29. M G

We made it home about an hour before sunrise. The vamps were shocked, in a low-key vampy way, to see us both wet and Clive barefoot. My running shoes squeaked loudly on the marble floor of the entry. Clive and I went straight upstairs to shower and change.

I held onto Clive in the hot spray, seeing that poor man writhing and snapping, desperate to kill right up until I sliced through his neck. Stomach roiling, I burrowed into my betrothed. He held me, almost too tightly, just as I did him.

Eventually, he began unbraiding my hair, stiff with saltwater, and then shampooed it. We tended to one another in every way before we settled into bed. The briefing would need to wait until tomorrow.

"I love you," he said, wrapping his arms around me.

"I know." Grinning, I dropped off almost immediately.

I awoke midafternoon,wrapped around Clive, his scent helping me to sleep. Staring into the dark, I finally forced myself to consider what I'd been avoiding. Dave. Did I kill him? Did I banish him to some other realm? What had I done and how could we get him back? His girlfriend Maggie was definitely going to kill me this time.

Hunger finally dragged me out of bed. I dressed and went in search of food. While I was raiding the refrigerator, Norma walked in.

She made a quiet squeak. "Oh, I didn't hear you." She paused at the door. "I came to make more tea, but I can come back later." Like last time, her top and bottom didn't match. She wore a crisp white shirt with a wine-colored blazer and pearl jewelry. Her face was perfectly made up and her dark curls gleamed. On the bottom, she wore yoga pants and slipper boots. If there was a need for a video conference, she was ready. Otherwise, she was comfortable.

"Don't be silly. Are you hungry? We seem to have some kind of calzones today." Hopefully, they were meat-filled.

"No, thank you. I already had my lunch. You know, if you want to leave me a list of food you like, I can make sure we have it stocked." Norma filled the kettle and put it on the stove.

"Really? Not just ready-to-heat stuff, but anything?" The vamps were so put out by my existence, I considered myself lucky not to be poisoned. There was already enough tension in the house. I wasn't going to make a fuss about food. "That would be fantastic. Oh, my goodness, I'm unreasonably giddy about this. Anything?"

Norma took tea packets down from the cupboard. "Would you like a cup?"

"Yes, please."

"It's an orange pekoe." She held the second tea bag over the second mug.

"Sounds lovely."

Nodding, she dropped it in the mug. "Miss, what you need to understand is that you're the Master's fiancé. I've been given very specific instructions. Anything, and I do mean anything you want, you get."

Damn. "So, if I wanted to add a carousel to the back patio?"

"I'd call the contractors."

I unpackaged the calzones and found a baking tray to cook them on. "Now that you've become my new best friend in the house, I hope there will be no judgment—at least out loud—about my eating both calzones." I slid the tray into the oven and took the steaming mug she offered me.

Laughing, she picked up her mug and wrapped her hands around it. Poor thing said she was always cold in the house. "No judgment, only anger and jealousy over skinny girls who

can eat anything they want."

"That being the case, the first on my list of demands is that you raise the temperature in this joint. Is there a way to at least make the first floor warmer?"

Nodding, Norma stirred her tea. "You're good people, Miss Quinn. I'll go see what I can do about that."

"Perfect." While my lunch cooked, I found a paper and pen and began my very long wish list. It was glorious. I added a phone to the bottom of the list, embarrassed to tell her I needed another one.

I'm going for a run.Clive didn't respond, but I was positive he heard me.

I'd been thinking while I was eating. Leticia and Abigail were attacking at the same time. It wouldn't make sense for them to be connected, but they were certainly taking advantage of the other one's distractions. Abigail needed to be dealt with once and for all. She'd already done too much damage. Had I destroyed Dave while trying to fend her off? My very full stomach sank. He had to be okay. I couldn't live with any other possibility.

I needed Martha's grimoire. She'd said there was something in there that would help me defeat Abigail. It was the Corey family grimoire. I wanted it, even if it meant going toe to toe with Galadriel and her sword. With any luck, she wouldn't be there and I could slip in and out without her knowing.

The run felt good. When I'd been living and working at the Slaughtered Lamb, my nightly runs after closing were consistent. Since the world went topsy-turvy, I couldn't fit them in as regularly. I missed my bookstore and bar. I had to get rid of Abigail so I could have my life back without my friends being menaced.

The sun was setting as I ran past the out-of-business monument store's front window. Sliding through the ward on the side gate, I strode past the abandoned tools behind the store and into the courtyard of The Wicche Glass Tavern. Empty.

I went to Martha's grave first, snapping a sprig of wisteria off a branch hanging over the gigantic tree roots separating the mundane world from Faerie. Placing the flowers by the grave marker, I knelt, laying my hand on the moss, wishing I'd had more time with her. A cool breeze slid along the back of my neck.

It was quiet in the permanent twilight. Would Galadriel open the bar again? Maybe she'd returned to Faerie. The door to the bar was unlocked. It was dark: no overhead lights, no fire in the fireplace. I slid my hand up and down the wall, looking for a switch. Nothing.

The mirror on the wall gave off a faint silver glow. Not wanting to attract Faerie's notice, I averted my eyes. The place was still a mess, so no one had bothered to clean yet. I would have stayed to do it myself if I weren't afraid of running into Galadriel.

