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  “Ana.” Mordaca’s voice was raspy—the pack-a-day for forty years kind of raspy. Given that she couldn’t be over thirty, it had to be natural. Her dark brows rose. “You’re helping Lachlan.”

  I smiled as I went to the counter. “That I am. Thanks for coming to help with this.”

  They were the ones I would have called if I’d had to, but their prices made me cringe.

  “He caught us just as we were heading out for the night.” Aerdeca’s voice was sweeter than Mordaca’s, sounding like the trilling of birds. But it’d be stupid to assume she was any nicer or less dangerous.

  “Late start, huh?” I said.

  They lived in Magic’s Bend, which was in Oregon. It had to be a good nine hours behind France. That would make it about 11 p.m. when they were headed out for the night.

  “All the good parties start late,” Mordaca said.

  “So true.” Aerdeca laughed, tapping her white nails on the surface of the table. “But it sounds like Lachlan needs our help more than Count Vladimir needs our attendance at his party.”

  “And he’ll pay well for the privilege.” Mordaca’s dark eyes glinted with greed.

  These ladies charged a fortune for their work, but they were worth it. Their shop, Apothecary’s Jungle, was one of the most sought-after magic shops in the world. Hiring their services was sure to put a person into a lower tax bracket.

  “So you think you can track the blood on the blade?” Lachlan asked.

  “Of course, silly.” Mordaca laughed. “And for you, we’ll only charge half.”

  My gaze darted between them. Interest gleamed in Mordaca’s eyes, which she couldn’t keep from dragging over Lachlan. Since he was in the business of making dangerous spells, they should have been in competition.

  But apparently Mordaca wouldn’t let a little thing like work get in the way of her pursuit.

  Aerdeca looked just as interested, in fact. I leaned against the counter and sipped my coffee, eyeing the plate of croissants on the other side of the room, licking my lips.

  Mordaca stood. “Shall we get this show on the road? I’d like to make it to Vlad’s before the meal starts.”

  “Of course.” Lachlan stood, then led them from the room. I trailed behind, snagging a croissant off the kitchen counter as I went.

  I bit into it as we crossed the lawn, then stopped dead in my tracks and stared at the croissant as buttery goodness exploded over my tongue. Wow.

  So that was what a croissant was supposed to taste like. No wonder the world was obsessed. Too bad one had to come all the way to France to eat a decent one. I stuffed the rest of it in my mouth and vowed to go back for more.

  Lachlan led the sisters to his workshop in the back. In the daylight, I could see the rolling vineyards all around. They were dormant now, the vines barren of leaves, but in the summer, it would be beautiful here. A river burbled by on the left. That was probably the water he’d been trying to control last night while testing his magic.

  Lachlan, Mordaca, and Aerdeca stepped into the workshop. I lingered outside for half a moment, calling on my magic, hoping to see if it still worked.

  It sputtered inside of me, like a candle flame in the wind. I sucked in a deep breath and focused, trying to draw it to the surface as I held out my hand and envisioned a shield forming.

  Come on. Come on.

  I needed my magic. Without it, we didn’t stand a chance.

  A tiny flare of magic burst to life and exploded outward from my hand, creating a puny shield that wavered weakly.

  I managed to hold it for a minute before it died.

  That was weird.

  So it wasn’t fully gone.

  I stocked the info away, hoping it would come in handy later, and joined the group in the workshop. Aerdeca and Mordaca were bustling around, going from table to table to gather supplies. Hundreds of varieties of herbs hung from the ceiling. I hadn’t noticed them last night, but they smelled divine.

  “That’s the thing I like about working with you, Lachlan,” Mordaca said. “We never have to bring our own materials.”

  I joined him at the side wall, pointing upward at the herbs. “Did you collect all of these?”

  I had a hard time imagining him out in the fields picking flowers, then conducting the painstaking work of drying them.

  “No. The housekeeper did. She knows what to look for.” He smiled. “It’s one of the main reasons I chose this place. Not only is it remote, it’s also an excellent location for crafting dangerous spells, but the housekeeper is a brownie. She does all the work I don’t want to do.”

  “And you focus on making the things that go bang.”

  “Essentially.” He smiled. “A good system.”

  “Yeah. None of the boring parts.”

  “Exactly.”

  I turned my attention to Mordaca, watching as they dropped brightly colored potions into a stone bowl. The sisters hovered over it, one light and one dark, like two halves of a balanced whole. Their magic filled the air. Aerdeca’s sounded like chirping birds and felt like a light breeze, while Mordaca’s tasted of whiskey and smelled like cigar smoke. Together, they stirred it with a silver knife, then added droplets of their own blood. Last, they dipped my dagger into the mixture, melding some of the mage’s blood with the solution.

  The liquid smoked and burned.

  My nose wrinkled.

  From my position, I could only see Mordaca’s face. Her brows rose as she stared at the smoke, which twisted and turned. I couldn’t make out a pattern in it, but she clearly could.

  “The blood bearer is in an ancient place, torn down by heat and the rage of nature. An ancient place of conquerors and villains that has grown again.”

  Wait—what?

  “Could you clarify?” Lachlan asked.

