Chapter 20
I looked down at my right hand.
“I’m not wearing my Maccabee ring anymore,” I said slowly. A fleeting dizziness swept over me, and I gripped the edge of the table. “That’s why I reacted tonight.” The idea settled into my bones, and, like it or not, took root.
Sire’s Spark was infused with demon magic, which illuminated other demon magic either in people or on items like the prison cells. Blood called to blood. But only shedim or half shedim could use it.
I still couldn’t suss out full demons, as proven by attending Brimstone Breakfast Club without any adverse effects. That meant that I could be surrounded by demons without knowing it—or being brought to my knees with nausea. I’m not sure if that was comforting, but it was no different from my current reality, so it was familiar.
However, for almost ten years, I’d worn a ring with corrupted shedim magic in it. Could it have suppressed my innate detection ability? It was likely that I’d never come into contact with either a shedim artifact or half-shedim before I first put it on, which explained why I didn’t realize I was capable of this.
“How does your ring matter?” Olivier said brusquely.
“The corrupted magic in it must have a blocking effect on Aviva’s Eishei Kodesh ability to illuminate shedim magic,” Michael said.
It was a neatly crafted half-truth.
“Then why didn’t those locks affect Linda or Troy?” Silas said.
“They’re not blue flames,” Michael said.
I flexed my right hand, exhausted by friendships torn apart by my birth, relationships ended over my truth, and secrets hidden for so, so long.
Telling Silas about Cherry was scary enough, but Keira? She wasn’t just any Trad but the head of their police force and a woman who probably lost her best friend because of this secret. Then there was Olivier. We’d just repaired our own friendship, and he was dating my best friend. What would this confession do?
I’d said it myself. Hiding in plain sight was a sound strategic move. Why mess with that?
Except, I wasn’t simply hiding in plain sight any longer. I’d adopted aspects of Ezra’s strategy, outing myself to people I cared about, making sure I still mattered.
That despite being a half shedim, I was still too valuable to lose.
What if I took it a step further now, beyond those who already loved me to those who needed—who should—know for the greater good?
My heart raced as I imagined the domino effect of my confession—Keira’s shock turning to rage, Olivier’s trust shattering like glass, and the protective walls I’d built around my life crumbling, leaving me exposed to dangers I’d spent years hiding from.
“You want the truth?” I said wearily.
“Avi, no.” Michael reached for me, but I shook her off with a sad smile.
“The ring was suppressing my ability to detect the shedim magic.” Perhaps if our foundational strain wasn’t corrupted, I’d always have had this ability. “But my blue flame powers were only partially responsible for why I reacted the way I did. Now that I’ve removed the ring, they work in tandem with this.”
I unfurled Cherry Bomb like a prize being revealed in glimpses: a flash of claws, the bright toxic green of my eyes, a toss of crimson hair, then the stippling of scales. My short sharp horns popped out last like a crown at a coronation.
Fitting, since I was descended from demon royalty.
I held my head up, refusing to bow in shame.
Olivier dropped his hand to his (thankfully gunless) holster. His reflexive grab for his weapon stung, his deeply ingrained training cutting deeper than any verbal rejection could. His fingers twitched, hovering uncertainly beforehe forced his hand back on the table, but the damage was done.
Silas wore a small smile. “That’s an awfully familiar shade of crimson,” he drawled. “Think I saw it on a ball or two of yarn.”
Blessings on the scales that hid my blush.
Sadly, Keira was as white as a ghost, fixated on me with wide eyes. She drew back as if struck. “What is that? An infernal?”
“ She is my daughter,” Michael snarled.
Keira dipped her chin with a wince. “That’s not… Aviva, I didn’t mean…”
Silas held up the form. “I’ll get those operatives here ASAP,” he said and fled.
“Yes, I’m half-shedim,” I said, enjoying Keira’s discomfort.
“Does Sachie know?” Olivier said.
“I told her last month.”
“You waited decades to share this with your best friend?” Olivier sounded affronted on her behalf.
“Your first instinct was to go for your gun, Olivier, despite it still being me.” I flicked my crimson hair off my shoulders. “So you can take anything you have to say about my decision to tell people about this and fuck right off.”
Michael flashed the Trads a mean little smile. “Well put, Aviva.”
Louis poked his head in the room. “Linda Aviyente is set up in—” His eyes widened into saucers at Cherry, then into dinner plates at Michael.
I dropped back to my human features like I’d been gut punched, my mouth working but no sound coming out.
Michael cleared her throat. “Louis?—”
“Linda Aviyente is set up in Interrogation Room 2,” he said in a tight voice.
“For the record,” I stammered, “this is my normal body. My human side isn’t a glamor. That’s not how it works for half shedim.”
He barely spared me a glance, his attention on Michael. “I’ve worked with you for seven years. I wouldn’t have said anything. Ever.”
“Right?” Keira muttered.
It was great that Louis wasn’t horrified by me, but I was actually present and could have been included in this conversation.
My secret had always been that—mine. Every time I speculated about revealing it, I imagined the consequences I’d face. To my mind, fallout on Michael occurred only in a professional capacity as director.
I glanced at Keira and Louis. I’d been wrong.
Michael slumped back in her seat. She’d been wrong too.
Several very long, very silent seconds ticked by.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Louis said coldly and left.
The rest of us sat there in a loaded silence.
“Well?” Michael waved a hand at me. “Are you going to go question Linda or not?”
The last few minutes had done wonders to make me forget my hurt at being sidelined on this investigation. “Me?”
“I said I was leading this, not that you weren’t integral.”
