Chapter 18 #2
“Not that it worked,” Wren said. “Teddy offered him refuge for the intel. He didn’t want to be involved, it seemed. Which reminds me—we brought a couple of animals we found there with us. My coworker from the sanctuary will pick them up later.”
“Are they cursed?” Saint asked.
Wren shook his head. “We got there before they cursed them. But they are definitely shaken and need some TLC.”
“Poor babies,” Saint said.
“Speaking of babies,” Wren said. “Where’s Sable?”
“Oh, don’t tell them I said this, but Echo hasn’t left Sable’s side,” Saint said. “They deny getting attached, but I walked past their room and there was definitely a fluffy bed large enough to hold a horse next to Echo’s. So…do with that info what you will.”
Wren chuckled. “Sable finds a way under people’s skin.”
“Okay,” Trace said. “Grab some food and you can head out. Get this shit over with if you can, yeah?”
“Are you not coming with?” Teddy asked.
“Got a case,” Trace said. “Got the call just before I texted you to come down.”
“Ah.” Teddy nodded. “Hope it’s nothing too awful.”
“Nothing I can’t manage. Now get!”
“Yup!” Teddy nodded, fixing himself and Wren some food. He shoved a bag of seeds Wren liked into his pocket then came back to sit, tangling their ankles together as they ate.
They might have been going into the lion’s den, but at least they were heading there together.
Wren
“It looks deserted,” Wren said, looking at the decrepit concrete block in front of them.
Teddy frowned, agreeing with the assessment.
“Well if you were running a shady operation, wouldn’t you want to hide it?” Saint asked reasonably.
“There would still be signs,” Wren said. “Fresh tracks. Noises. Guards. We’ve been sitting here for an hour and even Blu can’t see anything.”
Blu chirped to confirm that, sounding almost huffy about it.
“Maybe the operation is deeper in? Or maybe it’s a work holiday. Drug dealers need time off too,” Saint said.
Wren’s brows scrunched. “Maybe.”
He didn’t sound at all convinced.
“Do you want to come back another day?” Teddy asked. “I trust your instincts. If you think it seems off, then it’s off.”
Wren immediately shook his head. “If those animals we saw in the picture are in there, I’m not letting them suffer a single second more.”
Teddy nodded and took his hand gently. “We’ll be on our guard. Whatever happens, we can deal with it together.”
Wren smiled.
Saint cleared his throat. “That includes me too, right?”
Teddy chuckled as Wren turned his nose up childishly.
“I’m going to grow on you and then we’ll be best friends. Just you wait,” Saint said.
Wren looked horrified by the prospect.
Teddy coughed to hide more laughter. “Is there a best way in, do you think?”
Wren turned to look at Blu on his shoulder.
He hopped once before fluttering off, leading them around the back of the building toward a loading dock. The huge metal loading door wasn’t completely down, an inch at the bottom leaving a gap Blu could easily squeeze through.
“Okay…that is suspicious,” Saint finally said. “But I’m sure it’s fine.”
Teddy and Wren traded a look before nodding, Teddy getting his fingers under one side while Wren took the other. They lifted together, the squeal of metal making Teddy wince. They were practically ringing the doorbell.
They could only lift the door so far—about knee height, muscles shaking with effort and sweat already beginning to bead. The door wouldn’t catch, so they were holding the full weight.
“Crawl under,” Wren said to Saint.
“Me?!”
“Saint,” Teddy grunted, “this is pretty heavy, man.”
“There might be bad guys on the other side waiting for someone to poke their head through. Or what if the gate falls on me? Or—”
“For the love of mother earth,” Wren growled. “Take my place and I’ll go.”
Saint sulkily did as asked, swapping places with Wren so he could crawl under. Teddy and Saint let go as soon as he was clear, Teddy’s muscles burning and the clang reverberating in his chest. It was an afterthought though, as he crouched to look through the inch gap.
“Wren? You okay?”
When he didn’t receive an immediate answer, he began to panic.
“Little Bird?”
Again no answer.
He looked at Saint. “Grab the door again.”
“Wait, what?”
“Get the door, Saint!”
Saint scrambled to grab the other side, lifting with all his strength. Teddy glanced at the gap, contemplating just how fast he would have to move to drop his side and roll under.
“Think you can hold on while I roll under?” Teddy grunted. “Then we can get you in?”
“Shit, man,” Saint said. “I’m a green bean on legs.”
“You’ve got some strength in you,” Teddy said. “On three.”
