Chapter 13

A young brunettereceptionist with a name tag identifying her as Mandy sat behind a large L-shaped desk right beside the door. A man and a woman in business casual chatted near the door of an open office. No one else waited in the lobby, but I could hear voices down the hall.

"Hi, can I help you?" Mandy asked.

"I'm Audrey Talbot," I said. "We have a two o'clock appointment?"

"Of course!" Mandy grabbed a clipboard and some forms and handed them to me with a smile. "Have a seat in the lobby and fill these out so Mr. Eppright has a better idea of your needs, and he'll call you in a few minutes."

I took the clipboard and went to sit in the small lobby. Sean got two cups of water from the cooler and came to sit next to me as I tapped the pen and looked over the questionnaire.

"Seems pretty standard," Sean said, glancing at the paperwork.

I started filling out our fake contact information, then moved on to the more detailed questions. As I was reaching the end of the questionnaire, a man's deep voice said, "Sean? Audrey?"

We looked up. Peter Eppright wore a button-up shirt, slacks, and designer shoes. He glanced at me, then focused his attention on Sean, beaming and holding out his hand. At another time, being dismissed might have annoyed me, but in this scenario, having Eppright's attention on Sean would work in my favor. While he was busy schmoozing with my fake fiancé, I would be taking the measure of his magic.

He shook Sean's hand first, then turned to me, almost as an afterthought.

I lowered my shields, smiled brightly, and reached out. His handshake was strong. A frisson of familiar magic trickled over my hand: air and fire, but only a trace. I drew on it gently. Eppright's smile faltered, as if he'd sensed something, but when I withdrew and raised my shields, it was back up to full strength. The entire exchange took about three seconds.

"Please follow me," Eppright said, gesturing at the hallway. Sean and I fell in step behind him as he led us past cubicles and offices to the end of the hall and a large corner office. "Have a seat." We settled into the guest chairs while he sat behind his desk.

I wanted to parse what I'd sensed about Peter Eppright's magic, but first I had a part to play. "Thanks so much for seeing us today," I said to Natalie's uncle, handing over our clipboard. "We didn't get quite all the way through."

"No problem, no problem," Eppright said, waving it away as unimportant. "It's just to give me an idea of what we might able to do for you." He looked over the questionnaire, and I took the opportunity to think about what I'd felt.

There was no doubt he was Betty's son. His magic felt very similar to hers, but was it the same magical signature from the library wards and the spell on the secret compartment? Perhaps, but he had so little magical energy, it was practically nonexistent. The signature in the wards felt strong. Still, I wasn't ready to dismiss Eppright as a suspect quite yet.

Eppright finished reading through the questionnaire. He must have liked what he saw, because he leaned forward in his chair. "I can see you are building a wonderful life together," he said, looking at my ring and then back at Sean. "And you need to protect everything you've both worked so hard for. I'm sure I can set you up with the best policies so you can sleep well at night knowing you're safe."

"We're just getting moved in," Sean lied with a smile so charming that even Eppright seemed to fall under its spell. "We don't have a whole lot of time here today because we have to be at another appointment by three o'clock, but we wanted to meet you and see if this was the right agency to handle our insurance needs."

Eppright's eyes widened. We'd dangled a tantalizing prize in front of him to get us in the door, and he had no intention of letting us walk out without signing on the dotted line.

Sure enough, Eppright quickly reached into his desk and started pulling out forms. "Well, we can certainly start by discussing home coverage and make a follow-up appointment for a complete review."

Sean leaned back comfortably and propped one ankle on his knee, fingers laced over his flat stomach. Eppright sucked in his gut and I hid my smile behind my water cup.

"I'm sure you understand this is not the kind of decision a man in my position is going to make in a half hour," Sean said to Eppright, still with that easygoing smile. "Our assets are extensive. We met with Rick Marshall yesterday."

I didn't know who that was, but Eppright's face went grim at the name.

"I have to be honest with you, though; I wasn't all that impressed with him," Sean added. The insurance agent relaxed. "My friends in town speak highly of you, Peter, and I'd like to think I'm a good judge of character."

"What business are you in, Sean?" Eppright asked.

