Chapter 50

A tsunami. Wonderful. That was all I needed now. ‘For fuck’s sake,’ I groused.

I tried to get Shadow into his carrier but when I reached under the bed he swiped at me, claws extended. ‘Ow! Fine, be like that. But you better go all smoky if a tsunami comes your way,’ I muttered.

I set out food for him, then grabbed Fluffy and his lead and set off – not to the school this time but to the office. I had a feeling that the alarm would be shut off soon; I was certain that the shake was localised and unnatural, like the other two, in which case no tsunami for us. Although it would be my luck if this time it was a ‘boy who cried wolf’ scenario and a tsunami really did crash into Portlock.

Gunnar was already at the office and the tsunami alarm had been shut off. ‘Hey,’ I greeted him. ‘That was a wobbly wake-up call.’

‘I prefer a cup of joe,’ he agreed.

‘Let’s go and see what Vogler has to say for himself,’ I suggested. ‘This isn’t normal. Either he’s been waving that thing around or it’s been stolen and the thief has.’

Gunnar nodded. ‘I had the same thought. Come on.’

We climbed in the SUV and drove off. Liv and Connor were meeting us at Vogler’s residence. If Vogler had kept the theft of the earth gem from us, I was afraid of what Liv would do to him. She’d possibly kill him and raise his corpse to be her eternal slave; she seemed powerful – and vindictive – enough.

When we parked up, she was pacing and scowling at the same time. ‘Bunny, you better get the truth from Vogler fast. There won’t be enough of him left if I get a hold of him,’ she promised grimly.

‘There’s an outside chance none of this is his fault,’ I said mildly. I didn’t believe that, but it felt like someone should point it out.

Gunnar grunted agreement. ‘It’s possible but it’s not likely.’ He knocked on the door.

Vitus Vogler had the decency to go pale when he saw us standing there. He swallowed hard and let us in, his head bowed.

‘Do you want to explain why we’ve had three earthquakes with increasing intensity so close together?’ I asked.

He opened his mouth. I could see he was about to lie but he closed it again and his shoulders rounded.

I felt Liv’s scorching anger as the hot desert wind of her magic blew in with shocking ferocity. The temperature in the room rose rapidly. I put up a hand. ‘Hold on, Liv. He’s going to tell us the truth.’ I stared at Vogler. ‘Aren’t you?’ It was barely a question. He had two council members and the Nomo’s office in his home: lying would be a very poor decision. Then again, his track record wasn’t exactly great.

He ushered us into his living space and we sat down. We maintained our silence, though Liv was vibrating with impatience. Finally Vogler took a deep breath and stared at a point somewhere beyond Liv’s shoulder. I couldn’t blame him for not meeting her eyes – they were currently very fiery indeed. He licked his lips. ‘It talks to me.’

‘What talks to you, Vitus?’ I asked, keeping my tone brisk but friendly. I was good cop – for now.

‘The earth gem,’ he murmured reverently.

I looked at Liv, who had blanched slightly. Even she wasn’t okay with talking cursed gemstones. Her lips parted but then she grimaced and closed them, evidently deciding to hear Vogler out before she interrupted.

‘What does it say to you, Vitus?’ I asked even more gently.

He was rocking slightly in his seat. ‘It wants to be out of the box,’ he whispered. ‘It wants to be with the others.’

‘It wants to be with the other gems?’ I clarified.

He nodded, his hands clutching and releasing the arm of his chair over and over again. It was mildly irritating and my mum’s voice rang in my ears: One must sit still with decorum and grace. Fuck off, Mum.

Vogler licked his lips. ‘It was more of a feeling at first rather than it actually talking to me, but the longer I’m around it the worse it gets. It speaks in my head!’ He looked at us with panic in his eyes. ‘I’m not mad! It’s real! But I can’t get it out of my head!’ He started pulling at his hair.

‘Calm down,’ Gunnar rumbled. ‘We’ll help you, won’t we, Liv?’ He looked pointedly at the necromancer. She didn’t answer; sometimes she could be a class-A bitch. A lot of the time, actually.

‘Can you block the gemstone from talking to him or do we need someone else?’ I asked her. ‘A witch? A shaman?’ The surest way to get Liv’s help was to imply that she couldn’t do something herself.

‘I’ll need to look into it. The gems spoke to me before I confined them to the boxes but I didn’t know they could still communicate.’ She frowned. ‘They must be stronger than the enchantments or they’ve found a way around at least some of them.’

Vogler was still mumbling to himself. ‘Vitus, is the earth gem still here?’ I asked.

He looked mildly offended. ‘Yes, of course it is.’

‘So what’s with the earthquakes?’

‘I–I tried to resist but it wants to be free of the box so I take it out sometimes.’ He looked at our horrified faces. ‘It promises me magic beyond imagination. My deepest wishes made true in exchange for a few moments of freedom. It makes sense, don’t you see? I deserve that power. And when I release it, it shuts it up – for a time.’

None of us were using our poker faces and Liv’s disdain was positively dripping from her. ‘You don’t understand,’ he said desperately. ‘None of you do! Its whispering is incessant and I can’t think! I have to make it stop for the sake of my sanity! Just a minute or two out of the box and it goes quiet for a while. It’s a fair trade.’

‘And what if someone was killed in the quakes?’ I said in a hard voice, dropping the good cop role.

‘No one’s been hurt!’

‘What about the fear?’ I argued. ‘People left their houses and ran for the school, genuinely terrified of a tsunami. They suffered psychological harm – and all that’s on you.’

‘Show us the stone,’ Connor ordered.

Vogler licked his lips but stood and started up the stairs to his loft. We followed, united in our mistrust of him. We waited patiently whilst he lowered the wards, then Liv strode forward to the podium, opened the box and peered inside. ‘It’s here,’ she confirmed.

The tension left my shoulders: at least one of the damned things was safe and that counted as a win. Liv opened her bag and pulled out her creepy doll imbued with death magic. She shook it and did some chanting; when she was finished, she glared at Vogler. ‘Cross this ward and you’ll die. It stays in the box. Are we clear?’ Her voice was calm but threatening. Vogler blanched.

‘If the urge to open the box is too great,’ Gunnar rumbled, ‘you call me and we’ll work something out. Don’t cross the ward, don’t open the box.’

The earth witch nodded. ‘I got it.’

‘Liv, can you strengthen the spells on all the boxes to keep them from talking to their witches?’ I asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ she admitted. ‘It took an adept from each element to place the original spells. I’d have to find the four strongest witches in the world even to have a chance of doing that.’

‘We can’t have these cursed objects dictating actions to their guardians,’ I pointed out.

‘I’m aware of that. Luckily the strongest elemental witches are already on their way – I summoned them when we started having barrier issues. It’s taken a while for their schedules to align.’

If the barrier dropped before these new experts arrived and I died because of a ‘scheduling’ issue, I was going to haunt those bitches hard. Something itched at the back of my mind. ‘Vitus, how long have you guarded the earth gem?’

He answered immediately. ‘Seven years, three months and four days.’

‘How long for the others?’ I asked Liv. I knew the answer for one of them, but I wanted to hear it from her.

‘Water three years, fire five years, and wind seventeen.’

How could Elsa Wintersteen have resisted the cursed gem’s dark promises? And then it hit me like a lightning bolt: she hadn’t. Aoife’s murder wasn’t really about the barrier; she’d been a casualty of a witch trying to do the cursed stone’s bidding – and the stones wanted to be brought together. We’d been led astray by the protests and Aoife’s death but now it was crystal clear…

‘I know who is stealing the stones,’ I declared grimly. ‘And she won’t stop until she has them all.’