Glaring at Vaughn wasn’t accomplishing much as I straightened my shoulders and notched my chin high, stalling for time. Enough time to explain what in the world we were doing crawling through the main house after midnight.
But before I could make a plausible excuse, if there was one, Stone opened the door behind him and stood to the side, saying. “You’re late.”
For what? I glanced at Vaughn but she’d already slipped into her princess to peon mode as she glided past Stone.
Currents within currents.
So I sucked in a deep breath and followed her. I’d like to think it was because I was brave and was covering her back, but mostly I wanted to know what the hell was going on.
Two steps into the room and I slammed to a halt. Not because it was the fanciest room I’d ever been in, one of those places with woodwork and museum kind of furniture that screamed wealth and refinement, but because Ling Mai sat behind an intricate inlaid wood desk, her hands calmly folded before her, looking as if it were nine in the morning instead of the middle of the night.
She nodded to two brocade chairs strategically angled in front of the desk.
Vaughn had already slipped into one as I stood there with my mouth gaping.
Ling Mai expected us? Why?
A quick glance over my shoulder showed Stone closing the door and striding to a corner of the room where he crossed his arms in front of him. Man, he had the mad, bad, and dangerous look down pat. But he wasn’t revealing much beyond that.
When in Rome . . .
I followed Vaughn’s lead and snagged the other chair, actually glad to sit because I wasn’t too steady on my feet. The pain in my hand seemed to spike with my confusion and worry, throbbing and now racing through my system. I hoped I wasn’t going to hurl on Ling Mai’s exotic woven carpet.
“I’m glad you could join us, Ms. Noziak,” Ling Mai said, her voice as cultured as I remembered. “We’re in need of your help.”
My stomach dropped. Last time she had sought my help I had ended up exchanging prison for this place, which was proving even more lethal. So what did she expect from me now? Could she be a soul stealer? Nah, they didn’t ask for permission.
I held my tongue, waiting for the trap before I rushed head-on into saying anything.
“You’re the one who was able to identify that someone is using black magic,” Vaughn said, obviously acting as interpreter for cryptic speak.
“Yeah.” I nodded, wanting to point out that anyone with any experience of magic should have been able to do the same. It was obvious I wasn’t the only practicing witch in the group. Maybe the only known one but not the only one.
“We’re trying to determine who’s behind the magic,” Ling Mai said, her voice shadow quiet.
“You mean you don’t know?” I blurted out, glancing between her and Stone. “You have a group full of others and nonhumans and you don’t have any way to monitor their abilities?”
A sudden tension crackled between the four of us and I caught Ling Mai cast a quick eyebrow wag at Stone.
Stone was the one who stepped into the yawning void. “It’s more complicated than that.”
“No shit, Sherlock.” I slammed to my feet thinking of Bitsi and of the dying light in Rolf’s eyes. “You brought two shifters in without securing the environment. I bet you didn’t even tell them they would be sparring with anything other than humans.”
The rigid snapping of Stone’s shoulders told me I’d zeroed in on the truth.
“Ms. Noziak.” Ling Mai’s tone could slice granite. “Sit down.”
I did as she said, not because she ordered me but because I was trembling. What kind of messed-up agency was this that was willing to throw away trainers as well as recruits because they didn’t have a clue how other species interacted?
Once I’d settled into my chair, still shaking my head, Ling Mai continued, “The shifters who volunteered to train you were aware of the risks.”
“Not all of the risks, obviously,” I grumbled. Rolf could have been one of my brothers who volunteered to do what was right for the sake of a larger cause and died because of a stupid mistake. That made me even sicker to my stomach than I’d been.
Vaughn reached over and laid a hand on my arm. “Let them explain,” she said.
Yeah, she was a good leader out on the training floor and yeah, I’d gotten to know and like her. But the princess and I were going to have a bit of a chat once we left this office.
“Fine,” I said, then clamped my mouth shut. Let everyone else waltz around the unnecessary deaths. These three hadn’t lost their lives.
“In spite of what you think you know, there are and have been procedures in place to protect participants and staff from one another,” Ling Mai said, though I could hear the weariness beneath her words this time. “But identifying and controlling magic is one of the hardest issues we’re facing. As you know firsthand, identifying a Were or a shifter or even many of the fae, can be a straight forward matter for those trained to know what to look for.”
She lowered her head but kept her gaze zeroed in on me as if waiting for agreement. But I wasn’t giving it. Sure, I could sense a shifter and a Were, in part because I’d grown up around them my whole life, but fae were harder for me to identify because there could be so many different kinds of them.
Damned if I were going to admit that, or acknowledge what a challenge Ling Mai had with so many nonhuman species around.
Instead I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Go on,” my tone only marginally less caustic.
“Based on our research and background checks, you were the only recruit identified as possessing magical abilities in any quantity significant enough to pose the risk of harm to others.”
Great, now I was the threat?
My look must have said what I was thinking as Stone jumped in. “Your ankle bracelet is more than a monitoring device. It’s tuned to you specifically, so if you decided to use magic, especially black magic against another, we could shut you down in a heartbeat.”
I narrowed my gaze on him as the nearest target. “So why didn’t you? This afternoon? I was using blood magic then.”
“Because I was monitoring the situation from here,” Ling Mai said. “And it was clear you were countering other magic as well as attempting to save the lives of your fellow recruits.”
I leaned forward. “So why didn’t you shut all of us down?” I asked, wondering to what lengths this woman was willing to go to create her agency. How many lives she was willing to sacrifice until she figured out the nuances of training, and containing, non-humans. “If you’d activated all of our monitoring devices that would have stopped whoever was spell casting.”
“If Ling Mai had immobilized everyone, and the shifters continued to change, all of you would have been at risk,” Stone said.
He had a point. But that didn’t mean I liked it.
I followed the logic of Ling Mai’s words. If I were the only identified witch, no one else’s ankle monitor would have been programmed to stop magic use. So who was using magic and how?
I hoped from Ling Mai’s safe distance she might have noticed more than Kelly as I asked, “So did you see anyone casting?”
“Not overtly,” came another of Ling Mai’s cryptic responses. She played so close to the vest I’d hate to come up against her in poker. Or any game with stakes, but wasn’t that what I was doing already? All of us with lives on the line were playing with the ultimate stakes.
“What about Mandy Reyes?” I hated that I was throwing a fellow recruit under the bus, but if she had anything to do with this mess, I’d not only throw her I’d drive the damned bus myself.
Another one of those sharp looks were exchanged between Ling Mai and Stone.
It was Ling Mai who answered. “She wasn’t responsible.”
“How do you know?” All three pairs of eyes focused in on me. “For sure I mean? If you don’t have a clue who’s using black magic how can you be sure?”
Ling Mai paused, as if debating with herself. “You’ll have to trust us on this one.”
“Sorry, not good enough for me.” I stood again, using the chair behind my knees to support me. “It’s our lives at risk out there.” I glanced at Vaughn because she was one of the recruits, before I jerked my thumb to the world behind the closed door. “You let a killer in amongst us and want me to trust you. Give me one good reason why I should help you find this person when you’re not doing anything more than twiddling your thumbs and guessing?”
I glanced between Ling Mai and Stone but it was Vaughn who answered me. “They . . . we need your help because whoever is causing problems here has a specific goal in mind.”
“What?” I asked, feeling my blood pumping through me.
“Not what, who,” Stone said, stepping forward. “The goal is you. You’re the target, Alex.”