Lacking a dignified response, I sipped the tea.

  He tipped his head toward the chair on the other side of the room. “I can put that through a quick wash and feed you before you need to head out to work.”

  “Um.”

  “It’s six-thirty. You should have time.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Shower is across the hall.” He pushed away from the door. “And Kel, I meant every word.”

  The door clicked shut behind him before my brain, foggy from sleep and Witch’s Brew, could peace it together.

  Then it clicked. He still loved me.

  “Narzel,” I groaned.

  Just what I needed. Another problem. One that walked around shirtless and made me wish I was still part of the clan.

  I swore again as I gathered up the clothing and hurried to the bathroom. Maybe I’d find answers in the shower.

  While I didn’t find any answers, I did find twelve shower heads. They didn’t solve any of my problems, but there were worse ways to start the day.

  When I stepped out of the bathroom, the clothing I’d left in a pile in the hall was gone and the scent of waffles filled the air.

  Why did it have to be waffles?

  This was going to be awkward. It had to be. He’d said he loved me, and I’d said nothing of the sort.

  Jamie smiled at me before prying a waffle out of the waffle maker. “I don’t have blueberry syrup, just maple. Sorry.”

  “Um. Maple is fine.” Last I remembered, he didn’t like it, but it was my favorite. Apparently another detail he remembered.

  Jamie handed me a plate.

  I followed him to the table and buttered and poured syrup on my waffle.

  “Do you think Aiden will know I spent the night here?” It wasn’t going to help either of us if he told Olivia we were conspiring against her.

  “Doubt it.” Jamie sipped his tea. “This building was a clan contract about twenty years ago. It’s spelled to prevent spying, even magical, and that extends to the parking lot. You’ve added similar spells to your apartment, and Aiden’s never been a good witch.”

  I nodded.

  “Are you sure you want to request the file?”

  “Yes. It’s better for everyone if Olivia doesn’t know we’re on good terms.” I took another bite of the waffle. Since we’d dated, he’d become a better cook.

  He shrugged. “You’re probably right.”

  He pushed a piece of waffle around his plate.

  “What is it?”

  He set his fork down. “Can I ask a question? One unrelated to Olivia.”

  “What’s the question?” I wasn’t agreeing to answer anything without knowing the query.

  “What changed your magic? It’s different than it was before, colder.” Jamie watched me.

  “I don’t know what you mean.” I shoved the panic down deep and forced myself to maintain a bland expression.

  His eyes drilled into me. “We’ve shared power before. Not with Witch’s Brew in the mix, but I know your power, and it’s changed.”

  “Your memory is faulty. My power is the same as it’s always been.” That was mostly true. I’d been a necromancer then, even if I hadn’t fully understood that Bubble was an undead fish.

  After studied me for a moment, Jamie slowly nodded. “Right. My memory is wrong.”

  “You don’t have to sound so disbelieving.”

  “I don’t have many options. You don’t trust me, which I understand.” He didn’t sound like he understood. “Prying won’t get an answer from you. And I’m sure you’re worried about what I’ll tell Aiden and Olivia.”

  “What will you tell them?” I gulped the tea to fix my suddenly dry mouth.

  “About what exactly? You staying over? Us getting drunk on Witch’s Brew? Your power? Our plan to help your dad and give Olivia bigger problems? All of it?” Jamie shook his head. “Nothing. I don’t tell her a thing she doesn’t already know. You were here to ask about the case, and I don’t know anything about anything else.”

  “Oh.”

  He pushed away from the table and took the plate. “If we don’t get a move on, we’ll be late.”

  I followed him with the butter and syrup. Maybe I could trust him. Maybe I’d been wrong all these years.

  Or maybe this was the first step on my way to burning for my crimes.

  That sour thought stuck with me as I finished getting ready for work. He was true to his word, and my clothes were dry. Though, next to his tailored suit, my khakis and polo looked positively shabby.

