by Antara Mann
I wanted to leaf through it and see what was written inside it, but a sudden vision came upon me. I was in a dark, dingy room, the air stale and noxious. The overall energy felt terribly familiar; I had experienced it somewhere else, though the room was different. Then I saw him — Garrett.
I didn’t need any other clue. My heart sped up and I clung to the bookshelf nearby, fighting for calm. I needed to stay in the vision.
Garrett wasn’t alone. The missing mage, Kevin Rydell, was tied in a ramshackle chair, his body slumped over. He was clearly unconscious. Garrett’s abominable hand was on the mage’s chest. He was drawing raw magical power from him. I could see the waves as they swirled in the air around, colored in light blue, and went straight into the bastard’s hand and subsequently his body.
Anger boiled inside me. Then the glowing object on Garrett’s chest caught my eye. It was a necklace with an intricate figure or drawing inside it. It took me a few seconds to figure out what it really was — an inverted triquetra.
I suddenly recalled I had seen this symbol before. It was on the Egyptian scrolls we’d found a month ago! The triquetra symbol had drawn my attention back then, too, but I didn’t know why.
Garrett’s sinister cackle brought me back to the dingy, dark room. The triquetra inside the necklace glowed even brighter, its light blinding me. Together with his laughter, it threw me off balance. Next I knew, I was on the ground in Kevin’s room, my face covered in cold sweat, my breath heavy and raspy as if I had run miles.
The book I’d touched was lying on the floor next to me. I took it and stood up. The sudden vision I’d experienced had disturbed me, to put it mildly, but something gnawed at me. This experience had stirred something inside me, some knowledge, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, exactly.
I leafed through the book. It was a guide for different types of supernaturals. I saw descriptions and listings of witches, mages, shifters and finally demons. Strangely, it didn’t list inferni, but that may have been because the authors didn’t want to scare the students.
I was about to put the book back on the shelf where I’d taken it from when it hit me. I remembered what I had experienced. I was certain I’d felt an inferni’s presence in that dingy, dark room. What made my hair stand on an end was the clear awareness that I had met him somewhere before. I could swear on my mother’s grave, the inferni’s magic felt familiar. I knew him.
Chapter 8
“Are you okay?” Freya burst into the room, looking worried. “I heard something fall.”
“Umm, yes, I think so.” I chuckled and hurried to add, waving my hands awkwardly, “I just had an intense experience.” I pretended to brush off the dust from my leather jacket to distract myself. The floor, as everything else in this house, was impressively clean and tidy. I wondered vaguely whether I would find any fingerprints in here. I had the sinking suspicion the mage methodically wiped everything clean.
“Good news is, I now know who’s responsible for your brother’s kidnapping. And I know he’s alive, so my next task is to locate him and neutralize the criminal elements,” I said.
Freya’s face lit up. “That is good news, indeed. Did you see anything specific?”
I sensed anxiety in her voice and put all my suggestive power and magic into my reply. “Your brother is fine. I will free him, I promise you.” I recalled Garrett hoarding Kevin’s magic like a greedy leprechaun his pots of gold and my heart skipped a beat.
Tears flew down Freya’s cheeks and she impulsively hugged me. A lump rose to the back of my throat; I certainly hoped I wouldn’t be too late. At least now I knew for certain who the culprit was. The only difficulty lay in finding out how exactly he'd targeted the mages, and then locating the dark room.
A few minutes later, after I’d finished with the mage's room, Freya escorted me to the door. She asked me again to bring her brother back safe and sound, and I promised her once more that I would. I mentally swore to kill the inferni and Garrett.
Once I was outside their house, I took out my cell phone and dialed Kagan. It’d barely rung twice when he answered my call. His voice came to me smooth and poised, in stark contrast with my inner turmoil.
“I know for sure Garrett and his infernal ally are behind this mage’s disappearance, and probably also responsible for the disappearance of the other mage,” I said, not bothering with greetings or pleasantries. Then I went on describing what I saw. I mentioned I was positive I’d met the inferni somewhere before.
