Spellbound (35 page)

She had a point, of course. It was a start, but at this rate, not very helpful. Even if I did get my spells back, I needed to know other ways to defend myself.

I think that's what the guy in the alley meant—the same message I'd been hearing from others for years. Being a supercharged spellcaster hadn't made me invincible. It'd made me complacent. Take away those spells, and I'd felt weak and helpless. Only I wasn't weak and helpless. I needed to remember that.

 

 

I'd insisted Lucas not tell anyone we were coming, so the only person who met us at the airport was the driver. We were walking through the parking lot at Cortez headquarters, when someone snuck up behind me and tickled my ribs. I yelped and spun to see Adam, grinning. Just grinning, like nothing had happened between us. He looked tired—face drawn and clothes rumpled—but very happy. And very pleased with himself.

“Hey there,” he said.

“Hey yourself. You look like shit.”

He laughed. “Thank you. Been up half the night, but I finally found what I'd been looking for.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see that Cassandra had continued on.

“What were you looking for?” I asked.

“Later. First, we need breakfast. I'm starving.”

“I ate on the plane.”

“Too bad. You're eating again. Or watching me eat.”

We headed for the elevator.

“And you'll tell me about this amazing discovery over breakfast?”

“Nope.”

“What?”

“I need to get stuff ready first.”

“Ready for what?”

“You'll see.”

I looked at him, at his grin and his glowing face, and I felt . . . guilt. I'd hurt him and it shouldn't be this easy to fix that.

I stopped walking. “About the other day—”

He clapped a hand over my mouth. “Uh-uh. I'm in a good mood. Let's leave the angst for later, okay?”

I peeled his hand away. “I can't. I treated you badly. I didn't mean to, but I did, and I feel like shit.”

“It's okay.”

“No, it's not, and you telling me it is only makes it worse because I know you're just saying that to avoid a fight.”

He sighed, and waved me back into a corner of the garage as two guys in suits passed.

“Okay, you want to hash this out? Speed-fight, then. Five minutes. If it goes into overtime, we postpone it. Okay?”

I nodded. “I want to say—”

“Uh-uh. First shot's mine. It's not that you took me for granted, Savannah, it's that you treated me like your flunky—”

“I—”

“Still my turn. I'm not a leader. Never wanted to be one. I'm happy to let Lucas or Paige make the big decisions. But if I get my choice of partner, I pick you. Because on that level—out in the field, working a case—I want a partner, not a boss. Most times, if it's you and me, it works. But sometimes there's a problem. You're strongwilled and I'm stubborn.”

“I—”

“Almost done. If you insist on taking the lead, I dig in my heels. Usually you see it and you give a little and I give a little, and we're good. But if you're stressed, then you're pushing hard. And if I think you're making a bad move, then I'm pushing back hard. Eventually something's gotta give.”

“I know.”

“So I figure the blame is fifty-fifty. You were fighting for the lead, which is always a mistake with me. But you were stressed, so I shouldn't have gotten as angry as I did. I was just as stressed though, so it kind of . . .” He shrugged. “Blew up. I just needed a couple of days off.”

“Away from me.”

He met my gaze. “Yeah. I know you don't want to hear that but, yeah, I needed to step back, and I think you needed it, too. Take a break before we both really lost our tempers and said stuff we don't mean.”

“Okay.”

“Your turn then.”

I shook my head. “I don't need it. That works for me. Step back until we cool down. I just . . .”

“You thought I was stepping back for good?”

My cheeks heated. “Yes, I have abandonment issues, as you've pointed out.”

When I tried to look away, he caught my hand and pulled me back to face him. “I'm not going anywhere, Savannah. Not now. Not ever.”

He moved closer as he spoke and for a second I thought,
He's going to kiss me. Oh, God, he's going to kiss me.
But he only looked into my eyes and said, “You're stuck with me, okay?” and I nodded, my throat closing. I tore my gaze away before he saw the flash of disappointment.

He hesitated a moment, and I was about to look at him again, but then he stepped back.

“Breakfast?” he said.

I nodded and followed him out of the garage.

 

 

We shared breakfast. No, I didn't say, “Oh, I'm not hungry,” then eat off his plate. Not my style. We got a big breakfast and shared.

I told him about Anita Barrington first. Then I told him about Bryce.

“I want to talk to Sean about it, but I want to do it in person,” I said. “It's just so . . . awkward. I know that sounds like a lame word, but that's how it feels. Bryce and Sean and me, we might share the same father, but it's not a triangle relationship. It's a straight line, with Sean in the middle, and me and Bryce at opposite ends, staying so far apart that Sean never needs to deal with both of us at once.”

“You feel that you let Bryce go because you didn't want to give him another reason to hate you.”

I let my head hit the table and moaned. “Oh, God, I'm pathetic. I'm worried about my guardians forgetting me. My best friend dumping me. One brother hating me. The other getting mad at me. How old am I? Twelve?”

“Nah. Twenty-one. With issues.”

I lifted my head and glared at him. “Thank you so much.”

“You did the right thing with Bryce. You had nothing to hold him on and you know that. You're just stressed out right now because of your powers and it's making all that latent stuff bubble up. It'll go away and you'll be back to your usual overconfident, reckless self.”

“Really not making this better.”

“Not my job. But I can distract you. You haven't asked about Hope's meeting with Kimerion.”

“Right. What'd he want?”

“Apparently, just to make contact. Like seeking an audience with the princess when you want to curry favor with the king. In this case, the princess can't put in a good word with Daddy, but Kimerion seems to think that just being nice to her will please the old guy.”

“And that's it?”

“That's what he says. Is it true? I don't know. It seems like a lot of effort just to say hi, so we're being cautious. For now, that was enough to keep Kimerion working on our behalf.”