I headed straight for Martha's back room. The smell of blood hit me before I entered. Martha's blood still stained the floor. Stepping around it, I went to the wall of photos. Martha had said she'd left the grimoire behind Gad. She'd been fading, but I'd heard that much. It could have meant anything, but this was my first thought.

She used to sit in this snug little room, drink tea, and look at these photos, remembering a lifetime with her love. Most of the photos had been knocked off the wall and left smashed on the floor. A few remained, including a large one in the middle. It was a picture of a much younger Martha with her arm around Galadriel, standing in front of The Wicche Glass.

Feeling around the edges of the frame, I tried to find a catch. It was firmly affixed to the wall, not hanging on a small nail, like all the rest of the images. I tried using the spell Lydia had taught me for opening things. Nope. I dragged a sharp claw around the edges of the frame, trying to slice through the seal. Nothing.

Martha wanted me to have the grimoire she had hidden from everyone else. If it was secreted somewhere only I could access…

"Charlotte!"

Charlotte appeared beside me, glancing around. Where are we?

"Fae bar. I need to get a book that I believe is hidden behind this picture. Can you look, see if there's a compartment back there?"

She glided through the wall and was back a moment later. Yeah. There's a wall safe behind the frame and it has an old book in it.

Perfect. How did I get it, though? "Do you see anything in there that would help us open the safe?"

Charlotte disappeared for a minute and then came back. There's a note on the book. Her handwriting is hard to read, but I think it says pull the right corner, then push the release at the bottom.

Upper right? Lower right? I kept my left hand flush along the bottom of the frame while I fiddled with the right corners. A small button popped out. I pressed it and the frame swung open, revealing a keypad.

"Any other directions on that note?"

Charlotte disappeared again. I couldn't see her, but I heard her. Yeah. It says push the hashtag button and then 13+7 and then the hashtag again.

I followed her directions and held my breath. The keys went green and the safe unlocked.

"How did you do that?"

I spun to find Galadriel in the doorway. Her sword wasn't drawn, giving me hope.

"Martha came to me when she died—"

"Was murdered," she said flatly.

"Yes. She told me to get the family grimoire, saying it was hidden behind Gad." Shrugging, I motioned to the wall that had once held a lifetime of adventures. "This was the first place I thought of. Charlotte, the, uh, ghost who's with us now, she looked inside the safe and read the note Martha left me."

Galadriel pushed me out of the way and opened the door. Snatching the note, she scrutinized the message and then flipped it over, looking for more. Her shoulders dropped as she handed me the paper. Reaching in, she grabbed the cracked-leather grimoire and handed that over as well.

Once the oversized book was out of the small safe, an envelope remained. Galadriel dove for it, read the name on the front, clutched it to her chest, and walked out.

"Thanks, Charlotte. I'm good now. Since Galadriel doesn't seem bent on killing me, I'm going to clean up around here."

Okay.

I felt her fade away. I didn't normally feel that. It must be because I was so close to the dead. Martha had made her home here because this was where she was most powerful, which gave me an idea.

After cleaning up the blood and glass, extracting the photos from the wrecked frames and leaving them for Galadriel, righting what hadn't been broken, and hauling what had to the area behind the monument shop, I decided to put my theory to the test. I'd been trying to find Leticia in my head for some time but couldn't. Maybe here, where my powers would be at their strongest, I could.

I sat on a table in the courtyard, closed my eyes in the gentle twilight, and searched for the cold green blips that meant vampire. My head was filled with the hazy forms of ghosts, but I pushed them aside and searched for the mostly dead.

The glut at the nocturne pulsed. I found Clive, wrapped myself around him, and thought, I love you.

Thank goodness. Where are you? You said you were just going for a run.

I did. To The Wicche Glass. I need the grimoire to fight Abigail.

I'm on my way.

No need. I'm fine.

Not if Galadriel finds you.

She did. The safe I opened had a message for her from Martha. She took it and left.

Still…

Up to you. I can run home when I'm done, or I can see you sooner. Win-win for me.

On my way.

If my eyes are closed, I'm trying to do something. Just leave me be.

After checking all the blips in the nocturne, in case she was hiding right under our noses, I went farther afield, looking for anything. I found a few of Clive's vamps out in the city, but not Leticia.

If she tried for another werewolf, the nearest pack was my family's old one in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Nope. I didn't see any vamps in the mountains, but there was a nocturne down in the city of Santa Cruz. I checked each of those vamps, and none were Leticia. How was she hiding from me?

Frustrated, I pulled the grimoire into my lap and began to leaf through the pages. I wanted to stop and study every spell, but that would have to wait. Finally, handwritten on the last page were notes to me on necromancy. The first one froze my limbs.

Sam, the wicche glass I gave you will protect you from pain. But it comes at a cost. It will shield you, but it will also blunt your powers. I never needed a big punch all at once, so I was able to leave the magical imbalance in the wicche glass. I'm very sorry to say, for you it will be different. Before you try to take on Abigail, you'll need all the strength, all the magic, inside you. You need to right the imbalance. I think—understand, I don't know for certain—that you'll need to draw in that fireball of pain around your neck and let it balance the scales to make your magic as bright and sharp and true as it's meant to be. I am horrified to realize that in pulling the pain from the wicche glass, you'll be taking on decades of my pain, stored in the ball as well. If you survive, you'll be stronger, but…you can instead take this book, protect it, and run. I'm still searching for another way.