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I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t. The small light in his eyes, the amusement, had darkened while he spoke, and I knew he was hiding something horrific. “Fine.”
“Lean against the car and hang your hand down,” he said, eyes diverted to the pad again.
“What?”
“Lean against the car,” he repeated. “Hang your hand down.”
I did as he asked. His fingers brushed the top of my hand, and I gasped.
He hadn’t been kidding.
A year ago, Aaron and I had touched like this, but his energy had been a small brook of coolness. Now it felt like a waterfall gushing over my hand. “Aaron?”
“Shh,” he whispered, his eyes closed.
His energy crept up my arm like a silky glove, covering the skin up to my elbow before delving beneath. He pressed against my shields, strong, firm, but patient, waiting for me to grant him access. I opened a doorway, and he poured in.
I followed the power backward with a small thread of my own, and met with resistance.
“Zoë,” he warned, reinforcing the wall between us.
I backed off.
“Show me,” Aaron said.
I closed my eyes, head down, and flooded him with information: the crime scenes, the visions, and my ‘visit’ with the naga. I pushed my energy, hard and fast, and it burst through the small opening he’d allowed me like a horde. He stiffened and tried to pull away, but I grabbed his hand.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, opening my eyes.
He looked at me, mouth moving, words caught in his throat. His eyes rolled back, and his hand shook in mine. He struggled, but despite how much control he’d learned, I was still stronger.
I forced an opening in his shields, burrowing through the layers until I reached his memories. I sifted through the crystalline grape-like clusters, ignoring the myriad of images from his past. It didn’t take me long to find today’s orb. Dammit. I could see it, but when I ran my energy over the shiny surface, I still couldn’t access the memory. Covered in gelatinous layers, it was like touching Vaseline, thick and slimy.
Let me in! I shoved a spike of magick through it, and the protections shattered.
Aaron groaned, his body sliding down the side of the car.
“Zoë!” Dustin was pushing his way through the growing crowd, his face a combination of worry and anger.
I needed to hurry. I moved with Aaron to the ground, keeping my grip tight, and dove into the memory.
Fire roared around me, covering me, engulfing me, eating at my skin. I screamed and scurried backward, away from the detective, but it was too late. I didn’t need the skin-to-skin contact now.
The memory was mine.
Two figures stood inside the apartment, the naga from my backyard and Heath.
What is Jareth’s little minion doing here? Why is the naga on fire?
“You are to give him a final sacrifice, Aatmaj, my son,” Heath said, his face glowing in the light of the magickal pyre surrounding the other man.
“As he commands, so I do,” Aatmaj replied.
How can he just stand there in the middle of the blaze? Why isn’t he screaming?
Stop! The scene froze. I reached for my visitor, the stilled flames cool against my skin. When I touched him, I met the same block I’d encountered when we’d first met Heath, but as I slid my power over him, through him, I found him empty. The wall held in nothing—no power, no soul. Absolutely nothing existed inside him aside from viscera.
How is that possible?
In theory, a body, human or animal, had to contain some power, an essence, to be considered sentient, alive. To be without would render the body a shell, inanimate, yet before me stood a man, one who had walked and talked as though alive, without a single spark of life inside him.
I jerked my hand away as the fire engulfing Aatmaj scorched my palm, but the vision continued. I stood there, cradling my hand, and watched the pyre burn him until his corpse could stand no longer. The remains tumbled to the ground in a burst of flying embers.
What the hell is going on?
Somebody slapped me. Hard. “Zoë, dammit, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Dustin yanked me out of the vision and onto my feet.
Aaron lay unconscious at our feet, and medics pushed through the crowd.
“I’m sorry.” I stared at Aaron’s inert form and then looked away. “I’ll go now.”
“No, you don’t get off that easy. Do you see what you’ve done?” He grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around to look at his partner. “What gives you the right to do this to another human being? Who in the hell made you God?”
I wanted to argue, but this week hadn’t been in my favor. “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
Dustin signaled a couple of uniformed cops. “Take her down to the precinct, and don’t let her touch you.” He walked to Aaron.
“Dustin.”
“No,” he growled, whirling around. “I don’t want to hear another word. You violated him. You did this to my partner. Nothing you could possibly have to tell me will change what you’ve done here. Now get the hell out of my sight.”
“Ma’am,” one of the uniforms whispered.
