Chapter 20

Sylvana

 

Two full days passed with no change in Lexi’s condition, and the tension started to wear on everyone in the house. Faucets spat water or ice every time Evian got within three feet of them, Soleil started cooking and couldn’t seem to stop. She baked so many loaves of bread she had to load up the van and make a trip to the homeless shelter to donate the excess.

Houseplants either shriveled or doubled in size if Terra so much as walked within three feet of them, and Vaeta set off a miniature hurricane in the mudroom that ruined the floor and took the walls down to the studs.

They say idle hands are the devil’s playthings, and while I’ve never met the man so I can’t say if it’s true, I did know myself pretty well by then. Standing around waiting for Lexi to fight her way out of stasis wasn’t just wearing the faeries down to the nub, it was tweaking hard on my last nerve, too.

If I didn’t find something to occupy my time, I’d get cranky, then I’d make everyone around me cranky, and then there’d be trouble.

I grabbed Vaeta and tracked down Delta, who was sleeping on the sofa in the workshop behind the Balefire. She’d heard the siren song of Lexi’s distress, but had arrived too late to do anything. She’d insisted on berating herself for it even though out of the group of us, she had the least to be sorry for. Even from a close distance, we had been rendered useless, and that didn’t sit well with me or the faeries.

“Wakey, wakey.” I kicked the leg closest to me and then jumped back in case Delta pulled out that pig-sticker of hers and came after me.

Instead, she slitted one eye open. “You’d better have a good reason for bothering me.”

“You, uh, up for a challenge?” The rhetorical question included both women. “Diana Diamond was behind this attack, and she also has something Lexi needs. I think going after it would provide some stress relief. Seems like a little breaking and entering is order. You in?”

The other eye popped open over the delightfully wicked smile spreading across Delta’s face. “As long as I can break her if she gets in my way, I’m all over it.” Graceful as a gymnast, she flipped her body from prone to standing. Privately, I had to admire the way she’d gone from relaxed sleep to full alert in a matter of seconds. “You have a plan?”

I let my eyes go hard. “We go, we find the wand, we take it. Anything comes up, we play it by ear. Diana gets in our way, and we do what we have to do.”

“I kind of hope she tries something.” Vaeta showed her scary faerie face and I grinned back at her. What can I say? She was beginning to grow on me.

“Believe me, so do I. Give me ten minutes with Lexi and then meet me out front. I’ll drive. I need to stop at my place and grab a few supplies.” I kept a heavily warded apartment above a diner in the city.

Apparently my tone aroused Delta’s suspicions. “Supplies? What kind of supplies? You’re not planning on using dark magics are you? I’m working outside the parameters of my primary mission, so I’m not looking to add fuel to the fire.”

Vaeta didn’t seem too worked up over the possibility. She shot me a little eyebrow waggle from behind Delta’s back and I sighed. “There’s a difference between protective or defensive spells and dark magic, and contrary to popular opinion, I am aware of the distinction.”

Mostly, though, I was aware that using dark magic would kill any chance of getting Lexi on my side, where I needed her to make my ultimate plan work. Otherwise, Diana Diamond had earned an ass whooping and I didn’t much care what color magic it took to put a hurt on her. Karma had to know she was the bad guy in this scenario, so I figured it wouldn’t hit me too hard.

To that end, I widened my eyes and vowed my intentions were honorable—and technically I didn’t lie.

Twenty minutes later, we were loaded up and sitting outside Diana’s lair. Okay, lair might not have been the appropriate word for a penthouse apartment in the arts district that had to cost her close to five figures a month in rent.

With Lexi down, Diana was free to bust up soul-mates with abandon. She passed by the cloaked car on her way out to do just that, and the smarmy smile on her face put murderous thoughts in my head. I cursed the gods for my inability to engage. Alerting Diana to the fact that we knew she was the one controlling the Balmorrigan would only incite a head-on battle, and now was not the time for that. Better to keep our ears to the ground and learn as much as possible before taking the first swing—but it took every ounce of self-control I had not to pounce on her and shove a ball of black witchfire down her throat.

“First things first. We need to get past security.” Which was tight, and most of the reason for the exorbitant rent in a city that wasn’t known for being all that pricey. “It won’t be easy since the elevator to the penthouse is only accessible with one of those key-card things.”

Vaeta giggled and the sound of her mirth carried more than a hint of her power. “No need for all that, I have a better way. Follow me.” She got out of the car and walked confidently around the corner of the building.

Truth be told, I’d been looking forward to the stealthy elements of the heist, but I followed her anyway.

It seemed the mad level of security didn’t extend to the business side of the place, and there were plenty of shadowed areas where someone could stay hidden. A single spotlight lit the service exit and barely extended into the small lot designated for employee parking.

“Where are you?” I hissed and slid into the shadows, but Vaeta was nowhere to be seen. Flaky faerie.