"Risk management," Sean replied without missing a beat. "So, as you might imagine, I'm a cautious man. After all, there's nothing more important than protecting what's mine." He gave my hand an affectionate pat. He noticed my eyes narrow minutely, and the corners of his mouth twitched. "Tell me about your services," Sean urged.

Eppright launched into a lengthy recitation of the various types of products offered by his company. My eyes glazed over almost immediately, but Sean looked engrossed, asking questions and making notes on his fancy phone. While Eppright was intently focused on selling Sean on his company, I eased my shields open and focused on Natalie's uncle.

His air and fire magic were nearly identical to the magical signature in the library wards at Natalie's house, but something about it felt off. It wasn't exactly the same, I decided. It was a subtle difference, like having more versus less cinnamon in a recipe. Whoever the unknown mage was, it was someone closely related to Eppright, but it wasn't him.

I raised my shields. I didn't realize I sighed in relief until I noticed Eppright and Sean were looking at me. Sean's eyebrows were raised.

"Sorry," I murmured, rubbing my forehead. "I've suddenly got the worst headache."

"Oh, babe," Sean said, and the way he said it made me feel warm all the way down to my toes. "I'm sorry," he said to Eppright. "She's not feeling well. Can we continue this conversation another day? I need to take care of my fiancée."

Eppright looked disappointed but forced a smile. "Of course. I hope you feel better soon."

"Thank you," I said.

We got up to leave, but Eppright turned to his computer, clicking quickly. "I have a few appointments open tomorrow and Monday," he told Sean. "What time would be convenient for you to come back?"

Sean glanced at me. I tried to telegraph to him with my eyes that Eppright was not our guy. He gave me a nearly imperceptible nod. "We are booked solid until next week," he told Eppright. "But we have next Thursday afternoon open."

Eppright clicked keys. "Thursday at one, then?"

"Absolutely." Sean pretended to note the appointment in his phone.

"I hope I can count on you not to make any final decisions until we get a chance to really talk," Eppright said with an amiable smile and reached out for a handshake.

Sean shook his hand and I followed suit. The mage who'd been in Natalie's house had been strong. With my shields up, I felt no magic from Eppright at all. We could cross him off our list of suspects.

Eppright led us back down the hall to the lobby. I feigned my headache until we were out the front door.

Once we were inside the car, Sean said, "No joy?"

I explained what I'd felt from Eppright. "So it's going to be someone close to him, but it's not him," Sean said.

"Pretty much." I turned the key in the ignition.

"Well, we couldn't expect it to be the first person on the list," Sean said with far too much cheer. "That would have been too easy. At least I only had to sit through about ten minutes of sales pitch before you got us out of there."

I winced. "Sorry about that."

He grinned. "It's okay. I'll let you make it up to me at some point." His eyes glinted and my cheeks got hot. "It drives me crazy when you blush," he said and leaned over to kiss me. I lost track of time for a bit.

When we came up for air, I was out of breath. "You're pretty good at this undercover stuff," I told him. "Who was that guy you baited him with?"

"Huh? Oh, Rick Marshall." Sean shrugged. "He owns one of the big insurance agencies in town. We talked to them about insurance back when Ron and I started our company. So who do we want next?"

I pulled out Natalie's list. "How about Kathy the real estate agent? Fancy a look at a nice three-bedroom, two-bath in a good school district?" I typed Kathy's name into Google.

"Met you two days ago, and now we're engaged and house-hunting. My mama warned me about women like you," Sean teased.

I snorted. "Please. Your mama didn't know there were women like me out there, or she'd have never let you out of the…." My voice drifted off and I stared at my phone.

"What?" Sean asked.

I held up my phone so he could see it, and he whistled. "We're gonna need a change of clothes," he said. "And we need to switch cars."

The type of homes Kathy Adams sold were not the kind I would ever be in the market for. All of the houses listed on her website were valued at two million dollars and up.

Sean and I looked over the listings and chose a lovely mansion in a gated community—three stories, six bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, listed for almost three million dollars. Lower-end, by Kathy's standards, but it looked like it had been listed for a while, and that probably meant she'd jump at the chance to get it sold.

I called Kathy's office and got put through to her assistant. I introduced myself as Audrey Keller and told her my fiancé and I were very interested in the house but we'd need to see it soon, preferably today. The assistant perked right up, and in a moment I was speaking to Kathy herself.

