Chapter 22
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Zahir dropped Ezra off in her rooftop garden. One moment they were on his boat; the next they were amongst Lucia’s orange trees.
"Please reset your wards today," Zahir said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "If they come to visit again, it will hold them off long enough to message me."
Ezra let out an exasperated huff. "I will. Please, don’t worry. Arkon will arrest the other two as you said. They will probably be too busy to worry about me." Zahir looked like he was about to start arguing, so she rose on her tiptoes and kissed him.
"Have a good day," she said.
Zahir let her go. "I’ll see you tonight."
"You will?" Ezra asked with a lift of a brow.
Zahir’s eyes narrowed. "I will." He was gone before she could argue with him. Not that she wanted to. His bed was comfortable and came with mind-altering orgasms.
With a sigh, Ezra went into the house and down to the bathroom. Her hair was a complete riot, but she didn’t have a bruise on her from the previous day. She had things to plan, and while Zahir was around, she couldn’t concentrate in the slightest. She had wondered what it would be like to be the center of his attention, and now she doubted she would be able to date anyone normal again. Ezra made her morning shower a cold one.
Downstairs, she put coffee on before braving to step back into Judah’s study. What remained of her clothes were bloody rags. Ezra sucked in a breath and put her head between her knees.
"You’re okay, Ezra. He healed you. You’re okay," she repeated over and over. "You have wards to fix." She took the crystal recording device from the office and set it up on the front door. She had foolishly forgotten to set it the previous day. If she was going to catch the foreign mage or any other visitors, it needed to be in a better place.
Once it was done, Ezra reset the wards. She wove in new sigils to keep out any other magic users, as well as normal humans. She ignored the sadness that seeped through her when the last of Judah’s magic within them disappeared. She couldn’t risk leaving any of it in place because he had allowed the Cabal members to be woven into them. It hurt to feel that part of him leave, but he was dead, and she was going to do everything she could not to end up the same way.
Ezra cleaned the study and burned sage and incense to clear the bad vibes the previous day had left. She turned on her father’s record player and danced to some wild violin music he had left on it.
"Fuck you Cabal of the fucking Wise!" she shouted, needing to get it out of her system. She couldn’t let her fear choke her out.
When Ezra had calmed a little, she began to draw pages upon pages of sigils. She let her mind go and her magic have free rein. She drew golems of different sizes and genders. She wrote formulas for magical clay and how to fuse magic to gold and silver.
She wrote and drew until her hands ached and her magic calmed. It had felt more erratic than usual after a night with Zahir. There was something about the magic of the djinn that made her power come alive and burn hot.
Ezra was about to go in search of food when there was a hard knock at her front door. One quick look and her stomach plummeted. The blonde mage from the previous day was on the other side of it. She went back to the study and grabbed the pages she had been working on.
Ezra made sure the device by the door was working before she opened it. The mage’s pale eyes looked her over, and he smiled his infuriating smile.
"Miss Eliyahu, I trust you are well?" he said, his accent thick.
"No, thanks to you. I spent the night with a med-mage putting me back together," she replied. He pushed against her wards and narrowed his eyes.
"It was not the usual way I like to go about things, but my masters are impatient for results. My hands, like yours, are tied," he replied.
Ezra held up the wad of papers. "I have figured out what the Cabal wants to know, but I can’t finalize it unless I see the golems myself."
"Why? It is my understanding that you were only creating the scrolls," he said, eyes narrowing.
"That’s where we were all wrong. I need to see them, feel them. The magic in the clay speaks to me of the golem’s soul, for lack of a better word. The shem act as a life force, and to get it to fuse properly with the host, they need to be tailor-made," Ezra tried to explain. She shoved the papers at him through the wards. He took them, running his finger over the back of her wrist. She pulled her hand back to safety. "It’s all there in a theory version if they want to check it. If they want me to attempt an experiment, they will need to show me the others."
The mage looked at the papers, and Ezra could tell he had no idea how to read them. Good. She doubted the rest of the Cabal could either, if they were relying so heavily on her father’s input.
"I will take this to them, and you will get your answer by nightfall." The mage poked at her ward, his magic pressing in and letting it zap him. He laughed. "It will only keep you safe for a day, Miss Eliyahu. Tomorrow, I will tear it down just to prove that you will never be safe from me."
Ezra folded her arms. "By tomorrow, I could be free of these slave bonds, and you will have no cause to come back."
The mage stepped closer, the wards humming in warning. "Perhaps I will return for my own pleasure. I liked the sounds of your screams."
"I was being polite yesterday when I let you in my house. That was my mistake and one I won’t make again. If you decide to return here thinking I’m going to let you get me down like that again, you’ve got another thing coming." Ezra let her wild power shine in her eyes, trying to imitate Zahir’s foreboding gaze. "I will destroy you, you sadistic little prick."
The man laughed and stepped back. "I’ll see you soon, Miss Eliyahu."
Ezra slammed the door in his face. She waited until he was gone before she went back into the study and burst into tears. She shook, her back aching in memory. He couldn’t get through the wards without serious effort, and she would instantly feel him tampering with them. The messaging journal rustled, and she hurried to open it.
Zahir’s words appeared instantly. Is everything okay over there?
Ezra grabbed her pen, the tip hovering over the page. He had said he could feel when she was upset. If she told him about the mage, her plan would go to hell. She took a breath and wrote; I am fine. I just accidentally tripped one of my father’s spells on a book and it frightened me. She held her breath, waiting to see if he would believe her response.
So what are you wearing?
Ezra let out a laugh. None of your business. Go and focus on your meeting.
Ezra shut the book to keep her from flirting back with him. She chewed her lip, thinking over her plan. She would be stupid not to tell anyone about it, especially if the Cabal took her up on the offer to go to their workshop. She couldn’t involve Zahir because he would either try to stop her or he would piss off the Doge by trying to take his anger out on people who weren’t under his jurisdiction.
Ezra’s fingers brushed over the Vianello Publishing stamp on her journal. Her face lit up into a smile. "Stella."