Chapter 5

Hours later,I hugged the toilet in the master bathroom and heaved miserably. My stomach felt like it was full of razors, and I tasted blood. I was aware Malcolm was hovering nearby while Natalie stood outside the bathroom door, but I didn't care much about either of those things.

The moment the last thread of Betty's wards disintegrated, agony and nausea ripped through me, sending me fleeing on rubbery legs toward the nearest bathroom, half-blind with pain. I barely had time to slam the door closed and fall on my knees in front of the toilet before I threw up everything I'd eaten today, and then it felt like I threw up everything I'd eaten in the last week. The spasms that racked my body were so violent, I was surprised my shoes didn't come up too.

"Alice, what should I do?" Malcolm's hands felt ice-cold on my shoulders.

Blinded by pain and sickness, I flailed at him. "Get away!" Another spasm tore at me. This time, I threw up mostly blood. Dimly, I thought, Shit…that cannot be good.

Through the haze, the rational part of my mind figured out that I had triggered a curse hidden within the wards designed to punish anyone who tried to disassemble the library's protections. Curses and spells concealed within other spells, commonly known as landmines, were one of the most dangerous hazards mages faced when interacting with unknown spellwork, since they were virtually undetectable until tripped.

This landmine didn't seem to have affected Malcolm; it was possible it simply did not include noncorporeal beings as targets. I couldn't really think about it very much right now. The pain was endless.

I heard Natalie through the door, asking if she should call for an ambulance.

"No," I rasped. "No," I said again, louder, so she could hear me. I convulsed and vomited blood so violently that it splattered across the toilet and floor. I spat several times and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. "No ambulance. I will…be…okay," I managed to say. I hoped she heard me.

A minute passed, and though I dry-heaved and spat up more blood, the worst of the vomiting seemed to have passed. The pain was lessening by degrees. I flushed the toilet again and lay down on the cold tile of the bathroom, shivering with shock. My vision had gone gray, and vertigo made the bathroom spin around me.

The bathroom door swung open. "Oh my God," Natalie said, horrified. After a moment, I heard soft noises and water running, and then a cool, wet washcloth began cleaning my face.

I had no strength or will to move, so I let her clean me up a little while sensation crept back into my limbs. I didn't realize I'd closed my eyes until water trickled over one eyelid. I opened my eyes and was somewhat surprised I could see again.

Natalie appeared, a bloody washcloth in her hand, her eyes wild with fear. "Can you hear me?"

I took a ragged breath and whispered, "Yes."

"What happened?" Natalie wiped my face gently with a different, cleaner washcloth. "I don't know what to do to help you."

"You…don't have to do…anything," I said, my voice gaining some strength. "I will be okay."

She looked incredulous. "There is blood everywhere." I thought she might be on the verge of losing it completely.

I tried to move but stopped when it felt like broken glass ripped through my stomach. I moaned and curled up in a ball. "Don't call anyone," I whispered. "I just…need to rest." Then I let go and passed out.

The next time I opened my eyes, the pain in my stomach had faded to a dull ache. For a moment, I was disoriented and confused, my mind a jumble of fractured memories and pain. I remembered lying on the cold tile in the bathroom, but what was under me felt warm and soft.

When the fog cleared a bit, I realized I was on the floor in Betty's bedroom, wrapped in a thick cocoon of heavy blankets and quilts. I turned my head and saw Natalie sitting on a pillow next to me, her back against the bed. She was focused on her phone, tapping on the screen and frowning.

I felt a jolt of fear. "Who are you calling?"

She jumped and dropped her phone with a clatter. "Nobody!" she said, sounding defensive, scared, and angry all at once. "I was reading what to do for someone in shock that didn't involve calling 9-1-1." She stared at me pointedly.

I closed my eyes. "Okay." I cleared my throat gently. It was still raw and painful from vomiting. The gross taste in my mouth defied description. "Okay," I repeated, opening my eyes again to look at her. "I just…can't go to a hospital." They'd run tests, call SPEMA—or, if I was really unlucky, my grandfather—and I'd disappear.

Natalie picked up her phone and put it on the bed behind her. I noticed she was even paler than before. My condition must have really frightened her. "I'm glad you're awake," she said. "I didn't know how long you'd be out. You were shivering so badly, I got every blanket in the house and wrapped you up in them." She gestured at my blanket nest.