Kagan sighed heavily. “Okay. It’s good that you are sure who the culprit is.”
I sensed hesitation and unwillingness in his voice.
“But what?”
“Nothing.” He took a deep breath of air. “It’s just that the relations between Kai and the Morrigan will strain even further because of this. Poor Kai! I cannot believe I am saying it — he is probably the last supernatural who deserves my pity — but he naively believed he’d caught and locked the culprit for the two ritualistic murders and attempt on your life last month. Kai, just like the Morrigan and the rest of gods, is really scared of the possibility that the doors of Inferno could be opened again through a ritual.”
Well, we were all scared of this scenario. And yet…
“But he put a special charm on them, which he conjured together with a lich — you told me so.”
“Still, nothing is safe anymore. When there’s an inferni involved, he can find a loophole; these vile creatures are pretty creative. There was a very good reason why Kai locked them all in Inferno in the first place.”
I pondered the fae’s words for a minute. “I find it hard to believe that, despite the danger Kai’s own creation poses to all of us, he bought that he got the inferni responsible for the shit we went through last month.” I paused then added, “I thought Kai was smarter.”
“Perhaps he wanted to believe he had the situation in hand and used that poor inferni as a scapegoat. However, now that you saw Garrett and felt the magic of his infernal ally — and moreover, you are sure you met him somewhere before — well, that leaves only one option: You must have seen him during the meeting at the Veil. All high-key demons and inferni were present there.”
The fae’s words made sense to me. Except for the Morrigan and Kai, I didn’t know any other gods and demons, and I hadn’t been present at their meetings. On the other hand, a lot of supernaturals from both courts came to the meeting at the Veil, so I might have subconsciously registered his presence and magic there.
“Even if you don’t pay heed to a supernatural’s magic, a trace of it is remembered and archived in your complex magical memory — you keep a part of it within your own magic range, and you can later on distinguish it. That is how we have collective knowledge about lost supernatural beings such as the Dullahan, for example. The last one was seen in 1920.”
“Huh, interesting info. Thanks, Kagan.”
His mentioning the Dullahan made me rack my brains, and I recalled he was the Unseelie equivalent of the Grim Reaper — a headless mercenary who was hired to assassinate other supernaturals — but he vanished without a trace nearly a century ago; some suggested a curse had been put upon his kind.
“Anyway, we’re now a step ahead in the game. We know for sure that someone at Kai’s court, someone he really trusts from his inner circle, is a traitor and is about to make yet another attempt on a magical apocalypse. Kai will hit the ceiling when we tell him. And his rages are scarier and deadlier than a tsunami.”
I recalled seeing Kai furious on our last meeting with the Morrigan. Anger had flickered in his eyes like two volcanic explosions, chilling me. I wanted to question the fae about Kai’s so-called “inner circle” — I’d heard Kagan mention it before — but we couldn’t discuss this sensitive topic over the phone. I needed to see his reaction in person to know if he was telling me the truth.
“In light of this new information, I’ll ask the Council that you join the investigation and help me on the case. I hope you’re on board with it,�
� I told him. I could swear he was chuckling. Fates, it sucked when you couldn’t see the emotions of the person you communicated with. At least this was better than messenger.
“Aha! So you liked working with me?” His voice sounded half-teasing, half-flirting.
“I need your help,” I replied matter-of-factly. I didn’t intend to boost his male ego, which was already soaring high enough. My intuition told me his grin had deepened even further.
“Of course I’ll help you on this case. I am too involved already to back out. Okay,” I heard him clap his hands, “talk to your supervisor or whoever is in charge, and I’ll talk to the Magic Council in case your boss doesn’t agree. Oh, and ask them not to assign you to any other cases on taming berserk supernaturals. We need to commit fully to getting our hands on Garrett and his infernal ally. No distractions.”
I couldn’t agree more with him. We arranged to meet in a few hours in front of Temptation — a fancy upper-class restaurant for supernaturals in Lower Manhattan. I was already familiar with it; Kagan had brought me and the other two investigators during our previous assignment here. The spot was the fae’s favorite restaurant.
