My mind searched and quickly threw up the right answer. Max was talking about the same diaries he’d referred to this morning. The diaries that had talked of my visions.
They belonged to his mother? That was important somehow. Because Jason and Max shared a father, not a mother.
Jason stiffened even more. “I don’t ask that you understand my actions—”
“You simply ask that I follow. That’s your problem, brother. You have always simply asked that people follow. You never share your great vision of the future – but you expect everybody to follow it.”
“I don’t need to explain myself to you,” Jason growled.
Though I desperately wanted to ask if the house was okay, or if this fraught conversation was seconds from being interrupted by an all-out magical war, I assumed Jason wouldn’t be here if we weren’t safe.
So there was nothing to interrupt the two warring brothers as they glowered at each other.
“Beth… might have inadvertently gained access to this room, but I still will not give you those diaries.”
“This is an Internal Affairs operation. If you—”
“Why would Internal Affairs want those diaries?” I interrupted. Judging by the sheer ferocity of this conversation, I should’ve just shrunk away and pretended I couldn’t hear a thing. But something told me to intervene. Either it was my opportunity-sensing magic, or it was my emotion magic. Because if this conversation became any more acrimonious, I wouldn’t be surprised if the two brothers actually started to fight.
Jason looked at me and frowned. “You know about the diaries?” As he asked that, I could sense that he was scanning my emotions, obviously searching for the truth.
I had nothing to lie about. I shrugged. “Yeah, I know about the diaries. Now why does Internal Affairs want them?”
“I assume it’s to track down the seventh set,” Max suddenly volunteered.
Jason paled and twitched his head toward Max so quickly, I swore I saw his neck muscles twanging. “How do you know about the seventh set?”
“I told him about it,” I said. “And I knew,” I volunteered before he could demand an answer, “because Hayden told me.”
Jason curled a hand into a fist. He clenched his teeth. “There’s—”
“If you’re about to say only so much you can protect me from, don’t bother. Because I’m not entirely sure what you’ve been doing to me to date, but I’m starting to doubt it was protecting me.”
Jason looked as if he’d just been slapped. That jealousy he’d managed to contain through directing his anger at his brother before started to twist toward me. Frustration, anger, and pure irritation welled in his heart.
I stood my ground. “What exactly do Internal Affairs want with the seventh set?”
“The prophecy—” he began, his hands curling into even tighter fists.
“Clearly dictates that the sorcerer and their finder,” I said, emphasizing the word their when I really knew it was her, “are meant to destroy them. Not gather them together. Which is precisely what Internal Affairs are doing. What have you got planned?” I asked directly.
Jason was being painted into a corner. And just like any other wild animal, I could feel his anger and desperation grow. He had a frantic kind of look in his eyes that told me he would be prepared to do anything to keep hold of his secrets.
I took a step toward him and angled my head up high, my gaze narrowed with defiance. “Tell me. You keep wanting me to trust you, you keep wanting me to trust in this prophecy,” my voice became guarded, “but you won’t tell me anything. All you want to do is so-called protect me.”
On the term so-called, something finally snapped within Jason. His expression became… crumpled with anger, as if he’d grabbed hold of his own face and scrunched it up. “Fine, Beth. You want the truth. I’ll give it to you. The Zero Prophecy clearly states that the finder will die destroying the seventh set. You happy now?” His voice shook.
I paled. I felt as if every single capillary had suddenly been sliced open as all my blood had left my body. “… What?”
“You die, Beth. Or at least, you’re meant to. Unless we can find a way around it. Unless….”
Max appeared to understand something. In a moment of realization, his features slackened. “You’re planning on using them, aren’t you? Not destroying them – but using them.”
Jason ground his eyes closed, and it was obviously to hide the truth. But from an opportunity finder and a sorcerer, that was impossible.
I was already standing relatively close to Jason, but that didn’t stop me from taking another stiff step toward him. “Max is right, isn’t he?” My voice shook. “Internal Affairs plan to use the sets, not destroy them. But that will just bring the chaos—”
Jason looked at me with slack cheeks. “The chaos can be controlled. It’s mostly a myth, anyway—”
“A myth? I’ve—” I began.
Max finally stood. He shouldn’t have been able to – even with the healing magic I’d pumped into him. He should still be as weak as someone who’d just undergone recent surgery. But he stood, and in doing so, he stopped me from revealing my vision. Which, judging by the sensations pushing through his heart, was his point.
Jason looked dead-eyed at his brother, obviously not caring as Max swayed on the spot. Max shifted around until he clamped a hand on the edge of the sofa. He angled his head back and looked at his brother. “The hidden sets can’t be used, brother,” Max’s voice changed, his tone for the first time becoming caring, as if he felt something more than hatred for Jason. “They will corrupt—”
“Not if you’re smart enough to control them. And not if they in turn are controlled by good people.”
My eyes opened wide. I remembered Max’s warning from the past. How he’d tenderly whispered in my ear that I must never give in to the lure of the sets. “It doesn’t matter how good the people are who try to control the sets; they’re too powerful to use.”
