Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 108517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Julian ushered Kaylee out of the room, while Elias stared us down. “Thank you for your visit.”
Alessandro nodded, rose calmly, and I stood up with him, since he refused to let go of my hand. We headed for the front door, our fingers intertwined.
Chapter 6
Getting out of that house was like stepping out of a crypt into sunshine.
Ahead Agent Garcia half-guided, half-shoved Agent Wahl into the black SUV.
He smiled at her. “You are so . . .”
“So what?”
“Forceful,” he told her with a dreamy look on his face.
She grabbed him by the chin. “Victor! Look into my eyes.”
He gazed at her. His eyes rolled back into his skull, and Agent Wahl slumped in his seat, unconscious.
“An enersyphon,” Alessandro murmured. “That explains things.”
Enersyphons, also known as magic eaters, absorbed magic, pulling it into themselves. They didn’t guard against it, they fed on it, which granted them a mild immunity to a lot of mental and elemental powers. Agent Garcia just sapped the magic dancing through Wahl’s brain and the shock knocked him out.
“You stopped me.” I pulled my hand out of his. Our backs were to their security cameras, and I kept my voice low. “She killed Pete.”
“We don’t have proof.”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do. We follow the rules. That’s what separates us from them. Catalina, it’s the wrong time and the wrong place. I know you are angry, but if I hadn’t stopped you, you would’ve regretted it.”
“No, I wouldn’t have.”
“If Linus were here, he would have stopped you, too.”
“Linus isn’t here, because she hurt him.”
He dipped his head to look at me. “This is not like you.”
This was not like me.
That thought spun my mind around. The surge of magic inside me died.
I had endangered the investigation. If he hadn’t taken my hand, Kaylee and I would be locked in a mental duel right now. She was untrained, but she was freakishly powerful.
I’d come within a hair of singing. Not only had I almost jeopardized the search for Linus’ assassin, but I would have put the lives of everyone in that room in danger. This didn’t happen to me. I’d been controlling my magic and my emotions since early childhood, but an untrained mental mage had managed to rile me up to the point of nearly losing it.
It wasn’t Kaylee. It was Linus. He was still unconscious, and it was seriously messing with my head. I needed to get a grip right now, because if I spun out of control, I wouldn’t be able to undo what would happen.
“Thank you for stopping me,” I told him.
“Any time,” he said.
Agent Garcia marched back to us. We started walking toward her at the same time. The more distance was between us and the watchful eyes inside the house, the better.
We met halfway.
“She attacked a federal agent and the two of you just sat there,” Agent Garcia growled. “Tell me why I shouldn’t get a strike team down here right now and take her into custody. Alive or dead, I don’t care.”
That would be a nightmare. I turned my back to the security camera, pointed at it, hiding the gesture with my body, and lowered my voice.
“You’re not wrong,” I said. “And your anger is justified. However, she has done much worse than that. I want to nail her to the wall, but she’s involved in a much larger scheme, and I don’t exactly know how. I don’t know what will happen if we bring her in. Please give me time.”
“Promise me you won’t sweep this under the rug,” Agent Garcia said. “I want your word that this doesn’t become one of those House politics secrets.”
“I won’t and you have it.”
“Seventy-two hours,” Agent Garcia ground out.
“The Office of the Warden appreciates your patience,” Alessandro said.
Agent Garcia squeezed her hand into a fist and relaxed it. “I’ll tell you one thing. That girl is no halcyon. Her magic tastes like jagged glass.”
She marched around the car, got into the driver’s seat, drove off, with Wahl still unconscious, and almost collided with an armored gunmetal grey Dodge as it turned into the driveway. For a moment the two cars were at a standoff, then the Dodge reversed, giving Agent Garcia room. She peeled out of the driveway.
Alessandro frowned.
The grey Dodge slid to a stop in front of us. The driver’s window rolled down, revealing a tan man in his late twenties, with light brown hair and grey eyes behind large round glasses. I’d seen him before. He was one of Lenora Jordan’s Assistant DAs. Matt Something.
“No,” Alessandro said.
Matt gave us an apologetic wave with his hand. “I’m merely the messenger.”
Cornelius appeared at the mouth of the driveway, Gus on a leash next to him. He saw us and waved. His car was nowhere in sight. He must’ve walked from Linus’ house.
I waved back.
“We lost Dag Gunderson,” Matt said.