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"Screwy in what way?"I looked down at the box that sat open on Rachel's desk. Jake stood beside me. Cooper gawked at the magic shop. Most of it was fake magic, designed to amuse humans. She kept the real stuff behind a magic wall. It all made me want to twitch. At the best of times, magic gave me the creeps. Screwy magic most of all.
Rachel brushed a strand of dark hair back over her ear. "Screwy in that most of them don't have any in them." She picked up a bright white stone that was shaped like a donut, and held it in the palm of her hand.
"This is just a rock. I sell the same kind of thing here. A witch can put a protection spell in it, or whatever." She shrugged. "Nothing very powerful."
I knew that, because I wouldn't let her sell them otherwise. Protection spells were harmless unless they protected someone I was trying to dispense with. Since they only protected against magic, they weren't much use against big teeth anyway.
"Is there any chance it had magic in it but it was used up?" Jake said.
"Almost certainly," she agreed. "There's a residue of magic in it. I can't tell what kind. The point is, like this, it's worthless. Not something the black market would bother with." She put the stone back and picked up another. "Same with this one. Except this one," she held up between her thumb and forefinger. "This is a bonding stone. Or it would be if it wasn't empty."
"Bonding stone." Jake took the stone from her hand and bounced it up and down on his palm a couple of times. "Two people touch it, and when their cum is combined, they form an… Empathic connection?" He gave me a speculative glance.
"That's what it's for," Rachel said. "Empty, it's just a rock."
"Could you fill it?" Jake asked.
"No," I said firmly. Even if I wanted to form a psychic bond with him, I would never fuck with magic like that. There was no telling what it might do to us in the long run. It might drive us insane, or turn us into assholes.
"I can't anyway," Rachel said. "I don't have that kind of magic. Very few witches do." She took back the stone and replaced it in the box.
She picked up a pair of silver tweezers and pulled out another. "This one does have magic in it. Specifically, it's a magic dampening stone. The kind used to stop witches from doing magic. That's why I won’t touch it with my bare hands. The weird thing is, they're usually put into bracelets. Just by itself, a witch could just drop it if they wanted to, and the effect would be gone."
"I'm sensing a pattern here," Jake said. "Silas Wheeler might have just been selling these to a witch to be filled, or have a bracelet made."
"Or Dagen is trying to send us a message," I said. "The white stone can't be a coincidence. The rest of it…" I shook my head. "Couldn't he just send a letter, or a text, like a normal person?"
Cooper must have heard his uncle's name mentioned, because he appeared at my shoulder. "Did you send his father any cryptic messages before you went after the Onyx Ridge Pack?"
"Not unless you call dead bodies cryptic," I said. There was nothing subtle about the slaughter we inflicted on the black wolves. We splattered their blood the way they splattered ours.
"White stone, bond, dampening," Jake mused. "What about the other three?"
"The black one shaped like a doughnut has some residual power in it," Rachel said. "It feels similar to the white one, but I still can't tell what it is. And that," she pointed, "is a siphon stone. Also empty." She shuddered.
"Used to suck out a witch's magic," Cooper said, his eyes wide.
"Even empty, that's worth more than the rest of them put together," Jake said.
"And the last two aren't magical at all," I said softly. “That's a bloodstone. And that's a black diamond." I knew my precious gems. "Black diamonds represent death. He is trying to tell us he is more powerful than we are. That he will siphon off all our work into his bank accounts and that the Onyx Ridge pack will bring about our death with lots of blood."
"What about the other two?" Cooper asked. "Bonding and dampening?"
"Nothing good," Jake said. "He knew we were going to put Silas down. He made sure this was waiting for us. How did he know?" He looked accusingly at Cooper.
Cooper raised his hands to either side and stepped back. "I've no idea. It was nothing to do with me, I swear. Silas probably didn't know either. He was just a go-between."
"Between Dagen and who?" Jake asked. "If we hadn't grabbed these, who would have?"
"It was always going to be us," I said softly. "Either he told Silas to leave them on his desk until we turned up, or one of our people is working for Dagen."
"It's not me," Cooper said. "I never even saw the box until today."
"For the record, it's not me," Rachel said. "Break-ins in the area have been way down since you guys took over. It's saved me thousands in replacement costs and repairs. I am a big fan." She smiled at me but it held a tinge of anxiety. Like she wasn't sure if I believed her or not.
I nodded. I had no reason to think the witch was in cahoots with Dagen. Our dealings had always been beneficial to both of us, and she was paid well each time.
"We know it isn't Ivory or me," Jake said. "That only leaves a couple thousand other people as possibilities." His tone was light but his face was worried. If Dagen was behind this, it might be the start of something bigger. And probably annoying.
