Lost Magic (Stolen Magic Book 3) Read online

  It was going to be a really long day. I hoped the rest of the pack had better news than I did.

  Eighteen

  We gathered out in the garden wanting a change of scenery. Liam had made us the most amazing pulled-pork sandwiches in handmade white bread rolls. I felt thoroughly spoilt as I sat on the grass next to Elijah and relaxed just a little.

  “What does everyone have?” Elijah asked.

  And there went that moment of relaxation. We were back to work.

  “My fae contacts are giving me the cold shoulder. Apparently the courts are very invested in the outcome of this,” Jess said with a huff.

  “I got jack. No one’s talking.”

  “There’s word of another burn happening right now!” Liam said as he leapt to his feet.

  We all raced through the house towards the cars. None of us had a car sensible enough to fit the entire pack in. My backseat wasn’t bad, but Rex’s knees would be up around his ears. He’d never allow such a thing, so we split up. Rex followed Jess into her little sports car, and I jumped in next to Elijah.

  Liam had scrambled into Elijah’s backseat while texting Rex the details. We hadn’t even done our seatbelts before we were flying down the main road towards the edge of the city.

  “How far?” Elijah asked.

  “Five minutes. Follow this main road. Take a left next to the old asylum. Cut through the industrial estate and out to the very edge of that. The building used to be a warehouse, but it fell into disrepair. There was a dispute going on over who owned the land, which is why it’s standing empty.”

  Elijah floored it. A glance in the mirror showed a gleeful grin on Jess’s face as she easily kept up with us. We were at least thirty miles an hour past the speed limit, and there was no sign of slowing down, even for the corner. The back end of the car swung out, but Elijah held it and we were off again down the narrower road. Short rough green grass formed a blur on either side of us. The old building that had once been an asylum stood upon the hill looking out over the coast. Even at that speed with the smaller details smudged away, it was an imposing and concerning building.

  The smoke from the fire came into view as we slid around the corner into the industrial estate. Small warehouses and rough little buildings formed of corrugated metal popped up on either side of the wide road. Concrete squares stretched out in front of each building, blurring past along with signs moving too fast to read. The world seemed to fade to nothing as we blew past it like it wasn’t even there. Then the fire came into view.

  The blaze was incredible. Brilliant oranges stretched towards the increasingly grey sky. Plumes of smoke gathered overhead, slowly forming a heavy blanket around the area. A heavy crash cut through the air, drowning out the thunderous sound of the fire consuming the building. We stopped and ran towards it, the heat mounting with each step. Closer to the main burn, the air shimmered with the heat, which began prickling and then burning my skin. There was almost something addictive about it. I could understand what the firebug saw in the wild furious beauty.

  The building was beyond salvage. Heavy beams had been stripped bare of anything that hid them from view. The naked breeze-block walls wore streaks of black as the fire licked along the very edges of the husk. I reached out with my magic, trying to catch some life essence, something that would let us find out who was behind this. All I felt was the pack, their familiar soft thrum of magic.

  Elijah was circling around the building, a deep frown on his face as he tried to peer through the huge flames that licked outwards looking for fresh fuel. Rex and Jess were standing further back watching our backs in case Varehn's people started trying to cause shit. Liam was doing something tech related. He had his phone out and was glaring at it while he dashed back and forth.

  "The fire was called in by a woman thirty seconds ago. None of the cameras in the area caught sight of anyone coming or going," he said.

  "There's a body!" Rex shouted.

  The screaming sound of sirens started on the edge of my hearing. The firemen were on their way, and likely bringing Varehn with them. We needed to stand our ground and claim this scene as our own. It was the first chance we'd had to get to a fresh scene and pinpoint any small details that could have been removed before.

  Elijah stood tall with his shoulders back waiting for the firemen while I tried to dig deeper into the magic within the fire. There were no life essences, but there was something about the fire itself. It wasn't natural; it was certainly magically started. The problem was, I couldn't quite unravel the magical threads within it to see exactly what type of magic had started it. If I could find that, then we could narrow our suspect pool down by a lot.