“Good people can never fear power,” Jason said as he looked right at me. “Because if they fear gathering power, then they will not be able to protect others. You’ve led a sheltered life, haven’t you, Beth?” he asked pointedly.
I could have pointed out that the life I’d led before becoming a witch was so far in the past now, it felt like it was irrelevant. But he had a point. I nodded.
“I haven’t,” he revealed, and so much emotion twisted through his tone, I realized that this was the heart of Jason. Just like the murder of his sister was the heart of Josh, what Jason was about to reveal was the thorn sticking into his soul. “From the get-go, my father taught me that refining your strength is the only way you can save those who matter. And if I hadn’t learned his lessons,” he said, his teeth clenched, “you would be dead. You and countless others. Can you remember the cases you’ve worked on, Beth? From Howard to Frank to Isabella? If I hadn’t learned those lessons,” he continued, his jaw now so firmly clenched, I thought he would grind his teeth into enamel dust, “my own brother would have just died, and so would everyone else. I would’ve failed to hold those elementals off, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. So tell me that again.” He stared at me defiantly. “Tell me that there’s no point in good men seeking power.”
He had a point. A crushing one. And yet it was one that could not overcome the certainty of the message Max had whispered in my ear while the storm had pressed in from above.
I looked at Jason entreatingly. “It still doesn’t matter. We have to destroy the sets.”
“Then you’ll die,” Jason said plainly.
That… finally struck home.
I wouldn’t die, would I? If I was right – and my heart told me I wasn’t wrong – then Max was the finder, and he would die.
Max couldn’t read minds. He couldn’t read emotion, either, but the way he suddenly looked at me – with calm resolve – told me he knew what I was thinking. “There’s a cost for everything,” he muttered.
Jason
whirled on him, his expression becoming almost rabid. “How dare you—”
… Could Max have seen the vision, too?
With our lips pressed together, had… my experience somehow pushed over to him?
Max brought up a hand. “We don’t have time for this argument. I assume you’ve made this house safe – for now.”
Jason’s hands were curled into soft fists, but either his reason had somehow overcome his passion – which was doubtful – or he appreciated just how much risk the house was still under. “Even with my skills, they’ll find a way to push through sooner rather than later. We need to get your diaries and get out of here.”
“How did you even get here in the first place?” I asked. “You used a portal, didn’t you? I felt portal magic discharging off you when you fell into my arms.” My voice didn’t even waver on the term fell into my arms, even though it made me want to wrap my arms around Max again.
Something was telling me this was serious. We needed to figure out what was going on, who was fighting us, and most importantly, how to keep Max safe.
… That desire was still in me, stronger than ever. I was the sorcerer who’d been sent to keep Max safe until he found the seventh set and finally destroyed them all.
I couldn't breathe a word of this to Jason though. I….
Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
Something told me I had to keep this a secret until the end.
“Ever since Olivia disappeared, somebody has been trying to kill me,” Max revealed.
Though it was no revelation to me, I watched Jason’s eyes narrow. “You mean more than usual?”
“Yes, brother – I mean more than usual. There have been several distinct attempts on my life in the past 48 hours. Enough that I spent a considerable sum to procure a ready-made portal spell.”
“And that’s what you used to escape the hospital?” I asked.
Max nodded. “When the two metal elementals were close to slicing my head off, I managed to get a hand on the portal spell and activate it. The rest—”
“Is hardly history,” Jason interrupted. “By my assumption, there are at least 10 elementals attempting to break into this house at this point in time.”
My nose scrunched up. Excuse me if the topic of elementals was fresh on my mind. And because it was fresh, their population statistics were fresh, too. I knew how many elementals were expected per 100,000 people. And something didn’t make sense here. I shook my head. “This is way too many elementals. Where are they all coming from?”
“I imagine whoever is behind these assassination attempts and the disappearance of Olivia,” Jason managed, “has been stockpiling them.”
“Or they’ve been making them,” I said, the comment coming from nowhere.
Both men looked at me. While Jason looked as if I was an idiot, Max had a soft, searching quality to his expression. “What are you thinking, Beth?” Max asked.
“Elementals can’t be made—” Jason tried.
“Unless somebody had access to a hidden Grimoire set that allowed them to learn elemental magic,” I said smoothly, the facts finally clicking into place.
Everything about the elemental attacks we’d faced seemed too convenient. There were too many of them, and their powers were too controlled.
Jason shook his head, and there was a hard certainty to it. “Impossible. The elemental hidden sets have been in the possession of Internal Affairs for two-and-a-half years.”
My lips opened and half turned into a frown, then I stopped.
Two-and-a-half years?
There was that timeframe again. It couldn’t be a coincidence that exactly 5 years ago Josh’s sister was murdered, too.
The two cases had to be connected.
I suddenly remembered that Josh and I hadn’t had a chance to go through the case file we’d stolen from the courtrooms yet.
It would be key.
“What are you thinking?” Max asked again, his voice quiet but strong.
“That I’m right – and someone was creating those elementals.”