"Thank you." I felt weak but clearheaded, which was good. I'd half expected to wake up dead. "I'm sorry about the mess in your bathroom. When I can get up and around, I'll clean it up." The way my arms and legs felt, it might be a little while before I was mobile, though.

"Don't worry about it. It's clean."

I sighed. "Oh. I am so—"

"I didn't do it," Natalie interrupted me. "The ghost did."

Welp, I was completely awake now. "Malcolm?"

She nodded.

I looked around the room and saw my ghost hovering near the door to the library—a doorway no longer blocked by wards. He looked like he'd expended a lot of energy. "Did you use magic to clean the bathroom?"

Malcolm shrugged. "I had to. I didn't know when you were going to wake up, and all that blood…." He shook his head.

"Thank you." My blood could never be left behind. It could be used against me and was one of the few things that could connect my current life as Alice Worth to my real identity. Despite my order to not call an ambulance, Natalie might have done just that if my condition hadn't improved, and Malcolm had done his best to protect me.

The windows were dark, and it occurred to me that I had no sense of how much time had passed. "What time is it?"

"About eleven o'clock," Natalie told me. "You've been unconscious for almost three hours."

Whoa. So the unweaving of the wards had taken something like four hours, then I'd been knocked out by what I was now sure were the remains of a landmine, no doubt put in place by Betty and designed to bring an abrupt and agonizing end to the life of anyone brave or foolish enough to try and dismantle her wards. My admiration of Betty's skill rose another couple of notches, along with some other less pleasant emotions arising from the fact I'd been hurt twice in one day since coming into contact with the dead woman's magic.

I started to wonder if all the cutesy cat crap in the house was camouflage. Who was Natalie's grandmother? Why would she put black wards around her library, then double down by hiding a death curse within them? And what the hellwas in that library?

I tested my arms and legs and found that strength was creeping back into them. I started peeling back layers of quilts and realized I was in my bra and underwear. "Where are my clothes?"

"Soaking in cold water," Natalie said. "They were really bloody. I'll get you something to wear."

"How did I get into the bedroom?"

"I rolled you onto a blanket, then slid you across the floor into the bedroom. I wish I could have put you in bed, but I couldn't pick you up."

"Thank you for what you did," I told her sincerely. I realized Natalie was sweating and looking a little unfocused. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know. I don't feel very good." She shivered hard.

"Alice—" Malcolm began, his voice urgent.

Natalie gasped and white magic flared around her hands for a split second before it vanished. She sagged back against the bed, her eyes wide with panic.

"She's a mage!" I shouted at Malcolm as I kicked frantically to get myself loose from the blankets that were tangled around my legs. "Malcolm, knock her out and drain her! Right now!"

Malcolm got to Natalie just as she shrieked and an orange fireball erupted from her hands. I dove to one side to avoid it and heat rolled over me.

Natalie's cry cut off abruptly. When I looked back, she was on the floor, unconscious, and Malcolm's hands were on her shoulders, draining her magic as fast as he could pull it. He began to glow.

I finally freed myself from the blankets and staggered to my feet, dizzy and achy. I was cold but didn't have time to worry about trying to find clothes. "Do we need a circle?"

"I don't think so," Malcolm said tersely. "I'm almost done."

"Did you hit her with a sleep spell?"

"Yes." Malcolm drifted back from Natalie's body. He was so bright from the surge of energy, I had to squint a bit. "She's drained for now, but we need to bind her magic. A blood magic spell would be stronger than my earth or water magic."

"I'm low on magical energy right now, but I think I have enough to bind her." I knelt beside Natalie and used a hidden edge in my ring to open my right index finger, then pulled down the back of her shirt to expose her right shoulder blade. I drew a rune on her back in my blood and used most of my remaining energy to bind her magic. My blood hummed with power, then the mark faded.

I used the bed to push myself to my feet, and Malcolm and I looked down at Natalie as she slept.

"It looks like Granny Betty isn't the only person in the family with a secret," I said.

"Do you think she knows anything about her magic?"

I shook my head. "I don't believe she knows. I'm thinking Betty found a way to hide Natalie's magical ability from everyone, including Natalie."

"Why would Betty not want Natalie to know about her own powers?"

I shrugged. "Could be lots of reasons. Betty hid her abilities well, probably to stay off the Agency's registry. Maybe Betty was worried Natalie would screw up and out the whole family so she cast a suppression spell—more likely a shitload of layered spells—to bury Natalie's abilities so deep that even Natalie doesn't know she has them. Then Betty died without releasing the spell or telling Natalie the truth."

