I followed Jerald to one of the trucks. This time, the gear was even heavier because he fitted an air tank to my back. While I suited up, I explained what Ash had told me and the general plan. When Jerald moved on to Harris, I tried to grab my wand and failed miserably three times.

  “Are you really going to take that in?” Harris asked.

  The hand carved and polished white pine wand had been mine for years. I had my childhood wand at my apartment, but I got better results with this one. “No. I can’t risk it.”

  Harris called an officer over and signed over our guns and my wand. I was weaponless other than my magic. Harris requested an axe and was provided with one.

  Jerald finished getting us dressed. He even checked our radios. They’d hear everything, which was for the best if we found useful evidence. He guided us over to where the crew had just doused the hall with powder.

  “Any updates on CJ?” Harris asked.

  Jerald got on his radio before reporting, “No one has a record of his evacuation.”

  The building in front of me was only one story, though the blue flames crested above the roof line for the four-story building next door. Even through my shields, the magic from the fire pulsed and flowed. It wasn’t as expressive as the previous fires, but it was larger. I followed a swirl of magic which reached high above the main body of the fire to create the ice blue flames dominating the sky.

  Though the door, a layer of white powder coated the floor and walls. It was darker than I’d expected. They’d had to cut the power, and only some of the emergency lights had a local power supply and undamaged bulbs.

  “Don’t forget, you have a max of thirty minutes of air. An alarm will sound when you get low.” Jerald patted my shoulder. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks.” I stepped through the door with Wayne at my side.

  I adjusted the shield that prevented me from seeing magic all the time, allowing high concentrations to show. I didn’t need to watch the patterns, I needed to find the source.

  “Should we try CJ’s room first?” Wayne asked.

  “If we can get there.” If memory served, it was a hall over from our position.

  My foot slid. I lurched into the wall but stayed on my feet.

  “You okay?”

  “Fine.” I stepped over the wet papers. The automatic fire suppression system had tried, but it hadn’t been up to the task. The end result was a mess. Sheets, medical supplies, and papers were a sodden mess, strewn across the floor, and now covered in a powder.

  A blue glow came from some of the rooms, but in the hall, there weren’t any flames. I didn’t know what to make of that. From the outside, it’d looked like the building was totally consumed.

  We found two people huddling in a room. Neither of them had magic, so we pointed them toward the exit.

  Harris relayed a steady stream of observations back to Jerald.

  I kept searching for the core of spell that had to be there, though I’d have to be careful with how I used magic when I found it. My wand focused and amplified my power. Without it, it would be easier to run out of magic.

  The hallway we’d been in dead-ended into another hall. This time, flames flickered in doorways and even along sections of the wall. There was more magic here, and my shield wasn’t filtering all of it out. It didn’t feel like a coincidence that we were nearing CJ’s room.

  “To the right.” Harris pivoted.

  “Got it.” I hurried to keep up with him, not that my hustle was impressive in forty pounds of gear.

  A glow of magic caught my eye off to the left. With each step, it brightened, until we were only a door away.

  “The source is in CJ’s room,” I said. His door was closed, but it didn’t matter. The source of the spells glowed brightly even through the wall.

  Harris positioned himself at the door, ready to force it open. He looked at me.

  This close to the nest of spells that were all too eager to twist any magic they found, I wasn’t willing to cast unless necessary. “I’m ready.” Or as ready as I was going to be.

  Harris tried the knob, and the door swung open.

  I barreled through, half-blind from the mass of spells feeding the fire. This close, I could feel the mass of magic even through my shields. When the spots didn’t clear from my eyes right away, I adjusted the shield, blocking my magic sight.

  Blue flames crept up the wall around an overturned hospital bed. Under the bed, the knot of spells twisted and fed into the fire, but they didn’t hold my attention.

  The five-foot-tall woman grappled with a partially shifted CJ. She was the true source of the magic. But Ash had been right. She was a sorceress, not a witch like I had assumed. Odds were she was the same sorceress who’d been created in the forest.

