Chapter 26
Lily
Alfonzo called it using me as bait. I preferred “irresistible lure,” thank you very much.
The mission was simple: make myself visible, vulnerable, and wait for the creeps behind the witch kidnappings to take notice.
If we were lucky, we’d find the missing witches.
If we were really lucky, they’d still be alive.
Hell. They had to be. Marissa’s energy still pulsed through the gold charm bracelet, humming against my wrist. Nathan had wanted it, of course, since it was the last piece of her he had.
But the researcher insisted I wear it, in case it helped me find Marissa, and also if things went sideways, he’d have two magical threads to follow to find me: the bracelet’s and mine.
The first step was to make sure those looking for me knew exactly where I was and that I was unprotected.
I wasn’t, of course. I had several charms and tracking spells woven directly into my clothes and my body, courtesy of Alfonzo, Penny, and Gigi.
The nerdy researcher couldn’t cast spells on his own, but he had an arsenal of pre-made ones at his disposal.
And I didn’t mean the dime store single-use beautify spell types.
I meant complex ones that had taken some powerful sorceress-level magic to create.
I even had a special note tucked into my bra that had a simple SOS written on it. If I found the missing women, or I was in a life-threatening pinch, all I had to do was rip it up and reinforcements would arrive faster than gossip at a church potluck.
I sat in the park outside the generic chain coffee shop down the street from The Breach site building.
Clipboard in hand, flower logo cap front and center, I looked every bit the underpaid surveyor.
The sun was high and beating down on me with a ferocity that made me regret coming out without sunscreen.
A little past noon, Krista showed up, moseying toward one of the park benches, lunch bag in hand. She didn’t notice me at first, so I decided to go over and say hi.
“Hey, it’s you again,” I said with a wave.
I turned on my magical charm, gently bombarding her with feelings of trust and openness. Nothing to hide here. Just a girl doing her job.
“Thanks for helping me last time,” I said, flashing a warm smile. “They sent me back to survey this little patch here so we can do a comparison. I hope my stepping around the building last time didn’t get you in trouble.”
Krista blinked, surprised for a moment, then gathered herself.
“You’re welcome,” she said. “I’m glad I could help.”
“It’s Krista, right?” I asked, giving her a hopeful look. “I hope I’m remembering correctly.”
“Yes,” she said, smiling now.
Good. She didn’t suspect anything.
I went back to taking notes and scouting out the plant life around the tiny parcel. She brought out her phone and tapped away on it as I pretended to work. With any luck, she was calling in her friends to tail me now.
After a few more minutes, I wished her a nice day and stepped into the coffee shop to grab myself a tea—I’d learned better than to actually drink the coffee here.
I started feeling eyes on me as I doodled in my notebook.
And if that wasn’t enough, the charmed bracelet on my wrist was starting to feel heavy.
The bracelet might not have saved Marissa, but it was sure doing an excellent job warning me.
Or perhaps it was still trying to protect its original owner in a roundabout way by getting me to her. Magic was complex like that.
Movement outside alerted me that Krista was getting up to leave. I waited a little longer, finishing my tea and making sure that I still felt watched. I left the coffee shop and started heading down the street following the predetermined route we’d picked.
The route went through several alleyways and other sparsely populated areas.
If something was about to get me, it would give them plenty of opportunity to make their move.
But more importantly, my route took me through Officer Cooley and Hayes’ regular patrol, which meant if anything happened, they’d be the ones on scene, and not the difficult cops I’d dealt with last time.
I moved slowly to give those watching me, friend and foe, time to get into position.
Despite trying to get kidnapped on purpose, and knowing that there were other people watching out for me, my heart still beat erratically my chest. My grip on the clipboard tightened, and sweat gathered at the base of my neck. But I tried to keep my expression neutral.
The charm bracelet pulsed against my wrist, reminding me that danger was nearby, but I wasn’t alone.
It started when I made a shortcut through the cemetery.
The shadowy figures weren’t obvious at first, hovering in my peripheral vision and disappearing every single time I looked at them.
But then they became bolder, floating out like they didn’t need their legs and reaching for me with their crooked limbs.
When one got a little too close, a beam of energy came out of the bracelet jangling on my wrist and zapped the sucker into oblivion. More came to take his place.
My initial reaction was to run. But I slowed, knowing that they were trying to usher me toward the van that had just pulled in on the far side of the cemetery. That van wasn’t one of ours, so it must be one of theirs.
I moved toward it, pretending I didn’t notice it at all, my eyes starting from one shadowy figure following me to another.
As long as I continued heading toward that van, they didn’t attack.
I wanted to say that the fear and panic were all faked, but they weren’t.
It was hard to stay calm, even though this was exactly how we’d planned it.
A rustling in one of the taller trees had me looking up to see a hawk peering down at me. That must be Prax, watching in bird form. Liam was somewhere here too, though Seth was still out of town. And Declan, Marcus’s best friend, was in his honey badger form somewhere.
I continued toward the far side of the cemetery, and Prax took to the sky, circling overhead like he was watching for prey.
The moment I stepped out of the cemetery, my heart pounding despite having purposefully taken it slow to conserve my energy , I was confronted by two guys dressed head to toe in black. Very original. Without a word, one of them grabbed me, covering my mouth with a palm.
