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Margaret met me before I reached the door. “What is it? You look distressed.”
“Distressed?” I managed to laugh. “I’m not sure where to start.”
She put an arm around me, steering me toward the beach. Heavy clouds hung over the horizon, though the setting sun had managed to sneak a few rays from under them. In that fading glow, she brought us to a halt.
“I learned something today,” she said, keeping her voice low, her solid presence alone enough to calm me.
“As did I.”
Her arm still around my waist, she laughed softly. “I imagine you did. Let me get this off my chest and then you can tell me about the meeting.”
Meeting?I almost laughed again. The snakes had driven the Seattle Council and their machinations clean out of my mind. Still, it was easier to let Margaret talk than to describe my recent experiences.
“Della is a Baron.” She seemed to think I’d grasp the significance, though I stared at her in confusion.
“Madam Munro mentioned that. She said that family wouldn’t tolerate …um…a jumped up thaumaturge, I believe is what she said.” I slung my arm around Margaret’s shoulder, comforted by her warmth. We’d never be lovers – I knew myself too well for that – but I found myself increasingly grateful that she treated me as her little brother.
“That’s right. The Barons are one of the oldest families of witches, and no, they’d have little use for one of their members dealing in dark magic.”
A lot like the way the Fairchilds wouldn’t tolerate a witch in the midst of their distinguished lineage. I nodded, grateful to her for taking my mind off the scene in the tower.
“It makes sense, you know?”
I must have been more disturbed than I’d realized. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“We came here to find the Ferox Cor with only Madam Munro’s say-so to go on. So far, we haven’t found anything close to an object of power, and neither Della nor Rafe have given anything away.”
“Madam Munro was wrong about more than one thing, though it seems unlikely she’d make such a grand mistake.”
Margaret shook her head. “Yes, and if DellaBaronGallagher wed someone powerful enough to steal the Ferox Cor, she’d have the strength to convince him to hide it away.”
“I see your point,” I said, the connection lighting up inside me. “The Seattle witches surely think Martin Gallagher had something powerful hidden here. They all but came out and said so.”
“Good. We aren’t just wasting our time, then.” Margaret tipped her head, resting against my shoulder. “Now we just have to figure out where it is. I wish we could just ask Martin himself.”
Her comment reminded me of the vision. “I should have, when I saw him in the tower.”
“What?” She lurched around so she could glare at me. “You saw Martin Gallagher and you let me carry on like some kind of idiot?”
I found I didn’t want to talk about it here in the darkness. “Let’s go find Della. She’ll want to hear about it too.”
Over her budding protest, I led the way across the small lawn to the house. There, Della lifted something savory off the stove. Reaching for a large spoon, she greeted us with a mournful smile.
“Sit, you two. I want to hear about your day, Vincent.”
Margaret and I took seats at the small table, and while Della served us bowls of meat pie and slices of fresh bread. At her prompting, I described the meeting with the Seattle Council, happy to have another excuse to avoid talking about my vision.
“I’m glad Rafe stood up to them,” Della said when I finished. She stood with her fists on her hips, her blue eyes sparking. “As if Ollie Stevenson could do anything to us.”
“None of them felt particularly powerful,” I said, reviewing my memories of each Council member. “Aside from Mrs. Morrison and Stevenson himself, the rest are marginally talented at best.”
“They’ll never reach us.” Della tilted her head, as if listening to something only she could hear.
After a moment, the door opened. Rafe stood breathing heavily, his hair wild and studded with bits of leaf and branch.
“What is it?” Della reached for him, but he flinched, stopping her hand in mid-air.
“His body is there. In the cave.” Rafe’s voice was a bare rasp.