  Before the elevator doors opened and we had to face the world, Jamie turned to me with a look in his eyes I couldn’t read.

  “May I?” His hand hovered next to my cheek.

  I nodded.

  With his warm hand cradling my head, his lips met mine for a gentle kiss.

  “I’ve waited years to do this.” His lips brushed across mine one more time. He straightened as the elevator stopped. “Have a good day at work, Kel.”

  The doors opened, and he didn’t look back on his way to the resident parking deck.

  I watched until he disappeared through the door, every moment of our night together tumbling through my mind. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance for us.

  The morning passed in a blur of paperwork, first finishing up the report Wayne had started and then submitting the information request for Olivia.

  Nash sent over two reports. The bones were more than a month old. When he finished with the other victims, he’d come back and work on a more exact time frame. The car victim had yet to be identified. Again, it would take time. With a sorcerer around and someone setting magical fires around town, time the was one thing in short supply.

  As I was reminded when Wayne showed up at my desk with a grim look on his face and his phone in his hand. “We’ve got another fire.”

  “Magical?”

  “Yes.”

  I swore, and we raced for the car. This time, it was a house fire in a tightly packed residential neighborhood. The radio was abuzz with directions to evacuate the surrounding houses. For the entire drive, I kept hoping we’d hear it was out, that the charms I’d made for the fire department would be enough.

  That hope lasted until we turned into the neighborhood and I could see the flames shooting into the sky. Surprisingly orange-red flames without any shapes or other theatrics.

  Wayne parked us behind a long line of emergency vehicles. I bolted out of the car with charms clinched in my fist and a wand in my hand. The officer holding back the crowd let me through without a word. From there, it was easy enough to spot the cluster of personnel around the larger fire truck.

  As I trotted over, I thanked the earth that last night’s indulgence hadn’t hurt my reserves. I thanked the earth again when I heard Kala bellowing orders.

  “Pine. You’ve got more charms, good.” She held out four charred charms. “They’re working well enough that we can keep the fire contained, but they aren’t draining the magic out.”

  “Weird.” I handed her half the charms I’d grabbed from the car and stacked the rest in an open compartment. “Can you keep it contained long enough for me to get a good look?”

  Kala nodded. “But hurry. We need to put it out soon if we want to avoid it spreading.”

  A dusky red ember floated in front of me. “Got it.”

  I studied the house. Most of the structure was obscured by the flames leaking out of the windows and dancing through a hole in the roof. What they and the smoke didn’t obscure, the steam from the water did. From what I could see of the framing and the similar houses on each side, it had been a two-story house with the overly complex roof design that had risen in popularity in the past twenty years.

  The flames coming out of the roof twisted into the image of a giant teddy bear, somehow complete with brown fur and flaming eyes. The stuff of nightmares, that.

  Switching over to my magic vision, the knot of spells wound through the flames. Unlike the fire at Bee’s Gifts, this one had a singular point deep in the center of the house where the spells were the most concentrated.

  A firefighter activated one of my charms. It opened up a path to the earth and sucked in some of the magic. After a few seconds, the magic in the fire surged toward the charm, overwhelming it and burning it out.

  Now that was unusual. Magically fueled fires like this shouldn’t have any, for lack of a better word, intelligence to respond to a threat. If this was the result of random household spells interacting, I didn’t understand how it had known the charm would drain the magic.

  If… if the magic had been crafted to fuel a fire, well, then reacting to a threat would make perfect sense.

  I shivered. If these fires were intentional and intentionally magical, then every time I drained the magic to bring the fire under control, I destroyed any evidence of the crime.

  “Kala, is it safe to go inside?” It didn’t look like the best idea, but I wasn’t a fire expert.

  “No, the roof is unstable.”

  So much for going in and finding the source of the spells. “How long can you keep it away from the other buildings?”

  “They could go up at any time.”