  Mordaca blinked, jerking her head back as if she were coming out of a trance. “There’s an encryption on the bearer’s blood. A concealment charm. That was all I was able to get.”

  “So the game continues.” I looked at Lachlan. “ Whoever stole from you is working hard to cover their tracks. The rest of the teams will need to stay on this, then. There are a hundred ways to interpret that.”

  Lachlan frowned. “At least a hundred.” He turned his attention to Mordaca and Aerdeca. “Is there anything else you can tell us?”

  “Only that whoever put the spell on this guy’s blood is damned powerful,” Mordaca said.

  Yeah, I could have guessed that. But I kept my trap shut.

  “I’d be afraid of them,” Aerdeca said.

  Oh shit. Aerdeca wasn’t afraid of anyone.

  Mordaca nodded. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this. It’s intensely powerful and very dangerous.”

  Well, that wasn’t good.

  “Thank you,” Lachlan said.

  “You’re welcome,” Mordaca said. “We’ll put it on your tab.”

  “Feel free to tip.” Aerdeca grinned, and it was shark-like.

  I winced. That was going to be expensive.

  We said goodbye to them.

  Once they’d disappeared, Lachlan looked at me. “We need to go to the Protectorate. Tell them everything has changed.”

  8

  We arrived at the Protectorate an hour later. Since Lachlan’s magic was gone and he couldn’t make a portal, we had to use one of his transport charms. They were rare and expensive, but this was kind of an emergency.

  Unfortunately, because of Protectorate security, we couldn’t transport directly within the walls. We chose the front gate, instead. The wind whipped across the mountains behind us, cutting through my leather jacket and thin dress. As I walked, my boots crunched down on icy layers of snow.

  I clutched my bloody clothes in a plastic bag as I walked to the enormous wooden gate and pressed my hand to it. Magic flared briefly—the castle’s magic, not mine, fortunately, since that was mostly gone—and the gate creaked open.

  I gave the surrounding mountains one last glance—the Highlands really w
ere the most beautiful place I’d ever been—then stepped through the gate.

  Lachlan followed, and we made our way quickly toward the castle.

  “Most of the staff will be gone,” I said. “Off hunting the clue.”

  “Hopefully they’ll be close enough to portals to return quickly,” he said.

  As we neared the courtyard in front of the castle, I saw more people than I expected. Lavender and Angus—two of the other students—along with our friends Caro, Ali, and Haris.

  Caro looked at me from across the courtyard, her face pale. Ali and Haris didn’t look any better, their dark complexions several shades lighter than normal.

  I frowned. “Something is wrong.”

  “Do you feel that?” Lachlan nodded toward the castle door.

  I turned my focus toward it. Magic rolled out from the castle, strong and fierce. It brought with it the sense of raw power, pushing and pulling against me like massive waves. I’d only felt it a few times before.

  I gasped. “Arach!”

  “The dragon spirit who started the Protectorate?”

  “The same.” I picked up the pace. Something was really wrong if she was making an appearance.

  I hurried toward the entry. The massive wooden doors swung open, and I raced through into the hall. The feel of Arach’s magic pulled me toward her office.

  “This way.” I led Lachlan through the corridors until we reached the room where Arach most often appeared. The few times I’d been in here, I’d loved this room. The walls were at least thirty feet high, and each was covered in brilliantly colored paintings. A fireplace always flickered warmly in the hearth. I could spend days in there.

  I stepped inside, my eyes going straight for Arach. She was unlike any woman I had ever seen—primarily because she wasn’t a woman at all. She was the spirit of a dragon in human form. Sort of human form.

  She stood near the large fireplace, glowing with a pale white light. Her features were almost reptilian, and when she moved, she shimmered. As if she were only partially there. A ghost.

  Long ago, when she’d been a flesh-and-blood dragon, she’d given her magic to help create this castle, and now she presided over it, guarding every generation of warriors and investigators and protectors who worked here. The Protectorate had been formed before the supernatural governments, a gift from the dragons meant to protect the other supernaturals who needed someone to fight on their side.

  I loved their purpose and wanted so badly to be a part of it. To earn Arach’s respect and a place here. She appeared rarely, though. Only when the situation was truly dire.

  This was truly dire.

  “Finally, you’ve arrived.” Arach’s voice rang with power. Her gaze moved toward Lachlan, who stood at my side. “You’ve been creating dangerous magic again, I hear.”

  “The world needs it, occasionally.”

  She nodded, reluctantly agreeing. “I suppose if it has to be made, then you should be the one to do it.”

  I shot Lachlan a surprised and impressed glance. Arach respected him.

  Wowzers.

  We had so much to tell her that I wondered where to start. But if she was here already, that meant the problem was probably worse than we realized.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “You only appear when things are totally up a creek.”

  Her brows rose. “I assume you mean that we face a difficult challenge.”

  “It’s as bad as we thought.” A feminine voice sounded from behind me, and I turned.

  Jude, the leader of the PITs, and Hedy walked into the room, their expressions tight and their eyes worried. The lavender-haired Hedy was the resident witch and inventor and one of my favorite people here. She was in charge of research and development, which often resulted in some very cool magic. Her silver dress gleamed like water as she crossed the room toward us.

