Capitol Magic (6 page)

Strike that.

I needed to come clean at some point. I needed to explain everything to Jane, and time was running out.

Keeping my face expressionless, I hefted the bag onto the table. I steeled myself as I reached into the cloth, as I collected my precious metal burden. I set it on the table carefully before unwrapping four perfect rounds of pure white silk to reveal a flawlessly balanced dagger.

The Key shimmered in its swaddling. Its simple handle was fashioned of onyx, the stone smoothed through craftsmanship and centuries of use. A silver blade was bonded to the hilt, emerging from the grip as naturally as a leaf from a branch. The metal was as long as my hand, flaring widely as it emerged from the onyx and narrowing to a deadly point. The silver was so highly polished that it seemed to glow from within.

“What is it?” Jane breathed. She brought one hand close, but she knew better than to touch another person's magic. Neko glanced from his witch to me, obviously somewhat disconcerted by what I had produced.

“It's called a Sekhmet's Key. Maurice Richardson's home has been sealed by a sphinx with Sekhmet's Chains, and this Key will gain us entrance.”

I made it sound simple. I pretended that I had not sneaked through reference books that Chris kept hidden away. I acted like I had not stolen the Key from its hiding place in my mentor's desk. I almost convinced myself that I had not contrived an emergency meeting between Chris and James, made certain that they would be occupied for the entire night to come.

But I was terrified by what I had done. Terrified by my actions, but also by my compulsion to do them. I needed to retrieve the missing books. I needed to restore the Old Library, to make it whole, make it proper. And apparently, I would go to almost any lengths to do so.

At least Jane's voice was steady when she said, “And then my magic will let us find the missing books.”

“Precisely,” I said, drowning out Neko's yelp of surprise. “There's only one problem.” I swallowed hard, wishing I did not have to say the next words. But I had no other option. I could never hope to wrest the Key from Chris again, to divert both of my watchers so completely.

“The Key only works under the full moon. We must use it tonight.”

CHAPTER 5

JANE

TONIGHT. UNDER THE full moon. Well, that explained why Sarah had brought the cupcakes, as a sort of bribe.

Uneasy, I forced myself to look away from the shimmering, knife-shaped Key. “Don't you think we should wait? Maybe until next month? We can figure out a real plan, get some reinforcements?”

Sarah shook her head. “I don't know about you, but my, er, allies might not approve of my using the Key. James and Chris can be a little … overprotective. If they have an entire month to muster their arguments, I'll never get to do this.”

Neko had the good grace to smother his snort as he finished licking clean the White Hot Chili Pepper cupcake he had absconded with. “I know what you mean,” he said, with an air of perfect innocence.

And I did too. Even though I wasn't certain where we were going, even though I didn't know a lot about this Maurice Richardson guy, I was pretty sure David would forbid me from joining in on Sarah's little magical field trip.

It wasn't that he didn't trust me.

Well, not completely.

It was that he felt honor-bound to protect me. That was his job. And, of course, his personal interest, given the emotions we had both finally admitted to.

Two days before, I'd convinced myself that I needed to help Sarah because she was a client, because she was helping me to explore my life as a librarian, my career, separate and apart from my witchcraft. Now, I had a whole other round of convincing to do.

Because Sarah wasn't asking for my accompaniment as a librarian. She could have walked across the garden and summoned Evelyn for that. Sarah wanted my help because I was a witch.

A witch with an over-protective warder. I wasn't an idiot. I knew that I should call David, that I should ask him to accompany us as we tracked down the magical books that Maurice Richardson had stolen.

But I also knew that such a phone call would shut the door on the difficult topic I'd finally managed to broach with David. I would be handing over my independence without another whisper. I would be admitting that I could not act without him, that I could not be a witch
or
a librarian without his interference.

I took a deep breath, torn by indecision. On the one hand, I could hear David telling me that I was being ridiculous, that he was honored to stand by me no matter what I chose to do, that he wouldn't have it any other way.

On the other hand, I felt like I was giving up, forfeiting the fight for my independence before I'd truly begun. There was a
reason
I wanted to try this library consulting thing. I needed to spread my wings. I needed to test myself.

Besides, we couldn't be heading into anything
truly
dangerous if Sarah was ducking her own male protectors. And I'd take Neko with me, so it wasn't like I was truly alone. And if push came to shove, I could always reach out to David, could always bring him in at the last minute.

And really, how much could go wrong if I had a sphinx—a real-life, vampire-tested sphinx—beside me? Sarah and I had certainly managed to rein in James Morton in the basement of the courthouse before he could harm me.

I squared my shoulders and said, “Well, let's get what we need from downstairs.” I led the way to the basement before Neko could gainsay me. Before I could lose my nerve.

It took me longer than I expected to find the necessary things. With my belongings semi-packed, it seemed that I was missing half the tools for every working that came to mind.