“Has he . . . said anything? About what happened to me?”

Adam took a long drink of coffee. “He's still looking. I told him about your close encounter with Balaam. He doesn't much like the idea that Balaam's out there hunting for the same answers. There are some serious battles over this reveal issue on the other side. Demonic and celestial.”

“And Balaam and Asmondai are right in the thick of it. On opposite sides.”

“Meaning either could be responsible for what happened to you, despite what Balaam claims. That's trouble. There's no positive spin to put on stealing your powers.”

I thought of what the man in the alley said. Maybe there
was
a positive spin. I wasn't ready to tell Adam that, though. I needed to work it through a little more first.

“Kimerion says no demon can just take your powers. You need to surrender them in a pact. Making a rash wish, like you did, doesn't count. But he thinks deities might be able to. Maybe even eudemons.” That seemed unlikely. Eudemons didn't share a cacodemon's chaos hunger, so they had little reason to interact with mortals. “I have found cases, but it's never clear
who
accepted the pact. It just happens.”

“Djinn?”

He shook his head. “They don't cover those kinds of wishes.”

“Maybe a loophole, then.” I leaned over the table. “What if someone wanted to take my powers, and was just waiting for an excuse they could use at least until some higher power vetoed the pact.”

“Possible. Anyway, Kimerion and I are working on that and we're getting closer to an answer. Now eat up, because I've got some work to do back at HQ before I show you what I've been up to.”

B
ack to Cortez Cabal headquarters, where I had to help Cass with research. Lots of fun. Aaron was there, but he's not really a research guy, so he mostly trundled stuff back and forth from the Cabal library. Cassandra stayed with me, and I soon wished she was the one doing the shuttling, because she just read over my shoulder and pointed out all the places where the Cabal accounts got things wrong.

“Where is Adam?” she said finally. “Isn't research his job?”

“That's right,” Adam said as he walked in. “I'm slacking. You guys should stop paying me. Oh, wait. You don't. Sorry, Cass, but you're stuck here a little longer. Right now, I need to borrow Savannah. I have something for her.”

“Something more important that this?” Cassandra swept a hand across the table piled with books.

“You can read just fine, Cass,” Aaron said. “Pull out a chair and let's get to work.”

 

 

Wherever Adam was taking me, it wasn't within the walls of Cortez headquarters. Something so secret that he didn't dare discuss it where they could be listening in? When he pulled up to his hotel, I was sure that was it. We walked to his door.

I waved at the DO NOT DISTURB tag in his lock. “Better take that out or you won't get your room cleaned.”

“I don't want it cleaned.” He covered my eyes. “I told you it was a secret,” he said when I objected.

He opened the door and prodded me inside. Then he took his hand away and I knew why he didn't want the maid service coming in. The bed had been pushed against the wall, opening up the middle of the floor. Using electrical tape, he'd “drawn” symbols on the carpet. Censers and candles and books were scattered over the tables.

“A black mass?” I said. “For me? You shouldn't have!” I hugged him.

“If I'd really set up a black mass, you wouldn't be hugging me. You'd be on the phone to Paige, telling her I've been possessed again.”

“Mmm, not sure I'd call Paige. Remember what you tried to do when you were possessed?”

“That was not me. And don't remind me. I'm still creeped out.” He walked to the symbols. “Okay, so take your place at the north point and we'll begin.”

“Begin what?”

“Does it matter? You trust me, right?”

I knelt by a censer of vervain and lit it. Once it was going, I blew the smoke in his face.

“Cut it out,” he said between coughs. “I'm not possessed, okay? I was kidding about not telling you. Well, I did think it would be nice if I could spring it on you without the explanation, but the ritual requires active participation.”

“What ritual?”

“A Savannah Special. I'm going to give you back your powers.”

I stared at him.

“I'm . . . going . . . to . . .” he enunciated slowly.

“Give me back my powers? You can do that?”

His grin was so dazzling I swear my knees weakened. Then he rubbed it away.

“Sorry. Got a little carried away and forgot the qualifier. I'm going to attempt to give you back your powers. I wouldn't get your hopes up if I didn't think the ritual would work, but I can't promise anything, of course.”

“You found a ritual . . .”

He strode to a stack of books on the desk and picked one up. “It starts here. An account of a family of witches in ancient Greece whose powers seemed to be drying up from lack of use. When increased practice didn't help, they spent twenty years searching for a cure and finally found it here.”

He pointed to a ritual written in spidery strokes. “Not your situation, I know, but it was the starting point. From there, I found two other cases that referenced the first.” He lifted two books. “Both are only partial accounts. In one a sorcerer gave up his spellcasting in a demon pact. The other sorcerer swore he didn't, but either he was lying or tricked. They both adapted the earlier ritual. One sorcerer's worked, the other's didn't.”

He pushed the books aside. “Still not quite right, so I branched out from there—”

He kept going, referencing and cross-referencing accounts until my head was swimming.

Finally he turned to me. “So that's it. If this works, we'll have your powers restored in a couple of hours.”

I looked at the pile of books, and I couldn't imagine how much work this had taken. Then I looked at the circles under his eyes and the faint lines by his mouth, and I
could
imagine it.

“I don't know what to say,” I said.

“I'll settle for a thanks and a beer if it works.” He paused. “Maybe a few beers.” He led me back to the ritual circle. “Before we start, though, I want to say that I didn't do this because I think you need your powers back. You'd be okay without them, Savannah. Just not as safe. And not as happy.” He looked at me. “I know how much they mean to you, and I want you to be happy.”

I glanced at him, and I thought of what he'd done here. Of all the hours he'd spent digging for an answer, even when he'd been furious with me. He'd done this for me. Because it was what I wanted. Because it would make me happy.