  “Got it.” Once again, I’d have to destroy evidence to prevent a larger disaster. Which in turn meant the person behind these fires was free to start them again, and the horrible cycle continued.

  “Would less wind help?” Wayne asked.

  Kala shrugged. “Sure, but we can’t change the wind.”

  Wayne smiled as the breeze died.

  “How?” Kala narrowed her eyes at him. “Thank you.”

  Wayne bowed his head.

  I pulled a charm out of my pocket. “Can you keep watch while I get rid of the magic?”

  “Of course.”

  “Thanks.” I tossed the charm on the ground in front of me and activated it. Before it could start to suck in the magic, I grabbed the spell and modified the intake. With a few adjustments, it had an overflow area and a spell dedicated to regulating how much it would suck in at one time.

  Rather than trying to control the spell, I moved out of its way and did what I could to regulate the incoming magic. The fire flared up, sending sparks high into the air as the magic rushed the spell.

  The tricky part was staying enough out of the way of the magic as to avoid injury while still pushing back against the flood that wanted to swamp the spell. Even with the modifications I’d made, it wasn’t sturdy enough to withstand the full force of the magic.

  I studied the way the spells twisted as they were drained from the fire. They behaved just like the magic on the car fire. The fire at Bee’s Gifts had been different, more powerful, but it still had the same type of purpose to it. The three of them felt like they’d been set by the same person.

  The problem was, I’d never heard of a spell that could influence the behavior of magic once corrupted by an energy source like fire. Fire was often used to purify objects that had been spelled. In this case, the magic was surviving long enough to shape the fire and exacerbate the magical effects.

  Whoever was behind this was good, in a terrible way.

  The last of the energy whooshed through the charm and into the earth. I closed the charm’s spell. “All yours, Kala.”

  She turned to her crew with new orders.

  I retrieved the charm I’d modified. Its wood was still the light yellow of the pine, and the runes etched into it were undamaged. I switched to magic sight. The spells were intact, and the charm could be used again. Due to my modifications, it needed a witch or hedge-practitioner to activate it.

  I tucked it back into its bag and in my pocket. Until we could track down the person behind these fires, it would be my new best friend.

  Now that the magic had been taken care of, the firefighters were making progress extinguishing the fire. The fire wasn’t shooting out of the roof with gusto anymore.

  Beside me, Wayne swore. “I just got a message from Nash. He identified the body from the car. It wasn’t the manager of the shopping center, but his wife.”

  My eyes went from Wayne to the house. “Where do they live?”

  Wayne bolted for the nearest cruiser.

  I followed at a more sedate pace. Harris and the officer assigned to the car bent over the computer. The car had been registered to the husband, not them as a couple, so the killer could’ve assumed only the manager drove the car. Killing the wife could’ve been a mistake.

  Harris pivoted away from the car. “They live here.”

  “Does anyone know if he was home?” I had a sinking feeling as I asked. Every fire so far had included a body.

  The officer shook his head. “We asked the neighbors. They weren’t sure.”

  “I’ll tell Kala,” Wayne said.

  Wayne hadn’t even crossed half the distance when a firefighter near a window shouted, “Body!”

  Kala took off.

  I didn’t move. What was the point? Even from back here, I could see flames through the window. Maybe they could recover the body now, and maybe it would have to wait. Either way, my presence over there wouldn’t help. Instead, I grabbed my phone and called Nash. It rang twice before he picked up.

  “Kelsey, if you’re called about the car fire victim, I sent the information to Wayne.” A thump filtered over the phone, followed by Nash muttering.

  “Not what I’m calling about. Are you okay?”

  “Fine. Knocked over my pen holder.” He muttered under his breath again. “What can I do for you?”

  “I’m standing by a house fire, and there is a body. Likely the husband of the car fire victim.” The words tasted bitter. My job was to catch criminals and protect people, yet I didn’t have a single mote of evidence pointing me toward the perpetrator.

  Nash groaned. “I’ll be there soon, but I can’t start the autopsy until tomorrow.”

