“How long have you been working her?” The poor girl had to be exhausted.
“A couple of hours.”
“Tell me you’ve let her go to bed.”
“Of course we have,” he shot back. “That’s why I came to find you, to see if you had any thoughts about it.”
“Can’t we use a tracer spell on Micah’s object?” I asked, trying to keep my tone level.
“Nope, there’s some kind of block on his physical signature. We tried putting a tracer together, but it sputtered out the moment the spell was cast. Katherine is stonewalling us when it comes to the kids,” he replied. “Alton has no idea how she’s drawing enough energy to keep them hidden like that, even from a tracer spell, but she’s doing it. Glad to see you’re at least asking the right questions.”
“Listen, I know I haven’t been around, but I have been asking the right questions this evening,” I replied, a little chastened. “Right this minute, there’s a huge folder in my room with a bunch of stuff about Katherine Shipton and the Merlins in it. I haven’t been wasting my time, okay? I thought we could try a different angle.”
The air between us went very still. “What do you mean, Harley?”
“I was going to tell you this tomorrow, but… well, I visited the New York Coven tonight,” I replied firmly. I wasn’t about to let him make me feel bad about the progress Santana and I had made on the personal matter of my dad’s innocence. It might not have had much to do with the missing kids, but I was certain the Grimoire spells could help me break the Suppressor. If I could get this thing out of me, I knew I’d be able to do more to find those kids.
“What?” His face remained exasperatingly blank, but I could feel his confusion.
“Santana and I went to the New York Coven to find out more information about Katherine, Hiram, and Hester. We got a load of copies from the archives, and… yeah, we got a lot of good stuff. There was information about Katherine’s former associates and old hideouts she’d used in the past. We even found out that she’d broken into a spell repository to retrieve rare spells. The guy there, Salinger, said he’d send a list of other missing spells. It might help us out.”
I’d almost told him about the Grimoire. Nope, I’m keeping that little nugget to myself. Seeing steam come out of Wade’s ears isn’t exactly on my agenda for this evening. He’d rat me out, for sure.
“You went to the New York Coven?” Disbelief still poured off him.
“Yes, Wade. Don’t give me that look. It was worth it. I found this photo of my dad from the… from the mortuary. On his neck, there was this tiny rune and two puncture marks. It fits with the description of the Sál Vinna curse.” A sad smile spread across my face. “He didn’t kill those people of his own volition. Katherine forced him into doing it. She put that vicious spell on him and made him do those horrible things.”
He shook his head slowly. “I can’t believe you went to New York without me.” There was an undeniable note of disappointment in his voice. I could feel it, too, the cold tendrils slithering under my skin.
Anger spiked through my chest—my anger. “No congratulations? No ‘glad to hear your dad’s not a murdering psychopath’? Is that all I get—disappointment?”
His face changed, a flicker of panic in his eyes. “No, no, of course not. I’m really happy your dad was truly innocent in all of those things. Sorry, I should’ve led with that.”
“Yeah, you should’ve.”
“Does that mean they’re going to clear his name?” Agitation churned in my stomach, feeding from him. Clearly, he wanted to get something else off his chest. Well, you’re going to have to listen first. Show some friggin’ compassion.
I tilted my head from side to side. “Yes and no. The guy who took us around the place—James Salinger—he said we’d need to get a confession from Katherine or one of her accomplices if my dad’s ever going to get his name cleared,” I explained. “If they just went out and announced his innocence, it’d make the coven look bad. After all, it would mean they executed an innocent man. So, we need a solid admission of guilt, otherwise they’ll just sweep it under the rug.” The system was corrupt, and it made my blood boil. My dad was innocent. I wasn’t going to let them sweep anything under the rug.
Wade nodded. “With a confession, they won’t be able to ignore the truth.”
“Exactly.”
“We’ll catch her someday soon, and when we do, we’ll bring her to justice,” Wade assured me. “We’ll make her pay for every single crime she’s committed, including using Sál Vinna on your dad. Especially for that.”
A flurry of warmth and affection enveloped me like a hug, all of it coming from him. Just when I’m about to hate you, Wade Crowley, you know exactly what to say to get me all hot and bothered again. I couldn’t help but feel touched by how dedicated he was to proving my dad’s innocence. The strength of conviction in his voice was enough to make my heart beat a little faster.
