by WB McKay
I slid open the window while I thought that through. Cameras couldn't record a shift, because of the glamour.
Unless.
I still didn't see the scepter anywhere. I'd promised myself that I wouldn't draw attention until I had it in my line of sight. That may have been a grave mistake.
Pulling magic from deep inside, I wailed with all I had. The witches phones were the first things to hit the ground; their knees fell next. Their screams joined my own, though theirs carried considerably less punch. The wolves, who I'd worried would be too used to pain to be properly affected, surprised with cries much worse than any of the witches. Sensitive ears, I thought, but even that was only background noise. The scepter had to be there somewhere. It had to be in two pieces. Owen had said that to activate the scepter all it would take is to unlock and twist apart the orb at the top--the actual glamour breaker--and the handle below, the dampener that kept the orb from breaking glamours wherever it went.
Still screaming, I walked among the people I was causing so much pain, careful to remain out of their reach, and reminded myself that all of them--and more--were better served by me recovering this object. I tried to sense the magic of the scepter, but it was impossible to do while screaming. I doubted I would have been able to anyway, with all the magic otherwise in the air. I looked over hands. I fought with people who removed their hands from their ears briefly enough to swat at me while I patted down their coats. Nothing, and then…
There. Across the crowd and to the back was a witch crawling away, hands over her ears while she scooted an orb across the dusty ground in front of her. I ran, skipping over people as I went. I was two bodies away when there was a sudden strong and unfamiliar smell--something hit me hard in the back--and then nothing. No smell, no sight, no hearing, no sense of my body or the world around me at all. It was like I didn't exist. I had the time to think, Did I just die? And then I was back. It had felt like three seconds time, but there was no way to tell. I was no longer screaming. Somehow, I stayed standing though I didn't know how since I'd been running when the world had gone away. Everyone else remained where they'd been on the ground, but the scepter was gone. The witch who'd been moving it was still there, her hands empty. A trail through the dirt was the only evidence it had been there at all. None of the other witches were close enough to her to have been responsible.
I grabbed the witch by the front of her shirt and made her look in my eyes. "Where is it?" Her only answer was to intensify her sobbing. She searched the ground around us and I repeated the question. It was when she didn't look at me or react in any way that I realized her eardrums were ruptured. She couldn't hear me.
"Owen!"
I pointed to the ground around us and gave her my best imploring look. She shook her head. She didn't know.
"Owen!" I yelled again, and then saw him over the top of the house. His wings seemed sluggish, but he was still moving, which is more than I could say for most of those within hearing range. He still held both the elves. Lyssa was visible now. They were both passed out. My scream did that to some people.
"It's gone!" I told him. "It was right there! I was hit with something and when I came back, it was gone."
He landed and dropped the elves, who started to stir when they hit the ground. His arm was already raised to point at the road when he shifted back to human form. "Car!"
Sure enough, a cloud of dust trailed behind tail lights as they sped out from the shoulder and progressed down the road.
It could have been a trap. It could still be on one of the witches at the scene. But I didn't think so. I couldn't lose the car.
There were three vehicles parked nearby, all of them covered in dents and scorch marks. It looked like people had used them as shields. I found keys inside the second I checked and tried them in the ignition. It was a go.
Owen opened the back door and tossed one of the stirring elves inside. The witch who'd been holding the orb got in on her own with the help of Owen's narrow gaze as he went and grabbed the other elf. I blamed her compliance on the fact that she'd just seen his dragon form. It was intimidating for most people, especially humans.
Getting them all in the car didn't take long, but it felt like forever. He was right to grab them though. They might have answers, and all three of them were in serious trouble with MOD once I got the time to properly arrest them.
I sped down the short driveway and squeezed between the pillar for the open gate and Owen's damaged SUV. We made it through, but not without swiping both sides of the car.
The road was poorly maintained and wound around saguaros and up and down hills. I drove faster than advised on a good day, let alone the middle of the night in a beat up car. Luckily, no one else was on the road.
"Call Hammond," I ordered Owen. "Tell him someone has the scepter and is going through the Tucson entrance in the next few minutes." He did as I asked, and I told our backseat passengers, "I saw the orb. Someone needs to make the witch tell us where the dampener is."
To my surprise, it was Lyssa who helped out. In the rearview mirror, I saw her get out her cell phone and write something on the screen and show it to the witch.
The witch yelled, "It was under my arm but someone took it from me."
"Tell Hammond that," I told Owen. He nodded and loudly updated Hammond as fast as he could.
"So you felt someone take it?" I asked, though of course the witch didn't answer because she couldn't hear. It wasn't important anyway; I thought it answered my question. I was the only one to lose my senses.
"I don't see the car," said Owen when he'd hung up the phone.
Even if they were half a mile ahead, it was possible we wouldn't see the car with all the hills. "It doesn't matter," I told him. "We know where they're going." Or at least, I hoped I did. Volarus seemed like the only place to go with that thing. Once they got there, I had no idea what they'd do next.
"Elves! Do you know who took that scepter?" I didn't hear anything and couldn't afford to look back. "Owen, spit some fire at them if they don't answer." He turned around in his seat so he was facing them.