But before I could allow myself any down time I went to the Council’s headquarters and filled in my reports on the new missing mage’s case. I also checked the results on the fingerprints collected from both mages' houses. As I’d suspected, they belonged to the missing mages themselves. From what I'd seen in both houses, I drew the conclusion that both mages had been kidnapped on their way to work. I took another look at the photos — everything was in place, no trace of intruders or third parties involved. I sighed — I had to get to Garrett and his ally at any cost.
Once I was done, I asked to speak to my supervisor. As I was waiting for her to return from a meeting with the Council’s Board of Directors, I listened to my colleagues’ conversations. Or, more accurately, eavesdropping on them.
They were mostly chit-chatting and gossiping. One, however, started talking about the sudden outbursts of dark supernaturals’ attacks. My colleagues agreed it was strange and, according to them, it seemed someone had pumped up the miscreants high on magic. The investigators’ statements aligned with the way I felt about both the demons’ and the warlocks’ magic when I fought them. These attacks were strange.
“Miss Shaw.” My supervisor’s voice brought me out of my internal musings and back to reality. I stood up and greeted her. She was half fox shifter, half vampire, all attitude and full-on badass. Maggie Phillips was in her early thirties and had auburn hair and vibrant, attention-grabbing dark eyes. The other investigators didn’t like her. I guessed she could be a little intimidating.
“You wanted to speak with me,” she said when I entered her office. I nodded, and she pointed at a chair in front of her desk. I sat down.
I told her about my findings on the last missing mage case; I also shared my experience of touching one of Kevin Rydell’s academic books. She listened carefully, her brows drawing together more and more as my story progressed. Her power intensified, too, and her human appearance began to wear off toward the end of my story. I half expected her inner animal to jump out any moment, together with her vampire nature. Cross-breeds were a dangerous bunch at the best of times, and she was a potent one.
“So, you say this Garrett fellow and his ally, presumably an inferni…”
“His ally is an inferni for sure; Garrett himself told me so,” I cut her off hastily. Mistake! She growled at me, the fox in her suddenly coming out. Sly and tricky, her magic poked mine, almost teasing me. It lasted only for a split second, but it was enough to remind me who the boss was.
“As I started saying,” she said, her voice as sharp as ice, “you believe these supernaturals — Garrett and his ally — are responsible for the mages’ disappearances?”
I nodded, my gaze lowered to the floor. I didn’t want to look her in the eyes.
“And you want to commit fully to finding and defeating them.”
I cleared my throat. “That’s right, ma’am. And Kagan Griffith has already agreed to assist me on this mission.”
She studied my face for several long seconds and finally said, weighing each word as she spoke, “You like working with him, do you?”
“Yes, I do. He is a powerful fae.” It was the truth. I didn’t mention the fact that he was a member of one of the four magical dynasties, but my description of him implied it. I knew she couldn’t deny my request. After all, Kagan’s position in our implied supernatural hierarchy was superior to hers.
“And you love working with deadly powerful and wealthy faes,” she remarked, half-smirking.
“My guilty pleasure.” I shrugged. I couldn’t wait to get out of her office and teleport to Temptation. I wanted to ask Kagan so many things: about his heritage and magical family, about Kai’s inner circle, and fate knew what not.
“You certainly pick your allies well.” Maggie glanced at the notes scattered on her desk, sighed and said, “Okay, I’m releasing you from all other cases. I’ll give them to Mark instead.” She stood up and stretched her hand. I stood up, too, and shook hands with her.
“Just make sure you kill the bastards,” she said, a smile lifting the corner of her lips. “There’s been a lot of talk lately about last month’s two ritualistic murders and the attempt to release the gates of Inferno. We don’t want to inflict the all-consuming hellish flames on the world, do we?”
I couldn’t help but grin at the Dante’s reference. It sounded so much better in her usual sarcastic voice. “No one wants that. Now that Kagan and I are going to look into the missing mages’ cases, the magical apocalypse has been averted,” I replied.