  Exhaling slowly, I tried to push myself deeper, to focus harder. There had to be a clue within that fire, buried within the magic itself. Fire magic was a bitch to handle, as it was wild and pushed back far more than other forms of magic. It slipped between my mental fingers and danced away. I swore I could feel happiness as it did so. Fae-formed fire would have a crystalline edge to it somewhere. Witch fire was far silkier. The purest, truest fire from the elementals themselves was almost ethereal to my magical senses. It was something I'd only felt once when I was looking at spending far too much on supplies.

  "Miss, step aside," a fireman commanded.

  Sweat trickled down my face where I'd been standing too close trying to draw out the fire's secrets. I walked back and found the air felt too cold against my hot skin.

  "We'll stay here and look around the scene as soon as the fire's under control," Elijah said.

  I gave him a slightly numb nod as I watched the flames slowly shrink down and die. The firemen were using a number of combined methods to get the fire under control quickly. Two of them were removing the air thus suffocating the fire, another was forming a mist in the air that hung heavily over the already weakened fire. I appreciated that they didn't use their usual barrage of water in an attempt to save the scene for us.

  "Move aside. This is our scene," a male voice said.

  I rolled my eyes. Like we'd give this up to the fucking sidhe.

  Nineteen

  Rex and Jess came up behind Elijah and me, acting as back up as we faced down Varehn and his little crew. The four sidhe were all immaculately turned out in pressed chinos and fancy button-down shirts. Who on Earth thought it was a good idea to bounty hunt dressed like that?

  "The grownups are here, kindly move aside and let us do our jobs," Varehn said with a sharp smile.

  I laughed. How could I not? The line and his silky voice coming from his lean frame was just too ridiculous to take seriously.

  As much as I hated to pull the 'we were here first' thing, it was true.

  "You were too slow. We reached the scene first. Now, be good boys and go sit down somewhere. Somewhere far away," I said as I crossed my arms.

  The slightly taller broader blonde sidhe drew a sai from her hip and idly spun it. I got the impression that we were supposed to be intimidated. I was not, in fact, intimidated.

  "Look. You had your run, but the real professionals are here now. Save yourself some pain and trouble. Just leave. I hear that the South of France is nice," Varehn said.

  I really didn't have the patience to deal with this foolish back and forth. I turned and walked back towards the skeleton of the building, leaving Elijah to break Varehn's bones. Jess's laugh had a maniacal edge to it that made me smile. It was two more steps before I heard the sound of breaking bones. Let them have their fun, I had a scene to inspect.

  The firemen were milling around the very edges, ensuring that the final remaining scraps of fire had been entirely extinguished.

  Liam had come over to join me. He had a camera in his hand ready to snap photos of any relevant evidence so we could go back over it at home. I carefully stepped over the threshold and reached out with my magical senses, trying to see if there were any artifacts or glimmers that could help us.

  "We have one of those phoenix-related symbols over here. There are
two new symbols, too," Liam said.

  He'd hurried over to the last remaining wall that stood in the middle of the building. I didn't know much about fires, but this one seemed to have burned very hot. The outer walls should have been pretty resilient, and yet they'd been turned to ash.

  "Is there something weird about this fire? Why did the central wall remain standing?" I asked the fireman nearby.

  "We're not sure. It's almost like they were touched with phoenix fire. That will burn through anything as though it's just paper."

  I cringed. We did not need something with phoenix fire strolling around the city. I wasn't in favour what they did to the phoenix witches, there was no reason to wipe out entire bloodlines like that, but that didn’t change the fact that phoenix fire is incredibly potent and dangerous.

  Frowning, I looked out at where the walls had been. I hadn't been able to feel any phoenix fire. There had been something odd, but it lacked the fluid power of phoenix fire. Chewing on my bottom lip, I returned to looking around the wreckage. Varehn was being kept busy by the others. I needed to grab anything of use so we could head home and make some progress. There was only so long they could keep blocking him, after all.

  Liam was taking photos of brilliant red and orange symbols that had been carefully painted on the wall.

  "They must have taken their time," I said, nodding towards them.

