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He bowed slightly. “I like the way my name sounds on your tongue.”
A sudden tidal wave of pure power washed over us, like one of those heavy, soft mink blankets Granny Nolan always brought back from her trips to South Korea, and it felt good.
A sigh slipped off my tongue, and to my dismay, I took a step in his direction. I fought to regain my composure, and he watched me with more than a little amusement. Fucker. I pushed back with my own magick. “Stop it.”
He stumbled backward, and amusement changed to overt curiosity.
I couldn’t decide whether the request or the audacity shook him more. I doubted anyone demanded Jareth do anything. He didn’t strike me as much of a follower.
He nudged me with another round of his magick, softer this time, a stroke instead of a bashing. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. What exactly would you like me to stop?” He lowered his arms with a palm up twist, the motion somehow meant to comfort me, or perhaps confirm his innocence.
He only succeeded in pissing me off. No way was he unaware of his abilities.
Another weaving of his magick passed over me, the components familiar, like what had met us at the entrance.
I’d had quite enough. “This!” I reached out with my bare hands for the fibers of the spell, which glistened in the air like holiday tinsel. The strands snapped inaudibly between my fingers, crumbling onto the floor at Jareth’s feet like snowflakes.
“You can’t do that,” he whispered, eyes widening at the ruptured remains on the carpet between us.
“And yet....” I wiped the residue from my hands across my pants.
He toed the remnants. “No one has ever been able to do that.” His exterior may have remained calm, even curious, but a fine thread of anger pulsed bright in his aura. “You shouldn’t have been able to do that.”
I groaned and rubbed the center of my forehead. We didn’t have time for this.
“Oh, come on. I passed through that massive worship spell outside, the ward just inside the double doors, the creep-tastic adoration spell you’ve got running on your dais, and the creature feature of a living wall. Did you honestly think I’d fall to my knees and worship your ass over a badly built compulsion spell?”
Jareth just stared at me for a minute. The smile vanished and his aura pressed into a thin line. His eyes were cloaked, wary, as if regarding me as a threat for the first time. “I’m impressed.”
“Then turn it off.”
Worry flashed across his face, followed by the smooth, blank mask he’d worn at first glance. “No.”
No? I shrugged. “Then you leave me no choice. I have to report you to the authorities as a charlatan and cult leader. Oh, and you’re pretending to be Christian? That’ll go over well with the media. How long do you think it’ll take for you to get arrested? How much longer after that do you think before they execute you?”
Again, just a glimpse beneath his practiced exterior, and then gone again. “You wouldn’t.”
Sera peeked around me. “She so would.”
I crossed my arms. “Rogue magicians aren’t tolerated in this state, much less in the rest of the country. Doesn’t take much to lump you in with those ‘bad’ lycanthropes, and you know how that story ended.”
“You’re bluffing.”
I gave him my biggest fake smile. “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not, but I’m not forcing your hand. Not like you’re doing to your entire congregation. No crime in it.”
He crossed his arms as well. “Definitely bluffing.”
I pulled out my cell phone. “Did I mention that my boyfriend’s a cop?”
Jareth moved one hand, and all the magick evaporated, leaving the three of us standing in a hallway lighted by natural light fluorescent tubes. He pressed a section of the wood paneling nearest him and a secret door appeared. “Please come into my office.”
I blinked a couple of times, adjusting to the light. “After you.” I motioned for him to lead the way.
He smiled. “You don’t trust me.”
I shook my head. “Not any farther than I can throw you and I’m pretty much the poster child for the ‘throws like a girl’ campaign.”
His smile widened, but he said nothing else as he walked across the threshold and into the interior space.
Sera and I followed with caution, and I touched the doorjamb as we passed. Nothing. No magick, just carefully painted wood.
“Please have a seat.” He gestured toward the pair of leather-upholstered chairs facing an immense oak desk, and settled into the matching chair behind it with a fluid ease that....
My breath caught in my throat. What the hell is going on with me?
I flexed my hands into fists and out again, and focused on the room around us. We sat in the most ornate part of his office. The off-white walls held no college degrees—surprise, surprise—no awards or pictures. At the other end of the room sat a small table and a floor pillow.
A dozen colored candles sat on the surface of the table, some new, some half-melted onto the wood, some even etched with symbols I couldn’t quite make out. Some Christian churches performed pagan-like candle magick, whether they viewed it as magick or not, but something about his chosen arrangement, the color choices—white for protection, green for money, and black for nullification—all in one place rubbed me the wrong way.
“What deity do you worship, exactly?” Not tactful, but eh... whatever. I’d already threatened him, so he wasn’t expecting some 1950s housewife.
Jareth smiled, all cat and canary. “Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, of course. Why do you ask?” He glanced over at the table.
“Oh, nothing, just curious.” I laced my voice with a delicate but purposeful lilt. Two could play the saccharine politeness game.
