CHAPTER ONE
The witch across the street had terrible taste in coffee.
Katherine Barnes shifted against the leather seat of her Beetle as she stared out the window, pushing a strand of sweaty brown hair behind her ear. Despite Los Angeles’ reputation for being consistently seventy and sunny, there’d been an ever-increasing number of days that topped ninety. Six so far in the month of October. A cut on her palm, a flick of her wrist, and Katherine could entrench herself in a small bubble of the real fall weather she so desperately craved, but she wasn’t one to waste magic like that.
The witch across the street had no such reservations. He pricked his finger to cut to the front of the Starbucks line. Sliced into his hand to avoid the six-dollar charge for the monstrosity of whipped cream–laden hell he ordered. Dripped a bead of red onto the ground to force two ordinaries from their table so he could manspread while he scrolled Reddit.
He didn’t bother trying to hide his magic, but it didn’t matter. The people in line had missed him the first time they checked. The barista must have scanned his card—she just spent so much time over-caffeinating others that she’d become under-caffeinated herself. Those hipsters needed to go feed the meter anyway. Ordinaries had a way of looking past things they didn’t understand.
They were small crimes, the kinds of things most witches blew right past. But if Katherine’s suspicions were right, this man’s transgressionswent way beyond coffee chains. Once she caught him in the act, he would be firmly in Katherine’s crosshairs. In her coven’s crosshairs.
She watched through the window as the witch cemented his new mouthful of cavities by sucking down the last dregs of his drink. He didn’t bother throwing it away before leaving the store. Katherine prickled.
She hadn’t become Aestas Coven’s designated law enforcement for the sole purpose of finding privileged assholes to take her anger out on, but it was certainly a perk.
The witch crossed the street, the bounce in his step showing just how little he expected consequences to find him this morning. Katherine reached into her pocket and pulled out the switchblade that had been resting heavily against her leg. She flicked it open, running a finger along its sharp edge.
The witch slipped into an alley between two of the sky-high office buildings, and Katherine knew this was her moment. Her fingers clenched around the handle of her blade, the cold metal a relief against the sweltering heat of the sun as she got out of the car.
It was time to go to work.
CHAPTER TWO
Katherine cursed as another drop of blood dripped down her steering wheel and onto her jeans.
“If you let me go, I could get you a Band-Aid.”
Katherine gave a pointed glare to the witch in the passenger seat of her Beetle. Joe had given her more trouble than she anticipated. When she’d pulled out her caster and cut into her palm, she’d only planned on doing the invisibility spell she used to sneak behind him into the alley. She’d watched as he sold a packet of powder to an ordinary who looked like a carbon copy of him, right down to the single AirPod in his left ear. And then she’d winked back into view and told Joe he was under arrest. Her mistake was assuming he’d be smart enough to go down easy.
“Nice try.”
Joe huffed, hitting his head against the headrest behind him in frustration. That was about as much movement as he could manage given the body-locking spell that Katherine had used on him after his ill-fated decision to try to headbutt her and run off.
“I promise, I’m done fighting.”
Katherine tapped her fingers on the wheel, willing the light in front of her to turn green. It ignored her.
“I give in. Take the spell off.”
She could do a silencing spell, but the pounding in her head told her that was unwise. The body-locking spell was a doozy—if she didn’tgive her magic time to recharge before using it again, she’d be in for the migraine from hell.
“Unless you’re threatened by me.” Joe attempted to clench his soft jaw into a threatening expression. “Don’t release me if you’re too scared.”
It might be worth it.
The light finally changed, and Katherine floored it—only to be stopped a few feet later at yet another red.
Katherine hadn’t realized how spectacularly annoying Joe was. He’d been a member of Aestas for six years, but in that time, the only thing she’d had cause to learn about him was that he wasn’t someone she needed to know much about. She’d been content to leave him to snicker in the corner of coven meetings with the rest of the desperate-to-relive-their-high-school-glory-days crew, but then he’d decided to go and become a drug dealer.
She’d first caught the telltale whiff of altum while trying to enjoy one of her few days off at Hermosa Beach four months earlier. The acrid, tart scent wafted around the ordinaries who had taken it, pouring from their mouths, their sweat, as they screamed, laughed, danced.
Powdered magic. Only a drop of what flowed through the veins of any witch, but it was enough to make someone without magic feel like a god. The high, they said, was somewhere between cocaine and ecstasy, but without the side effects.
The ordinaries had no idea what they were taking, but they wanted it. It was a lucrative—and very illegal—venture.
One that could have deadly consequences.
“Come on, Joe.” Katherine laid on her horn as a Tesla swerved out of a parking lot directly in front of her. “I know you were just selling the altum. Tell me who’s making it.”
