date night!” I said, hefting the cat and spinning in a circle before plopping him into the recliner. He sprang to the floor and licked the ruffled fur on his side. Over the last two days—my first days off since I’d become an enforcer—I’d followed up on my promise to lavish attention on Mr. Bond, and he seemed to have forgiven my recent neglectfulness. I grabbed a fake mouse from his toy bin and tossed it to him. Mr. Bond leapt into the air, catching it between his paws before landing. He batted it back to me, and I tossed it again. The tubby cat enjoyed the takedown more than the chase.
I twirled to pick up the mouse, then twirled again, enjoying the flare of my skirt. Come vervet or salamanders, wraiths or turbonis, I was going on my date with Alex. I’d more than earned it, and the man had been beyond patient.
My cell phone rang, blaring out a tinny “Hail to the Chief,” and I abandoned my game of mouse with Mr. Bond, my heart sinking. I stared at my boss’s number on Medusa’s screen, half of me demanding I bury the phone under a pillow and carry on with my date, the other half fretting that I might be needed.
A Fistful of Fire: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Madison Fox, Illuminant Enforcer Book 2) Page 39
