Chapter 1 #3
By the time we reach the foot of the bridge, it’s clear I judged correctly. Kenneth’s slumped body lies where I left it. Moonlight gleams off the crimson pool that’s spread across the worn boards.
We all hesitate except Salvatore, who’s no stranger to corpses. He strides over, scooping up the switchblade he dropped in the fight and reaching the peak of the bridge before the rest of us stir ourselves into motion.
Kenneth’s knife still protrudes from his chest. Salvatore crouches down to eye it closer up.
“That’s military issue,” he says, confirming my suspicion, and waggles a finger toward a logo imprinted in the handle.
“Castor Arms. Lucent military, specifically—it’ll have a ton of ephemera embedded.
Feels pretty new too, or recently boosted. ”
Asher glances at Byron, who’s hung a few steps back. “Do the Hearsts have military ties?”
Byron shakes his head slowly. His face has tightened with a hint of nausea. “Not that I’m aware of.”
Guilt digs into my chest alongside the pull of the bond. I dragged him into this horrific scenario.
Salvatore points at Cole. “You’re the divination prodigy. Get over here and read what the fuck this guy had going on.”
Cole’s jaw clenches, but Salvatore isn’t wrong about the professor’s skills. He trudges closer, the corners of his mouth ticking downward when his shoes squelch into the bloody puddle, and sinks next to the mafia heir.
After a moment, he strips off his gloves so he can examine the body with fewer obstacles. His brow knits with concentration. A halting breath hisses through his teeth.
We all wait in heavy silence while he pinches the bridge of his nose and extends his hands again. He hovers them from Kenneth’s head all the way down to his shoes.
His mouth pulls into a deeper grimace.
“The impressions are more muddled than I’m used to…
I think measures were taken to disrupt the ephemera on him.
The only clear moments I can glean are leading up to the attack tonight.
He was… frustrated with Miss Devine, but I don’t get much sense of outright animosity.
It feels like a job he felt strongly compelled to finish for reasons that didn’t have to do with her. ”
Salvatore scowls. “So who did it have to do with?”
“I can’t say for sure. I caught fragments of a female voice that I think was advising him or directing him… but not enough to identify her. No clear visual impressions. She told him Elodie was dangerous.” Cole’s gaze darts to me.
A chill shivers over my skin. I don’t like having his analytical skills aimed at me.
I wrap my arms around myself. “I guess she was making things up so he wouldn’t feel bad about going through with the attacks.”
Or were my doppelganger’s activities threatening someone somehow?
Cole hums and turns back to the corpse. “The only other distinguishing ephemera I’m picking up… Something on his clothes… The enchantment imbued there has a quality I have trouble describing, but it’s… unusual.”
“Well, that’s a big load of uselessness.” Salvatore moves his own hands over Kenneth’s lifeless form. After several seconds, his forehead furrows. “Huh. I think I see what you mean. It’s like… like the ephemera is a little more condensed than usual, maybe?”
I can’t stop myself from bending down by Kenneth’s other side. I extend my hands and test the energies emanating from the fabric.
When I focus, there is something just slightly odd about the vibrations of the collected ephemera. Are they more tightly condensed, like Salvatore suggested? Or… almost heavier? I don’t know how to describe it.
All the same, the sensation isn’t just odd but… oddly familiar. I have the sense that I’ve encountered magic like this before, sometime, without really registering the difference.
Where? In my investigations in this world or back in my own reality?
“Maybe it’s a more advanced technique?” I suggest. “If he had military weapons, he could have arranged to have military-style magic applied to his clothes.”
Cole is still frowning. “Magic is magic. Of course, it’s hard to say when there’s still so much we don’t know about why he did this. He didn’t tell you anything else?”
“Nope. He was very untalkative. Believe me, I tried to ask what the hell had gotten into him.” I straighten up. “We’re not getting anything else out of him unless you think we can break out a Ouija board and commune with his spirit.”
Don’t I wish getting answers could be that simple.
Byron gives a faint cough. “It sounds like… like whoever was pushing Kenneth in this direction, they must be pretty powerful. Why else would a Hearst listen to someone else and even agree to committing a major crime? His family has a ton of sway of their own.”
His uncertainty hangs in the air between us. None of us has any clue who that powerful person might be.
Salvatore draws his imposing frame to its full height, his eyes flashing. “That’s all true. What are we going to do about it?”
“What do you mean?” Asher says.
“How are we handling this?” Salvatore sweeps his arm toward the corpse. “And how are we going to make sure that the powerful snuffer who has it in for Elodie doesn’t send someone else to kill her?”