Chapter 35
MAGGIE
It’s like I’ve been pulled on stage in the middle of a play, when everyone’s read the script but me.
Why is Harper here, doing what sure looked like magic with Luka Ortiz?
Have I been wrong about her all along? Are she and her dad dark witches, and was she complicit in Luka’s horrible crimes?
Was she the girl he referred to in his testimony, who initiated contact with him, and directed him to dangerous rites and rituals?
In my heart I still say no, but in my head I want to shake her and demand answers.
But there’s no chance of that, because Theo is somehow here – and that creep Whitman, who’s cuffed Luka a second time, as if he doesn’t trust me to have done it properly.
Thank god neither Naomi nor Sarah is present for this witch-arresting free-for-all.
I stand back from Luka, who’s being hauled up by another of the Beulah County cops and walked to the car. Put my hand on my hip in a way that draws aside my jacket to show my sidearm.
‘On whose instructions are you here, Theo? You must have been using police systems for my vehicle’s location. That’s a dischargeable offence if not properly authorised. And we have Professor Whitman, a civilian, applying handcuffs?’
Theo colours. ‘He shouldn’t have done that. It’s only precautionary.’
‘Precautionary?’ Harper bellows. ‘Get them off!’
‘Remy Lamarr,’ Theo says, seeing I’m serious about needing an answer. ‘He told me he’d tasked you with retrieving Luka.’
‘He assigned you to tail me?’
‘He was worried you’d flake out on the recovery.’
‘He told you this, or you inferred it and acted on your own initiative? Or perhaps with a little prompting?’
I cast a meaningful look at Whitman. But I shouldn’t have given the guy an opening, because the minute attention’s on him he starts instructing the support cops to get Luka into the first car. Seeing an opportunity, I go to Harper.
‘You’ll be able to break out of the cuffs?’ I ask her. ‘Do a spell or something?’
But she’s looking pale and sweaty, like she might throw up. ‘There’s something about the cuffs,’ she gasps. ‘I can’t reach my magic.’
Then Whitman and Theo are beside us, my fellow cop manhandling Harper – in an apologetic way, but still physically pulling her toward the car when she resists.
It gets my blood up, and Whitman lays a hand on my arm which I instantly shake off.
What the heck is it with these men and their hands all over women’s bodies?
‘You seem not to know about the new extension of powers,’ Whitman says silkily. ‘They came in at midnight. Authorised by Congress and approved by the Moot.’
Harper’s giving Theo and his buddy a hard time, but her defiance goes muffled then a car door slams and the vehicle roars away. I haven’t time to listen to Whitman’s gloating bullshit – I need to follow! But the professor grips my arm painfully tight.
‘It’s now a criminal offence for a malef to be unregistered without reasonable cause. Harper Fenn’s breaking the law – again. But don’t worry. We’ll help her see the error of her ways. Maybe administer a little corrective.’
I punch that creep hard as I can and run for my car.
Theo doesn’t have blue lights on, and I’ve already lost his vehicle up ahead.
But they must be heading back to Connecticut and there’s only one route for that.
I stab my phone onto hands-free and call Sarah.
Do my best to calm her while attempting a high-speed pursuit of Theo’s car, but I’ll never catch him with my attention divided.
‘Gotta go,’ I tell Fenn. ‘I’ll let you know where we’re heading so you can come join me. If I lose their car, you can use your magic to locate Harper. I know you’ve always resisted, because it’s an invasion of her privacy, but …’
‘I’m long past that,’ Sarah snaps. ‘And I cannot wait to break my code of practice on every one of the bastards that has my daughter.’
The call ends, and my throbbing blood and the thrumming tyres are all I can hear.