“Sorcery.”Wesley scoffed the word out loud, for good measure. As if anyone was capable of something that wasn’t real.
Even if de Leon had used the wordparanormalin New York, to describe Rory Brodigan.
Wesley paused.
And then he shook his head. Christ, now he was havingflights of fancy.All that rot aboutparanormalswas all bootlegger code, that’s what Arthur had said, and why would it be anything else?
Wesley did not believe in fairy tales, true love, or other childish nonsense. He most certainly did not believe inmagic. The only thing bewitching about Sebastian de Leon was his supernaturally handsome face, and Wesley would not be so easily enchanted.
The murder had happened behind Molly’s boarding house. A crowd had gathered, kept back by several policemen.
Sebastian hovered on the edge of the crowd, just behind Jade and Zhang’s physical body. “We may have to rethink the plan of using my magic,” he said reluctantly.
“How would it normally work?” asked Jade.
“My magic is enervation, yes?” Sebastian tilted his head back to look from under the brim of his flat cap. He was tall enough to see over part of the crowd, but two officers still blocked his view of the alley. “I cannot tell you what kind of magic was used, but if I sweep out with my magic, I will feel if there is residual magic that gets cleared away.”
“Cleared?”Jade looked fully over her shoulder. “I thought you could onlyweakenmagic and then it eventually comes back.”
“Yes, living magic, in people,” he admitted. “This would be sweeping away the effects of magic, like traces left by alchemy.”
“Or an astral projection?” asked Zhang, on his other side. “So if you use your magic here, Jade won’t be able to use her telekinesis, and my astral projection will vanish.”
“And every person without magic will crash to the ground when my magic hits their aura.” Sebastian winced. “I don’t think I can risk it. I could hurt all of these people here.”
“Agreed, but I feel certain there are magical traces that you would find,” said Jade. “This alley is off a central street in the middle of Kilburn. How is the murderer moving unseen and unheard?”
Under his eyelids, Zhang’s eyes moved like he was dreaming. “There are ashes in the street.”
Sebastian’s eyes widened. “Ashes?”
“In a perfect circle,” said Zhang. “As if someone made a ring of fire and let it burn to the stones.”
Sebastian exchanged a look with Jade. “We know at least one paranormal with fire magic,” she said grimly.
Jack Mercier. Sebastian knew him too, another paranormal who’d been enslaved alongside Sebastian by the Puppeteer’s blood magic under Baron Zeppler. Only where Sebastian had hated the things he’d been forced to do, Mercier had enjoyed the violence, and only ever hated being under someone else’s thumb.
“It means nothing good if Jack Mercier is in town,” said Jade.
“No,” Sebastian said quietly. “Nothing good at all. Could it actually be him behind these murders?”
Zhang made a doubtfulhmm. “The body’s been moved to the morgue already, but there’s a pair of policemen talking about it. One of them just saidshe was shriveled like an ancient raisin. I think it’s a good bet this is the same murderer, but I don’t know if it could have been done with fire.”
He opened his eyes for a moment. “The body was scheduled for an autopsy this afternoon. I’m going to take a look.”
“We’ll cover for you,” Jade said.
“What does that mean?” Sebastian asked, as Zhang closed his eyes again.
“The farther he projects, the more effort it takes, and the less he can act normally here on the street with us.” Jade threaded her arm through Zhang’s. “Let’s find a quiet corner.”
Sebastian nodded in understanding. “I have limits too,” he said, as they walked, Jade guiding Zhang’s physical body with an ease that spoke of their comfort with each other. “If I have to keep my magic tightly controlled, it’s tiring, and the stronger the magic, the more effort it takes for me to weaken it. And with a paranormal like Rory, with a relic, it’s like running face-first into a lead wall. I can’t touch or weaken their magic at all.”
There was a park bench across the street, and the three of them sat. “You know far more about the relics than Jianwei and I,” said Jade. “Baron Zeppler had a relic, a brooch. Do you know anything you can share about it?”
Sebastian bit his lip. He wasn’t supposed to talk about the relics, but this was the fourth nonmagical victim in the past few months. He needed to work with Jade and Zhang if they were going to stop these killings. “The brooch makes a paranormal’s magic work on other paranormals.”
“What, it turns them into a de Leon?” she said, with a ghost of a smile.
