But he didn’t need to answer me. As soon as I reached the threshold, I saw.
Sebastian lay sprawled out on the grass, a knife in his heart pinning a note to his chest. His face was so bloody that it was almost hard to tell who he was, but those sightless gray eyes were looking up at the sky. I recognized the shape of his face, too, and the clothes he’d been wearing when he’d left. I hadn’t felt him on the grounds, so he must’ve been force-fed the potion to hide him from Ivy House. I’d put up a spell to unmask that potion, but it hadn’t bothered Sebastian, it seemed.
“Because he’s dead,” I breathed, anger and sadness welling up through me. “My spell to unmask people seeks out pent-up energy and danger. He no longer has either.”
The note read, This was my employee. Then he was your employee. Now he is no one’s employee. Want to come over for a drink next month? I’ll send a jet. Check yes or no.
Two square boxes were under that. He literally wanted me to check a box. He’d likely magically receive the answer. His name was at the bottom, no PS this time.
Tears clouded my vision. My hands balled at my sides. My gut twisted with guilt. I was the reason Sebastian was dead. He’d helped me, and I’d gotten him killed.
I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t live with that nutcase dogging my every step, watching me from the shadows.
“Yes, I will meet him,” I said through clenched teeth. “I will meet him face to face, and I will kill him for everything he’s done to me. Someone get me a pen.”
“I have a confession,” Ivy House said.
I waited for more bad news, and for a pen, and for the sobs to come. There had been too much death today. Austin had lost a few of his people, we’d taken the lives of more people than I cared to admit, and now Sebastian was gone, the guy who was supposed to join my team. My house. My life.
“I deadened my magic with the phoenix so you’d fight,” she said. “You needed them on your side, and you also needed a little shove to give the blood oath. By putting you in a dangerous situation, I nudged you into it.”
I closed my eyes, breathing through my nose. “I don’t care about that. I would’ve done it eventually anyway.”
“Just remember, I nudge because I love, and because sometimes you need it to reach your true potential.”
“This is not the time!”
“Good call. Chat later. Bye.”
What’d she think, we were on a call?
Mr. Tom handed me a pen. I reached down and checked “yes.”
The body disappeared.
Elliot Graves was ten times more advanced than I was. More experienced. If he’d employed Sebastian as a peon, then he was probably leagues above him in terms of magical ability.
I gritted my teeth. I didn’t care. I would take him on, and I would end his meddling in my life.
Epilogue
“It’s been an enlightening visit, to say the least,” Kingsley said, standing with Austin and me in the front yard of Ivy House. The rest of my people were in the house, flying around the woods, or tending to the flowers. Hollace had a green thumb, it turned out, and an eye for how a garden should look. He was quickly becoming Edgar’s best friend. He didn’t seem excited about that prospect.
It was a week after we’d ended the threat of Kinsella, although we still had no idea what had happened to the mage. Austin’s territory was as buttoned up as it needed to be, and Kingsley was anxious to get back to his family and his own territory.
“I haven’t taken orders from anyone but my wife in a long time,” Kingsley said, his eyes twinkling and a grin on his lips. He was usually only this free with facial expressions at Austin’s house, but clearly he was making an exception. “Not to mention I got to see some fabled creatures, including a female gargoyle and a freaking basajaun.” He shook his head. “That thing was ruthless. I’m glad I got off his mountain alive. I would rather not tango with one of those.”
“I hear that,” Austin said.
“Can you handle it if I hug her?” Kingsley asked Austin.
“Yeah.”
They weren’t teasing.
Kingsley stepped closer and wrapped me in a bear hug, lifting me up and shaking me a little. I groaned as the air was squeezed out of me. He set me down and backed away, laughing.
“It was good meeting you, Jessie Ironheart,” he said. “Thank you for pushing my brother back to his family. We’ve missed him. Maybe now he’ll visit once in a while. And sorry about…” He pointed at the grass. “I don’t tend to like mages, but he was all right.”