9. Sam

Chapter nine

Sam

Drew twists entirely in his seat to watch as Adam paces a few feet away. I can't hear what Lucien's saying on the phone, but Adam's face has dropped, and he's darting looks between me and the floor as he listens.

"Who's Nora?" Drew asks and my stomach lurches.

"I—She—"

How am I supposed to explain this? Kieran should have told him. He should be here, but—

"What's happened?" I ask.

Drew pulls a face, and the words seem reluctantly pulled from him. "Lucien says she's dead," he whispers.

Adam looks at us both again. He heard that. I reach out and squeeze Drew's forearm. "Shit. Okay. She's not—She wasn't a friend of ours, so it's…"

Adam hangs up, shoving his phone back in his pocket. He runs his hands through his hair, leaving his red curls sticking up in ways I'd find endearing if my mind weren't already spinning.

"Lucien's going to call Kieran now," he says. "He wanted to be sure I wasn't out on my own."

It makes sense. Kieran can look after himself, which is not to say Adam can't , but I think Lucien worries for him more.

"What's going on?" Drew asks. He deflates almost immediately as if he thinks we won't tell him.

"I'll tell you," I say. I will . "But we'll have to wait until Kieran gets here."

Adam comes closer. His hands close around the back of the chair he was sitting on. He looks like he wants to run.

"How did it happen?" I ask. If the vampire is here, then Kieran has to tell Drew what's going on, and if he refuses, I'll do it anyway. Sure, it seems like his focus is on Kieran and Vasile, but if we're right, Drew was there the night Kieran was attacked. There's no telling if the vampire will turn on him, too.

"A magic user killed her."

I rear back in surprise. Sure, I bound her magic, but why would a mage come after her?

The only one who's really had anything against the Lyttons is me.

"I… How? They're certain it wasn't a vampire?"

Adam looks at Drew, then at me, and shakes his head. "Some of the hunters can sense magic. There wasn't a mark on her. No vampire can kill like that."

No, they can't.

Unless…

I study Adam. I don't know how much he remembers from the night he drank my blood, and he's never asked about it. I'm lucky he's young, and that mages have always known to keep their distance from vampires.

I try not to make the distinction between witches and mages anymore—there are basically none of us left, and it was always more prejudice than anything else—but there is a difference.

Our magic is fae-blessed. Some fae gave some witch ancestor a gift, and now we have the ability to pull magic from the earth, from the air, in much the same way they do.

Witches can't do that. The magic they have inside of them—and we have that too—doesn't grow much, and sometimes it's so internalised that they're hunters instead of witches, and they feel human, but they're stronger, have better instincts, though I don't know how many people know the truth of that.

Magic calls for me. It sinks into my skin, enhancing what my witch ancestors gave me, and though that excess never belongs to me, I can shape it, use it. And when Adam drank from me, it carried in my blood, into him, meeting the death magic that keeps him moving and fired every cell alight. If I gave him enough, he'd have powers of his own, if only for a little while.

If he drank from a witch, he'd taste their magic but never be able to use it.

If this old vampire drank from a mage, maybe he could've killed Nora, but there can't be many more of us. I rub my forehead. It's been too long, and aside from the two fateful interactions I had with the Lytton patriarch, I don't know their family. I don't think he had other children, and I'm sure all the adults died, but still—

"Are you okay?" Drew asks. His expression is entirely open and concerned, and I wonder what he smelt on me that made him ask.

I squeeze his arm again before I withdraw the touch. "I'm fine," I say. "What are they planning?"

Adam sighs. "I don't know. Lucien told me to stay put until Kieran got here. I don't know if he's coming, too."

I nod. I'm no longer hungry, and Drew picks at his own food as we sit in a charged silence. I want to tell him to eat more, that he needs to keep up his strength, but I'm more worried about what's happened, about what this all means .

Is there someone out there coming for the mages? Did everything that happened expose that there are more of us left?

Or is this Nora's punishment for being caught?

Tristan killed vampires, killed humans. This could have nothing to do with her magic at all.

It feels like an age before Kieran arrives. The shudder of him passes through the wards first, then I hear the charge of his footsteps up the stairs. Drew goes to stand, but Adam reaches for him this time, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

"It's fine, little wolf," he murmurs, and Drew's cheeks heat just before Kieran bursts through the door.

His expression is frantic, calming only when he sees the three of us sitting there watching him. He lets out a heavy breath, shuts the door, and leans back against it.

"Sorry," he mutters. "You're all…"

"We're fine," I say, and he nods. He's breathing hard. "You?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Pretty sure there was nothing out there watching me or whatever." He kicks off his shoes and joins us at the counter. Adam moves his hand from Drew's shoulder, taking a minute step back.

"Is Lucien coming here?" he asks, and Kieran nods.

"On the way now," he says. "He wants you to go to the Council with him."

Shock flits across Adam's face. "Me?"

"The mages at the Council confirmed a mage was in the room with her, but none of them recognise the magical signature. He's hoping you can give it a try; I don't think they're powerful enough to track it very far."

Adam's already nodding, but I frown. "I should go."

