“That’s where it starts to get really messed up. One of my boys tells me a black limousine was spotted waiting for her near the river drop-off point. Exactly like the ones Calanthe’s rich ass is chauffeured around in.”
Darien’s head became weightless, the squawking of the gulls and the lapping of the water against the dock fading away. “Calanthe,” he muttered. His vision fogged over as he lost himself to his thoughts. “That’s impossible.”
“Is it?” Casen lifted a bushy brow. “Apparently, the Sands girl needed some extra cash. My guess is that when she found out what she was buying—what the people employing her planned on doing with those chemicals and potions—she wanted an out.”
“And they didn’t give one to her.” Instead, they’d used the Well to change her into a demon—or rather, experiment on her until she became of no use to them—and set her loose with the others to terrorize the city, to distract the peace officers from what was really happening. “The Blood Potions—what were those for exactly? Do you know?” He hadn’t thought to ask. He’d been so caught up in simply trying to find suspects and trap anyone who was remotely guilty that it never crossed his mind to ask the Butcher exactlywhatthey were buying. The warlock they’d captured at the Devil’s Advocate had mentioned that they were necessary for conducting spells with the Arcanum Well, but—
“They make a person compliant. They keep them from remembering anything, reacting to anything.” That explained why Sabrine could remember nothing from her capture. The Butcher went on, “Not only that, but I found out if you mix them with Nacht Essentia, you can not only hide your aura, but you can also use it to hide your tells—even to completely change your aura into something different, so if someone with the Sight is looking at you, they’llthinkthey’re seeing your real aura.” He gave a dark laugh. “Shit’s messed up. Ever heard of something like that before?”
Darien’s mind was spinning too hard for his tongue to form words. He certainly hadn’t heard of anything like that before. No—he’d become too reliant on his magic, too cocky.
The Butcher said, “Oh, and there’s another thing. Nacht Essentia has an opposite called Dies Essentia—Essence of Day.”
Darien snapped back to attention. He was breathing so fast, it felt like he was going to faint. “What does it do?”
“While Nacht Essentia hides a person’s aura, Dies Essentia will expose it.”
“What’s the point in that?”
“Maybe when a person gets tired of hiding, or no longer has a reason to hide, they’ll use Dies Essentia.”
The Butcher said something else, but Darien was no longer hearing him as he pieced together the events that’d happened since that day Calanthe had offered an alliance with them.
He’d scanned her aura to make sure she wasn’t lying but—
But that wasn’t to say someone couldn’t learn how to disguise the tells of their aura when they were lying. Or to completely change it, like Casen had just said.
And it seemed Calanthe had done exactly that, with the aid of Nacht Essentia.
Logan had told him he had a friend in the medical field who’d swabbed Sabrine’s mouth when they’d found her in Oldtown. They’d discovered Nacht Essentia on the inside of her cheek, along with trace elements of another plant they couldn’t identify.
Sabrine’s captors had revealed her location on purpose. They’d dumped her, half-alive, where Logan would find her—again, onpurpose. The Blood Potions had probably made her hallucinate so badly that she’d believed she had escaped her captors—crashing down a fire escape just before Logan found her.
Another thought floated through Darien’s mind—a realization.
No matter how big and bad you think you are, there’s always someone who can play the cards better than you.
“Cassel,” the Butcher was saying.“Cassel.”
Darien couldn’t look at him, couldn’t tear his gaze from the sopping dock at his feet—from the hints in his memories that he’d overlooked for all these weeks. Amid his preoccupation with chasing Loren’s heart, a part of him hadn’t wanted to solve the mystery of why everyone was after her—for solving the mystery would’ve meant they would have to say goodbye. He was being selfish—and he might’ve just cost them their lives.
“I have to go.” He made for the shore. “Thanks, Casen.”
“Whatever it is that you’re going to do,” Casen called, his booming voice nearly swallowed up by the wind, “make sure you really want to do it.” It was the closest to abe carefulsomeone like the Butcher would ever give.
When he got back in his car, Darien sat there at the side of the road for several minutes, mind spinning as he tried to calm down, as he reminded himself that Loren wanted nothing to do with him anymore—
Ordidshe?
Shit.
Feeling sick to his stomach, he dialled Tanner and watched the palm trees lining the sidewalks sway in the choppy wind.
The line connected on the fourth ring. “I was just about to call and see if you wanted pizza for dinner—”
“Atlas,” Darien bit out. “I need you to pull up Loren’s cellphone location.”
Keys clicked in the background. “Everything okay?”
