35. UNDER LOCK AND KEY #2
They silently watched a few minutes of vampires, yes, using a coven coin on the wards from the Raven’s End entrance before streaming onto the grounds.
When the last vampire strode onto the lawn from the cemetery and headed up the hill to the pentagram, Rye hit Pause and Daddy continued.
“We believe the coin they use here came from Balthazar Hale.”
The inspector considered this without expression. “Do you have any proof Mr. Hale was in possession of a coven coin?”
Embry swallowed. “Yes, because I gave him one.”
Now Inspector Brown tilted his head. “Why would you do that?”
“We were friends. Balthazar mentioned he missed his family, and even though it would be unusual for a sorcerer to be interested in congregating with witches, I offered him a coin in hopes that attending one of our coven meetings would mollify his loss of community.”
“Sorcerers are not witches,” Inspector Brown stated flatly.
“Yes, I know that,” Embry snapped, holding back her irritation with all her might. “I was just trying to help. And, besides, Balthazar asked me if he could attend.”
“That’s not how you phrased it just now.
You made it sound like it was your idea—your offer—Miss Woodcross,” Inspector Brown pointed out.
“Which is it? Because right now I’m wondering if you gave the coin to him with instructions to hand it off to the vampires after you killed Oakley Riddle, hoping to easily corner the rest of the family. ”
Might fraying under her need to verbally attack the inspector, Embry bit that sore spot on her cheek where she’d drawn blood last night. Did this man ever come to a conclusion that wasn’t a world-record long jump away from what actually happened?
“Balthazar said he’d heard great things about our coven, and it wasn’t really a question, so I clarified by asking him if he wanted to come,” she explained as calmly as possible.
“Therefore, yes, it was his idea. And, no, I did not ask him to give it to a bunch of vampires after I murdered my friend because I didn’t murder my friend, I didn’t know her family would attack, and the Woodcross coven would never and did not hurt those vampires, as I am confident you will see from the rest of the video, where we are obviously doing our best not to hurt them. ”
Embry was breathing hard after letting it all out. And dang, it felt good.
Daddy nodded her on, while the lineup of lawyers didn’t object or clarify any of it. And Rye? Well, a smile played on the corners of his very nice mouth.
Brown regarded her coolly. “Do you have proof that Mr. Hale gave the vampires the coin of his own volition?”
Embry wanted to build off her previous win and firmly tell the inspector to just go ahead and ask the poor remaining grieving family members, considering he and his team couldn’t seem to find Balthazar, but she knew that would not be good.
“We have proof that the coin Embry gave him allowed them entry,” Lazarus answered, removing something from the inner pocket of his suit coat.
Embry caught Rye’s eye—she knew he’d been the first to inspect the wards and guessed that Balthazar could’ve given them the coin. But she didn’t know Daddy could prove it. She thought perhaps he’d found the coin they’d used, but instead what he had in his hand was his massive smartphone.
“This spreadsheet lists all the coven coins in circulation—every member has one with them at all times, as it allows them entry through the wards and onto the grounds of the Woodcross Residence so that we can congregate at the pentagram each Witches’ Sabbath.”
Lazarus flipped the phone around, letting Inspector Brown get a good look at it.
“The coin assigned to Embry is number two.” Lazarus himself was number one.
“Each time a user’s coin gains entry to the wards, the spreadsheet automatically updates via the same sort of magical and technological hybrid that is used to keep Raven’s Head students out of rooms to which they haven’t been invited. ”
Here, the inspector nodded. This sort of magical and technological marriage was common in today’s world.
Raven’s Head School for the Magically Gifted may have turned up its nose at security cameras, but for purposes of dorm security, Valentina had a computer that collected all the magical intricacies of the wards and funneled the information into a big database.
The connection between technology and magic was pretty infantile and untapped, mostly because magical people were wary of combining the two in general. But this? This, they could do.
“As you can see, nearly every coven member save for Rye and Dr. Goldman have the same date of last use—Sunday. Rye and Dr. Goldman were with me today; therefore, their date is also today. What you’ll notice is that my last coin date is almost exactly four years ago, while Embry’s is Sunday. Why do you think that is, Inspector?”
Brown drew in a thin breath. “I’d rather you tell me than guess.”
“I thought you might say that, and I’m glad you did, because I want you to hear this explanation directly from my mouth.
” Daddy smiled his lawyer smile. “My date was four years ago because I never need a coin to enter the wards at my own residence, the same for my daughter. That last date was the date I gave my coin to Circe Crofton to check out the Woodcross coven during her freshman year. When she joined, she received her own coin. I haven’t given my coin out since.
Yet my daughter, as you can see, gave out her coin to Balthazar Hale, and even though he did not attend our meeting on Sunday, the coin was used—by Oakley’s family members. ”
Lazarus paged over on the spreadsheet to a far column to show that his coin registered the name Circe Crofton, while Embry’s registered Balthazar Hale.
Embry remembered she’d wanted to give her coin to Amethyst when they’d met, but both she and Fairfax obtained their guest coins from Ames’s older brothers.
Therefore, hers had never been used until that night.
“Our coins are spelled to record the magical signature of the person who received one,” Lazarus explained.
“The caveat being, of course, that if a magical person suspects we are using this system of registration, they can obscure their magical signature before they accept it. Mr. Hale clearly didn’t disguise his, but the vampire who received it did. ”
Rye caught Embry’s eye, and she knew exactly what he was thinking—Balthazar didn’t give the coven enough credit to think their coins would be enhanced, but the vampires did.
“And how do I know your daughter didn’t give that coin to Mr. Hale with instructions to pass it on to Oakley Riddle’s family at a certain time?”
Daddy’s lips thinned at the inspector. “You have her word, for one thing. And that should be good enough for you. And if it’s not, you’ll have to either question the surviving members of the Riddle family yourself or actually locate Balthazar Hale.”
Inspector Brown frowned, but before he could say something, Lazarus plowed on. Embry just loved seeing Daddy in top-dog mode. “Let’s finish our visual presentation, shall we?”
“There is more video, yes, taken from the camera aimed at the pentagram.” Rye hit a few buttons. “This may be hard to watch, but it validates our position that the vampires attacked the coven, unprovoked, and that the coven responded with defensive measures only.”
The tape played, and it was hard to watch.
The vampires running up the hill. Confronting the coven in the pentagram.
Lazarus moving forward. The accusation. Rye and Fairfax stepping in front of Embry and Ames.
Oakley’s father’s magic exploding in a kill shot aimed at Embry’s father.
Rye’s shields went up. Merle lunged forward, barking orders.
Lazarus on the ground, Embry crawling to him.
Then, when Dr. Goldman rushed over to start life-saving measures, Embry using the very same loud, booming spell that she’d cast to startle Ames and Fairfax mid-make-out session to disorient the vampires.
The second the BOOM was picked up by the security system’s microphones, the vampires scattered like ice dumped from a cooler.
The defensive onslaught worked then; the larger coven was able to push the vampires back through the trees.
Rye switched back to the first camera then, and they watched as the coven pushed the family off the grounds before sealing the wards with an extra layer of support—the kind a coin couldn’t unlock.
When it was over, Embry’s heart was pounding as if she were experiencing that again, even though she hadn’t witnessed this part herself until that very moment.