Well, shit. Embry began to methodically tear her pizza crust into a million little pieces. “Too badthat partisn’t on video.”
“When this is over, I’m strong-arming the board into accepting a donation from the Woodcross Coven Foundation for a CCTV installation. Doesn’t help us now, but a couple of well-placed cameras would’ve made all the difference today if Raven’s Head weren’t so distrustful of integrating modern security with traditional magical protections.” Sighing, Lazarus set down his glass. “I’ve got my people working the Table to get a preview of what other evidence they might have—they must have something more concrete for all the energy to be focused on you. Nothing yet. I’m sure we’ll know by the end of the weekend.”
Embry had to believe that if anyone could get the inside scoop, Daddy could.
“Isn’t there anything we can do to prove my innocence other than wait around for them to come at us with what they’ve got?”
Lazarus mulled this over, swiping over his five o’clock shadow with a rasping scrape. “Em, do you know why vampires are illegal to kill?”
Embry wasn’t expecting this conversational left turn. Especially into a question whose answer was pretty straightforward. “Because it’s illegal to kill anyone?”
Despite it all, Daddy managed a sad smile. “Well, yes. But hunting and killing vampires comes with a secondary charge in addition to murder in Table law. Partly that’s because their numbers are so small, thanks to human vampire killers, but more than that, it’s because to someone with the right magical gifts, a newly dead vampire’s personal power istransferable.”
“What… like… you can steal their magic?”
Daddy nodded. “In a sense, yes. It’s sort of like hunting elephants to poach ivory. The means justify the ends for the right poacher.”
Wow. No wonder vampires were so secretive. Embry couldn’t believe this wasn’t common magical knowledge. Or maybe it was, but like the fact that vampires didn’t combust in the sun and were actually carnivores, it’d been mired and muted by pop culture. The point was, Embry had not found a single sentence about any of this when she researched vampires upon befriending Oakley, and Embry was typically stellar at culling pertinent information.
“They’re,” Embry started slowly, “thinking I wanted to steal Oakley’s magic?”
“That’s one possibility—witches are among the few magical people capable of doing so,” Daddy confirmed. “I can imagine that there’s a means during autopsy to know if the magic has been poached. Once that comes in, if her magic has been taken, we can make the case that you didn’t do it. You don’t have a cache of illegal magic in your possession, do you? Nope. We make themfindthe poached magic. Use it like a smoking gun.”
This wasn’t exactly the offensive counterbalance she’d hoped for. In fact, Embry wasn’t sure the go-ahead-and-check-I’m-not-in-possession-of-illegally-harvested-vampiric-magic defense wassolid. It seemed just as rickety as the he-said-she-said defense they had already.
“So we wait for the autopsy.” Embry’s voice sounded as hollow as she felt.
Daddy nodded. “Let’s get some shut-eye. Tomorrow, we’ll use the Witches’ Sabbath to figure out what we can do as a coven to prove your innocence.”
Something inside Embry cracked at that.
It was hard enough to process that her friend was gone. It was nearly impossible to think that anyone could believe she had anything to do with it.
“Daddy, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
As soon as she said that out loud, the rest of all the thoughts she’d been ruminating on for the past several hours came out in a flood of regret.
“I mean, I said some stuff that came out all twisted because I was upset and that wasn’t right, and now it’s being used against me and it’s like everything I’ve ever done doesn’t matter. Like the last three years don’t matter at all—the friends I’ve made, the people I’ve helped, my role as head prefect. How could theynot?”
Embry’s voice rose higher and higher with each exclamation.
“How could anyone think I’d do that? To anyone? Let alone my friend? Do they really think I’m that petty and cracked that I’d kill someone because they won a crown I wanted? Or because my sense of entitlement might be, regrettably, a tad out of control? Like, did they think if they unzipped my skin, they’d find some monster underneath? Daddy, I just… I just… Why?”
Lazarus was off his barstool in an instant, wrapping her against the warm sturdiness of his chest. Embry heaved, a sob finally escaping and racking her entire body. She shuddered against him, dragging his vise grip up and down with each gasping inhale and moaning exhale.
They stayed like that until Embry’s eyes had no more tears to shed, her tremoring body scaling from earthquake shakes to small aftershocks. Daddy held her the entire time. She was certain she’d cried so hard as to break a sweat.
Finally, he spoke—quietly, just in her ear, but Embry heard it in surround sound, through his lips and reverberated in his chest and swiftly beating heart.
“I don’t know why this is happening, but I know my girl, and you would never hurt anyone. You’re the most generous person I know, Embry Luciana, the very spitting image of your mother. I lost her and I’m not going to let them take you, too.”
A new sob ripped through her at the thought of Mom, her body in Raven’s End, her spirit watching this shit show from above.
Daddy patted her head. “We’re going to get through this. You and me.”
CHAPTER 16
A SURPRISE BETRAYAL
