“I need a change of clothes,” Gregori muttered as he rifled through Anton’s wardrobe. “What have you got in here that won’t make me stand out in a crowd?”
“Steal my energy and now my clothes as well?”
“A few hours rest and you’ll be good as new.”
“And who, in the meantime, will govern Marylebone?”
“If you’re lucky, nothing momentous will happen between now and then. You should be fully recharged in — ” Gregori estimated, “ — say, a day and a half.”
“Which gives you plenty of time to escape and evade your fate.”
“I could have killed you both.” Gregori continued to work his way through Anton’s wardrobe. He didn’t want to waste magic unnecessarily to conjure up items he could borrow from Anton. “But I didn’t. I’ve every reason to hate you for what you did to me.”
Anton lay back in the chair in his changing room, too weak to call Mistletoe to his side and too embarrassed to alert Eleisha as to his current situation. It would be hard enough to actually admit Gregori had outsmarted him. Eleisha would be furious with her brother and he had no energy to deal with his formidable Dragoness right now. “That’s true. But you’re defying my word as the leader of Marylebone.”
“I can’t go back!” Gregori’s words were heated. “You’ve no idea what it was like in that cold hard stone. I may as well have been dead. I’m determined to prove my innocence and I won’t allow you to stop me.”
“Alanna is magic bound, plus she’s mortal. The bells haven’t tolled for her. Go back in the stone. Wait until her magic is unbound. Once she has her power back, we will decide whether she is worthy of inviting to Marylebone. Then you will have all the time in the world to investigate the cause of her parents’ death. Believe me, we’ve tried already, but have come up empty-handed every time. Even Zelda has found nothing.”
Stepping into the sole pair of jeans Anton appeared to own, Gregori snagged the only black T-shirt, that wasn’t singed by Mistletoe, from a hanger and put it on. It was tight, fitting him a little too closely, but it was the best he could do. He would not waste precious magic on conjuring clothes, just as he would not risk flaming out unnecessarily, even if he silently acknowledged Anton’s wisdom.
“I’ll make a pact with you.”
Anton grunted. “I don’t do pacts with Dragon warlocks in danger of flaming out. Even if you are my brother-in-law.”
“I’m more powerful than you. Give me credit where it’s due.”
“So powerful you have to steal magic from others. You know when you’re finally caught; you will have to pay for this infringement. You could have killed us both!”
“I’ll come to you if I’m unsuccessful in my hunt forty-eight hours before my deadline. You can do whatever you like with me then.”
“You’re playing with fire. If I have to report you to the Supreme Council of Magical Beings as missing, you’ll have more than dragons to worry about.”
“I’ve never broken a Warlocks’ Oath.”
“You just did by stealing my magic. Plus, I can’t fight the combined power of the Council.”
“Anton, listen. I can find the Greenwoods’ killer. I’m sure of it. I was there within minutes of it happening, and I’m positive it wasn’t an accident. I need to get to know Alanna in order to plumb her memory of that day. I’ll be building a relationship with her as I’m hunting.”
He quirked his head to the doorway and went still, as if hearing something. “Damn it!” He twisted back to Anton. “I’d hoped for more time to convince you. I’ll not break my promise. I will return within forty-eight hours of my deadline.”
And he disappeared, quietly, without an extravagant burst of power, ensuring his trail of magic would be difficult to pursue, even along all the ley lines surrounding the earth.