16
Afamiliar scent roused me from sleep. Tobacco. And…green apples?
From deeper in the house, Colby barked orders while she battled orcs with her friends. But a rhythmic click, click, click kept steady time at my elbow. That was not part of the game, and they only ever played one.
Cracking my eyes open, I discovered Asa sitting in a chair stolen from the kitchen beside my bed. Rimless glasses perched on his nose, and the beginnings of a scarf poised on a pair of wooden knitting needles.
A tiny part of me wondered if that was what he had been whittling in my yard that day, but I didn’t ask.
“Am I dreaming?” I angled my head to see him better. “You wear glasses? And knit?”
“We all need our hobbies.” He set aside his project. “Stakeouts are boring.” He removed his glasses. “It’s not that I need these to see. I need them to see beyond.” He leaned forward. “Tinkkit is an ancient fae craft my mother taught me. I knit intent into my work, and my daemon half has trouble perceiving the strands of the natural positive energy I channel. The spelled glass helps me block out my daemon sight.”
“You’re a fascinating dae, Asa.” I wiped the crust from my eyes. “Maybe one day you could…”
A gasp caught in my chest as it all rushed back to me, and I bolted upright, my heart racing a mile a minute.
“Shh.” He gripped my upper arms to hold me still. “The girls are alive and well and in the hospital.”
A twist in my middle left me tasting bile. “The hospital?”
“They’re being treated for exposure and shock.” He stroked his thumbs over my arms. “The spell hit the girls hard, and they hadn’t shaken it off when the paramedics arrived. That type of magic isn’t meant for use on humans, so it was in their best interest to be examined by human health professionals.”
Wetting my lips, I screwed up my courage. “What do they remember…?”
“Not much.” He gave me a reassuring squeeze. “They were unconscious for most of it.”
“You interviewed them.”
As much as I wished he hadn’t asked them to relieve their trauma, he had no choice. I had explained him away as a cop, so the girls would have trusted him. They would have answered his questions without the trepidation that came from a formal interrogation. That much, I had done right. I still didn’t like it.
“I had to know what precautions to take.” He flexed his jaw, as if he regretted the necessity. “I gave both of the girls a dose of a mild potion to blur the edges of their memories. That ought to protect them.”
From Black Hat. From the director. From a truth that would wreck and ruin them.
“Thank you,” I rasped, grateful beyond measure for his quick thinking.
Agents kept an emergency tin of potions in their cars, a magical first aid kit, but the pre-mixed spells had a shelf life and required immediate application to be effective. That wasn’t always possible, and humans died because what they had seen or heard couldn’t be blurred, smudged, or faded in time to save them.
“Colby?” Her steady voice assured me she was all right, but I had to know if she was okay. “How is she?”
“Clay was right.” Asa slid his hands down to my elbows. “She was exhausted, but she’s fine.”
His assurance shoved a weight off my shoulders, and I shut my eyes to soak in the fact I hadn’t hurt her.
This time. Next time? I didn’t want to think about it. But I knew Colby was sizing us for matching superhero costumes in her mind.
“We found Taylor’s car.” Asa let me go, and I missed his steadying grip. “This was inside.”
A heavy weight landed on my lap, and I popped my eyes open to find a pale leather grimoire.
“There’s a part, near the back, that might help you put everything into perspective.”
“You read it?” I felt dirty just holding it. “You didn’t read it aloud, right?”
“Black arts don’t bother me much. Daemon, remember?” His smile was tolerant. “And I’m no fool.”
“Sorry.” I touched his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to imply…”