by Alicia Rades
“You murdered my brother, you son of a bitch!” I growled.
I was on him in under a second. He fought back, but I barely felt the pain. I was so pumped up on adrenaline that I felt ten times stronger than normal. Diego managed to get hold of me and shoved me hard into a tree. The back of my head cracked against the trunk. It only fueled me more.
He drew a gun and pointed it at me, but I lunged for him. The gun fell from his grasp as we tumbled to the ground. Over and over, my fist pummeled his face, until he was so swollen and bloody that he was hardly recognizable. I grabbed his gun from the ground and stood, pointing it at him.
He held his hands up in surrender. “Don’t shoot! I’ll give you anything you want.”
You can’t give me Tyson.
I could’ve done it. I was so enraged that I had it in me. But as my finger curled around the trigger, it really hit me. Even if I did this, it wouldn’t bring Tyson back. Nothing could.
A moment of hesitation was all it took for me to know that this wasn’t who I was. This wasn’t what Tyson would’ve wanted.
I dropped the gun to my side, and Diego breathed a sigh of relief. “Consider yourself spared,” I snarled. “But know this. The next person you piss off won’t be as merciful as I am. Your days are numbered, Diego. Have fun watching your back.”
I left the trees fuming, but I was glad I hadn’t gone through with it. I tossed the gun in the bushes. I couldn’t stand to hold on to it.
My hands shook when I returned to the vehicle. I leaned my head against the steering wheel and let the tears flow until they could flow no more. When I finally lifted my head, it was pounding, and there was a large hole widening in my stomach. It felt like I was falling apart, and I didn't know how to hold myself together right now—not without Tyson.
I reached into my pocket to pull out my key, but my hand found the little plastic bag of magnolia. I pulled it out and examined the pink powder. The thirst in my throat never seemed worse than in that moment.
A thought took root, and once it did, I couldn't get it out of my mind.
Maybe this will help me forget.
I already knew how stupid it was, how much I'd regret it later, but I also knew how much everything hurt—and how magnolia would help numb that pain.
Even if it were only temporary.
16
“Fiona found something,” I told Genevieve over breakfast the day after Venn returned. “I think Devin has it.”
She cocked an eyebrow at me. “Devin, as in the guy who runs Bloodstone?”
I didn't miss the look of disgust on her face. “Yeah, I know. That place is a shithole, but Fiona found an artifact I think he has, and it might help us.”
Fiona already had the stack of papers in her lap. She reached across the table to hand the paper to Genevieve. Genevieve glanced over all the images on the page.
“I recognize the cufflinks,” I said. “The website says the owner can increase his strength tenfold just by possessing one of them. We can buy them off him.”
Genevieve pressed her lips together. “That sounds useful. Take whoever you want with you. Give Devin whatever price he asks for them.”
I gaped at her. “You want me to arrange my own party?”
Genevieve shrugged. “Why not? You're the one who knows him. I guarantee he’ll not be interested in doing business with me. He always saw me as a competitor. Was very bitter about it, too.”
“If he doesn't like you, is he going to trust your money?” I asked.
She shrugged. “He doesn't have to know it's mine. I'll send you with the cash.”
I nearly choked. Genevieve's house was nice, and she and Richard had a lot of cars, but it wasn't like she was living in a castle. If she had the kind of cash lying around that I knew Devin would ask for this sort of thing, she was living well below her means.
“Okay. I want Sondra…” She was always my first pick.
I was about to say Venn, but he still looked a little out of it, and I needed my team at the top of their game. Devin was the kind of guy who would release a poisonous airborne potion if he felt threatened.
“Fiona…” I decided next, because she was eyeing me eagerly, and also because she was the one who'd found out about the cufflinks in the first place.
I glanced around the table, looking for more eager eyes, but Jenna and Ronark were both staring down at their food. Ryland and Teagan shared that look again, the one I was still struggling to read. What was going on with them lately?
“What about you, Tea?” I asked. “Ready to get back out there?”
She froze. “Oh, uh, I—”
“I'll go,” Clarita offered.
Amalia looked relieved beside her, like she was glad she didn't have to volunteer.
“Do you know Devin?” I asked Amalia.
She bit her lower lip. “A little. He was my mentor for a few months when he lived in Chicago. A useless mentor, honestly. He doesn't know half as much as he claims.”
I knew exactly what she meant. Devin was an idiot.
“Well, it looks like I have my team. Should we get going?”
Fiona stood and bounced on her toes, looking eager. She already had Teagan's knives strapped to her waist. She caught me eyeing them. “Teagan’s been teaching me. I've been practicing.”
“Good,” I said as I stood. “Let's hope we don't need them.”
I wrapped my arm around Venn and kissed him on the back of the head. “I love you, babe.”
He rubbed my hand. “Love you, too. Stay safe.”
“I will,” I promised.
Bloodstone was hidden in the back of a bakery. When we pulled up outside, it was like stepping back in time to my old life. I hated working here, but it’d paid my rent.
“That's weird,” I said, eyeing the front window. The lights were off, and the sign on the door read Closed. “Devin was never late for work. It was the one good thing about him.”