"I am so glad to hear you're interested in the Cherry Tree Lane property," Kathy told me. "My afternoon is pretty packed—"

"I know this is late notice, but my fiancé and I are taking the jet back to LA tonight—"

"—but I've just had a cancellation at four thirty," she said quickly. "Will that work for you?"

I checked the time. It would be tight, but we could make it. "Yes. Shall we meet you at the house?"

"Absolutely! I will see you then!"

Kathy hung up. I threw the car into reverse. "Are we closer to your house or mine?"

"Yours," Sean said. "Let's roll."

I broke every speed limit on the way to my house. When we arrived, I whipped into my driveway, parked, and dashed to the front door. I got the wards down and the door open in record time, then sprinted up the stairs. I went to my closet, grabbed my Armani suit and my Louboutin heels and handbag, and went to the bathroom. I stripped, refreshed my makeup, put on red lipstick, dabbed on some perfume, and changed my hairstyle from a french braid to a french twist. I swapped out my jewelry for real diamond earrings, then put on the suit and stepped into the heels.

I glanced in the mirror. The suit was dark blue pinstripe, and I wore it with a scoop-neck off-white silk top. Not bad for a ten-minute change. I blotted my lipstick and headed out.

Sean was waiting by the front door. When I appeared on the stairs, he looked positively gobsmacked. I grinned and headed down the steps, one hand on the railing for balance in the four-inch heels.

When I got to the bottom, I struck a pose. "Do I clean up good?"

"You look beautiful." I liked the way he looked at me when he said it.

I headed for the door, keys in hand. "Should we pick up your car next, or head to your place?"

"Let's get the car. It's on the way to my house. You want to ride with me to my place, or drive separately?"

"I'll ride with you." I locked up, raised the wards, and we were off to Natalie's.

At Natalie's house, we moved our stuff to Sean's car and took off. As he drove, I transferred my wallet and a few key items from the messenger bag to the handbag. It appeared Sean lived near Hawthorne's in The Heights.

By the time Sean parked in his driveway, my handbag was full and the messenger bag was on the floor in the backseat. As we got out, I studied the house.

It was two stories and all brick, with a three-car garage and a fenced backyard. There was a large black truck in the garage, and the third spot held a pair of jet skis on a trailer. I pictured him bare-chested riding a jet ski and nearly tripped over my own feet.

Inside, the house had a definite bachelor-pad feel. I smiled at the framed vintage concert posters on the walls.

"Do you want something to drink?" Sean asked.

"No, I'm good."

"I'll go change, then. Feel free to look around." Sean disappeared, leaving me in the kitchen.

I looked over his posters and music memorabilia while I waited. When I moved to the living room, I found a gigantic television and a state-of-the-art home theater system. I surprised myself by imagining us sitting on the couch watching a movie or playing video games.

The family pictures in the living room featured an older couple who were probably Sean's parents, and several other families I took to be Sean's siblings and their kids. On the mantelpiece I found a family photo. It looked like it had been taken in a park on a sunny day. Sean was standing with his parents while his siblings and their families flanked them. Everyone was smiling.

I wondered what it would be like to come from a big, happy family. I'd never had any brothers or sisters; my mother had told me once, not long before she died, that she'd always wanted at least three children but feared losing them to her father as she had lost me. I looked at the picture of Sean's family and felt a little stab of jealousy.

I heard footsteps behind me, turned, and stared.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sight of Sean in a silver-blue suit. I didn't know much about men's suits, but it looked expensive and perfectly tailored. My brain literally went blank.

Sean stood in the middle of the living room, one hand in his pocket, and grinned at me. Damn that man for knowing exactly how good he looked.

Finally, I cleared my throat and got my legs moving to walk over to him. "Well, you look okay." I brushed some imaginary lint off his lapel.

Sean caught my hand and raised my fingers to his lips. "You've got to stop looking at me like that." He pulled me toward the door to the garage. "Let's go, before I say to hell with this real estate agent and ruin our fancy clothes."

We got back in the Mercedes. Sean put the Cherry Tree Lane address into the car's GPS and we took off. I noticed him glancing at my legs as he drove and smiled to myself.

As we headed toward the east side, Sean seemed to be thinking hard about something. Finally, he asked, "How long have you been in the city?"

"About five years."

"Have you been a private investigator since you got here?"

