When I got there, Tad was at his desk, and Hank had made it in, but Caitlin and Wren were nowhere in sight.

  “The others snowed in?” I asked, heading over to my desk.

  “Right. Caitlin is snowed in—she lives up on a hill and the road’s so slick they’ve closed it off. Wren lives outside the outskirts of town and the plows don’t get out that far. So it’s just us today.” He paused, then asked, “Do you want to stay at work? We can close up shop for the day and go home, so you don’t get stuck if it snows much more.”

  “No, as long as we’re here, I might as well get some research done. I’ll leave if it starts to pile up.” I slid out of my coat and hung it up, then pulled off my gloves and blew on my hands. “By the way, I found out where the flowers came from. And you’re not going to like the news.”

  “Who left them here?” Hank came over and sat on the edge of my desk as I topped off my latte with a little hot coffee and returned to my seat.

  “Val Slater. Tad, you didn’t leave the place unlocked. He mesmerized you and then made you forget he was here. He left the writing on the wall and the flowers. I haven’t told Killian yet because of that incident in the restaurant the other night, so please don’t mention it in front of him until I find a way to broach the subject.”

  Tad narrowed his eyes. “You mean that vampire came in here and…crap. I think we need to figure out a way to ward against vamps getting in the building without our permission.”

  “That would probably be a good idea,” I said. “I’m not keen about him being here, either.” I paused, thinking. “I actually don’t know what wards off vampires. Whatever it is will have to be strong to ward off a vamp as old and as powerful as Val.”

  “You’ll want a garlic charm, with liquid silver in it. Paint it around all the doors and windows, and then you need to cast a spell stating that vampires aren’t welcome through the doors. Vamps can cross any public threshold. If it’s a private house, they must be invited in, but a business? Even a home business? They can enter without an invitation. So once you set up your ghost-busting agency, you’ll need to do the same to your house and to Ari’s,” Hank said.

  I hadn’t even thought about that. “I need to dig out my mother’s spell book. I’ve spent the past few weeks just getting acclimated to the town again. I guess it’s time to start immersing myself in practice again. I admit, I’ve kind of enjoyed having an extended vacation. Even though I’m working, the past month has felt like a time for me to decompress after life with Ellison—” My phone rang and I glanced at the caller ID. “Speak of the devil. What the hell does he want now?”

  I answered the phone. “I thought I told you to stop calling me.”

  “January, please, hear me out. I’m being sued by three businesses for negligence. My lawyer says it’s better if I settle with them because they’ll win if we go to court. If I do, that means I have to sell the house and I’ll end up with nothing left.” He paused, then said, “I know I fucked up but damn, this is hard. I just need a shoulder—”

  “Ana has two of them. You chose her. Why are you bothering me?”

  He paused. “You’ve become a hard woman.”

  “You helped make me this way,” I said. Then, remembering my wish, I sighed. Maybe he did just want someone to talk to. “What are you looking for, Ellison? What do you want from me? And be straight about it or I guarantee the answer will be no.”

  Another pause, and then he said, “I thought maybe…you have the money from the settlement. Maybe you could give me half the money for it? I’ll be ruined—my social standing will tank!”

  “Stop right there,” I said, my sympathy coming to a screeching halt. “I didn’t burn down the building. I didn’t throw the cigar in the trash can. I didn’t cheat you out of the business. I think this is one you have to field on your own. And I’ve got news: your social standing was always built on quicksand. Good luck. For once in your life, accept responsibility for what you did.”

  I punched the end-talk button and stared at my phone. Yes, I had made a wish, but it all came down to free will, and we all made choices every day, whether or not we were being influenced by media, news, or magic. In the end, unless we were really, truly, being held hostage, we chose our actions.

  Looking up, I saw the Hank and Tad waiting.

  Tad winced. “Ellison?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, he wanted me to give him part of my divorce settlement. He doesn’t want to face the world poor. He knows the friendships he has built up through the years are dependent on his financial status.” I stared at my phone. Even though I did detect a little schadenfreude in my heart, mostly I was just tired of dealing with his drama.

  “All right, back to the matter at hand. Can you cast a spell to keep Val Slater out of here?” Tad asked.

  “Ari and I probably can. She can fill in the gaps where I might be lacking—” My phone rang again and I was about to bite Ellison’s head off until I saw the name on the screen. “It’s Rowan. She promised to get back to me about Clarence van Nostram.”

  “January? I finally have some information for you,” she said. “I’m emailing it to you as well, but I wanted to talk to you about part of it. Have you done any real research into the Covenant of Chaos?”

  “No, but I’m thinking I probably should.”

  “They worship the Elder Gods—the old, nameless, formless gods who go back beyond time. Most of them are chaotic, and I’m not even sure you can call them actual gods. They’re entities from deep in the abyss where energy exists without form and without any sense of human consciousness. They’re agents of chaos, and they balance out the ordered entities we call gods who have form and structure.”

  A chill ran down my spine. “I’m getting the distinct feeling these beings—entities—aren’t exactly safe.”