  The symbols were all somehow flame-like. The lines, gentle curves, and sharp points all reminded me of various flames. The largest in the very centre was the closest to a raging wildfire. The others were more like torches or maybe even candles. Liam would figure out what they meant; I needed to check for artifacts, signatures, and the like.

  The body had been reduced to a blackened skeleton sitting upon stained ground. There was the faintest hint of a fae life essence wrapped around the sternum. So the poor bastard had been a fae, or more likely part fae. That was a theme we needed to consider and look into. The firebug was targeting fae mixed breeds.

  Turning a slow circle, I couldn't feel anything of any real use. There was no magical signature, no artifacts, and the body was too far gone to tell me anything. Once Liam had finished getting photos of the body, we casually strolled over to the others. Jess was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her hands balled in fists in front of her and coated in blood. The blonde sidhe was sitting in the car with a broken orbital. Varehn himself was bloody but standing tall and strong.

  The pack moved as one, heading back towards our cars, safe in the knowledge that we'd gotten what we needed. I stopped and grinned at Varehn. There was one last thing. Exhaling slowly, I pulled on the earth magic buried in the dirt and beneath the concrete of the building. I drove it upwards, covering the remains of the building in a layer of dirt, crumbled concrete, and debris. Now they wouldn't have a chance of finding a damn thing.

  Twenty

  Elijah removed his ruined shirt as he stepped inside. His ribs were blackened due to deep bruises and drying blood left red trails down his side. I rolled my jaw as I tried to push aside the unfamiliar anger. He'd heal, of course, but those bastards had hurt him. Logically, I knew that it was part of the bond that was growing between us, but it was going to take some time to adapt to. Elijah gave me a gentle smile and kissed my temple.

  "What do we have?" he asked the assembled pack.

  Rex handed Elijah a pixie-dust smoothie while Liam uploaded the photos to his closest laptop.

  "I couldn't identify the magic. It was weird. I couldn't pinpoint its source. Normally, there would be something there marking it as fae, witch, or elemental. The body, however, I can identify as another fae mix. I can't tell you exactly what they were originally, but they were at least half fae."

  Elijah nodded before he knocked back the last of the smoothie. The bruising faded quickly as the magic mingled with his own enhanced healing.

  "There were new symbols there this time. I believe the paint had ash mixed into it. The colours and texture were a bit weird. I'm not sure yet, but the new symbols look like they're tied to fire-related gods. Which seems odd to me. The arsonist started with a phoenix focus; why are they branching out into fire gods? I can't see the gods being all that impressed to be sharing their attention and whatever with a phoenix," Liam said.

  "I stole a little something off that blonde sidhe," Jess said as she held up a sai.

  Elijah tried not to smile at the thieving cougar shifter.

  "Will that help us with the case?" he asked evenly.

  Jess frowned at it.

  "Maybe? It'll be good to stab people with."

  "Did you hear them mention something about the bodies being mutilated?" Rex asked.

  "Did you catch anything else?" Elijah said.

  "No. I just heard the bodies were badly mutilated. I think it was focused around the chest region."

  Liam pulled up the photos of the charred remains. He put them to full screen so we could see the details. When I looked more closely, I could see that the sternum appeared to have been pushed in. There were marks on the ribs near the sternum, too, like something had hacked at that region.

  "Does that mean the mutilation killed them?" I asked.

  "I don't know. I need to break into some places to try and get the fae records on the bodies. They have methods we don't."

  Some witches could summon and speak to the dead, but I wasn't one of them. I'd tried, I'd studied it, and I had failed catastrophically every time. It was best for everyone that I didn't get involved in all of that again.

  "So we're looking for an arsonist with something against mixed fae, the strength to smash their sternum in, and a connection to phoenixes and now fire gods," Elijah said.

  When you listed it all out like that, it sounded like the list should be really short. Unfortunately it didn't help us. We couldn't get at the arsonists, and the partbreed fae were hated by a lot of people. It wasn't their fault. They didn't fit neatly into any one box, and that upset people. So they were hated and treated like shit.