I put up a good fight, making it look realistic. I was stuffed into the back of the van, and we were on our way.
When the blindfold finally lifted, I found myself in the back of a warehouse.
The walls were lined with metal shelves, most of them empty except for a few scattered tools and boxes that looked like they hadn’t been touched in years.
Overhead, the industrial lights flickered, casting shadows across the cracked concrete floor. The air was stale and laden with dust.
A middle-aged man stood in front of me, his posture straight, but his frame was gaunt and his skin was loose, like he’d lost a lot of weight too fast. Behind him were several figures, college-aged by the younger faces.
There were three men, two women, and I picked out Krista amongst them immediately.
Bitch had my purse in her hands. Luckily, that thing was a decoy with a shitty old phone and a bunch of candy wrappers. Instead of her Darlington University hoodie, she and everyone else now wore long ceremonial robes.
“What do you want from me?” I demanded, my voice coming out sharper and steadier than I thought possible with the nerves eating away at my chest.
The older man stepped forward, eyes gleaming with a look that felt too close to insanity. “We want your help,” he said. “Will you join our ranks and help lift the containment on the Doorway to Heaven?”
Doorway to Heaven? What in the crazy suicide cult leader was going on here?
I blinked. “You mean the portal that eats wizards?”
The way he smiled had my stomach twisting in knots. “She’s not a monster. She’s just misunderstood. The portal is her gift to us: a key to ascension. And if you join us now, you will not be left behind.”
“And if I don’t?”
He shrugged. “You’ll go in with the rest of them. And we’ll figure out how to use your magic to release our beloved Doorway ourselves.”
He must mean the other women. I peered around the warehouse, keeping my eyes on the prize. I was here to find the women, not to parley with crazy cult leaders.
“You’re insane,” I said flatly. “That portal swallowed an entire intersection and dozens of men. I’m not helping you unleash that thing.”
“No matter,” he said calmly. “We didn’t expect you to agree.” He turned to one of the men. “Toss her in with the others.”
The blindfold went on again, and the next time it came off I was being shoved into a musty room. There was a single naked light bulb at the center and several mattresses on the floor. Three pairs of dull-looking eyes looked back at me. I recognized the two from the club footage.
The asshole manhandling me patted me down, taking everything from my pockets.
He took my shoes. He even took the pair of charmed bobby pins in my hair.
Damn it! Those were supposed to pinpoint my location.
Luckily for me, despite his way-too-thorough pat down on my breasts, he did not find the tiny piece of spelled paper tucked into the padding pocket of my bra.
He did, however, take the bracelet from my wrist.
As he held it up, Marissa’s eyes went wide.
“Don’t bother casting any spells,” the guy warned, tucking the gold bracelet into his pocket. “This is a no-witchcraft room.” He walked out, slamming the door shut behind him.
Marissa was already there, standing in front of me.
“Before you ask,” I said, “yes, that was your bracelet. I found it behind the portal site. I’m sorry I lost it again.”
She blinked. “You sound weirdly okay with being here.”
I shrugged. “Kind of. I purposely allowed myself to be taken in order to find the missing witches.”
“And now you’re stuck here,” she said, voice flat. “Shit out of luck like the rest of us.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But I’m glad I found you. Someone had to try.”
Her expression softened. “Thank you.”
“Nathan says hi, by the way,” I added. “He’s been looking for you.”
Her eyes lit up. “He has?”
“Yeah. Your family tried to pin your disappearance on him. Hired a private investigator and everything. They ended up arresting Julian instead.”
She paled. “Oh no. Julian’s a decent guy.”
“He’s more than decent,” I said. “Which is why we need to prove he’s innocent.”
“I went to Delerium that day to talk to Nathan, but chickened out. I shouldn’t have caved to my family’s demands. So what if they didn’t like that he already has a kid and isn’t rich. Molly is the cutest, and I don’t care about money. He’d hard working and he loves me.” Tears welled up in her eyes.
“You can tell him that when we get you out.”
One of the other witches, Tamsyn, I think, cleared her throat. “The asshole wasn’t lying, though. We can’t use our magic in here. We’ve tried. Even together, nothing gets through.”
“Let’s see if precast wizardry works,” I said, stepping closer. I dug around in my bra while the others watched, eyebrows raised. “Don’t judge me,” I muttered, pulling out a folded piece of paper.
I ripped it.
A flash of magic burst in the air, and then silence.
“That’s supposed to alert them that I found you,” I said. “We don’t need our magic to get out because I didn’t come alone. Now we wait.”
Hope flittered across their faces.
As we waited, we traded names. Marissa, Tamsyn, and Nora told me the crazies outside thought that if they collected enough witches who’d been part of the containment spell, they’d be able to use the magic to reverse it and reopen the portal.
Minutes passed. Just when doubt started to creep in, we heard a commotion outside.
“Something’s happening.”
We all froze, trying to hear the hushed words being exchanged outside the door, until sirens burst through the silence.
The door slammed open. The middle-aged man from before stepped inside, eyes sweeping the room until they landed on me.
“You,” he said, voice sharp. “You’re the last one in here. You must be the one with wizard magic.”
Before I could respond, the guy who’d taken the gold bracelet stormed over. He grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me forward, dragging me out of the room.