  CJ swiped at her. The claws went through her coat, but if they did any damage to her, it didn’t slow.

  Magic flared around the woman, throwing CJ against the wall.

  His eyes rolled back, and he slid down the wall.

  She turned to look at us, her baby pink and blue hair in twin braids.

  I flung my hand out. “Sowil.”

  The shield spell wrapped around her. A flow of the magic swept across it, twisting the spell, and it vanished.

  She grinned, show a gap between her front teeth.

  CJ groaned and tried to push himself off the floor.

  The sorceress pivoted, eyes firmly on CJ. He slowly rose to his feet, then up the wall until his toes could touch the floor. He clawed at his neck, opening long gashes, but he couldn’t fight the magic.

  The shield spell hadn’t worked for long, but it had worked. I just needed to hit her directly with an incapacitating spell. “Mannaz!”

  The spell hit the sorceress. She stumbled but didn’t lose her grip on CJ. The stun spell rebounded, crashing through my shield and into me.

  I stumbled back and ended up on the floor, blinking furiously. My vision hazed.

  Wayne lunged for the sorceress.

  She flung him back, lifting him off his feet.

  Wayne hit the drywall, leaving an imprint of his body there. He kept his grip on the axe but was shaking his head as if to clear his vision.

  The sorceress lifted her arms, her fingers curled like claws. She smiled and ripped her hands through the air.

  CJ’s cheek opened with a sickening crunch. His eyes rolled back, and his head rolled to the side.

  I blinked away the haze from my vision. My fingers twitched but wouldn’t lift off the floor. My mouth wouldn’t move.

  The sorceress walked up to CJ, wrapped her hand around his still beating heart, and shoved magic into it. His heart turned black in her hands.

  If my mouth could move, I would’ve screamed. I would’ve thrown any spell that had a chance of stopping her and damn the risk.

  But I couldn’t, so I watched as she shattered the window and hopped out.

  Wayne stumbled away from the wall and went to the window.

  “Don’t,” I whispered.

  He spun around.

  “We need a plan.”

  Wayne jerked his head in a semblance of a nod.

  The haze faded from my body enough for me to push myself into a better position. The knot of spells fueling the fire pulsed just a few feet away from me. I crawled over to the hospital bed and filtered my vision until I could see the spells without being overwhelmed.

  I hadn’t been able to save CJ, but I could fix this.

  The interior of the spell mass was the part I needed to access because it added energy to the fire. To reach it, I had to pick apart the outer layers. The one creating all the flames was easy. As soon as it disintegrated into motes, the blue flames in the corner faded. The wall sported a bit of charring, but nothing as flamboyant as what had been there.

  The next spell directed the flow. I ripped it apart and attacked the core. It zapped me.

  “Syed take you.” I ignored the second zap and picked apart the energizing spell. When the last strand dissolved to nothing, the rest of the spell collapsed in a flurry of magic that soaked through the floor and into the earth.

  I reached up to wipe my eyes, hit the mask, and swore. Tears ran down my cheeks.

  Wayne had been right. If I’d just raised one of the early victims, I could’ve saved CJ.

  If I’d been willing to use my necromancy, he would be alive, not dead on the floor because I wasn’t brave enough.

  “Is the spell gone?” Wayne knelt next to me.

  I nodded.

  “Most of the flames are gone. I think it was mostly magic.”

  “It was.” I couldn’t tear my eyes away from sheets strewn across the room. “You were right.”

  Wayne sighed. “We don’t know that.”

  My eyes met his storm gray gaze, all to appropriate for today. “I do. I could’ve prevented this.” I shoved myself off the floor. “I can’t make it right, but I can get justice.”

  I swayed under the weight of the gear. Wayne steadied me. I walked around him, forcing myself to see what was left of CJ. In his file, there were pictures of him from before. He’d been strong, quick to smile, slow to laugh. MVP of his ruby team. He’d deserved better.

