Page 20 of Autumn L.A.W

Rayna grabbed her arm to steady her. “The house is not putting you through a magical car wash. Everyone inside. Ezra, you stop here.”

Joell slammed the door behind them. “Okay! New rule. Nobody almost dies on entry anymore.”

The house groaned once, walls contracting and releasing. Then it went eerily still.

Rayna pointed at Ezra. “Interrogation. Now.”

Ezra blinked. “Is that strictly necessary?”

Lioness snorted. “You ask that like you’ve never met her.”

Rayna marched him into the parlor, where the infamous truth chair waited near the fireplace like a Victorian grandmother who excelled in judgment. The chair was upholstered in velvet brocade and polished walnut, and it squeaked—loudly—whenever someone lied.

Ezra examined it with academic interest. “A resonance-based truth-detection artifact?”

“Sit,” Rayna growled.

He sat.

Rayna crossed her arms. “We’ll start with the basics. What are you?”

Ezra raised an eyebrow. “A Mage.”

SQUEAK.

He winced. “A specialized Mage.”

“In what way are you special?” Rayna asked.

Lioness whispered to Sahara, “Oh, this is going to be good.”

Ezra blew out a breath and adjusted his tone. “I’m a Ley-line Mage.”

The chair stayed silent.

Joell frowned. “Meaning?”

Ezra proceeded slowly: “I don’t cast spells. Not in the way witches do. I read the understructure of magic. I sense pattern shifts, energy signatures, and alignment fractures. Ley-Mages don’t usually manipulate magic; we interpret it. We watch for anomalies, disturbances, entities that activate when they shouldn’t.”

Rayna wasn’t impressed. “So, you’re a magical weatherman.”

Ezra sighed. “Yes. Except the storms occasionally eat people.”

Sahara scratched her head. “Remember how Crystal’s Sea Witch wanted her, and traveled the ley lines to get to her in the mountains?”

“Is that how you show up wherever you want, whenever you want?” Rayna asked.

“I do travel ley lines, but not willy-nilly. There are other entities you don’t want to meet that travel the same lines. It sounds as if you’ve already met one of those.”

“We have, and we dealt with her,” Rayna said.

“We turned her into jewelry,” Lioness added.

Ezra ignored that in favor of answering the original question. “I went to Sahara in the park because I sensed she needed help, desperately.”

Lioness gave a thumbs-up. “He’s not lying. The chair approves.”

Rayna paced in a tight circle. “Explain the obelisk. Explain why it has Sahara in its creepy little crosshairs.”