“Dude…” Saint said, but Teddy had already counted them in and dropped, rolling under the door just in time for Saint to shout and lose his grip on the door. It crashed down an inch away from Teddy’s foot.
“Damir?”
“All good,” Teddy said. He looked around, trying to spot Wren, but he was nowhere to be seen. “Come on! Let’s get you inside.”
They heaved the door again and Saint did the same insane tuck and roll Teddy had performed earlier, uncoordinated legs and arms flailing as he tumbled through.
They stood up and brushed off the dust, Teddy spotting a door just at the end of the loading dock.
“There,” he said and rushed over, Saint hot on his heels. They pushed the door open and froze, finding Wren on his knees in front of carnage.
Cages upon cages had been tipped over, traces of blood splattering the floor and cloying the air.
“We’re too late,” Wren said, sounding choked.
“But…but how?” Saint demanded.
“The blood is fresh.”
Saint crouched to examine it himself as Teddy walked over to Wren, laying a hand on his shaking back.
“Maybe there’s still some left farther in,” Teddy said. “Don’t lose hope, Little Bird.”
Wren did his best to still his quivering jaw. “I failed them.”
“You didn’t. You never could.”
“If we had found them sooner—”
“There still might be some left, and even if there aren’t, we’re going to put these guys down and prevent them from ever hurting another person or animal again. Okay?”
Wren took a deep breath before nodding.
“The blood trail leads that way,” Saint said somberly.
“We should still be careful,” Teddy said.
“There’s no way they don’t know we’re here.”
“Good,” Wren said. “I want them to know I’m coming for them.”
He strode to the door and Teddy followed closely on his heels, ready to back him up no matter what was around the corner.
What they found was more destruction. Side rooms had been turned upside down, paperwork clearly burned, the embers still smoking a little. Lab equipment was also upended, bits of broken glass and syringes scattered around the floor.
It was clear that distribution of their drug had been done here, but any remnants were gone. They’d taken whatever stock they had made with them, probably when they decided to liquidate their assets.
In another room they saw glass cages of all sizes, attached by wires to computers that had been smashed or blue screened, hard drives no doubt wiped of any evidence.
Among the equipment were pieces Teddy had never seen before, resembling artifacts you found in the official warehouses. Cogs and magic thrummed from them, purpose unknown. There was a hint of a familiar flavor in the air, but Teddy couldn’t put his finger on it exactly.
“What is this?” Teddy asked. “Do you recognize it?”
Wren shook his head, still trembling with sadness and anger.
“Holy shit,” Saint said from another direction.
They walked that way, into the main room of the warehouse, it seemed like.
The ceiling was completely vaulted, with steel beams crisscrossing and a rusted metal walkway curling around the upper level and leading to what seemed like a suspended office with a huge window that overlooked the space.
In the center of the main room was a huge glass cylinder from floor to ceiling, connected to all manner of cogs and mechanisms. It filled the room with the stench of magic.
“Don’t touch,” Teddy warned the others, everything in him telling him to step away from it.
There was a tug from it he could feel in his chest, his cursemark aching for some reason. He rubbed the area and saw Wren do the same, cupping his eye.
“What the hell is that?” Saint asked, curling fingers around his upper arm.
“I have no idea.”
“We need to get a Nexus team out here, don’t we? This thing is…” Saint couldn’t even finish.
“I’d rather call an expert,” Wren said.
“Do you have someone in mind?” Teddy asked.
Wren pulled out his phone and video called a number before handing it to Teddy to hold so he could sign freely.
Midas answered after a few rings, raising a single eyebrow at the camera.
“Are you with Avery?” Wren cut right to the chase, signing as he spoke so both Teddy and Saint could keep track.
Midas nodded curiously.
“Can you please get him,” Wren asked. “We could use his help.”
“Me?” Avery appeared over Midas’s shoulder, making him jump on the spot before he caught himself and scowled.
“Yes,” Wren said. “We’re working a case and a lead got us here.”
Teddy panned the camera over to the device, switching the camera to front view so they could still see their reactions. Wren stood at his side while Saint came to stand on the other.
Avery’s eyes widened in shock and he slipped out from behind Midas, clutching a vase like a teddy bear. He was fixated as he drew closer, practically putting himself nose to nose with the screen.
“That is…”
“Terrifying?” Saint said.
“Beautiful!” Avery corrected. “Is it magical in nature?”
“Oh yeah. It feels like it’s trying to suck my soul out of my body,” Saint said.