"What?" Kieran shakes his head. "No. You—"

"I should go," I say again. "I can pick up the signature and teach them how to look for it, too. I'd bet most of them have never learnt how."

"I don't—" Drew begins and flushes when we all look at him. "I don't understand. What's going on?"

Kieran lets out a heavy sigh, and something in Drew's expression hardens.

"You're worried. Why are you worried?"

"It's a long story."

Drew scowls. "Kieran."

"A week or so ago, a vampire and a mage attacked Sam and me. The vampire's dead, but the mage, Nora—we handed her over to the Council."

Drew looks between the two of us, expression horrified. "Attacked? Why would they—"

"It was a whole… thing. I killed the vampire's boyfriend, I guess, when we found him feeding on a woman, and he was working with someone else and it's just—It's complicated."

"And it's not over," Drew says quietly.

"No. Apparently not."

Drew shakes his head. "No, you—" He breathes in more deeply, and it's Kieran's turn to scowl. "You already knew it wasn't over. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you! You've clearly been through it, and I didn't want to add something else on top of that."

"That's not up to you," Drew replies. His tone is a little more even, but his jaw is set. Adam looks like he wants to leave the room, but he can't stop watching them, and I feel the same. "The vampire… How did he die?"

"Drew…"

"How did he die, Kieran?"

They stare each other down for a few seconds, and though Drew looks away first, none of the anger leaves his face.

"He bit me," Kieran says after a moment.

"You—" Drew throws his hands up into the air.

"Look, I'm fine ," Kieran says. He grabs Drew's hand and squeezes tight. "I promise, okay? I didn't plan it. But he's gone, and now she's gone, and it's just—We'll find out what's going on, but it's not like they've come after us. Hopefully, it's just someone tying up loose ends."

Kieran looks at me for a second and I stare flatly back. We both know that's not true. So does Adam, and I suspect Drew isn't falling for it, either.

"I'm gonna change," I say, and my voice startles Drew, who turns to look at me. I give him a tight smile, hoping Adam will take my place as I head to my room.

I shut the door and lean back against it with a sigh. The last thing I want to do is walk into the Council building, especially since the last mage in there was just murdered, but I should do this. I have to do this. If this is about Nora, that's one thing, but what if her presence has started something that could lead back to us? It's so likely that whoever's pulling the strings orchestrated the whole thing, but I can't be one hundred percent certain.

I open my wardrobe and rifle through my clothes. My magic—so carefully honed, so artfully trained—is a weapon. Clothes, appearance, that's the armour. I am, truthfully, scared to go, but I can't let any of the hunters know that.

Stripping out of my shorts and Kieran's hoodie, I drag on a pair of high-waist fake leather trousers, pairing them with a sheer black shirt covered in embroidered roses. A red velvet jacket completes the look, and I know I've got black boots by the door that will give me a couple of inches of height—and half a foot more confidence.

I line my eyes, check the mascara I put on earlier hasn't smudged, and tame my hair a little. Once done, I give myself a slow once-over in the mirror.

I look powerful. Untouchable. I square my shoulders and tilt my head. My expression is unreadable, which is what I need it to be.

Wolves can smell your fear. Vampires can hear your heartbeat. Hunters? They read people like books, but mages like me were trained to trick the fae, and I'm sure I can still do it now.

I step back out into the living room to see Lucien has arrived. Adam's speaking to him, but Drew's gaze snaps straight to me and… remains.

I'm not imagining the heat in his eyes, am I? He looks me over slowly, mouth half-open, and fuck if that's not how I want him looking at me all the time.

Adam's expression, when he finally looks at me, isn't much different. His is accompanied by the slightest curve of his lips, not quite a smirk but not far off.

"Ready to go?" Kieran says. He's changed too, though his jeans and T-shirt are far more casual than my outfit.

His armour is different, but it works all the same.

"You're coming?" I ask.

He frowns. "'Course I am."

I look at Drew, then back at him. "Kieran…"

"The wards are strong, aren't they?"

"Yeah, they are, I'm sure, just…" I don't know how to explain it. What if we all leave Drew here and someone somehow snatches him up while we're away? I'm certain my wards are powerful. I've made sure, since we found out Nora was able to teleport, that no one can teleport inside them.

Still…

"I can take care of them both, my love," Lucien says quietly, looking between them. "I do not imagine it will take Sam a long time to identify the signature?"

"No, shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes."

"I-I'm sure I'll be fine here," Drew says hesitantly. He has to be picking up on all our concern, and I need to convince Kieran to sit down and explain everything to him at some point.

Kieran looks at him, then at Lucien before he meets my eyes again. "I'll stay," he says. "But be careful . If anything seems weird, get out of there; I don't give a shit if they need your help or not. Got it?"

I smirk. "Got it." No wolf, my arse. He's bossy like one.

"We will all be fine," Lucien says. He doesn't protest when Kieran pulls him into his arms, pressing his face for a moment into the side of Lucien's throat. I suppose it's been a scare for Kieran, too, being newly mated and then having said mate be in the building while a mage was murdered.

I glance at Drew and the expression on his face as he watches Kieran and Lucien stuns me. The longing there makes my heart hurt.

