Finally, Alice spoke, her voice soft but clear. "That's a great question. And, honestly, I don't know why I'm still here."
"Maybe because you haven't tapped into the dark side of your magic like Alex has," Angel offered. Then she tilted her head, narrowing her eyes as she stared at Alice.
"What?" Alice asked with a frown, staring back. Suddenly, she brushed at her arms like something was crawling on her. "Stop it," she ordered Angel.
Angel leaned back in her chair. "Yeah, you're still pure as snow." She crossed her arms. "Guess that means you're a good witch, and useless to help us get your brother back."
"Leeloo." Jamal's tone held a warning. "Be nice."
"What?" she asked him. "I'm just stating the obvious."
"I can find Alex."
All heads turned to Talin. Under the visible scrutiny of her High Priestess, she took a bracing breath and rose slowly from her chair to stand tall beside Elias. "I know where he is." She gave a small shrug. "Well, kind of. But I can get to him."
"We don't know that yet," Elias insisted.
"I can do it," she insisted.
Judy glanced at the other witches before she directed her attention back to Talin. "How?"
"I told you about the dreams and visions I was having."
Judy nodded. "You miss him," she said. "That's to be expected. I'm sure we're all having dreams about him. Isn't that right?" she asked the others. When they nodded, she continued. "Honey, I know you want to contribute, to help, but dreams are just dreams."
Kenya rose from her chair and stepped forward, her hand reaching for Jamal, who steadied her. She'd been getting rapidly weaker in the last few days. Always soft-spoken, her voice was barely audible when she said, "Judy, please just listen to her."
The matriarch had always had a soft spot for Kenya, and I was sure seeing her so weak pulled at her heartstrings like it did all of us. She wasn't going to survive much longer on the donor blood she forced down her throat.
The thought sobered me.
Kenya's eyes pleaded with Judy to do as she asked, and after a moment, she gave her a nod and leaned back in her chair.
"I've been trying to reach Alex through the threads," Talin explained. "I can see him, but Marcus is also aware of my presence. And he's trying to turn my magic against me. But I think he's also afraid of it somehow, and that's why he went after Elias instead of me. Killing Elias, knowing what he is to me, would..." She glanced up at Elias, who was staring at her hard, waiting with the rest of us to hear what she would say. "Well, it would devastate me if someone—anyone—got hurt because of me. But when I showed up at the club, he seemed…" she glanced down as she tried to think of the words, "not afraid of me, exactly, but he didn't want to mess with me, either."
I felt rather than saw Alice's reaction, a subtle shift in her energy that made my skin prickle. When I looked at her again, she was staring at Talin with something like recognition in her eyes.
"You can see the threads," Alice murmured. "The connections between people."
Talin nodded. "I'm still learning, but yes. And with Elias's help, I can follow them without things getting out of control." She turned back to Judy. "I saw Alex. And it wasn't just a dream. He's alive, barely, but he's trapped in some kind of pocket dimension, in…binding circles? I guess? Marcus is draining his magic?—"
"And using it to strengthen his own web," Alice finished, like she'd known this all along. "The dark magic in Alex is the key. The djinn magic. Marcus needs it to anchor himself to this realm permanently."
Everyone turned to stare at her.
"How do you know that?" Judy asked carefully.
Alice's aura flickered, the usual white shot through with shadows and smoke and the kind of power that didn't come from gentle earth magic.
"Because I can feel it," she said. "The same power that's in the djinn. It's inside me too." She turned to look at Angel. "It's just waiting."
"For what?" Angel asked her.
Alice shrugged. "I don't know."
The room went silent.
I should have stayed put. Should have kept my distance and my mouth shut and let the others handle this. But before I thought through my actions, I was pushing off the wall and crossing the room to stand behind Alice's chair. Crossing my arms over my chest, I stood there like some fucked up kind of bodyguard and gave her my support.