  My fingers found the switch to mute my microphone.

  “Kelsey?”

  “I’m sorry.” I relaxed the iron grip I kept on that shield, and cool threads of necromancy filled me. “Eair Deyr.”

  CJ’s eyes opened. Cold blue swirls of magic replaced his iris and pupil. “Mistress.” He stood up, seemingly unaware of the injuries to his skeleton.

  “Who killed you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I swallowed. He’d tell me anything he knew, even things he hadn’t allowed himself to remember in life. “Have you ever encountered this woman before?”

  He spoke without any intonation. “She smelled like the gift shop, floral and dead. I have not seen her before.”

  “Did she speak to you tonight?”

  CJ nodded. “She wished to know where I stored the part I made for Oak Ridge National Laboratory. I would not tell her. She grew angry. That part was how she would expand her power.”

  “What was the part for?” I hated asking. If he’d been alive her wouldn’t have told me.

  “A particle accelerator. From what she said, if she spelled it properly, it would allow her to tap into the power of the accelerator.” His answers were that of a machine, an undead one, but a machine all the same. He hadn’t come back with the spark that made him truly him.

  “Has she tried to procure the part before?”

  “Yes. The fey was her agent. Had she known who I was, she never would have sold me the aggression charm.”

  Wayne came up next to me. “You need to ask him where it’s stored and what it looks like.”

  I repeated Wayne’s question.

  Of all the places the fey had looked, he hadn’t checked the safe in CJ’s office. The safe the sorceress still didn’t know existed. And just like that, I knew how we were going to catch her.

  CJ stood, unmoving, awaiting my next question or order.

  “I’m sorry. I hesitated, and you paid the price.” More tears rolled down my face. “Deyr.”

  CJ collapsed to the floor. Dead. Again.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I turned and walked away. I needed to pay a visit to the morgue.

  Wayne said his own apology to CJ.

  The other end of the radio was silent. Either they knew to give us a moment, or they were running in to see what had happened.

  I flipped my radio on as soon as Wayne was done and started relaying orders. Nash was to meet us at the morgue before coming here. I needed to talk to Smith and the highest-ranking officer on scene as soon as I was out of the blaze. And I needed my wand back.

  Wayne caught up with me. “Are you sure about this?”

  “No.” I’d been avoiding using my powers this way since they’d awakened. This week or next year, I wasn’t going to be able to keep my necromancy hidden long enough to have a good life. I might as well use it for good until it killed me. “But I’m going to do it anyway.”

  At least Olivia would have a good reason to kill me.

  Wayne fielded most of the questions from the firefighters.

  I stripped off my gear, got my gun and wand back, and called Nash myself. I couldn’t have a different medical examiner. I needed him.

  Nash promised to be there.

  The ranking officer on scene was actually a lieutenant who was more than willing to coordinate an operation. Smith wasn’t on scene, but I got him on the phone and explained that we were going to set a trap. We know where the sorceress would be, and this was the way to get her. He and the lieutenant promised to have the building surrounded.

  I met up with Harris by our cars. “You told me if we were partners, we had to do things together, do them the right way.”

  His shoulders tensed. “I did.”

  “As partners, as friends, I need you to go to CJ’s while I go to the morgue.” I kept talking, hoping something I said would convince him this was the right path. “Sorcerers often have gaps in their education, and even the best practitioner can’t defend against everything. Bullets are one of those things. Could you set up as a sniper? I can lure her into position, try to take out any shields she does have against physical attacks. Procedure for sorcerers is to kill, not capture. And it could take both of us to do that.”

  Wayne’s lips flattened into a thin line. “Who told you?”

  “What?”

  “You asked me to be a sniper. Who told you I could do that?” Wayne said tightly.