"I worked for another MPI for a year and a half before I got my license. I've been self-employed ever since."

"What kind of work do you usually do?"

"A little of everything: magic tracing, spellwork and wards, summonings and banishments, tracking of magical objects. I also do mundane work like missing persons, skip traces, insurance fraud, background checks, and cheating spouse/divorce stuff. That's my least favorite type of case, but sometimes it's just about paying the bills."

"You work with anybody?"

"Just Malcolm. Other than that, nobody." I shrugged. "I like working for myself. It keeps things simple."

"I can see that." A long pause. Then: "I'm trying to figure out what I can ask about, and what I can't."

"Anything about the last couple of years here in the city, you can ask, and I'll probably answer. Nothing from before."

"Okay." Sean navigated through some heavy traffic before we got on the highway to head east out of the city. "This one might be off-limits, but can I assume the reason you can't go to a hospital is connected to whatever happened before you arrived in the city?"

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I'd asked questions of Sean on the way to Natalie's house and he'd answered them, but I couldn't reciprocate. He could never know anything about my life before I'd arrived in the city, and there were some things I would not—could not—discuss. It wasn't fair, but that was how it had to be. My life depended on it.

I decided on part of the truth. "There are some anomalies in my magic that I need to keep secret. I can't leave my blood anywhere, and I can't go to a hospital. I need to stay clear of SPEMA and anyone from a cabal, and there's not much more I can say about it." I paused, then added softly, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Sean squeezed my knee and his touch relaxed me. "I understand. I won't push you. If I ask something you don't want to answer, just tell me."

"Thank you."

We made the rest of the drive in silence. We turned onto Cherry Tree Lane at four twenty-five and found the house with no trouble. Sean parked in the driveway behind a white Land Rover. "Are you ready for this?" he asked.

"Definitely." We got out of the car and headed up the walk to the front door.

The door opened before we even got to the porch. "Welcome!" Kathy Adams called out to us. Her practiced eye looked us over, saw the shiny new Mercedes, and decided we looked the part. Her smile was even more radiant than Eppright's had been, and that was saying something. She ushered us inside and closed the door.

I could see the family resemblance to Natalie, though Kathy's perfectly coiffed auburn hair framed a narrow, almost hawk-like face, and her green eyes glinted with cool calculation. A hint of crow's-feet put her in her midforties. Her eager smile grew wider as she reached out to shake Sean's hand.

I dropped my shields and focused my senses as she turned that big, fake smile to me, hand outstretched. The instant our hands touched, I felt a tiny flare of very low-level air magic and no fire magic at all.

A sudden wave of dizziness made me stagger and almost fall. With my magic and energy still depleted, focusing my senses so intently was taking its toll.

Sean caught me by the arm. "Audrey! Are you all right?" It took me a moment to realize he was calling me by my alias.

I got my shields in place. Everything was a little out of focus and my head pounded, but I gave Kathy my best smile and stepped away from Sean. "I tripped. Such a klutz."

Kathy frowned and looked down at the spanish tile in the foyer, obviously trying to figure out what I could have possibly tripped on.

"New shoes," I told her, sticking my right foot out to show off my Louboutins, which she dutifully admired. "We're Sean and Audrey. What a cute little house!" I said, moving past her and looking around.

Kathy blinked at my "cute little house" comment but was immediately back on her game. "It may be small," she said agreeably, "but the space is amazingly well-designed. It's an open plan, so it feels like it's twice as big." And she was off, leading us farther into the house, going on about natural light and vaulted ceilings and other realtor-type talk.

Sean hung back. "You okay?"

"I'm good," I told him. "Just feeling a little run-down." He squeezed my hand and we hurried to catch up with Kathy.

As the realtor walked us around the house, I let Sean take the lead as he'd done with Eppright, engaging her in conversation and asking questions while I focused on sensing her magic.

Like Eppright, Kathy was not an exact match to the magical signature in the library wards. Hers was similar, but not as close of a match as her half brother's. We were in the right ballpark but still not the right person.

Once I realized Kathy wasn't our suspect, it was time to bring an end to our tour. My knees were getting wobbly.

As we walked into the master suite, which was as big as the entire top floor of my house and overlooked the pool and guest house, Kathy beamed. "Well? What do you think?" she asked us, gesturing at the enormous bedroom.

