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I dragged at it with my own power, gently and then with more force. Heat flared between my hands. I winced, but the spell moved in the same moment. It eased, inch by inch, until I left it quivering off to the side of the lock. Then, with a twitch of my fingers, I popped thedeadbolt.
A giddy laugh bubbled up my throat. I forced myself to swallow it. Using magic like this felt amazing, but my spark had already dwindled to half the level it had burned at a few minutes ago. I had more left todo.
I nudged the door with just the power of my muscles. It swung open silently, revealing the shadowed space on the other side. I eased the door shut behind me and felt along the wall for a light switch. The crystal globe of a light fixture gleamed onoverhead.
Compared to Celestine’s office, her magicking room was spartan. Polished wood floor, a cabinet at the back for supplies, no other furnishings. The walls were bare and a neutral shade ofgray.
My heart started to sink. I’d assumed if she had some evidence of the spell she was planning anywhere, it’d be in there. Ithadn’tbeen in her office. Or Master Cortland’s house. Where else could she be hiding things? But there wasn’t much of anything inhere.
The brush of my socked feet sounded horribly loud as I crossed the floor to the cabinet. The hinges sighed as I opened thedoor.
It was packed full—boxes and jars and other objects too big for either: a large bowl made of polished shell, a sword that stretched the whole length of one shelf, a bundle of folded silk that glimmered with shifting colors, the skull of some animal I couldn’t identify at aglance.
None of that was inherently suspicious. But if she’d taken notes, written down the procedure she was planning like Master Cortland had with hisideas…
I tugged out one box and then another. The first was full of feathers of various sorts. The second a jumble of semi-precious stones. The third had a heft that made my spirits leap, but when I opened it the books inside where clearly older than Celestine’s time. One of them was stamped with the name Brixton, another Redfield—volumes she’d inherited through her family’s line and her first husband’s, Iguessed.
I opened a couple of the books just in case, but the pages were old and dry. The ink was growing dull. Nothing had been written in these in decades. The stale smell of the box suggested she hadn’t consulted them recentlyeither.
As I pushed the box back onto the shelf, it jostled a small cloth bag I hadn’t noticed at first. I retrieved it and eased its mouthopen.
A curl of black hair stood out starkly against the white fabric. I stared at it for a long moment, my stomachclenching.
I was the only one in this family and Celestine’s former one with black hair. What were the chances this lock belonged to someone important I’d simply never met, and not to me? Anytime in the last fourteen years since Celestine had come into our lives she could have snipped it—when I was sleeping ordistracted.
With a part of a person you could work any sort of magic on them from afar. Track them down if you needed to find them. Cause thempain.
My fingers curled into my palm. I wanted to hurl the bag and its contents away. But the plan had been to leave this room as undisturbed as possible. Until Dad came home, she had to believe everything was completelynormal.
If I took it, she’d just acquire herself a new sample. It wasn’t as if I could do much to stop her even with the brief bursts of magic I’dgained.
Grimacing, I tucked the bag back into its place and reached for the nextbox.
This one held a heap of smaller silk scraps. The one after, sticks of various lengths and woods, striped of their bark. Then I opened one to find a stack of paper waiting forme.
My pulse thumped faster. Magical contracts. Each one held a date and two or more signatures, glinting with a faint hint of the magic that bound those names to their written oaths. The one on top was old, from twenty years ago when Celestine had engaged the services of a tutor for my youngerstepsister.
I pawed through the stack, checking the dates and the gist of their content. There was her marriage contract with Dad, promising her equal authority over the estate until it passed to my hands. There was her contract with the witch she’d hired to courier messages to a business client. Immense and mundane, all the commitments of her magical life were mixed intogether.
As I neared the bottom of the stack, the edge of one page nicked my fingertip. With a hiss, I stuck my finger in my mouth. A dribble of coppery blood tingled over my tongue. I glanced into the box quickly to make sure I hadn’t smeared any inside—and my gaze caught on the wordconsorton the contract just below the one I’dturned.
As carefully as I could, I raised the stack of papers and slid out the contract I’d noticed. I propped the other sheets against the side of the box so I’d know where to replace it. Then I laid the contract on the floor in the full glow of the overheadlight.
My eyes shot to the names first. Celestine Hallowell and Derek Conwyn. My stomach balled. Bracing my hands against the floor, I glanced up at thedate.
Almost three months ago. Threemonthsago, two months before we’d even come here, they’d finalized thisagreement.
Derek Conwyn hereby declares that he shall govern Rose Hallowell as his consort in accordance with the requests of Celestine Hallowell. He may not act against Celestine’s will or impose his will contrary to her intent. Where she has no stated intent, he may proceed as he pleases. He agrees to keep the Hallowell elders fully informed of the state of his consort and speak no word of this contract to said consort or any other outside party, including his benefitingfamily.
In return, Celestine Hallowell declares she will supply the elder Conwyns with fifty thousand dollars on the signing of this contract, and another twenty-five thousand each year thereafter provided all other conditions are fulfilled. These payments will be presented as dividends from an investment of Derek Conwyn’s. She will also do her utmost to ensure that Rose Hallowell remains pliant to her consort’s will, by means magical or otherwise asnecessary.
Then their names, scrawled side by side. My stomach was churning now. I pressed my hand against my belly as if that would suppress thenausea.
Here it was. This was all the proof I needed and more. The second Dad laid eyes onthis…
I had to make sure he did. I couldn’t take any chance of Celestine hiding it somewhere else, if I made the slightest slip and she realized what I’d found. And it needed to be the real thing, not a photo on my phone she could claim I’ddoctored.
How often would she be checking on the contract anyway, buried down there in this box? She had no reason to believe I was even capable of getting past her magic. Dad would be home in just a coupledays.