A little bit of pale light reflected off the concrete wall and touched half of Delta’s face, but it was enough to let me see her annoyed expression. “Amateurs,” was all she said.

“Psst. Over here.” Vaeta called from someplace off to our right, and we slowly picked our way through the darkness. “Get ready,” was all the warning she gave before wind slashed my hair in my eyes and I felt my feet leave the ground.

Now, I’ve flown before. On a broomstick, and yes, I realize that’s considered something of a cliché, but I had control over my flight. This was nothing like that, and it was nothing like skimming either. I’ll confess to stifling a scream as I zoomed straight up into the black night. Delta let out a soft eek sound when the upward motion stopped. We shot sideways another few feet before landing behind a large potted shrub on Diana’s penthouse terrace.

“Well, okay then.” I patted wind-tossed hair back into place and tried to look like my stomach wasn’t still down on the ground, and being lifted six floors up the side of a building by essentially nothing but air was an everyday event. The fact that my eyes were still bugged out probably meant I didn’t entirely pull it off.

Delta wore her hair slicked back off sharp, predatory features—probably for the sake of convenience. The rapid trip through the wind tunnel had whipped the normally sleek tail into a frothy, snarling puff that somehow managed to still look model-chic. We Balefires share pretty genes, so I wasn’t exactly jealous; I only noted the fact because it seemed to annoy her to the point of distraction.

Flicking a finger toward her, I funneled a whisper of magic in her direction. “Extricus.” The knotted mess untangled itself. “Can we please get on with it before she comes back?”

Not quite hiding a smirk, Vaeta stepped from the shadows and ran a hand through the space around the door handle. “Warded,” she pronounced. “Nasty one, too.”

“And that’s why I planned to go in through the front door. She couldn’t risk hexing any of the building staff, so the wards wouldn’t have been as strong.” Only an idiot would try to disarm the tangle of spells laid over this door. “This was a waste of time.”

“Not entirely.” Delta’s sword sang against the sheath as she drew it free. “You witch types think you’re the only ones with magic, but I’ve got a trick or two up my sleeve.” Holding the weapon aloft, she said a word in a language I’d never heard before but suspected was Dwarvish. Blue light pulsed through the gleaming metal as she brought the blade down to slash through brick and concrete like the wall was made of paper.

Three quick slices opened a door in the wall to the left of the patio slider. “Amateur move, warding the door but not the wall.” Sheathing her sword, Delta squared her shoulders and stepped into Diana’s apartment. Grinning, Vaeta slipped inside, and knowing I’d lost control of this whole mission, I followed suit. Hell, who was I kidding? Faeries do what they want to do, and the Fiach wouldn’t pee in my ear if my brain was on fire. I’d never been in control.

But I was the only one who knew what to look for, so in my head, I danced around singing na-na-na-na-boo-boo while on the outside I kept my face serious.

“Posh.” Vaeta admired the decor which, not surprisingly, ran heavily to black leather, metal, glass, and sleek, stark lines without so much as a pillow on the sofa to lend softness or a pop of color. A curtainless expanse of glass overlooked the small city of Port Harbor and framed it prettily.

“If you like the idea of living in what amounts to the biker boot of apartments, I suppose.” I let her continue her tour of the space while I tried to think like Diana. Where would she hide one of her prized possessions?

“We’re looking for a wand. Polished hickory, maybe eight inches long, with a bowstring-wrapped citrine point for added focus.” Nodding, Delta crossed the room to scan the selection of objet d’art in a lighted wall of built-in shelving cubes.

It looked like Diana spent little time in the spotless kitchen, but Vaeta opened the nearly empty cabinets anyway. “How does the woman live like this? There’s nothing here but wine glasses and paper plates.” Appalled, she whipped open the refrigerator. “She doesn’t even have condiments.”

“She probably orders take-out. Not everyone makes a three-course meal for breakfast.” I couldn’t help the subtle dig. “We’re not here to assess her on the Betty Crocker Scale of Housewifery. Just keep looking for the wand.”

Heading deeper into the apartment, I started opening doors. The first led to what was probably meant to be a home office, but was completely devoid of furniture or personal items of any kind. The next was a guest bathroom that looked equally unused. Then I hit pay dirt and found Diana’s bedroom.

This was where the woman lived, and it tickled me a little to discover she was something of a slob. Okay, that was an understatement. Expensive clothes mounded over what I assumed was a chair next to the closet, based on the size and shape of the pile. Jewelry spilled across the top of a dresser and dripped down into the open top drawer. All her shoes lay in a pile in one corner beneath a series of dents in the wall. I could picture her walking in and kicking them off without much care for where they landed or what damage the heels did when they hit.

I realized I’d been right about the take-out when I saw the stack of empty containers and the drift of crumbs across the rumpled sheets. Eww. Diana liked to eat in bed and didn’t seem too concerned about sleeping on greasy linens in a pile of her own filth.

If anyone had been taking bets about her sex life, I’d put money down on her having none at all. No wonder she was so cranky all the time.