I had a new emotion to add to my complicated feelings toward Betty: disgust. What did she think would happen if Natalie's magic escaped the binding spells?

Malcolm moved over next to me. "Those would have to be some powerful spells. I mean, seriously powerful. And why are some of those powers breaking out now?"

"It might have something to do with the fact Betty's wards are fading and we just finished unweaving the wards on the library. There was a lot of power in those wards." I pressed my hands to my aching stomach. "Maybe some of that power was anchoring the binding spells on Natalie. We disrupted them, and now the cat's out of the bag." I glanced around at all the cat décor. "So to speak."

Betty's magic had been impressive, and she'd been an expert at wielding it, as the library wards and the pain in my chest and stomach could attest. How much power did Natalie have?

"We've stumbled into a mess here." Malcolm gave voice to the thoughts in my head. "What are we going to do?"

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. "We have a couple of choices." I was startled to notice how easily I'd started using the pronoun we. "Worst-case scenario, unweaving the wards started a process and Natalie's powers will manifest in full, like a dam breaking."

"That could be bad."

I snorted. "Yeah. If she's got as much power as Betty did, and it flares, she could level the house, or worse. She'll have no control, no discipline, no training. SPEMA will put her down. The only question is how much destruction she'll cause before they nuke her, and how much collateral damage there will be when they do."

Malcolm looked stricken.

"Best case," I continued, "her powers manifest slowly enough that someone can train her." Who the hell that person might be, I had no idea. I didn't even know anyone who could—or would—take on an adult whose magical abilities had been suppressed her entire life. I'd have to find someone powerful and trustworthy enough to control Natalie's magic until she could. I sighed. I'd have more luck finding a unicorn, and no one had seen one of those on this side of the fae realm in more than a hundred years.

"Well, we know she has both fire and air magic, but how much she has, I don't know. It was a small flare, but for all we know, she's as strong as her grandmother."

I realized Malcolm was very studiously avoiding looking at me in my underwear. I glanced down at myself. "I need clothes. I'm going to find something to wear and get my go-bag out of my car so I can clean up."

"While you're doing that, I'll start working on the library wards. You don't look like you have much magical energy left."

"I don't. The binding spell took about everything I had." As Malcolm moved over to the library door, I went in search of clothes. A few minutes later, wearing one of Natalie's T-shirts and a pair of her yoga pants, I hurried barefoot out to my car, got the black duffel bag out of the backseat, and returned to the house.

I used the toiletries in my go-bag to shower, and then put on jeans and a comfy T-shirt that advertised a great local supe band with a half-demon lead singer named Cam who'd shared my bed for a sizzling-hot six weeks. After I was clean and dressed and had brushed my teeth, I felt almost human again.

When I returned to the bedroom, Malcolm was putting wards on the library. He was focused on his work, so I sat cross-legged on the bed and gently rubbed my sore abdomen as I watched him. His fingers were quick and deft, forming runes and symbols, stringing them together, and then layering the strands. He was using earth magic only, and I couldn't see or sense anything that might lead anyone to believe they were placed by anyone other than a strong earth mage. It was exquisite workmanship.

By the time he finished with the wards, it was almost three a.m. I had gone from sitting up to lying down on the bed. When Malcolm finally turned around, his energy looked somewhat depleted, but he looked like he had enough left for me to pull from. I might not be powerless for much longer if he could be talked into sharing with me.

I'm not usually one for compliments, but I had to give him credit. "The wards are incredible. Some of the best I've ever seen."

Malcolm smiled. "Perimeter wards are one of my specialties."

I sat up slowly to avoid strain on my sore stomach. "Looks like mostly aversion spells, but the defenses are going to hit mages pretty strong."

He glanced back at the wards. "Yeah, I figured we want to keep anyone out who has magical ability, until we know what's in there." He paused. "Do you want me to set it so that Natalie can pass?"

I thought about it, then shook my head. "We better not, until we know how much magic she has. We don't know what Betty left in the library."

Now I had a decision to make, and I found I wanted Malcolm's opinion on it. "Should we put the stronger spells in?"

He looked at me. "Like the ones that almost killed you?"

"Yeah." We were silent for a moment. "There's something in there that Betty was willing to kill to protect. Until we know what it is—or was—I'm wondering if we need to up the threat level on the wards."