"We don't know!" Lyssa yelled.
"All guesses are welcome here," I said. More silence. "Ask the witch."
"She says she doesn't know," said Lyssa, "but these witches lie."
"Yeah?"
"Yes. They attacked us before the arranged hand off time, and they've been--"
"Lyssa," Cedric cut her off. "You can't tell her this stuff."
"It's too late to worry about that!" she yelled at him. "I don't even know what is happening anymore! None of this was supposed to happen!"
"We don't know it was the witches who attacked us before the hand off time," Cedric said. "It might have been FAB. It might be this agent right here."
"It wasn't her magic. Can't you tell?"
"Well it wasn't witch magic either!"
"Because they hire people to do these things for them," said Lyssa. "Look at us!" To me, she said, "We thought it was MOD or some other FAB division at first, but then we returned it and wrote that sorry note and they attacked us again. We had to steal it again and get help."
I held my tongue. FAB could have helped them. I would have. Finally I asked, "Why did you steal the scepter in the first place?"
"The witches hired us to," admitted Cedric. "We needed the money."
"I don't recognize you," said Owen. "Do you know Inara or Varis?"
"No," said Lyssa.
"Huh," said Owen, and then he whispered closer to me, "I thought this would circle back to someone on the council. There was the risk of exposure, plus if someone wanted to target my parents stealing this was a good plan… This makes no sense."
Loudly so the elves would hear I asked, "Why did the witches want it?"
"We didn't ask," said Cedric.
"But do you have a guess?"
Lyssa answered, "We didn't want to think about it."
"How fucking nice for you," I said. "Ask the witch."
"I aske
d why they wanted the scepter and she's shaking her head no," said Lyssa.
"Well, that's just peachy," I ground out. "Everybody hold on." I slowed down to a speed I thought would keep us on all four wheels and took the turn that would take us into the tiny town of Vail. Tires screeched and the rear end of the car slid a little sideways. There was the crack of a head hitting a window followed by a groan from the back. That would serve the witch right for not giving me any information.
A few tense minutes later, we approached the small shopping center and the entrance to Volarus across the street. I just caught a glimpse of a car turning toward the ridiculous little magic shop. That had to be our bad guys. I just hoped they had reconnected the dampener to the orb, or life as a fae was about to get a whole lot more interesting.
"Slow down," cautioned Owen, as I approached the final turn. "There's a car." He gripped the handle above his door with one hand, pointing wildly with the other. "Do you see the car?"
"I might if you'd stop flapping that arm in my face," I snapped.
By the time I saw the car he was talking about it was too late to do much about it. It was approaching the intersection from the direction I was about to turn. There was no way I could make my turn without going into their lane, but I would never catch up if I went on by and had to turn around. "This is going to suck!" I shouted, and whipped the wheel hard to the left.
Everything in the car, including myself, flew to the right side. I felt the weightless feeling that told me two of the car's wheels had left the ground and we were still going to clip the passenger side of the other car. That was assuming our car didn't roll over and end up taking them out entirely. At the last second, the wheels touched down on the pavement and we careened through the ditch, taking out the stop sign as we went. Somehow the car stayed right side up and I steered us back onto the right side of the road.
All I heard for the next few seconds were the sounds of ragged breathing from my passengers. I made one more turn and was glad not to see a sprawling fae metropolis in front of me. "Well, I guess they have the dampener attached."
Owen made an indistinct noise followed by a sigh of relief when I let off the accelerator. I wanted to catch the bastards, but there was no way to know what was on the other side of the entrance to Volarus. The city never slept. I wasn't about to plow into a street fair on the other side doing eighty miles an hour.
I held my breath as we passed through and immediately stomped on the brakes. The scene on the other side was complete pandemonium. Two black cars sat in the middle of the road, their front ends a twisted wreck and smoke pouring from under the hoods.
"FAB road block," said Owen, taking his role as Captain Obvious as seriously as ever.
I only slowed down enough to shout at the frazzled FAB agent staring at his destroyed car. "FAB! Which way did they go?"
The stunned man's mouth hung open as he pointed vaguely to the right. That would have to do. I squeezed the car through the gap between the FAB vehicles, wincing at the sound of screeching metal. Hopefully we weren't leaving anything useful behind. Once we were through I gunned the engine and barreled down the street, keeping my eyes peeled for signs as to where they had gone.
"Right up there," said Owen, pointing to an old man shaking a fist in the air while he gathered scattered items at a street corner.
"Nice," I said, pressing harder on the gas. Maybe we'd catch up after all. "Sorry," I muttered as I whipped around the corner next to the old man, causing him to jump back.
There was a loud pop from the rear of the car and then a series of muffled thumps.
"Damn it," shouted Owen. "Flat tire."
"That old fart took out our tire!" I was contemplating whether I should pull over or not when I saw huge chunks of rubber spread over the road in front of us. "Looks like he did the same to them. That's too much rubber for one tire."
I followed the trail of the crumbling tires around two turns and spotted an expensive SUV trailing sparks behind it. Our car was becoming hard to handle with only one tire out. I had no idea how they were keeping theirs on the road with both rear tires gone.
