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Chapter Eight
Blake
The next morning, I wake at dawn and do a quick sweep of my territory in wolf form. Then I head back to my house to make breakfast. I repeat throughout the day, running out to check with the warlocks on patrol, criss-crossing the land to see if anything feels off. I hear from a couple of my contacts, but no earth-shattering news about the Night Guild. Not yet.
As the sun starts to dip toward the horizon in late afternoon, I head out on another run. I’m just coming back when a warlock materializes right in front of me. Colin.
I shift out of wolf form and raise my brows. “News?”
“We found someone at one of the taverns in Kinlochleven asking about Tamsin,” he says, a frown on his face.
My whole body tightens, and a flash of magic runs through my veins. I hadn’t expected them to find her this soon. But then, it is the Night Guild. “Take me to them,” I growl.
“Already in your barn,” Colin says, pointing toward the stone structure a quarter mile from my house.
I nod and we both vanish in a swirl of magic, reappearing a moment later outside the barn. The sun has nearly set now, bringing both darkness and a major drop in the already frigid temperature. Snow is on the way, any moment now. Wind whips down from the hills, so cold it burns my skin. As I stride into the wide aisleway of the building, the walls offer a slight reprieve.
The doors at the other end of the barn are closed, and Daniel and Aengus are there with our prisoner. I size him up as I approach. I can tell from the energy signature coming off him that he’s just human, which seems awfully foolish. Or maybe the Night Guild doesn’t care about their scouts. Like sending pawns ahead of the knights.
When I reach the man, who’s bound, gagged, and on his knees, he lifts his head and stares up at me defiantly. I resist the urge to punch him in the face. Anger surges through me, and my magic flares.
“I’m going to give you one chance to tell me why you were asking about a certain person at the tavern in Kinlochleven,” I say with a growl.
The man is younger than I am, but he’s bald and pasty, with beady little eyes like a weasel. He pins those black eyes on me and sneers. “Well, I wasn’t certain she was here, but your little welcoming committee firmed that up for me. Thanks.”
I stare at him a moment, and then I drive my fist into his ribcage.
The spy doubles over, his eyes bulging. Colin and Daniel pull him back upright as he coughs and sputters.
“Want to try again?” I ask.
“I don’t answer to backwoods warlocks,” the man says, his words rasping through his teeth as he tries to regain breath.
I call on my magic, and a war hammer of glowing blue light forms in my hands. The man tries, and fails, to hide the panic from his eyes as I raise the hammer above my head, then swing it down, the head striking his left knee cap. There’s a nasty sound as his bone shatters, followed a moment later by his high-pitched scream. Colin and Daniel let him fall to the floor, and he rolls around, clutching his broken leg. Behind them, Aengus smirks.
“This is my home,” I say, my voice low and deadly as I walk in a slow circle around the whimpering man. “My family. I do not take threats to those things lightly.”
“I-I don’t know a-anything,” the man manages to get out between sobs and gasps for air. “I was just told to find out if she was in this area. They said her family came from around here…but property records and an exact location were hard to locate online.”
“That’s quite by design,” I say. A little magic to keep the covens safe from exactly this kind of situation. “Who hired you?” I know the answer, but I want my suspicions confirmed.
“They’ll kill me,” he groans.
“I will, too, if you don’t answer my question.” I cross my arms over my chest and look down at him. I fully mean it. If it comes to Tamsin or this man, that’s not a choice I have to even think on.
It seems he can see it in my eyes, because his widen and his breath quickens. “The Night Guild. They hired me. But I don’t know anything else. I swear. I don’t know why they want her so badly.”
My eyes sweep up to Daniel, who makes a quick gesture with his hands. A flash of orange light pulses off the warlock and into our captive. He quivers for a moment, and then Daniel nods. “He’s telling the truth. That’s all he knows.”
I give Daniel a quick nod of thanks. He’s always been the best at truth spells. I look down at our prisoner and run through options in my head. If this man doesn’t return to the Night Guild, that will raise suspicions. But he obviously can’t go back in his current state. We have to alter his memories, and not just a basic memory spell, either. It has to be undetectable to whoever hired him at the Guild, and that’s a bit trickier.
Raising a hand, I cast a quick sleeping spell over the shivering man, and he conks right out.
“What are you thinking, Blake?” Colin asks.
“A complex memory spell is needed here,” I say.
“Well, you know who’s best at memory spells around these parts,” Daniel says with a frown.
I sigh. “Indeed, I do. Looks like I’m paying a visit to MacPherson House tonight.”