Avery’s eyes sharpened. “Do you two feel that way too?”
Teddy nodded. “It does feel like it wants to draw in magic somehow. My cursemark aches.”
“Do you have an idea of what it might be?” Wren asked.
“What case are you working? Interpersonal?” Avery guessed.
They all frowned.
“No,” Wren said. “It’s an animal curse case. Someone has been stealing animals for their venom and developing it into a drug of some kind—”
“Using the magical properties found within,” Avery finished for him, nodding.
“How did you know that straight away?” Saint yelled. “That took us five months!”
“Two days for me, technically,” Wren corrected.
“An educated guess based on the information you just told me,” Avery said.
“And it reminded me of a case file I saw from the 1930s that included a birdcage the owner used to identify different bird species’ defining traits.
A coworker grew jealous and cursed the cage to extract the traits and curse the owner with them…
I’d have to look up the specifics, but it was really quite fascinating—”
“Can you pull that case?” Wren demanded.
Avery blinked. “Oh…uh…sure. It might take me a while—”
“But what about this made you think it was interpersonal?” Teddy interrupted next, the niggling feeling he’d had since coming in here pulling at him. “I’m sorry. I know we’re throwing a lot at you at once.”
“It’s fine.” Avery adjusted his glasses. “And I can’t truly be sure. It’s just that the structure has Raddison conduits. You usually only see those in interpersonal-related magic.”
“Because they amplify that magic,” Teddy finished, recalling the chapter from class. He’d never seen a conduit up close, however, only their uses.
Avery nodded. “They had them everywhere for marketing purposes until they banned them, saying that influencing marketing using magic was bad practice. We have a bunch of them in crates here in the warehouse collecting dust, acquisitioned by Nexus from various companies. You can’t even make them anymore. The patent was pulled.”
“Are any of those reported missing by any chance? At any of the warehouses?”
Avery’s eyes widened and Teddy had his answer. “Noxdale reported some items going missing six months ago.”
“A month before this all started,” Saint said, then swore.
“But what are they doing?” Wren asked. “Why would they need to amplify interpersonal magic in a drug made from cursed animal venom?”
Teddy ran through it in his mind. Every case. Every person they had talked to. All cagey. No straight answers, not even from their family. It didn’t matter where they were from—Slatehollow to Arcstead, rich or poor, the end result was the same.
“They didn’t want anyone to talk,” Teddy said.
“What?” Saint asked.
“What’s the best way of getting your illegal power-boosting drug to fly under the radar and make sure you’ll never be implicated?”
“Silencing the clientele,” Wren said.
“But silencing the old-fashioned way is bad for potential business and research,” Teddy said. “So you do the next best thing. You make sure they can’t talk.”
“You think there’s an interpersonal curse mixed in with the drug,” Wren said. It wasn’t a question.
“I never tested any of the suspects. It didn’t even occur to me to test them, even though they were all so adamant about hiding what was really going on.
” Teddy shook his head at his own stupidity.
“There are countless curses that can get someone to cover for you or make them unable to talk about something. I don’t know how I didn’t put it together before. ”
“How could you? Nothing about this is normal, and mixing curses is so advanced. No regular person can be behind this.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Saint said. “This is crazy. What we’re talking about here is going waaay beyond anything we’re equipped to handle.”
“I think we crossed the point of no return a while back, Saint. We just didn’t know what we’d gotten ourselves into,” Teddy replied.
“I still don’t know what we’ve gotten ourselves into.”
“If I take videos and pictures, would you and Midas be able to work on this thing? See if you can figure anything else out about it?” Wren asked Avery.
Avery immediately flushed again, looking over his shoulder. “Sure,” he squeaked, high-pitched.
“You work together all the time,” Wren said.
“I know. I’m fine. This is fine. Do I not look fine?” Still croaky. Still pushing decibels.
“We need to look around and see if they left anything else behind.”
“Why didn’t they destroy this though?” Saint asked. “Everything else is smashed.”
“Creating artifacts is delicate and difficult work,” Avery said, sounding unbelievably offended. “You couldn’t just smash them. You need a cursebreaker, for one thing. And for another, it isn’t the artifact’s fault!”
“Uhh…sorry?” Saint said.
Wren rolled his eyes. “We’ll send you the info.”
“Any notes would be helpful,” Avery said. “Oh, and don’t touch it. That’s probably important to say, isn’t it?”
“We weren’t planning on it,” Teddy said as they ended the call. “Okay…let’s dig through this mess.”