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, the SUV turned a corner and its rear end slid around, taking out a vendor's stall and scattering brightly colored objects everywhere.
I followed them around the turn with marginally better control and felt a grin spread across my face. They were having a hard time picking up speed without tires. We had them now. Even better, there was a bridge up ahead, leaving them nowhere to turn off and try to lose us. "I've got you!" I shouted in triumph, and stomped on the gas.
The SUV made it onto the bridge, and there were no other cars around. It was a perfect setup to get in front of them and force them to stop. Owen could shift and block the way behind them.
Just as I was about to hit the bridge my own thoughts caught up with me. It was the perfect setup. I stomped on the brakes and came to a screeching halt. There was a blinding flash and then the asphalt in front of our car erupted into the sky. Through the smoke and pelting rubble I could just make out a figure disappearing into the shadows at the other end of the bridge.
A few seconds later, the end of the bridge collapsed into the river in front of us while the SUV disappeared around a corner on the other side. If I hadn't stopped, our car would have plummeted into the river along with the bridge.
I rolled down my window so I could better scent the magic of the rock troll. They weren't good for much of anything other than destruction. They'd probably been paid to destroy the bridge with a big slab of meat.
Whoever I was chasing, they were prepared. They had backup and resources.
There was another bridge a couple blocks down. I headed for it. I could still catch up, but there was no telling what I'd find when I did.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The car was locked. What kind of bastard locked their abandoned--probably stolen--car? The same kind of bastard that steals glamour breaking scepters and throws sense depriving magic at me, that's who. Sword held high, I smashed the butt of it down on the driver's side window. Safety glass spilled down like rock candy. I reached inside and opened the door. The car alarm blared, but I wasn't exactly worried about drawing attention. "Everyone get a feel for this. Do you recognize any magic?"
Owen stepped forward and shook his head. "I don't sense anything."
"Me either," I said. I pointed to the elves. "You two do it too." I didn't think they could if we didn't, but leave no stone unturned and all that. "Damn it." I looked in every direction but saw nothing. We were in a nice neighborhood. A fancy neighborhood. The kind where someone might call in a suspicious figure.
"There's no magic in this car," Lyssa said. "I wouldn't even say a fae was driving it."
No one sensed your magic at the museum either, I thought, but didn't say it.
The thief hadn't thrown any magic at us on the road. Looking back, that could have been disastrous if they'd managed what they did to me at the alpha's house while I was driving. They must not have wanted us to scent their magic, which made me think if I did, I could identify them. Unique fae. I filed that thought away for later, along with the question of whether the sensory deprivation magic they'd hit me with was a charm or their magic. Did I already have the key to identifying them? Not now, I told my brain.
"Owen, call and update Hammond, tell him to get a team to search the car. I'm going to search from up above. Don't let these three get away. Understand?"
He saluted me. I couldn't tell if he was trying to be cute or passive aggressive but I didn't have time to figure him out in that moment. He was making the call. I shifted and took off. I'd gone halfway down the block when he yelled, "Sophie, come back!"
"They have the scepter," said Owen. He held out the sweats I'd taken from the wolves before I'd shifted back.
"Who? Hammond?" I pulled the shirt back on and then the pants.
"No," said Owen. "Yes, I hear you," he said into the phone, and then put it on speaker.
&n
bsp; "Hello, Miss Morrigan," said Owen's mother.
"Agent Morrigan," I corrected her.
"Ahh, yes. Well, Agent Morrigan, it seems your services are no longer required."
"I'm… fired?" Could she do that?
"That's a matter for your employer to discuss with you," she said. "The scepter has been recovered. I thought to apprise you of the situation first thing. Please do thank Agent Hammond for his assistance in the matter."
"Wait. What now? How was it recovered? Where is it?"
"My home," she said. "It was delivered to my doorstep a few moments ago."
"Uhhh…" It took me a minute to think of how I was supposed to navigate this, but I finally told her how it was, as politely as I was capable. MOD needed to come see her as soon as possible. She needed to avoid touching the scepter so we could investigate the scene.
"I hardly think that'll be necessary."
"It's not your job to know, it's mine," I snapped. "With all due respect. Ma'am." Why couldn't she have called Hammond about this? "A small MOD team will be at your house soon. Please wait."
"I'll see you then," she said, and ended the call. I guessed that meant I was going. I'd have rather been interrogating the elves and the witch. A team could handle writing up a report on the Kinney house, although, it occurred to me that if it wasn't the Kinneys I might have insisted on being there to avoid missing anything. I was so ready for the case to be over. There was too much personal overlap for my taste.
"I'll let Hammond know," said Owen.
"That's all right, I'll do it," I said. "He might appreciate the opportunity to gripe at me." I rolled my eyes and made the call, only to roll my eyes a few more times. I'd been right about his need to gripe. He made it sound like it was my fault that they hadn't had enough time to get more agents to the barricade at the Tucson entrance and that the thief had broken through it and that the scepter was returned--again--this time to the Kinneys' home, which was apparently a very bad thing.