“I’ve got another couple of bones to pick with her when the time comes,” I continued, holding back sudden tears. “See, Salinger also found some info on how Katherine fueled the spell in the first place. She murdered my entire family on my dad’s side. That’s the price required for Sál Vinna—the whole line of the spell victim’s family has to be killed, or it won’t work fully.”
“Is that how Hiram was able to fight it, because Katherine didn’t get everyone?”
I nodded. “She missed Isadora and me, and something stopped her killing Finch. I’m guessing she got desperate and did the curse anyway, hoping ninety-eight percent of my family tree would be enough, which gave my dad enough leeway to keep it from overwhelming him.”
“I’m sorry, Harley.” He touched my hand, for the briefest second. A shiver of unspoken feelings shot up my arm and into my heart—a mixture of his and mine.
“Oberon Marx was the test run,” I went on, battling with my emotions. “At least, that’s what Santana and I think.”
“Do you think Katherine snatched all these kids to fuel a different kind of spell—a similarly dark and powerful one?” Wade mused aloud. “Thanks to Marjorie, we know they’re all incredibly skilled, beyond anything we’d previously thought. Each one seems to have a rare power, combined with the usual Elemental abilities. It’s like they’re a new breed, almost.”
“Must be something in the San Diego water,” I joked. “But what kind of spell would involve Clairvoyants and Portal Makers and Herculeans, and who knows what else?”
“A damn terrifying one,” he said. “If Katherine is aiming to become a Child of Chaos, like Finch and the Ryder twins claimed, it would take a lot of juice to pull off. One would need a tremendous amount of power to kill or replace a Child of Chaos, I’d imagine.”
A curse word danced on the tip of my tongue, begging to be let loose.
“Alton and I have been researching the subject in a little more depth,” Wade continued. “Alton reached out to the United Covens of America and acquired their consent to look through their secret archives. We got through a chunk of it earlier. It seems that, in ancient times, magicals actually used to summon the Children of Chaos, individually, to speak with them and make requests. Apparently, they didn’t keep their distance from us mere mortals back then—they were a bit more involved.”
I frowned. “Why do I feel like I know where you’re going with this?”
“Our theory is that Katherine might be trying to summon a Child of Chaos so she can bargain with them and become one herself,” he said. “It’s only a theory, but if she wants to become one, she’ll have to come face-to-face with one at some point. It’s the how that still doesn’t make any sense. Even Alton is stumped. A magical can’t just take up a spot in the primordial pantheon, no matter how hard she might try and bargain. So, there has to be more to it that we don’t know yet.”
I nodded. “I imagine there’s a bucketload of stuff we don’t know about it. That’s probably the point.”
“Now, if you’d come to find me and let me come with you to the New York Coven, I might’ve been able to ask this Salinger guy more about Katherine’s spell-work,” he said, that note of disappointment coming back. “Did he seem to know a lot about her?”
“Yeah, a decent amount,” I replied, realizing he was probably right. He could’ve helped out. Still, it was too late to change anything now. No use crying over spilled spells.
Wade shrugged, and I felt waves of hurt roll off him. “I can ask him next time, but I’m sure I could’ve gotten something good out of him if I’d gone with you tonight.”
I frowned. “We did get something good out of him. Why are you so upset that I didn’t take you with me? Santana had my back, and we got some decent information. I don’t understand the problem here.”
“I’m not ‘upset,’ I’m just…”
“Don’t you dare say ‘disappointed,’ Wade.”
He shrugged. “But I guess I am, maybe. A little bit.”
“I thought you’d give me a slap on the wrist or something, but I didn’t think you’d be so bothered,” I said, confused. “I mean, I figured you’d rather stay here and work with Stella anyway. She’s way more exciting to be around, judging by your reactions to her.” I shot him a pointed look, reminding him that I could sense his emotions around her.
Wade turned suddenly serious, taking me by surprise. “I’m not interested in Stella.” His deep green eyes fixed on mine, and a wave of desire sent my nerves into overdrive. My heart thundered in my chest, pounding like a stampede of wildebeest. Is that… my desire, or his? It felt like both.