  Elijah sighed. We were behind Varehn and his sidhe friends, scrambling to catch up. It was looking like it was going to be another long night as we slowly separated and focused on our own approaches. Liam was analysing the photos to see if there were any small details to help us crack this. Jess had already gone back out; she'd said something about an old friend owing her a favour. Rex paced around the garden growling at someone on the phone. He'd passed through English and was talking in something rough and guttural. Elijah furiously texted someone, and I went to begin looking through the grimoires.

  Breakfast the next morning was hectic. Everyone was feeling the strain of hitting brick wall after brick wall, and we were all showing it in different ways. Jess shot into the room, somehow managed to steal five pastries, and shot off again. She shouted something about being in the middle of an interrogation. There wasn't really time to figure out exactly what she meant. Needless to say, the images formed in my mind weren't something that worked all that well around breakfast.

  "I don't know what's going on with these symbols." Liam took a bite of his waffle as he paced. "Yes, they're all tied into fire somehow, but they're not all going to one god or being. Even a child knows that hedging your bets and putting out an all call like that will just piss off whomever you're trying to reach out to. So why do it?"

  My first thought was it was someone who wasn't used to dealing with the gods, but they'd have to live under a literal rock. The schools taught basic things about the gods and how to try and make sure you didn't find yourself in their crosshairs.

  "This leads me to believe that they're very desperate, very stupid, or an absolute genius who knows something we don't." Liam knocked back a large mug of coffee in one go. "My hope is that they're stupid or desperate, because if they're a genius they could be bringing some pissy gods down on the city. I know the fae keep them from touching the Isles, but if someone screams hard enough they might at least try and get here to rain down some fire. The lord will be really pissed if th
at happens, we'll be blamed, and then bam! No home. No business. No territory. Potentially no lives; that would really depend on if we could get away in time. I've heard that Croatia isn't too bad. A little rocky, but the god touched there are better than the Greek ones at least. And hey, really good pizza. Personally, I'd avoid South America. Some of those god touched, dude, they're brutal. Canada could be nice though, I'm not really a fan of snow, but the god touched have a good reputation. Do we know if wendigo go up that far? I know that they left their ancient territories once the gods came out and screwed everything up."

  "Breathe Liam," Elijah said.

  "We're not dealing with more people pissing the gods off. I refuse," I said.

  "Too right. We already had that jaguar guardian trying to make himself a god. And we have your goddess to deal with. How's that going?" Rex said.

  I'd had to put aside my study on who and what she potentially was in favour of the kitsune and arsonist. Not that I'd been making much if any headway. That was the problem with the fallen. When they fell, the gods worked really hard to remove any trace of their having existed in the first place. I didn't know what the deal there was, but it was making my life far more difficult than it could have been.

  I shrugged.

  "Could be worse."

  Not much worse. I mean, I had nothing. If she rocked up right that second there was nothing I could do to stop her from smiting us all. To say that was less than ideal was an understatement.

  I had to focus on what I could do, get the breathing room we needed to finish the case, and then I could go back to the bigger picture. That was bad news for a certain fox spirit.

  Twenty-One

  A quick call to a few hotels around the city with a story about my friend Kim that must’ve forgotten to charge her phone after she landed and a description of what was almost certainly the only kitsune in Brighton got me a location, an upscale beachfront hotel that had opened only a few months before. She was on the third floor, ocean view. As I started my preparations, I struggled to come up with a counter to her illusions. My normal response to an illusionist in a closed space would be to blanket the area in fire, lightning, or both, but the problem was that her ties to them made it hard to predict how she’d be affected. Being on the third floor meant I couldn’t drop her in a hole without destroying someone’s building, something I tried to keep to a minimum – I wouldn’t die to protect the architecture, but that didn’t mean I wanted someone’s livelihood destroyed for no reason. If I knew what the construction was, I could probably create a spell to turn the beams against her, crush her within the room itself, but without knowing whether to expect wood, steel, or stone, that would require casting on the spot, which was hardly ideal. That, and the building wouldn’t fare much better than the bottomless pit option.