  “Okay?” I hadn’t asked him to start right away.

  “Just wanted you to know.”

  “It’s noted.” Wayne and Karla exchanged a few words and looks that were clearly directed at me. “I’ve got to go. If I get any news worth passing on, I’ll call.”

  As soon as I hung up, I sent him the address.

  “Did you call Nash?” Wayne asked.

  “I did. He’s on his way.”

  Wayne nodded. “Kala is going to focus their efforts on that part of the house, see if they can recover the body before the structure fails.”

  “Nash will appreciate that.” We needed every scrap of evidence we could get.

  “Did you get any magical information?” Wayne asked.

  “Some.” I tipped my head toward the house. “These fires aren’t accidental. It feels like the spells were designed to destabilize the blazes and fight any attempt to control them. I think all three fires were set by the same person. The magical residue from the car felt like the same magic that was used on CJ. That doesn’t tell us who is behind the arson or why they’re killing these people.”

  Wayne leaned against the truck. “How hard would it be to craft a spell that manipulated a large fire?”

  “Very. If you’d asked me a few days ago I’d have said it was next to impossible, a magical scenario we’d never see.” Admitting that stung. What good was I as an expert if I was wrong so often? “We need to talk to CJ again. I know he’s… not doing well, but he’s our best lead.”

  Wayne grimaced. “We should’ve done it yesterday, but yesterday got out of hand.”

  I nodded. “Maybe he’d feel better with the pack alpha there? I know he didn’t want to join the pack, but he’s still a werewolf.”

  “We can ask what would make it easier.”

  “That we can.” I watched the flames, which were giving way under the firefighter’s efforts. “Did anyone ever get a sketch of the person he bought the charms from?”

  “No, only the description he gave you. We can ask if he’d talk to a sketch artist.”

  We lapsed into silence while we watched the fire. Kala and her team managed to put out the area with the body, but the rest of the house was still burning.

  My necromancy was quiet, but it didn’t matter. I knew I could raise that body and walk it out of the fire. Just like I could raise our other two victims and question them.

  Unlike living witnesses, they wouldn’t lie. They would tell me the truth as they knew it, and there was a chance it would be enough truth for us to find the person responsible for these fires. If the risk to me was the only problem, I’d raise all of them to prevent another death.

  Problem was, I didn’t have a way to explain the information. Any anonymous tip would go to the TBI tip line, not to me personally. CJ was our best witness, and unless his memory had suddenly improved, it wasn’t going to be enough. The magical evidence was nonexistent, so I couldn’t even use that as an explanation.

  At the end of the case, there would be reports, and in there I’d have to have a plausible way of having determined the perpetrator. Necromancy didn’t count.

  The firefighters put out the flames, at least the visible ones. They kept dumping water on the house. A column of steam and smoke replaced the flames.

  A few minutes later, they hauled a big metal box out of the truck. They opened the lid and removed eight stakes with crystal spheres caged in strands of metal six inches from the flattened top. Two firefighters carried the box inside the building while the rest of the team hammered the stakes around the structure.

  I watched, using my magic sight as much as my regular eyes. I’d heard of this device, but last time they used it, I’d been distracted by my car going up in flames.

  The Fyr clan had been fire specialists for years. They were the go-to clan for creating, extinguishing, or manipulating fire. They’d been a big deal in the witch and fire management world for years, but Ash Ellis had taken them mainstream, putting on pyrotechnic shows the likes of which had never been seen. Last I’d heard, she was rivaling musicians for filling stadiums on her tour. Business for her clan had never been better.

  Kala activated the device and hurried outside the perimeter with the rest of her team.

  For twenty long seconds, nothing happened. Then soft orange magic spiraled out from the box. It expanded out until it hit the perimeter. As it went, red and blue sparks flared. When the entire structure was coated in the spell, it shrank inward, pulling the red and blue sparks with it.