  “No, nor are they helpful. They exist solely to rail against order. They’re not evil in the sense of being like…oh…a serial killer, but they are dangerous. And one of the most famous ones goes by the name of Kahrnea. The Covenant of Chaos is always seeking a way to worship him directly, but you can’t access these gods without creating a portal. And that’s what they were seeking to do in that room—create a portal that opened into the realm of chaos so they could access the energy.” Rowan shook her head. “And there’s the question—did they manage to do that? Did they actually open a vortex?”

  “Let’s say for the sake of the argument that they did,” I said. “What might we expect to happen?”

  “Energy beings would have access to this realm—shadow people, poltergeists, and all sorts of astral creatures that run toward the chaotic. In their search for a pipeline to the energy of that realm, they would have to open up a two-way door. There’s no way to access energy from there unless you give it the same freedom to reach you. Does that make sense? There are no one-way doors when you’re seeking to bring something through to our realm.”

  I frowned, trying to envision it. “So, if they want to call on something there, the door has to swing both ways.”

  “Right. Now, whether they managed to open the portal or not during the time Clarence owned the restaurant, I’m not certain. But from what you described, I’d say the most likely answer is yes.” Rowan sighed. “Before you ask, yes, it must be closed in order to stop the activity in the restaurant.”

  “Will that prevent shadow people and their ilk from coming through to Moonshadow Bay?”

  She laughed. “Oh, January, you really don’t think that’s the only portal in town? The chaos workers have been in this community since we first started up. There are most likely portals tucked away all over the place. Why do you think we get so much activity here? It’s not just because we have a large Otherkin population.”

  “How do we close the door?” I asked.

  Rowan laughed again. “If I knew that answer, I’d be running all over town hunting down portals. I think for that, you might need to talk to Clarence van Nostram.”

  That had been on my mind, but so had my next question. “Why would he help me, though? He belongs to the Covenant and they wanted the portals open in the first place.”

  “Well, for one thing, he’s the one who owned that building, so he’ll probably be the best option to help you close it. And for another…I found out that Clarence left the Covenant three years ago. He dropped out of sight and he’s keeping a low profile. I imagine they have a policy that you never really leave…not while you’re alive. I have to go. I’m expecting a client and I need to get my spell components together.” Before I could say good-bye, she signed off.

  I stared at the phone. “Well, it looks like I have to pay a visit to Clarence after all. And let’s hope that he’s willing to help us.”

  Chapter Eleven

  I played with my phone. I needed to contact Clarence, but I was afraid. I wasn’t sure why, except that the Covenant of Chaos was a dangerous organization and I wanted to stay as far away from them as I could. But they were pervasive here in Moonshadow Bay, and one of these days I’d run up against them.

  “You want me to talk to him?” Hank asked.

  I flashed him a rueful smile. “My nervousness shows that much?”

  “Kind of,” he said, then stood to stretch.

  I had to admit, the man was built. Burly, bald, and beautiful in a badass way. He was strong as an ox, and he had the power to bilocate and move around on the astral plane. His magic was grounded in the cerebral realm, and he was fairly advanced, from what I could see.

  “I don’t know if I’ve ever met one of the chaos magicians,” I said.

  “You already know one,” he said. “I never joined the Covenant, but I worked with chaos magic for years before I settled down to specialize in bilocation and astral work.”

  “You? I didn’t know that.”

  Hank leaned forward. “Rowan’s right in that the Covenant of Chaos is a dangerous group—but they aren’t out to overthrow Moonshadow Bay, and they aren’t out to destroy the world. They just work with energies that most of us with better sense feel are best left alone. Chaos is a heady power. In some ways, it’s stronger than order, just like water is stronger than earth. Water can carve channels through solid ground. Chaos can fracture order in the same way—it’s nebulous, without form.”

  I stared at him, shocked to hear that he had worked with chaos magic. “Why didn’t you join them? What made you turn away?”

  Hank glanced over at Tad, who nodded. “I ran into some trouble about ten years ago. I thought I was the cause of an abandoned building collapsing on the outside of town. I didn’t realize there were two teens hiding out in it. One of them made it out. The other…” He paused, and for the first time since I’d met him, Hank looked about ready to cry.

  “Oh my gods, what happened?” I couldn’t imagine Hank, as rough as he might seem on the outside, being so careless.

  “There was very little to link me to the incident, except that I had been practicing chaos magic in the area and I’d done my best to bring that building down. And I thought that my magic had done the trick. I was proud as a peacock, until I found out there had been two teens inside. When I realized that one of them died, it tore me to pieces.”

  I ducked my head. The pain was evident on his face, and I could feel his anger pouring out of him—he was angry at himself. “What happened?”

  “I was going to turn myself in when the news arrived that inspectors discovered that the supporting beam system of the building had rotted away. So it was nature, not my magic that had brought that building down. But for a brief time, I truly thought I had been caused the kid’s death. I swore I’d never randomly do anything like that again. I decided to focus on a different area of magic, and I turned away before I ever could even think to join the Covenant.”