“Maybe he shut down with the DMR investigations?” Fiona suggested from beside me in the back seat
I shook my head. “He'd still keep the bakery running, even if he got rid of all his magic in the back.”
“Unless he was caught,” Sondra said thoughtfully.
“There's only one way to find out.” Clarita opened the passenger-side door and climbed out of the car. The rest of us followed.
I cupped my hands around my face and peered into the dark shopfront. The case beneath the counter that held donuts and bread was empty. I could see part of the kitchen from this view, but I spotted no movement.
I pushed away from the window. “This is just too weird. It isn't like Devin. He likes money too much to just shut everything down.”
“What are you suggesting?” Clarita asked.
“I'm suggesting we investigate,” I replied. “Follow me.”
I started around the side of the building toward the small parking lot. It was squeezed between the bakery and a coffee shop next door and fit only eight cars.
“Breaking and entering?” Fiona hissed.
“It's not breaking and entering if you have a key,” I said with a smirk.
Devin always left a spare beneath a pile of landscaping rocks near the side door in case he ever got locked out. I’d told him it was a good way to lose the key, but when he challenged me to find a better place for it, I couldn't.
I glanced around the street, like I might see Devin's little red sports car, but I didn't know why I bothered. He always parked it around the block to save the other parking spaces for patrons.
I found the key where I expected and unlocked the door. The hall was dark and looked ominous. I held a finger to my lips to signal everyone to be quiet. I tiptoed inside, remaining on high alert the whole time. The hall smelled mostly like a mixture of herbs, but there was also the slight hint of decay in the air. Was Devin dealing with another mouse infestation? I’d told him last time that if he didn’t deal with that quick, the inspector was going to shut him down and both the bakery and Bloodstone would be out o
f business.
“Devin?” I called down the hall.
No answer.
“Devin, it’s Rachel. You around?”
I was met with only silence.
I reached the door to Bloodstone. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a backroom where we kept crystals, herbs, charms, and other magical objects. Devin had torn down the wall between two rooms so that Bloodstone was almost as big as the front of the bakery and looked like a shop of its own.
The door was left open a crack. All I could see was a sliver of red carpet and the dark black display cases along one wall. My hands shook as I reached for the door and pushed it open.
I leapt backward in horror at what I saw. My hand slapped over my mouth to keep from spewing my breakfast all over the floor. Three equally horrified gasps came from behind me.
Devin’s body lay sprawled across the floor in a pool of his own blood. A hole larger than my fist went straight through his chest and to the carpet below, as if something had burned through it. His eyes were clouded over and stared lifelessly toward the ceiling. His round face was so pale that he barely looked like himself, but there was no denying his signature buzzed hair, thin beard, and slight pot-belly.
“What happened here?” Fiona asked breathlessly.
I finally found my feet and took a step into the room, being careful to avoid getting too close. I shook my head. “I have no idea. Devin worked with some shady people, but he was smart enough to never piss them off.”
Clarita knelt close to the body to inspect the wound.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Sondra asked her.
Clarita didn’t take her eyes off Devin’s chest. “If you’re thinking this was done with magic, then yes.”
Fiona furrowed her brow. “There’s no way he’s been here long, so this couldn't be just any magic. An artifact, maybe?”
Sondra pressed her lips together. “It would have to be a very powerful one.”
I looked around the room. Everything was in its proper place. Even the cash register at the counter hadn’t been disturbed.
“What do you think they wanted from him?” I asked.
Fiona walked around the room, inspecting it for clues. “You knew him. Maybe someone had a grudge against him.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. He was an asshole, but not enough to get him killed. The only thing I can think of is they wanted something from him, something magical. But in that case, why not take the rest of this—the potions and everything?”
I thought back through the days of running inventory and tried to think back to the most powerful thing he sold. Devin never did sell anything you couldn’t find in any other underground shop. Mostly herbs, spells, and charms. They were harmless on their own.
I stared down at the body, and my eyes caught something on his wrist. The cufflinks.
I knelt beside Clarita, who was still looking him over for clues. “Look. He still has the cufflinks. If someone killed him for an artifact, why didn’t they take these?”
“Maybe they didn’t know they had power,” Sondra theorized.
“Or maybe it was for revenge,” Fiona said again.
I reached out for the cufflinks, but Clarita grabbed my wrist.
“We don’t want to tamper with anything,” she warned. “We don’t have magic. We won’t be able to cover it up.”
“This is what we came here for,” I reminded her. “Who’s going to notice them missing?”
Sondra looked conflicted, then finally dropped her shoulders. “Rae’s right. We’re preparing for a war. We don’t have the luxury of leaving here without our arms full. We’ll take whatever we can get.”
“Fair enough,” Clarita said. “But we have to be careful.”
“There are plastic bags behind the counter.” I pointed. “Fit whatever you can in them.”
Clarita was careful not to touch anything but the plastic bags. She turned the first one inside-out and used it as a sort of glove to gather potion vials so she wouldn’t leave any fingerprints behind. Sondra and Fiona followed her lead.