I looked at him, and he motioned to a police car. Is that fear I sense? I took a step closer, and he matched me, moving away. With a sigh of resignation, I walked over to the police car and slid into the backseat, leaned my head against the rest, and closed my eyes.
On the way to the precinct, the two cops concentrated on everything but my presence, which suited me just fine. I’d screwed up. Again. Did I have some bad karma from a past life haunting me this week?
As much as I worried about what would happen once I got to the precinct, I directed more of my concern to what I’d learned from the vision.
The naga were in league with Jareth somehow. Was this the concrete link between the dead babies and my missing niece? I shuddered to think what that meant for Esther.
That naga, Aatmaj... how did he fit into the whole mess? His emptiness shook me up. He was real when we’d fought in the glen. How did he lose his soul in less than a day?
A final sacrifice, I understood, but why fire? Why in his own home? What could Heath gain from an alliance with Jareth? I sighed. The questions kept coming, but I couldn’t find a single answer.
Someone tapped on the window.
I blinked twice and realized we’d stopped.
Healy stood on the other side, his mouth a tight frown. He opened the door as soon as he’d gotten my attention, but stayed silent, dismissing the uniformed cops. He started toward the front door, and I didn’t move.
“Get out of the car, Zoë,” he said without looking back. “Don’t make this harder than it already is.”
I stayed in the car. “I can’t, Gerald. If I walk through those doors, you’re going to book me, put me in a cell. I don’t have time.”
He turned, and I almost wished he hadn’t. His eyes were bright with emotion, with raw anger. “What? You going to do me like you did my detective?” He shook his head. “I can’t let you walk. You know that. I know that. So why are we still standing outside my precinct?”
“Gerald, please, let me explain.”
“Nothing you can tell me will fix this,” he said, echoing Dustin’s words. “You’re not above the law, Zoë. Now get your ass inside.”
***
I wiped the remaining ink from my fingertips, trying not to pay attention to the other women in the cell, all cloistered in the far corner. Their apprehension filled the space between us like water, threatening to drown us all.
When Healy had escorted me down here, he’d told them not to touch me, not to let me touch them. A tall, athletic black woman had asked why, and he’d just shaken his head. “You don’t want to know what she can do just by touching you.”
I was sorry—I really was—about what had happened to Aaron. My guilt was enough of a prison sentence, but if this went to trial, if they refused to let me off with a warning, I was going to be put in the Womens Prison in Jessup in the maximum-security wing. The legal system didn’t take too kindly to witches who used their magick against people. I’d deal with that when it happened, but for now, what was I going to do about my current situation?
I still had my one phone call, but who in the world was I going to call? There was no one left. I sighed. Fine, I got myself into this disaster. I’ll get myself out.
“This just hasn’t been my week,” I muttered under my breath.
“Don’t you be casting any spells!” a greasy-haired blonde shrieked, her eyes wide.
I smiled. “How do you know I need to say anything to use my magick? Weren’t you paying attention? All I have to do is touch you.” I wiggled my fingers at her.
She cringed, and the small circle of women tightened.
“That’s enough, Zoë,” Dustin said as he accompanied another cop to the cell. “Come on, you’re getting out of here.”
“How? I haven’t even been arraigned.” I stood and walked to the bars.
Both men took a step back.
He frowned. “Someone called in a favor above my head.”
The other cop opened the door, and I stepped out. “If you’ll just follow me,” he said, giving me a wide berth.
I followed without comment. Who knows I’m here? We rounded the corner, and I stopped.
“No. No way,” I said, taking a step back.
Dustin caught my arm, and then released it as if I were on fire.
“Put me back in the cell. No way in hell am I leaving with that man.”
Jareth smiled. “Oh, Ms. Delante, the least you could do is say thank you.”
“Get out of my precinct,” Dustin said to me.
“You know who this is?” I asked. “This would be the leader of the Holy Church of Light.”
Dustin shrugged. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
I stared at him. “You want me to just... what? Go with some pseudo-Christian psycho?”
“I don’t care what you do, Zoë, as long as you’re far away from me. Your services will no longer be required here.”
I started to shake my head, but something about Jareth’s expression made me stop. “What do you get out of this?”
“Let’s call it a trade,” he said. “I’ve done something for you, now you can do something for me.” He touched my hand, and my body shivered with the memory of the dream we’d shared.
I wanted to say no, but a bigger part of me wanted to say yes. “Can we at least eat first?”
Jareth chuckled. “Whatever the lady desires.”