  Oh. He thought tales were circulating in the office. “No one. You’re an ex-military ballistics expert who happens to be a sylph. I’d be surprised if you weren’t capable of acting as a sniper.”

  The hard set to his shoulders relaxed. “I’ll do it.”

  I blinked. “You will?”

  Wayne nodded.

  “And I take it you’re good enough to get the job done.”

  “I’m good enough.”

  I hoped I was good enough too. “Get the warrant. Arrest or kill on sight. By the time you have it, I’ll have a name.”

  “Done.”

  We worked out a few details and then headed to our respective assignments. I flipped on my lights and raced to the morgue. The sorceress could be at CJ’s shop already, or she could wait a day or two. I was betting she would go there fairly quickly. She’d been spotted with CJ. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the police might do another sweep of the shop.

  My hands tightened on the steering wheel. I’d have to write a note for my dad. Tell him nothing he did could’ve prevented this. The family history was clear. The women in my family couldn’t hide their power, not for long enough to live to a ripe old age. I wouldn’t curse a child with this power, so one way or another, it was going to die with me.

  Between the police lights and the lack of traffic, I made it to the morgue in record time.

  Nash was waiting for me in the parking lot, leaning against his car, eyes bright, hair in four braids. No one should look that good at five-thirty in the morning.

  I got out of my car and closed the door a little hard.

  One brow arched. “To what do I owe the honor of your summons at this glorious hour?”

  “CJ’s dead.”

  Nash pushed away from his car. “How?”

  “Sorceress.”

  He winced. “What do you need from me?”

  He knew my secret, but I didn’t know if he’d be willing to help me hide it a second time. “I need to raise the victim from Bee’s Gifts.”

  Nash nodded. “Camera broke in the morgue on Friday. No one will see.”

  “Thank you.” I followed him into the building.

  He locked the door behind me. “Do me a favor. Kill the sorceress.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  “Good.” Nash led me through the halls until we came to the morgue. The camera in question was dangling from the ceiling at a precipitous angle. He tugged open one of the doors and pulled out a tray with bones neatly set out in their place.

  “You don’t have to watch.” I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t stay. Most elves wouldn’t have helped me hide this ability. Nope, they would’ve sliced off my head and struck a match before I could say “necromancy” twice.

  “They are under my care. I will not abandon them.” Nash met my gaze with his one. “And you are my friend.”

  “Thank you.” There wasn’t anything else to say.

  He nodded.

  The bones weren’t in the best shape, but the jaw area was intact. When I raised this person, they should be able to talk.

  My necromancy surged down my arm. I grabbed my wand, holding it more tightly than necessary. I hadn’t thought to bring salt and steel, but when I’d raised Jameson and CJ, I hadn’t needed the aids.

  I sucked in a breath. “Eair Deyr.”

  The bones snapped together as if the person was simply laying on the metal tray. The head turned to me, icy blue filling the eye sockets. “Mistress.”

  “What is your name?”

  “Lacy Williams.” The jaw moved, and the words came out with a light feminine voice.

  I made a note on my phone. “Where did you work, and what was your position?”

  “I was a clerk at Bee’s Gifts.” The bones shifted.

  “You are safe. There’s no reason to be afraid.” The last thing I needed was a freaked-out zombie. “Do you know how you died?”

  “That bitch Vale killed me. There I was, stocking shelves, when she up and stabs me. Stands there, watching me die while she does some spell to hide how I died.” The jaw clacked as Lacy spoke.

  “Do you know Vale’s last name? When did she hire you?” If we could get enough information, I could run a search on the name.

  “She didn’t hire me. The owner sold the shop to her three months ago. She just shows up, introduces herself as Miss Vale Perry, and says there will be a few changes.” The jaw moved at a remarkable place for not having any tissue to facilitate movement. “Next thing I know, I’m working for a crazy woman and afraid to leave.”

  I cut her off. “That’s enough. Deyr.”

  The bones clattered back to the tray, losing the shaped they’d held.