Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
It’s been a long day, but after the excitement at the apothecary, I’m not ready to go to bed. Instead, I decide to give the witch detective thing another run.
From the kitchen, the sound of Asher setting a pan on the stove to make us hot chocolate echoes. “So, what’s the plan?”
"I’m trying a new tack. Instead of opening each coven, and searching the rosters like I was doing, I’m tracking Laurel’s encounters with other covens.”
“That sounds arduous.”
“A little, but there’s a record of joint initiatives going back decades. Believe it or not, covens don’t work together as much as you might expect.”
He snorts. “Baby girl, after what Laurel and the other witches of Emberwood did to your family—their own members and friends—them working well with others didn’t even occur to me.”
Fair. “Yeah, well, I’m hoping the two mystery witches might be members of a neighboring coven that worked with her in some kind of joint initiative over the years.”
Asher joins me, carrying two steaming mugs of chocolatey bliss and, as always, his presence is warm, solid, and settles my soul. “Assuming they were witches and not some other empowered race.”
I accept my mug and roll my eyes. “Dude, why did you put that out into the universe? That would make things so much harder.”
He sips at the edge of his mug. “Sorry, Pops. Just keeping it real.”
The two of us settle in, and I start with the listing of collaborations from the time of Davina Draven’s disappearance and earlier.
“We know this has been going on for at least a decade.” I take a long drink. “Yum, you added Baileys.”
He holds his mug up for a cheers. “I know my audience.”
We scroll through the reports, opening the tabs for each of the covens involved and then go through the profiles of the members.
I’m about to give up for the night when I stop on a photo.
Sharp cheekbones. Dark hair. Cold eyes.
"That's her." My pulse quickens. "That's the woman from the meeting, isn’t it?"
“Yeah, that’s her.” Asher leans in to read the information. "Nyx Blake. Elder of the Shadowmere Coven in New York. They worked together eight months before Davina went missing."
I'm already opening another tab, fingers flying across the keyboard as I copy the information into an email for Vale.
“So, did Laurel bring in the guy or did Nyx Blake of the Shadowmere Coven?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s from Shadowmere with her.”
“Or maybe he’s from another coven altogether.”
I return to the database, scrolling through photo after photo, searching the images of the other members of Shadowmere.
“Hey, I got an idea. Is there a way to check only the High Priest or Priestess of the covens? I want to see only the people in the highest positions.”
I click out of Shadowmere and start Asher’s search. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that a cabal isn’t evil for evil’s sake. People like this are either idealists, or they want power and money.”
“Agreed, but I don’t see Laurel as an idealist of any kind. She’s a cutthroat bitch.”
“Exactly. And she now has the power she so desperately wanted all along. If what they’re doing with the missing witches is somehow giving them power, and Laurel and Nyx are both running covens, then maybe Mr. Salt and Pepper is riding the same wave of success.”
The idea has merit—like serious cred.
The database is actually incredibly intuitive and allows me to slice and dice the information in a dozen different ways. Calling up the heads of the covens is actually really easy.
"Got him." Asher taps the screen.
I look where he's pointing, and there he is. The man with the salt-and-pepper beard is… "Heath Walker. High Priest of the Mistwood Coven in Alberta."
“Alberta? What the fuck? You can’t trust Canadians.”
I laugh. "That's xenophobic.”
“Is it xenophobia if I'm right? They're too polite. It's highly suspicious.”
“Your logic is flawless.”
"Thank you." Asher leans back in his chair. "So, an evil Canadian cowboy and a New York ice queen attend Laurel's clandestine meeting. Why?"
“I assume it had something to do with Davina dying. They were arguing about things like that not happening again.”
“So, Davina dies and the bigshot partners are pissed. They come to Laurel and want to know what the hell went wrong.”
I can get behind that. “They were all pissed. But why were Jane and Stuart there?”
“Because they’re Laurel’s lackies. She probably had them all teed up to take the blame.”