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that.” I hesitated, then said, “I’m going through something like that right now, though not as bad. Nobody died in the fire Ellison set, thank gods. But…”

  “But what?” Tad asked.

  “As long as we’re sitting around swapping stories, let me tell you what happened last night.” I told them about Rameer and finding out about what I had wished for. “So, I feel partly to blame for the fire, though Esmara assures me it would have happened anyway. But I’ll never again perform another wishcraft ritual without being perfectly sober, and without thinking through what I want to wish for.”

  “You have been sitting here all morning with a djinn hanging out at your house and you didn’t think to tell us?” Tad jumped up, staring at me. “You’ve hit gold, January!”

  “I’m not giving him to you so you can get three wishes. I’m setting him free,” I said, staring at Tad, unable to believe what I was hearing.

  “No, you dork. I don’t want to use him for wishes.”

  “Then what?”

  “January, people all over the world have wondered about djinns. We know they exist but they’re so elusive and rare that nobody’s ever been able to interview one. If you interview him, that will put you on the front page of just about every Otherkin and paranormal investigations magazine out there. Do you think he’ll talk to you?” Tad looked so excited that it was hard to say no.

  I glanced over at Hank. “What do you think?”

  “I think you’d better stop playing with fire,” he said, but he grinned to tell me he was joking. “Seriously, Tad makes a point. You write an article on him, get a few photos, and get someone to authenticate that he’s a real djinn and you’re going to be famous.”

  “I don’t want to be famous,” I said, though I paused. I had always wanted to write an award-winning article or story. This wasn’t quite the same, but it would scratch the same itch. “You really think this is a good idea?”

  “I think it’s a fantastic opportunity,” Tad said. “It would also make Conjure Ink stand out among all the other paranormal investigations agencies. Will you do it?”

  “Well…if Rameer agrees, I will. But who can authenticate him as a djinn? Is there somebody in town?” I frowned, not sure exactly who had the authority to do that.

  Tad glanced at Hank. “Who would we contact?”

  “Professor Madison, who was my old history teacher in college. He’s still alive, though who knows how much longer he’s going to be around?” Hank brought up his contact list and shuffled through it. “Here’s his number. Professor Jamil Madison.”

  I put the number into my own contact list. “What should I say when I call him?”

  “That you are from Conjure Ink, that you’re writing a story on a djinn you met, and would he kindly come over to authenticate that Rameer is the real thing.” Tad danced around his desk. “Yes, yes, yes! This is going down in the record books.”

  “Providing Rameer agrees. I don’t want to force him to do anything he doesn’t want to. He’s been under that pressure for thousands of years. I’m not going to add to it.” I stood. “It’s time for lunch. After we eat, I’ll call Clarence van Nostram and get that ball rolling.”

  Feeling like the morning had been a little too eventful, even though we had done nothing but talk, I headed toward the outer waiting room to check on the weather.

  The minute I saw the parking lot, I knew we had to move and move fast, if we wanted to make it home. “Tad, Hank! Come out here.”

  They joined me as I stared out the window. That was the problem with having Wren off work—we didn’t have someone to warn us about the rain coming down so hard it looked like we would get flooded out of the parking lot, or like today, when the snow had suddenly decided to just dump all over us. In the hours between eight and noon, we had gone from a couple inches of snow to what looked close to seven inches, and the white stuff was still coming down.

  I stared at my car. The snow was almost up to the tailpipe. “Oh crap,” I said. “We’d better close up because while I had them put on snow tires last month, I’m thinking that the slow rise up Arnica Avenue to my neighborhood is going to be rough. That’s an eighteen percent grade I have to climb, and unless I get up there, I may not make it home.”

  “You’d better leave now,” Tad said. “I have a straight shot home, but I know you and Hank both have—” He paused as his phone rang. “It’s Louise,” he said. “Hello?… Are you all right?… Yes, I understand. What can we do?… I don’t know if that’s going to be possible—is there any place you can stay until we can get down there?”

  I glanced at Hank. Of all the times to have the ghosts rise up and throw a party, now was not the best moment.

  “All right, hold on. I’ll call you right back.” Tad punched the end-talk button and turned to us. “Well, problems. That was Louise, as you may have gathered. The spirits seem to be up in arms. They’re throwing glasses around the bar, she’s been seeing shadow men in the hallways, and something was rattling her doorknob last night, trying to get into her apartment. She said she thought it was going to break down the door.”

  “Crap. I don’t know what I can do at this point,” I said. “Is there someplace she can stay until we can make it down there?”

  “She said no. Her best friend is out of town and her other friends are buried under snow and can’t get down there. Louise doesn’t drive.” Tad looked as frustrated as I felt.

  I stared out the window, wanting desperately to just forget about it and go home. But having seen the extent of the haunting, I couldn’t just leave her there alone. “Tell her I’ll pick her up as soon as I can. She can stay in my guest room.”

  “Are you sure?” Tad asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll head out now. I should be able to swing downtown and make it home. Call her back and tell her to be at the door, waiting for me.”

  As I headed out the door, I heard Tad talking to Louise on the phone. Oh yeah, this was going to be an adventure.