The idea of pawing through the mess sent a shiver up my spine that had more to do with the heebie-jeebifying possibility of finding a nest of maggots than Diana figuring out she’d been burgled and tracing the crime back to me.

“Did you find—” Delta poked her head into the room and abruptly lost the will to speak. “Um,” was all she said before she beat a hasty retreat. I heard her tell Vaeta, “Don’t go in there. Just keep searching out here. You’ll thank me later.”

Wimps.

Still, Delta succeeded in distracting my attention away from full-on shudder mode, which was a stroke of luck. When I turned back to survey the mess, I’d lost the sense of revulsion and gained some perspective. This was a puzzle to be solved. A messy, disgusting puzzle, mind you, but I’d always been good at seeing patterns in chaos.

Closing my eyes, I dragged in a few meditative breaths. When I opened them again, I kept them slightly unfocused—partly to keep from getting grossed out a second time, but mostly to let the sheer mountain of detritus render itself into manageable chunks. Then I stepped into her shoes.

Not literally because…yuck!

I was Diana Diamond coming home from a long day—or night—of screwing up people’s lives. What did I do? Well, if it was a good night, I danced around a little as I kicked off my shoes and on a bad one, I just winged them into the corner as hard as I could and put on—. I glanced around and my gaze fell on a pair of well-worn slippers. Bingo.

And the soft robe hanging off the doorknob. Double bingo. Jewelry hits the dresser and I’m shrugging off the day with takeout in bed.

No, that wasn’t right. Diana would need to track her progress in some way. Maybe with a calendar or a list—and none of this was helping me figure out where she’d hide the wand and time was running out.

Concentrate, I told myself. You’re only seeing what’s there. What’s missing in this organized disorder?

I made another circuit of the bedroom, and as I passed the open doorway leading to the master bath, it hit me. There wasn’t a mirror in the place. Out of character for someone like Diana, who wore nothing but designer clothes and thousand-dollar shoes. Vain people liked looking at themselves, didn’t they? So where was the mirror?

Now that I knew what I was looking for, the pattern fell into place. Framed artwork danced across the wall behind the bed. Diana’s tastes ran to splotchy abstracts and even numbers. Two on the left of the headboard, two on the right. The adjacent wall carried three and three, but with one difference—a large space between the canvases. One that would be about the size of a wall mirror.

Pay dirt.

Except it wasn’t quite.

I tried every revealing spell in my arsenal and when all else failed, threw a ball of witchfire. Okay, maybe I was frustrated, but the fire picked out the outline of a rectangle, which proved I was on the right track.

Stupid thing was probably keyed to her finger or voice print.

Fury bubbled up through the well of magic pooled behind my belly. I let it out in a low shriek that brought Delta and Vaeta running.

“What happened?”

Tiny tongues flickered along the wall and I gestured toward them because I didn’t trust my voice for more than a short, growled description. “Invisible mirror. Hidden by magic. No key. Dead end.”

Shockingly, Delta grinned. Didn’t she hear what I said?

Her sword was in her hand almost before I heard the sound of it leaving the scabbard. The metal burned bright and blue and sang as she brought the tip up to slash a path through the air around the edges of the mirror. When she closed the rectangle, the flare dazzled my eyes and the popping sound pulled at my eardrums. How did I not know Delta had that kind of game?

Spots danced through my vision for a solid minute, and when they cleared, I let out a string of language not becoming a lady. Not that I considered myself in that class anyway. Lexi would have recognized the room that had essentially sucked me through the mirror. This was Diana’s lair, the place where she could be her truest self and count her victories on the wall covered with the darkness-laced cards she’d played.

As I stepped closer for a better look, I heard a tapping sound and looked behind me to see Delta and Vaeta’s anxious faces peering at me though the looking glass. Their mouths were moving, but I had no idea what they were saying, so I shook my head, and turned back toward the wall of shame.

More tapping, frantic this time, and Vaeta used her breath to create steam on the glass. Her finger traced out two words. She’s coming.

Uh oh. Time to find the wand and get out.

Reluctantly, I focused on the only other two things in the room: a bare table and an old, painted cupboard with one door hanging slightly open. More tapping nudged me into yanking my sleeve down over bare skin to nudge the door open without leaving my prints behind. There wasn’t time to do much more than grab the wand and skedaddle back through the mirror, but I couldn’t help snagging one of the Tarot cards from the deck sitting on a shelf alone.

The mirror sucked me back through to the bedroom before I had time to worry how it might work, and Delta reversed her mojo to hide it behind me.

“Elevator’s on the way up, we have to go. Now.” To hurry things along, Vaeta drew a strong breeze to push us back toward the open doorway and Delta twisted around to seal it almost before we were clear. “Hold on.” I heard Vaeta’s tense order while I felt her hand on my arm. With both me and Delta in tow, she jumped off the roof just as the elevator doors dinged open.

Then we were falling and I forgot how to breathe.