“Let’s hope so. Though I am sure when Kai learns the inferni who plots against him is loose, hell will shower upon those around him. I sense trouble, deep trouble for all of us.” She looked at me thoughtfully, and I sensed she would prefer I didn’t tell the Council about my vision.
“Yes, but if the actual inferni is not caught and killed, there will be much more trouble. And not only for us supernaturals, but for humans, too. It’s like a ticking time bomb. If we don’t act now, tomorrow might be too late.”
“I appreciate your honestly, Miss Shaw, and your optimism. However, I am a firm believer in the “ignorance is bliss” ideology.”
“Yes, as long as you manage to stay alive.” I smiled at her. She didn’t return my courtesy.
***
After my talk to Maggie Phillips I could finally sign out. It was lovely to be breathing in the fresh fall air. I needed to relax a little before I teleported to Temptation. The fights from the last two days had my magical reservoir exhausted. Since tonight was a new moon and my goddess powers were at their worst, I would have to use my best friend’s teleportation charm.
I mentally swiped away at my personal cloud of misery. The day before, during my training with the fae, I’d scratched my knee and it took a full day to heal. It wasn’t a biggie, and it didn’t affect me greatly. I cheered up at the thought that early this morning I’d successfully healed the injured witch at the coven, and yesterday — Finn Saal. But then I remembered that, while I was eating a hamburger this morning, a stray dog had nipped my ankle. It was a silly accident, but my ankle was still hurting, and by the looks of it, it’d take some time to heal, probably more than a day. My inner voice was also unusually silent, even for a waning moon period, when it tended to be quieter.
You can ask the fae to heal you. He’ll do it. With great pleasure, the goddess in me chimed in and chuckled. I smiled too. I’d just thought about it and it made sure I knew it was still there.
Then the sudden realization hit me: in a week my powers would increase again. Warmth spread through my body, and a smile stretched on my lips. And another good thing: In a few days I’d turn twenty-five and gain full control of the goddess inside me.
Oh. Did that mean I’d stop hearing and talking to my inner voice? I called it up, asking it the very same question, but it kept quiet. Ver
y well — my inner voice was a bitch. So you won’t answer my questions when I’m asking you, and yet you’re making cameo appearances when nobody wants your opinion?
An eerie silence followed, and I gave up. I took out my best friend’s teleportation charm and sprinkled it around me. A glistening silver cloud rose in front of me, and I stepped in. I envisioned the fancy, high-end restaurant, Temptation. The magic took me through the ether, and I stepped out of it onto the sidewalk right before the restaurant’s magnificent entrance. Glowing golden letters sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow spelled out its name.
I saw Kagan waiting for me at the entrance, as we’d agreed. Next to him stood the restaurant’s guards, two bogeymen who looked as if they’d been taken from the set of a hardcore horror movie. They held three-headed dogs and venom-spitting snakes on golden leashes, two in each hand. This bunch of regulars brightened up Temptation’s glam entrance.
When Kagan saw me, he came over and embraced me, sliding his hands over my waist and tugging me closer to himself. His lips met mine hard and passionately. His magic dissolved within me, setting on fire my every pore; it sang its ancient song, tempting my own magic to devour his. It took a great deal of self-restraint to pull away from him but I had to — I couldn’t think straight in his arms.
“Whoa! Was that why you wanted to meet me here, in front of Temptation? Tempting the bogeymen?” I said and glanced sideways at them. Their faces were stone-cold, their looks devoid of any emotion, flat-out empty.
“They’ve seen worse.” Kagan turned to the bogeymen and smirked.
They tactfully moved aside — something I didn’t suspect they had in them — and made space for us to go inside the fancy restaurant.
Kagan was a regular here, but I wasn’t. Even with my Council salary, this venue was way above my league. Temptation was the hotspot for upper-class supernaturals. A meal here cost more than a pair of designer jeans or boots. I’d rather eat at home and spend my money on clothes and accessories than eat here once and be on water and bread for the rest of the month. A girl has to have her priorities. But I’d seen far more of this place since I’d started dating Kagan.