That's what he wants? A mate?

I suppose most wolves do.

And it makes me feel even worse about my attraction to him, about the way I'm revelling in the fact he's attracted to me. To Adam.

If one of us were his mate, he'd know, wouldn't he?

I shake the thought off as Lucien pulls away from Kieran, brushing his lips over Kieran's temple. He looks at me and Adam.

"We should go."

By the time we pull up outside the Council building, it's taking everything in me to sit still. Elle waits by the kerb for us, and she eyes me for a moment when I get out before she turns her attention to Adam and Lucien.

"Have they found anything else?" Lucien asks.

"No. The area's all cordoned off now. All the magic users they could get have already been by."

It would take a witch too long to really drill into the signature, if they even had the power to do that in the first place. I know Pris can, but I'll be quicker.

"Njáll, Lazarus, and Briar are still down there," Elle says. "With Vasile. Moreau's waiting for you."

"And the other Council members?" I ask. I can't help it.

Elle nods. "They're there, too."

Fuck. Sure, I'm fairly certain Moreau has some idea who I am—he has to know I'm a mage after I bound Nora's magic—but that's different to revealing what I can do in front of the entire Council.

"You can go back to the flat if you would prefer," Lucien says softly. "We do not have to tell them you came here."

I look at him for a moment. I trust him, and for more than just his bond with Kieran. I know he'll look out for me.

I know I'll look out for him.

I shake my head and square my shoulders. If they're going to work out who I am, then I'm not here to give them any weaknesses. Let them wonder how I survived. Let them speculate about what I did to make it here.

"No," I say firmly. "I can do this."

Adam opens his mouth as if he wants to protest, but Lucien nods. "All right. If you wish to leave, tell me, and we will go. Whatever you sense in there…"

He wants to say it doesn't matter, but we all know it does. Especially if it somehow hints that trouble is coming for us again.

Adam and I follow Lucien and Elle into the building, and I let out one last shaky breath as I step over the threshold. There's magic in here, even though it's not an inherent part of being a hunter. It's soaked into the very foundations of the place, and it stirs with every step we take down the marble-floored halls.

"This way," Elle murmurs, leading us off to the right. I feel the pulse of them all before I see them.

One of the Council members is a witch, and Moreau is fae-blessed like Paxton is, like my family were, but otherwise, the hunters are silent to me. The vampires echo with death magic, nothing they can control.

The Council member who's a magic user sneers when she looks at me. I move my gaze lazily from her and around the rest of the room.

I recognise Crai Vasile but not two of the three vampires with him. Njáll crosses huge arms over his chest, and the lithe woman next to him, I assume Briar, frowns. The other man—he has to be Lazarus—eyes all of us with no little curiosity.

"It is good of you both to come," Vasile says, looking between me and Adam. "You will be able to find out who did this?"

Adam shifts from foot to foot, clearly nervous, but at least Njáll's and Briar's expressions seem to soften when they look at him. Lazarus doesn't really react at all, and all the Council members look just as stuck-up as I expect them to.

"I should be able to pick up something," he says.

"We will," I add. Even if Adam picks up nothing, I know I will because if the mage who did this covered their signature, that will still tell me something . "The room's down there?"

There are two hunters standing at the end of the corridor, staring straight ahead. I can't sense anything from here. Have they sealed it off?

"Yes," one of the Council members says—the woman who has magic. She scowls at me. Brave of her. "Who are you? Vasile, you cannot just—"

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth now, Helene," Moreau says, his expression surprisingly jovial for the occasion. "I'm certain Mr Ware will do just as he said he will."

I nod stiffly. What has he told them about Nora's magic? I bound it. Only a mage—only someone from my family —can do that.

"This way," Moreau says with a sweep of his hand, and I make sure not to look at any of the others as I follow.

Adam falls into step behind me, and we follow Moreau down the corridor and to a heavy wooden door at the end. I frown.

"It's sealed?"

"We didn't want to risk the signature escaping," Moreau says. "At least, not immediately. I didn't know you'd be coming along."

Not like I want to be here. Moreau grins as though he knows what I'm thinking and unlocks the door.

We step into the room and I'm still for a moment, letting the scents and magical signatures wash over me. I can pick out all the hunters who've been in and out, their signatures weak as they've attempted to pull what information they could from the air.

I push them all aside, the corner of my mouth twitching when I hear Adam breathe in deeply. I know he doesn't smell magic like some wolves can, but I suppose it helps centre whatever spark there is inside him.

Two signatures jump out of me all at once and when I grasp them, when I untangle them and realise what happened here, my world goes sideways.

One, more recent, layered over the top of the first, over the top of the spell that I know, without a doubt, killed Nora Lytton, is startlingly similar to hers. A relative, it has to be. Another Lytton, alive. In London.

But they didn't kill her.

I hear Adam let out a gasp, but I don't look at him. I can't. I'm too busy looking inwards, remapping the shape of the spell that killed Nora, and then the signature that leads me back to the person who did it.

I know the signature.

My hands shake.

I turn, finally, and meet Adam's eyes. He looks back in horror, face ashen.

We both know the signature, because this magic—this spell—is mine .