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“We need to get to the ferry terminal.” I buckled up as she took off. “He’s on some island in Lake Burley Griffin.”
He’s on Springbank came Cat’s immediate response.
I repeated this to Saska. She grunted and made a few calls; within minutes, she’d arranged for a boat to meet us at the Lawson Crescent Viewing Deck and take us across to the island.
I gripped the door as we turned sharply onto Edinburgh Avenue, then said, “How the fuck did someone snatch Julius from under the noses of your people?”
“I don’t know. Samuel’s on his way there now to find out what has happened.”
“But wouldn’t he have been notified the minute there was an attack or something?”
“Yes, so something must have gone seriously wrong.”
Nothing has gone wrong, Cat cut in softly. The man they had was a doppelganger, existing long enough to convince those escorting him that he was the real deal.
Doppelgangers were a rare phenomenon and were basically spirit doubles said to be the harbingers of bad luck.
“It’s not possible for a doppelganger to convincingly pass themselves off as the real person,” I replied. “They’re spirits, not flesh.”
“I take it” came Saska’s dry comment, “that you’re talking to your ghost rather than me.”
“Yes, sorry.”
I quickly filled her in on what Cat had said, and she frowned. “Even if it were possible for a doppelganger to maintain legitimacy that long, when would the switch have happened? He was under full guard from the moment we rescued him from that car.”
That wasn’t Juli. That was the doppelganger, Cat said.
“Impossible.” It was automatically said. “The contempt, the arrogance… it was all too perfect to have been an act.”
Doppelgangers are the spirit double of a living person, Cat said. They do not often find flesh form but when they do, they are indistinguishable from their living counterpart.
“But I used his wedding ring to track him—” I stopped, remembering my brief confusion over Juli removing his wedding ring. Obviously, the ring I’d found wasn’t Juli’s but rather the doppelganger’s. We’d been following the fake rather than real man all along.
And I was blinded by my own fear and did not see through the veil until it was all too late, Cat said. It will be my fault if he dies.
“No,” I said firmly, “The blame lays solely at the feet of our brother. He ignored my warnings and went to that meeting rather than stay home, as advised. His arrogance and refusal to listen is the reason he’s now under threat.”
But I saw the divergence of his path. I misread it. That is on my head. She paused. Death sweeps closer. We must hurry.
My heart rate leapt. I might not care for my brother, and I may have wished him dead dozens of times when we were kids, but he had his own children now. I couldn’t let the wraith deprive them of a dad, even if I did think he was an overbearing piece of shit who deserved being taken down a peg or three.
“We’re running out of time,” I told Saska.
She grunted, and our speed increased fractionally as she skillfully wove the car in and out of the traffic. Within minutes, we were on Lawson Crescent, following the sweeping curve of the shoreline before speeding through a roundabout. A small hill with a strange, rusty red wave sculpture lay ahead, the road splitting around either side of it. Saska swung right, the tires squealing in protest. Directly ahead was a fenced-off boat ramp and several small buildings. A boat waited on the right side of the dock. Beyond it, not that far across the water, was the island. All I could see were trees, but with the weather once against descending and the treetops shrouded in fog, it looked wild and forbidding.
Saska stopped the car to the left of the metal gate. I opened the glove compartment and grabbed the knife and charms I’d left there earlier—everyone attending the court had to go through weapon and magical implement scanners, and I hadn’t wanted to risk them being confiscated—then climbed out of the car. The wind was brisk and cold, though I didn’t believe it was behind the goose bumps that danced lightly across the back of my neck. I hurriedly zipped up my coat, then hooked on my neck charm—to the unknowing, it looked to be nothing more than a bunch of leather and bronze threads through which had been strung a variety of pretty stones, but it was in fact the most powerful charm I’d ever created. Once I’d stuck the knife and my smaller charms into my purse, I followed Saska across to the gate. Cat remained near the car. Ghosts and flowing water were not often compatible.
Except she’s not a ghost came Belle’s comment. She’s a spirit. Those rules don’t apply.
Then why isn’t she accompanying us?
Possibly because of that fog barrier. It’s obviously not natural, and our sorcerer may well suspect we’re getting spiritual help. Many witches do have spirit guides, after all.
Would a regular banish spirits spell work on spirit guides, though?
Saska unlocked the gate, then headed for the docked boat.
Yes, Belle said, but only the strongest practitioner would dare perform them, as they can have serious repercussions.