  “What is going on?” Lachlan asked.

  “All of the individuals competing to find your missing spell have lost control of their magic.”

  I gasped.

  “Including you, Lachlan,” Arach said. “I can see in your aura that it is repressed.”

  “It is. But everyone’s is gone?”

  “Almost.” Arach’s eyes darted briefly to me, but she said nothing.

  Was I the almost? I’d gotten my magic to work briefly this morning. Lachlan’s hadn’t worked at all.

  “It has to be connected to the ancientus spell,” I said. “Whoever stole it is worried that we’re getting close. He—or she—is trying to stop us.”

  “I think that’s likely,” Jude said.

  “They’ve repressed your magic, though,” Hedy said. “Not stolen it entirely. So there is still hope. But we must work quickly to save everyone.”

  “Whoever stole the spell has evil plans for it,” Arach said. “They must want to bring back some kind of dark magic from the past. We cannot let them.”

  The only way to do that was to recover the spell.

  Fates, there was no turning back now.

  Not that I’d ever planned to, but we were in serious trouble, and the only way out was forward.

  If I had a tiny bit of my magic left, maybe my new seer ability could be used to find it. I needed to try, at least.

  Everyone was talking now, debating theories and options. I slipped away, moving silently out the door and into the hall.

  I was only a few steps from the room when Bree and Rowan hurried forward. Their gazes brightened when they saw me.

  “You’re back!” Bree said. “Dressed weird, though.”

  I looked down at the floral dress I was still wearing. “Borrowed it from a ghost. Did you just return?”

  “Just now,” Rowan said.

  “How’s your magic? Do you still have it?”

  They both shook their heads.

  “Mine’s gone,” Bree said.

  “Mine’s same as ever.” Rowan grimaced. “Gone.”

  I gave her a sympathetic look.

  “How are you?” Bree asked.

  “I don’t know.” I frowned. “I may not have lost my magic totally, but I have no control over it.”

  “The transition?”

  “I think so. My premonition power worked a bit when we were in the Paris sewers. It just showed up, guiding me. Never came when I called, though. But my shield is wonky.”

  “Did you find anything in Paris? We struck out in London. Thought we were onto something, but it was a bust. Then our magic disappeared.”

  “We almost had it,” I said. “But the thieves got away.”

  “We should ask the FireSouls,” Bree said. “This is more difficult than I expected, but they could find it.”

  “Apparently Jude already asked,” I said. “They’re busy with some emergency.”

  “Damn.” Bree frowned. “That means two things are seriously wrong in the world right now.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “But I want to head to the library to try to interpret the newest clue that we got. Maybe I can jog my premonition power. Want to come with—”

  “Ana.” Arach’s powerful voice sounded from behind me.

  I turned.

  She drifted gracefully toward me, not so much walking as gliding.

  “Arach. Did Lachlan fill you in?”

  “Yes, he did. It sounds like you did well in Paris.”

  “We failed.”

  “But you got another clue.” Her gaze assessed me, seeming to pry into my soul. “All of the competitors will be given the new information, and the hunt will begin again.”

  “New information?” Bree asked.

  “It will all be explained at the meeting in the round room in thirty minutes.” She turned to me. “But you, Ana. Something is different about you.”

  “Um.” I swallowed hard, hesitating briefly. It was still hard to just blurt it out after so many years of hiding. But my secret was safe with her. I sucked in a deep breath and spit it out. “I may be transitioning to Dragon God. But I have no control over my power.
I’m a mess.”

  She nodded. “I can see it in you. But your magic has not been fully repressed like everyone else’s. There’s still a light within you.”

  “A light? Is that how my magic has always looked?”

  “No. When you first came here, you looked like any other supernatural. You had your magical signature, but no light from within.”

  “Do you think it could be my new gift of premonition?”

  “Maybe.” Doubt flashed across her face. “But I’m not sure. I wouldn’t imagine it would manifest that way.”

  “Do you know which pantheon my magic might be from?”

  She shook her head. “Premonition, or this light power, could be from any of them.”

  The light power had only made an appearance once before, more than a month ago, back when I’d been helping Bree and the sickness wraiths had attacked.

  “I think the light is protecting you,” she said. “It looks like a healing light of some sort. It’s protecting you from the curse that is attacking everyone else.”

  “You’re the only one left with magic,” Bree said. “Out of all of us.”

  “You’re special, Ana,” Arach said. “I think the success of this mission may come down to you. Give it everything you have. Whatever magic is inside you—use it. Use your premonition gift to find the spell. The Protectorate needs you.”

  “But I have no control over it.”

  “You must obtain the control. You need to save yourself, but also everyone else. Save your friends. Save your sisters.”

  Fates. No pressure.

  I swallowed hard and nodded.

  “Good. I’m counting on you.” She spun on her heel and drifted away, back into her room.

  I turned to my sisters, knowing that my face was probably white as a sheet. “I need a Plan B. There’s no way I can just call on my premonition power and solve this.”

  “Any idea what it will be?” Bree asked.

  “Well—”

  Two other students stepped into the hall. Lavender and Angus. The jerks. They eyed me as they passed.