“Make sure to get those clear potions in the corner,” I told them. “They’re healing potions. And those yellow ones? They enhance the senses. We might want some of those.”
I pulled the cufflinks off Devin’s wrists, but as I drew away, my hand brushed by something cold. The phone in his pocket shifted and fell out another inch.
An idea suddenly hit me, and I was too curious not to investigate. I didn’t care if I got my fingerprints all over everything. I had to know what happened here.
I pulled Devin’s phone from his pocket. The screen came on when I touched it, but the battery was only at seven percent. It prompted me to enter a PIN. I held my breath and tried the one I’d seen Devin enter a thousand times before—5262.
To my relief, the screen unlocked. Devin was so predictable.
It opened up to the camera right away. I was about to go to the home screen and check his messages when a circle in the corner caught my eye, where the phone showed the last picture taken. It was blurry, like it’d been taken in motion.
I clicked on it, and a video started playing.
“Thank you for the offer, but I’m going to have to decline,” Devin’s voice came through the speaker. The screen went dark, like Devin had been hiding the phone while he recorded.
Clarita gasped from behind me. “What are you doing?”
She rushed over to me, but I hit pause and pulled the phone away from her.
“I think this might give us a clue to what happened,” I said.
“I said not to touch anything,” she hissed.
I shrugged. “Too late. Do you want to know what happened, or not?”
Clarita couldn’t hide her curiosity.
“I want to know,” Fiona said, coming up behind me.
I looked up at Sondra. “And you?”
“Yeah,” she admitted. “I do.”
The three gathered around me, and I hit play on the screen again. Another voice came over the speaker, lower than Devin’s and slightly familiar.
“You owe me, Devin,” the man snarled.
My heart started to pound violently in my chest. That couldn’t be who I thought it was, could it?
“We settled that debt a long time ago,” Devin shot back. “Look, I have a teenage daughter. I can’t leave her now.”
“Does she have magic?” the other man asked coolly.
Devin hesitated. “She… Lana’s practicing.”
“Then bring her.”
My face paled. I didn’t look up to see how the others reacted, but they must’ve been thinking the same thing I was.
Matias Vayne.
“No,” Devin objected. “I won’t get her involved in this.”
“She’s been involved the day I gave you that loan,” Matias growled back at him.
It was clear as day. It was definitely Matias. What was he doing in Nocton, trying to recruit Devin of all people? Was he that desperate for allies?
“I paid you back!” Devin shouted. “I don’t owe you anything.”
“Then come because you want to,” Matias pressed. “You never could resist a good magic trick. Come join the greatest one of all.”
“I told you,” Devin said. “My daughter… she’s still in school, and—”
Matias’s tone turned hostile. “If you don’t join me, you will die. Only the best can survive in the new world I’m creating.”
A moment passed, then Devin said, “I guess you’re just going to have to kill me, then.”
Matias chuckled. “With pleasure.”
A loud blast sounded through the speaker, then came the thud of a falling body. My hand shot over my mouth, and my whole body trembled.
I thought the recording would end there, but it didn’t. Matias’s voice continued. “It’s a real shame. I do hate wasting good magical blood.”
The sound of heavy boots followed, then the creaking of hinges as the door swung behind him, then… si
lence. Nothing but silence.
After several long seconds, I lifted my head and glanced between the three other women with wide eyes.
“Matias,” Sondra whispered, like she didn’t quite believe it yet.
I was so shocked I could hardly speak. “I-I can’t believe he didn’t go with him. I would’ve thought Devin… I forgot about Lana.”
Fiona’s voice wavered. “Matias isn’t screwing around. If people don’t take his side, he’ll kill them.”
Clarita looked deep in thought, but she snapped out of it a moment later and got to her feet. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Are we just going to leave him?” I asked.
“We don't want anyone to know we've been here,” Clarita said. “Let's hope whoever finds him thinks Matias robbed him.”
“What about security tapes?” Fiona asked.
“He doesn't use them,” I assured her. “He doesn't want that kind of record of the type of business he runs.”
Clarita started pulling more items off the shelves. “Rae, wipe your prints off the phone, then come help us fill these bags.”
“I’ll bring the car around,” Sondra said quickly.
I was still trying to wrap my head around it. I knew Matias was bad, but this? It was clear Matias was worse than I initially thought. And it was going to take a hell of a lot more manpower than we had to defeat him.
17
The sound of screams met us when we pulled into Genevieve's driveway. I shot a quick glance at Fiona, who wore the same shocked expression as I did. I kicked my door open before Sondra had shifted into park, then grabbed the dagger out of my boot and raced up the front steps.
“You're being an asshole!” Jenna shouted.
I ran through the kitchen and toward the sound of voices in the living room, where the TV was playing loudly. Three pairs of footsteps followed behind me.
“And you're being a bitch!” Ronark snarled back.
“You're both acting like little bitches,” Venn snapped. He grabbed for the remote in Ronark's hand, but Ronark pulled back so they were both fighting to take it from the other. Their expressions were hostile, like they'd burst into a shifter fight at any moment of they could.