“But I just told you that doesn’t make any sense,” Jason tried.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe the person behind these elemental attacks is like Jeopardy. Maybe they have the ability to take perfect mental images – ones they can step into. Which would make it irrelevant if they lost the elemental set.”
“Even someone with perfect memory wouldn’t be able to use a memory of the elemental set to instruct other people. They would require a physical copy for that. So there’s no way these elementals are being created.”
“I don’t know – then maybe the hidden set you have in Internal Affairs is faked.”
Jason didn’t appear to know what to do with this comment. He simply stared at me in dumbfounded shock for several seconds until he obviously gained control of his neck again and shook it hard. “Impossible,” he said with enough certainty, his voice punched out like a shot.
I looked at Max. I couldn’t read his mind, but his expression told me he didn’t think it was impossible at all.
I was missing something here, wasn’t I?
Something that connected all of the disparate facts I’d learned over the past 24 hours together.
And it all went back to that murder two-and-a-half years ago.
“None of this matters right now. We need to get out of here, and we need to take the diaries with us,” Jason growled at his brother.
Max wouldn’t look at Jason – he only had eyes for me. And as I distracted myself for a single second by scanning Max’s emotion, I realized he was using his opportunity finding magic. It was as if he sensed an opportunity within me – an opportunity that would change everything.
Could he have realized that I was on the cusp of figuring everything out?
“Max—” Jason began, launching into another tirade to try to convince his brother to release his mother’s diaries.
Me? I tuned out. I centered my mind on the facts. I needed that damn case file. But if I went out and grabbed it off Josh now, Jason would find out.
So I had to figure it out, didn’t I?
What did I know? That the symbol on the back of the toilet door had started all of this off. If Josh was right, then Olivia had activated it. And I had reason to believe that she’d activated the one in the theater recently, didn’t I? Because, ticking my mind back, I could appreciate that there had been a path through the dust. What did this all mean? And how was it connected back to Max? Why was someone trying to kill Max now?
Though Max was trying to argue with his brother about giving him his mother’s diaries, I could tell he was only doing so halfheartedly. At the same time, he was trying to concentrate on me. I wasn’t making it up. I now fully understood that he was using his opportunity finding magic on me, and he obviously appreciated that I was on the cusp of something. I was frustratingly close, in fact, but I still couldn’t put it together. That’s when my mind ticked back to the symbol.
All this time, I’d been assuming it was some kind of gang symbol, but that didn’t make sense, did it? If Josh was right, and his sister had been the one to put those symbols together, then it was a warning, wasn’t it?
A warning, presumably, relating to the case from two-and-a-half years ago.
I looked right at Max. “Was Olivia working a significant case two-and-a-half years ago?” I asked plainly.
Jason stiffened. “Beth, this isn’t the time—”
“Olivia was always working on cases as a prosecutor. What’s important about two-and-a-half years ago?”
“Was she working on a big case? Something to do with the gangs?”
Max appeared to concentrate, then nodded.
“Is there a case that stands out more than others?”
“Beth,” Jason tried, obviously attempting one last time to pull me back to the situation at hand. I fancied there was even a desperate twinge in his tone.
“Yes. It was to do with the X Gang. The leader a
t the time was captured. He had a set of Hidden Grimoires. The same set, presumably, that Jason spoke of earlier. When the police took it, Internal Affairs took it off them.” Max was looking at me with a very specific expression, as if he were begging me to find the truth.
Why he couldn’t just tell me, I didn’t know.
But it didn’t matter – because it all clicked into place.
From the conversation I’d overheard in the bathroom stalls where those two warlocks had questioned why so many witches were disappearing under the police’s nose, to the symbol itself.
“Peter Mercure,” I said out of the blue.
“What are you talking about, Beth?” Jason managed, his tone tight. It was too tight for some reason….
My head was like a puzzle that had just solved itself. Every disparate thought and fact clicked together. And they all led back to Peter.
A P and an M with an X through it. At first I’d thought that the X was canceling out those two letters. But it was combining them, wasn’t it?
It was trying to tell people that Peter Mercure was the head of the X Gang.
I’d suspected that before – back when we’d been tracking Constantine down, but now everything locked into place.
Peter Mercure, as the number one security professional of Madison City, had access to all the toughest warlocks. He also had deep ties with the Justice Department.
He’d also managed to divert Jeremy Rodriguez for 15 minutes without anyone raising an eyebrow.
“Beth? What—” Max began.
I’d been looking for the wrong things.
I’d been stupid.
And I was about to pay the price.
I paled, from my face down to my toes, feeling as cold as ice.
Max asked if I was okay, but I couldn’t honestly hear him anymore.
I’d been wrong. When I’d activated that symbol in the bathrooms, it hadn’t brought those two elementals. They hadn’t known I was there – until someone had told them.
Jeremy. He was in the room, wasn’t he?
He was using his invisibility magic right now to follow me.
He’d been following me most of the day, in fact. Hell, maybe he’d been following me for weeks now.
Forgotten Destiny 4 Page 15