I sit back and take another sip of my hot chocolate. “That tracks. Laurel is incapable of accepting responsibility for her actions. She would totally throw her underlings in front of the bus.”
“And pat herself on the back for doing it.”
Yeah, likely. “Okay, so these three came together a decade or longer ago. They’re all junior witches with big aspirations. By their bios, we know that not one of them is a generational elite, yet they have the power to rise to the top of their coven leadership.”
“So, where did they get that kind of power?”
The two of us are looking at each other as we figure it all out. It’s both horrifying and yet so clear.
I swallow, the blood rushing from my head. “They’re draining witches from generational families and using their power to strengthen their magic.”
Asher nods. “Yeah, I think that’s exactly what they’re doing. Davina was an elite, right?”
“Yeah. And so are Lily and Violet.”
We fall quiet as that realization curdles the hot chocolate in my belly.
"Fuck. Sometimes people just suck."
Asher nods. “Truer words were never spoken.”
I email the information to Vale and, because he asked us to keep him posted, to Garrison Stonehoof as well. Maybe he just wants to be in the loop, or maybe he’ll take the information and run with it. Badass bison man to the rescue.
Despite the late hour, I accompany the email to Vale with a phone call. This is too important to sit in his inbox. My sisters are out there, and if Asher and I are right, they are being used as some kind of ego-boosting Wiccan battery packs.
When that’s done, I end the call and meet Asher’s gaze. “I wish Mom were here so I could tell her.”
He picks up our empty mugs and heads toward the kitchen. “I know, baby girl, but there’s nothing to be done tonight and that would just have both of you wound up for an all-nighter.”
I chuckle. “Am I that obvious?”
He strides over to the sink, rinses the mugs and sets them on the rack in the dishwasher. “That you’re keyed up and will be buzzing all night? Yes. The big question is if you want to binge on munchies or Chinese?”
“Um, not even a question.”
Asher heads to the hall and leans to yell up the stairs. "Rowan! You down for Chinese?"
"Always!" comes the muffled reply from the second floor.
“Chinese it is.”
While Asher grabs the takeout menus from the drawer, I take a deep breath and try to calm my heart. Learning the identities of the players involved and figuring out their motivations is amazing.
It’ll still take time to expose them, though.
We’re coming for you, assholes.
I let out a long breath, but it did nothing to soothe the energy bouncing around in my cells. The house feels it too. “We’re going to bring them home, house. I swear it.”
The rightness of those words takes a weight off my shoulders I didn't realize I was carrying. I told Mom I wouldn’t rest until I bring my sisters home—and I won’t.
Now that she’s where she needs to be, and we’ve got a big new lead on finding my sisters, it feels like things are finally shifting in my favor.
Add to that, I went on my first spirit witch community walk. For the first time since I triggered that spell and brought her back, I feel like I'm doing right by her and her legacy.
I go over to flip through the takeout menu with Asher when the doorbell rings and someone comes in the front door.
Asher grins. "Late night Chinese is here already? Wow, psychic delivery drivers are getting good."
I roll my eyes and start toward the front hall.
"It’s just us!" Sebastian's voice echoes through the house.
Asher goes back to ordering our late-night indulgence. "I'll make sure to get enough to feed whoever else randomly shows up tonight."
"You're ridiculous."
"You love it."
I do, and he knows I do. “You’re really earning that CEO title, Hendrix.”
“Yeah, baby. Don’t I know it.”
Sebastian comes through the kitchen doorway, his hands shoved in his jacket pockets, his dark hair ruffled, leaving him looking windswept.
Behind him is Wylder. He’s got his landscaping jacket on and is looking… well, hunky hot.
"Hey," I lean against the counter, "what brings you guys to the Life and Death Brigade headquarters at this hour?"
Wylder strides over and kisses my cheek. That’s new and, yeah, I could get used to it. “Asher texted me about your mom, and I came as soon as I finished work.”