No point in bringing up the torrid items of his religion du jour. After all, maybe he truly thought he was a good, solid Christian citizen. I’d seen it before, mostly in cults and not this visible, but definitely not a new concept. And, as much as I wanted to ask him some poignant questions about his path, more pressing issues awaited.
“Do you know an Edward Gardens?”
Not a flinch. “A member of my church?”
I nodded.
He sighed and leaned back into his chair. “You’re assuming that I know the name of every person who walks through my doors. My congregation numbers over five hundred people.”
“Hmm.” Sera clasped her hands in her lap.
Jareth raised a brow. “Yes?”
“In my experience, clergy make a point of knowing their congregation, no matter the size. Guess that’s not a common practice here.”
Snark? From a Delante woman? Nah.
He considered her for a moment, eyes narrowing. “I’m sorry. Have we met?”
“This—” I motioned toward my sister. “—would be Sera Gardens, the estranged spouse of Edward Gardens.”
Jareth grimaced. “And this, this Mr. Gardens....” He rolled his hand in the air. “You’re sure he is a member of my congregation?”
“Yes,” Sera said. “I’m certain. He and a few of your thugs came to my house yesterday and took my baby daughter.”
He leaned forward, and his eyes widened for a split second.
Does he not know?
“That’s terrible” he said. “How can I help?”
“Edward?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I honestly don’t know the name. Perhaps my assistant Heath can aid us.” His hand disappeared under the desk, and a faint musical chime sounded somewhere outside the office space. He met my eyes. “If he belongs to us, if we have any clue where he is, I will give him to you.”
I swallowed. Curious that he didn’t say we’d turn him over to the authorities. It sounded a little Mafioso for my tastes, but if it got us Esther, I’d roll with it. “Thank you. That’s all we ask.”
I felt Heath before he appeared between our chairs, like reaching into emptiness, cold and dark. Yuck. I looked up, but his eyes were all for Jareth.
“Yes sir.”
“Please go through our rolls and see if we have an Edward Gardens in our congregation. It seems a grave injustice was done in the name of our church. We can’t have that in our sanctuary.”
With the briefest nod, Heath turned and left.
“How may I contact you when he retrieves the information?”
The entire conversation reeked of faux concern—so polite, as if finding a kidnapped child was just one more thing on our to-do lists. My snarky inner bitch screamed that Jareth was stalling and had secretly signaled to Heath to move Edward and Esther right now.
“How do I know you’re on the up and up?”
“Theatrics aside, Ms. Delante, how do you know I’m not?”
Did he just use my name? “I didn’t introduce myself.”
Jareth leaned back in his chair again, elbows resting on the arms, fingers steepled at his chin. “Oh, I know.”
Sera reached for me. “Zoë?”
I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’s fine.” I turned my attention back to our host. “You knew me the minute I walked in, didn’t you?”
“Perhaps.”
I shook my head and smiled as Sera squeezed my hand tighter. Must’ve been my resting bitch face. “This was all a big show, a demonstration so I would have to use my powers. So you could test my strength. What are you, some weird paranormal groupie?” Sadly, I had actually encountered some of those since the trial.
“Groupie, no. Just an interested party.”
He smirked, and I wanted to claw those lips off his damn face. Or make out with him. “Gah! What the hell are you doing?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
I shoved that sudden desire for him down hard and slammed my hands on his desk. “Do you know where she is? Do you know where my niece is right now?”
He frowned, and the urge subsided. “No, I swear by all things sacred that I have no idea about Edward or the baby. No matter our differences, I would never do anything to harm a child, and I definitely wouldn’t send—” He looked at Sera. “What did you call them? ‘Thugs’? No, I would never send thugs to intimidate people. That’s not what we’re doing here.”
“I’m inclined to disagree.” The words hissed out of my mouth.
“As understandably you would, but Ms. Delante, Mrs. Gardens, it’s the truth.” He stuck out a hand. “Truce?”
Sera slid her hand into his and pumped it twice vigorously. “Oh, she doesn’t touch people, but you knew that, didn’t you, Jareth? Come on, Zoë.” She grabbed my arm and steered me toward the entrance. Then she paused and turned toward him. “One last thing: if we find out that you know where my daughter is, that you’ve known all this time, that you used my kid as some ridiculous bait to get to my sister, I will end you.
“I’ll not only take down this sham of a church.... When I’m done, there will be no one on God’s green earth who will take you in. No one will protect you. And I’ll have Zoë bind your magick, so you can never practice again. Am I clear?”
He swallowed and nodded. His eyes twinkled in amusement, or maybe he enjoyed how it had all played out.
I wasn’t sure, and my sister left me no time to consider the options.
“Good.” She hooked her arm through mine, and together we stepped out of his office and back into the empty hallway.