Hope and anxiety battled in my chest as I grappled with this unexpected olive branch. Hugely unexpected, given what had just transpired. I stood up. “Yes. Of course.”
“Detective Desmond and I are coming,” Keira said.
I saw the exact second that Michael bit back her snarky retort in favor of a nod.
Keira and Michael gathered their things in silence, each darting glances at the other when they thought they were unobserved. I hoped they found their way back to their friendship when this case was over.
After Keira made amends for her reaction to me, that was. Olivier had a ways to go as well.
We all headed down to the interview room.
Linda was a pale, shaken figure, still she demanded her lawyer when I entered, rattling off his contact details. She’d already said this to the Maccabees who put her in the room.
“He’s been notified.” I spun a chair around and straddled it backward. “Interesting that you happen to have a criminal lawyer’s phone number top of mind. What an exciting life you lead.”
“No comment.”
“Let me run a few things down for you. First of all, there’s a manhunt for Troy Abelman. He supplied Roger Henderson, who is Jared Casey’s head of security, with magic-shielding devices. Still no comment? Okay. The Trad cops are chatting with Mr. Henderson to ascertain whether Troy got those devices via you or your gallery.”
Even if Linda procured them for Troy, it was perfectly legal. The question was whether she knew that.
“Jump in anytime,” I said.
Her left eye twitched, but she didn’t crack. Not verbally, though my synesthete vision showed her racing heart and sweat forming under her arms and at the back of her neck, along with amped synapse activity in her brain.
I sat on the edge of the table, crowding Linda’s personal space. “Let’s talk about the metal case Troy absconded with. The one containing locks with incarcerated shedim inside them. I personally questioned your mother before her death, verifying she was in the business of selling demon convicts to Eishei Kodesh criminals. How long were you working with her?”
Linda’s eyes widened, her heart flared into an enormous blue dot, and activity in her amygdala went nuts. Profound shock. She shook her head, her gaze downcast.
“You weren’t?” I said. “Then why did you have that case?”
She hunched into herself.
I placed a hand on her shoulder, forcing her to look at me. “Linda,” I said gently, “you are in a lot of trouble. Give me something to help you face a lesser charge than shedim trafficking.”
Truth be told, there weren’t any laws about this, but only because it had never occurred to anyone that it was a possibility. I mean, the number of events that had to transpire for this crime to occur? Corrupted Maccabee magic, demon prisons, a shedim working against their own kind to break the wards on the locks? It was all too fantastical and improbable for even the Maccabees to imagine.
Chandra had died before those charges could become a reality, but the Authority Council would throw the book at Linda.
The silence stretched out.
I’d overheard Linda speaking to the person forcing her to produce these phony cursed artifacts. Troy had been with her. Chandra was dead. Mois was Trad and didn’t feel right for this, and I still had no evidence any other matchmaker existed.
In fact, I was pretty convinced I was looking at one of the only two matchmakers left.
The artifacts Linda made were at a Con 101 level, but they went beyond ripping people off financially to having them experience levels of fear that had even gotten to Silas.
“Where is the shedim forcing you to commit fraud? Your mother’s partner.”
Linda’s pulse points went nuts, rapidly flickering blue in my synesthete vision. She twisted her hands together so tightly I was scared she’d break a finger.
“Please stop!” Her voice cracked in pain, her heart hammering in a dizzyingly bright blue dot.
That’s when her lawyer arrived, demanding to speak privately with his client.
While I waited to be called back into the interview room, Michael explained that the lawyer had been legal counsel for Mois Aviyente’s company for years.
“Daddy bailed Linda out?” Olivier glanced at the one-way glass. “That was fast.”
“Almost like he expected trouble,” I said.
On the other side of the glass, the lawyer calmly spoke with Linda, who nodded her head in nervous bobs. Unfortunately, the audio was off to ensure their privacy.
I was called back into the room and informed that Linda would cop to the fraud charges.
“What about the locks?” I said. “They were at her house and tie her to her mother’s illegal activities.”
“Circumstantial. She inherited the home. Who’s to say that metal case wasn’t there the entire time?” The lawyer smirked.
I turned to Linda. “Give me something to find this shedim. Something to keep you safe.”
Linda shied behind her lawyer, who blocked my line of sight. “She can’t help you,” he said.
Michael opened the door. “Judge granted bail. She’s free to go.”
The lawyer escorted Linda out. She was careful not to meet my eyes.
“She’s a flight risk,” I said, watching them get into the elevator.
“The judge saw it differently. Ms. Aviyente has her gallery to run and isn’t going anywhere.”
Keira tasked Olivier with working all their foreign contacts to bring Mois Aviyente in for questioning in Buenos Aires as they left.
Silas was already off putting together his crew of vamp operatives to hunt down Troy Abelman and those lock prisons. Hopefully that net would close soon.
Michael sagged against the wall, rubbing her eyes.
“Troy and Linda are the only matchmakers,” I said.
“The Authority will be pleased you concluded that. Now all we need is the identity of the shedim who killed Chandra.”
“Linda doesn’t want to say anything about her mother’s shedim partner or any shedim,” I said, “because she’s terrified. But Troy is the one with those locks in his possession. He’s the one facing trafficking charges and he’s the one that will crack this open once and for all.”
I brightened. There was a way to find Troy that only I could pursue. And I’d get to see Ezra in the process. Sure, I’d be using him to charm Rukhsana, but she could flirt with him all night so long as I wrapped this case up in a timely fashion.
I’d get what I could from my informant, and then? I was taking my boyfriend back to my place and locking the world out.