Malcolm went quiet and frowned while he gave that some serious thought. "If I funnel enough energy into these wards, and we maintain them, they'll incapacitate up to a half dozen mages trying to get in at once. If you want black wards and landmines, that's not something I can do—not something I will do. I did enough for Darius. I'm done with death."

I rubbed my face. I could do them, if I had enough energy. I didn't even need my blood magic; my air magic was strong enough that I could replicate both the black wards that had burned me and the landmine I'd tripped during the unraveling. I was running on fumes, however. Time to test our partnership. "If you let me siphon energy from you, I can set the wards."

Malcolm and I stared at each other. I had no idea what he was thinking about me or my request. It had been a rough day for both of us. He'd been threatened with exorcism and stuck in an earring. I took two big hits from deadly wards and now I was as low on magic as I could ever remember being.

I let him think.

Finally, Malcolm made a decision. "If you take enough energy from me to do what you need to do, I'll be very weak for a while. You'll have to hide me and protect me until I get my strength back." He looked at my earring with a grimace.

I took a deep breath and slid off the bed. "I will try to figure out a better way to hide you. I can't promise it will be much of an improvement, but maybe there's another option. For now, we've got to get these wards up, and then I'm going to go out."

"Go out?" He glanced at the clock. "By the time you do all that, it will be four o'clock in the morning."

"I know. It's cutting it close, but as long as I get there by five, he'll still be there."

"Who will be where?"

"I've gotta go see a vampire."

"A vampire? What vampire?"

"His name is Charles Vaughan. He's a member of the Vampire Court."

Malcolm flitted back in surprise. "You know a member of the Vampire Court?"

"I've worked for them for a couple of years. Charles is a friend. More importantly, he's a broker."

"A broker? Of what?"

"Treasures and secrets, mostly." I smiled. "Charles likes to say that he buys and sells only things that are priceless. Also, he knows people who know people. If we're going to find a master mage to teach Natalie how to control her magic, I'll need his help."

"Okay," Malcolm said finally. "I guess we better do this, huh?"

I took Malcolm's arm, closed my eyes, and reached out with my senses until I felt the hum of his magic. I began to draw it into myself, slowly at first, then faster as our connection opened wider.

Malcolm's magic tasted sweet and pure, like rain. I felt parched, like I'd been stranded in the desert for days without water, and had to fight not to siphon every drop. When I felt him getting weak, I closed the connection between us and released his arm.

Energy rose and crashed within me like an ocean wave breaking on a beach. I kept my eyes closed and allowed it to settle into me, soaking into my bones. Even when it was at rest in my skin, I felt buoyant, lighter on my feet.

I opened my eyes. Malcolm hovered in front of me, almost invisible. He opened his mouth, tried to speak, then shook his head. I hadn't left him with enough energy to communicate.

I reached out my hand and he took it.

I'm sorry. I took too much,I thought at him.

His eyes widened in surprise at hearing my voice in his head. He focused on me and thought back, It's okay. I should probably…rest.

With my other hand, I reached up and touched my earring. "Contain." The spell flared, and Malcolm vanished. The earring buzzed; the ghost was in residence.

The room felt emptier without Malcolm's presence. I shook my head. Don't be ridiculous, I thought. Stay focused.

Upgrading the library wards didn't take long; I knew the spellwork well enough to do it in my sleep. I upped the aversion spells for nonmagical intruders and then set black wards for magical trespassers.

I frowned at the door to the library. I really wanted to know what was in there, but I wasn't about to go into Betty's library low on magic. The woman had put black wards around it and woven a death curse into them. Who knew what was waiting in there?

For now, I needed to put Natalie in bed and get to Hawthorne's before Charles went to sleep for the day. My client was such a tiny thing, but I was still weak and sore. As a result, it was embarrassingly difficult and painful to hoist her up onto the bed and get her under the covers. I took her shoes off and tucked her in.

I replaced Malcolm's sleep spell with a compulsion that would wear off in about six hours. Natalie murmured and snuggled deeper under the covers. Because of the spells, she'd wake a little confused, and probably with no memory of her magic breaking free. That was good, because I really didn't need her to panic when she woke up.

I found a pad and pen on the nightstand and jotted a quick note: You fell asleep while we were working, so I put you in bed. We're still working on making the library safe, so don't try to go in there yet. I'll give you a call in the afternoon. Alice.

I propped the note up on the nightstand where she'd see it, made sure I had all my belongings, and locked the door on my way out. After I checked to make sure the house wards were up, I headed to my car and took off for Hawthorne's.