Doctors can only heal what they can see and touch. “Oh. I wasn’t doing it on purpose, you know…”
“In the end only Nimue could help, although I’m not sure it wasn’t a coincidence. Did you feel Nix pulling on the bond?”
“I think so. I was…” He hesitates because it sounds fantastical, but what hasn’t been lately?
“Take your time,” Leo nudges his leg gently with his toe.
“I was asleep, then I was…I thought I was dreaming. But I was outside this big house…more of a weird castle, really…pool is custom…gorgeous stone…”
“Are you selling us this place or what?” Rowan interrupts.
“Sorry.” Grayson smiles and closes his eyes to better remember. “Nix was right, Carnell was there, drinking tea and eating a fucking scone. Swimming laps.”
Nix shudders in his arms at his shared memory of Carnell in his swimsuit.
He lets the memory of the hot sun and the feel of the cool earth under his feet bring more of the details back.
“After that, he called out to this skinny guy. Aleksander Withers, he called him. He looked like a walking corpse and smelled about the same. I’d seen him before, though.” Opening his eyes, his gaze locks with Gideon’s, whose jaw is clenched harder than ever.
“They couldn’t see you, though?” Nix asks.
“No, I was standing behind them in the bushes, but I think, like you said, I wasn’t there either. Withers said that their contact at the Guild had told him our pack had registered a new magic Apprentice.”
Jay growls at the thought of a mole inside the institution that is supposed to govern vulnerable young magic users.
“They couldn’t get any information on me, though, because of the magical protections in place. But they think that means there are two of us. Carnell thinks a second magic user is working for our pack.”
“Two? Like an Apprentice? And you?” Nix asks incredulously. “Are magic users so common that we’re just toting two over state lines? That Carnell is worth that kind of the effort? Fucking megalomaniac idiot.”
“Withers saw me at the first safe house.” Grayson bites back the part where the Arcanas had found him attractive—no need to risk Nix storming off into the city, nose to the ground, chasing down the few scraps of information he’s managed to gather. Because that’s what this is, right?
“But why would he think there are two of you? It makes no sense,” Rowan says.
Grayson hates this part. “Ugh… he said he could tell I was strong, or some shit.” Grayson is well aware of his strengths and talents, and while he’s no braggart, he is a confident and successful person. But this? This makes his cheeks flush.
“Understatement,” Luca mutters. “So if you’re strong, you can’t be an Apprentice, is the logic?”
“Nimue calls what you did Traveling,” Finn says in response. “She doesn’t know of anyone in North America who can do it. She thinks there is one in Germany, but she’ll get back to me.”
Gideon hands him a bottle of water and a piece of chocolate—it’s exactly what Grayson needs. It always is.
“Then what? You came back to us like you’d had a shock.”
“Oh yeah, so they were monologue-ing. Or I guess dialoguing? Lots of ass-kissing by Withers, and he said there is a spell in place that if they break it, it means Carnell will be a sitting duck.”
“You mean we haven’t been able to find him because he’s using a spell to hide his whereabouts?” Jay growls.
He is no doubt mad because they’d been here two weeks with no glimpses of their nemesis in the wild. Someone like Carnell never goes under the radar. Not in the news, not in the public eye, and most certainly not by the authorities. Most especially not to the people Lauren Arnell Costas knows. Men like Carnell live like kings and enjoy the public spectacle that wealth and connections bring.
But Carnell had gone off the radar, and now they know why.
They all remember the last time a spell had been used to hide someone, and there was not a happy face in the room.
“Did they say anything else about it?” Finn says, the notes app open on his phone again. “Were you lucky enough to hear what his next moves are?”
“He’s looking for us. He knew we were at the Archive, and the hospital, and…the golf club. He knew you were there, Jay.”
“Why hasn’t he come here, then? Surely if he could find us there, he could find us here?” Rowan growls.