"It's lovely." I gave her a sad smile.

Kathy's smile faded. "What's wrong?" she asked anxiously.

"It's just too small for us," I said, shaking my head and wishing I could sit down. "I really thought, with the open floor plan, it would feel bigger, but…."

Sean put his arm around my waist to hold me up. At first, I resisted; it felt possessive, and I didn't want him to think I was relying on him, but I was cold and light-headed. I reluctantly leaned against him and he squeezed me gently.

"We did see some other larger homes on your website. I actually liked the one on Pinehurst quite a bit better than this one," Sean told her.

Kathy perked up again and led us back to the front door. "Oh, yes! That house is lovely." And listed for a million more than this one was. "Would you like to see it? I can arrange a walk-through for tomorrow."

"We'll be in Los Angeles for a couple of days." Sean pulled me tighter against his side as I swayed. "If you're available when we get back, we would definitely like to see it."

Sean took Kathy's card. She encouraged us to call her when we returned to the city. We promised we would, shook her hand again, and made our escape.

Sean helped me into the passenger side of his car. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.

Sean got in, and I felt him throw his suit jacket into the backseat. "Are you all right?"

It was a moment before I could respond. "Yes." My voice sounded wispy.

Sean sighed. "Why do I bother to ask?" He touched my hand. "You're cold again."

I took a deep breath. "I'm just tired." He put the car in gear, pulled through the circular driveway, and accelerated away down Cherry Tree Lane. "It took a lot of energy to check the library this morning, and I've been running on fumes ever since. I just need to rest for a bit."

"It seems like you were asking too much of yourself to do all this today." Sean cleared his throat. "Not that I would have told you that, of course."

I snorted.

Sean drove in silence. Once we were on the highway, he asked, "Where are we headed?"

I thought about that, then sighed. "We need to check in with Malcolm and Natalie. I wish I felt up to tracking down Deborah and/or Elise today, but I don't."

"So swing by Natalie's house and pick up the ghost, then what?"

"After that, I need to go home. I'm just too worn out to think about doing anything else today." The rhythm of the tires on the road made me sleepy, and I let myself drift.

"What about tomorrow?" Sean asked suddenly.

"What about it?" I murmured, half dozing.

"I could take another personal day."

I opened my eyes and looked at him as he drove. It was rush hour, but we were driving back toward the city and the traffic wouldn't be bad until we got into town. The outbound lanes were bumper-to-bumper with folks headed home at the end of the day. "I appreciate it, but I'll be fine, and I'm sure you need to get back to work. I did enjoy having you along today. It's been fun, and that's not something I get to say very often during an investigation."

Despite my earlier misgivings, I had liked working with Sean. We'd fallen into an easy, comfortable partnership. He was a natural at undercover work, and I had no doubt having him with me today had made it easier to get access to both Peter Eppright and Kathy Adams. The thought of tracking down Elise and Deborah on my own tomorrow suddenly seemed unappealing.

Sean was talking. I turned my attention back to him. "I've got a lot of PT built up. Hell, now that I think about it, I haven't taken a vacation in over a year. Today was the most fun I've had in a long time. I'd much rather do undercover work with you than coordinate bodyguards for a client, or supervise the installation of a camera system at a law office, which is what I had on the schedule for tomorrow. Someone else can do that shit. I want to put on a disguise and help you find a secret mage and a MacGuffin."

I had to laugh, despite the turmoil in my head. "I'm still not clear on what a MacGuffin is exactly, but it seemed to make Malcolm's day to let him call it that, so I guess we're sticking with it. Seems like the least I can do after…after yesterday." And just like that, the mood went from light to serious.

Sean squeezed my knee. "Why don't we pick up Malcolm and go from there? We don't have to decide anything right this minute."

I sighed, leaned my head back, and closed my eyes again. "Okay."

For five years, I'd feared if I let myself depend on someone else in any way, I would lose the edge that kept me alive long enough to escape the cabal. After spending the past few days with Malcolm and Sean, however, I was starting to think that maybe having colleagues—or whatever Sean and I might be to each other—could be a strength rather than a weakness.

Or maybe I was just tired of being so afraid all the time. The problem was, after a lifetime of fearing everything and everyone around me, I wasn't sure I knew any other way to be.