My first thought is that my bestie is super sweet and playing matchmaker. My second thought is… “You keep odd hours for a landscaper. It’s almost eleven.”
He winks. “It’s amazing how much more work I get done at night when no one is around to watch. Almost… magical.”
I chuckle. “Ah, nice. Okay, so you didn’t come together?”
“Nope, just met up on the driveway.”
I turn to Sebastian next. “Okay, so what brings you by?”
Sebastian pulls his hands free of his pockets, and there's an energy about him—restless, eager. "I have an idea I want to bounce off you."
I peg him with a look. "A good idea or a 'we're all going to die' idea?"
He considers that for longer than I like. "Good. I think. I’ve got an idea on how to modify our large-scale ritual. One that I think could free the sigil-targeted souls in Emberwood without the whole demon backlash fiasco.”
Wylder chuckles. “Yeah, let’s avoid that if we can.”
“Agreed.” I take both of their coats and hang them on the back of the kitchen chairs. “Your ley line friend helped you come up with a new plan?”
"She did.”
Excitement bubbles up in my chest. "That’s awesome, let’s hear it.”
Asher walks back in, phone in hand. "Order's in. Twenty minutes. Orion is on his way, too.”
I round the table and claim my seat. “Awesome. Sebastian has a revised plan on how to break the sigils.”
Footsteps on the stairs signal Rowan's arrival. She appears in the kitchen doorway, hair pulled into a messy bun, wearing an oversized Thornhill Coven hoodie.
"Did I hear something about a new plan to break the sigils?" She slides onto one of the bar stools. "Because I'm in."
Sebastian exhales and pegs me with a look. “It’s exhausting to be here some days, you know that?”
I wave away his comment. “Nah, it’s awesome. Live and let live. Embrace the chaos.”
“Be the spoon,” Asher adds.
Sebastian pulls a folded piece of paper from his jacket. He spreads it on the counter and flattens a hand across the diagram with notes scrawled in tight, precise handwriting.
“So, here's the plan," he begins.
We all lean in.
He explains the ritual—anchoring points at key ley line intersections across Emberwood, a synchronized casting circle involving multiple magic users, and me at the center using Tharuzel’s demon mark on my bloodline to target the magic of our network to sever every demonic tether at once.
I hate that this plan highlights the bond between us, but that’s an emotional response to a logical fact. I am bound to Tharuzel, so we might as well use that to our advantage.
“I figured it out with the seven casters of the Brigade, but it would be even better if we have more.” Sebastian taps the diagram at several ley line junctures.
"The plan is to place one of us at each anchor point, plus Poppy in the direct center. In theory, the power burst you make will ripple outward, like dropping a rock in the center of a pond. With that pulse carrying our spell, it should break every sigil within our grid.”
Rowan whistles low. "That's actually pretty cool.”
Wylder sighs. “I agree, but you’re right. The more practitioners we have, the better. I’ll put a call out to the coven and see if anyone is willing to risk Laurel’s wrath to help.”
I hold up a finger. “Don’t tell them the details of the plan. If someone reports back to Queen Witch Bitch, I don’t trust Laurel not to try to screw with us.”
Wylder winks. “Got it. Broad strokes only. We’ve got a plan to counter the sigils and need some bodies to boost the spell.”
“Yeah, that’ll work.”
Sebastian nods. “And it will work. I have a good feeling.”
Awesome. I’ll take all the positive energy we can muster. “So, when are we doing this?”
Sebastian looks at Wylder. “Let’s say tomorrow at noon?”
Wylder nods. “All right. I’ll see what I can do.”
Asher is up from the table and already halfway down the hall, phone pressed to his ear. "Mica? Yeah, hey, it's Asher. Got a minute? Cool. So, funny story—we're a go on the town-wide exorcism…"
I shake my head, but warmth spreads through my chest.
We've got a plan.
And for the first time in weeks, I think we might actually pull this off.