Muttering to myself, I hunted for a book on the subtle interaction of herbs and crystals. I knew there was one somewhere—it used to be on
that
shelf, right beside the couch. “Neko?” I finally asked, when I tried and discarded the fifth moss-green, Moroccan-bound, gold-stamped volume.

“Don't look at me,” he said. “I haven't had anything to do with packing.”

“No,” I said acidly. “You haven't.”

He managed an angelic smile, so I decided to take another magical tack. “Why don't we start with runes?” I collected a silk-lined leather sack. Before I could lose my nerve, I added a silver flask and the smallest of the boxes that held my extensive crystal collection. For good measure, I picked up a couple of elementary spellbooks as well. “Okay,” I said. “Let's go back to the kitchen. There's more light there.”

Sarah obligingly reached for the runes as I juggled my bounty. “These feel like Scrabble tiles,” she said.

“Close.” I laughed. “They aren't ordinary letters. But the pieces are carved out of rowan wood, and the symbols are painted with vineblack.”

“The bag looks brand new,” she said, as we settled around the kitchen table. Neko was already clearing away the remnants of our cupcake feast. Without my instructing him, he produced a length of white silk from one of the nearby drawers. After spreading it on the table, he sprinkled it with purifying rainwater from the silver flask. I nodded my appreciation before responding to Sarah's implied question.

“The bag
is
new, and the runes inside. There were several sets in the basement when I first came across the collection. But we had some … problems last summer, and all my runes were destroyed. These rowan ones are the first replacements I've found.” I turned to my familiar. “Neko? Can you go out to the garden? I'll need some radish leaves, and cuttings from the vervain and rosemary.” He nodded, as if I asked him to harvest an herbal salad every night, and then he slipped out the cottage's front door.

I dreaded the thought of leaving the Peabridge garden. Its colonial plantings held almost everything I required for my herb magic. Over the past three years, I had memorized where each plant grew. My powers had matured with the very leaves and stems and roots that I collected. I
knew
the Peabridge grounds in a way that I could never learn another plot of earth. I couldn't stay put here—Evelyn would see to that. But if I lived with Melissa I would be close enough to visit, to … borrow from the Peabridge whenever I needed to complete a working.

I shook my head. I wasn't going to solve the puzzle of my next home that night. I looked up into Sarah's patient green eyes. “Sorry,” I said. “I lost my train of thought there for a moment.”

“I know how that can happen,” she said. “What can I do to help here?”

I settled the bag of runes on the table. “There are lots of ways to work with these symbols,” I said. “Some people use them to explain past events, or to predict the future.” I nodded toward the depleted box of cupcakes on the counter, and I said with a smile, “Sort of like tarot cards. But I have something else in mind.”

I plunged my hand into the sack. I'd had the runes for less than a year, but they were already attuned to me. I could feel their magic humming against my fingertips, like curious minnows in a pond. Each tile had a different energy, a different vibration. I sifted through them, discarding square after square until I felt the one I needed.

I plucked it out of the bag and displayed it on the palm of my hand. The rowan surface was a medium brown, polished to a low sheen. The vineblack ink was dark, each line crisp in forming a single character. A simple arrow, pointing up.

“This is Tiwaz,” I said. “It represents the sky, and knowledge. Judgment and legal authority.”

“Like the court materials Richardson has taken,” Sarah said.

“Exactly.”

Neko chose that moment to return with the herbs from the garden. He had selected perfect specimens, broad rounds of bright green from the radishes, dusky fingerlings of rosemary, a half-dozen spikes of flowering vervain. Spread out on the silk cloth, the leaves looked like carefully sculpted jewels.

“Thank you,” I said.

Neko acknowledged my words with an inclination of his head. My familiar might be the king of snark during ordinary conversation, but once he was involved in a magical working, he became focused, as intense as a cat stalking prey.

Before I could ask, Neko collected a spotless silver bowl from the one kitchen cabinet that was always organized. He set it in the precise center of the silk cloth.

I surveyed our tools. Rune. Herbs. Rainwater. That left the core of our working, the body that would receive the magic we were about to raise.

I opened my box of gemstones. There they were—a half dozen strands of tiger's eye, simple bracelets with a dozen beads on each. The striations of the eyes were perfectly matched, bolstering the stones' ability to focus power and courage. They gave any wearer grace and the ability to see clearly, without illusion.

All they needed was a little magical activation.

“Ready?” I asked, glancing at my familiar and the sphinx. Neko seemed to have coiled inside himself; he was very still as he pressed close to my side. Beside him, Sarah looked nervous, more than half afraid. I smiled, trying to put her at her ease. Then I took a deep breath and touched my forehead, offering up my thoughts to the magical working. I brushed my fingertips across my throat, offering up my voice. I settled my hand on my chest and offered up my heart.

And without wasting any words, I placed the Tiwaz rune squarely in front of me. I reached for the broadest of the radish leaves, a near-perfect circle of veined green. Using the heel of my palm, I crushed the leaf into the rune, pressing until I could feel the smooth lines of the arrow through the greenery.

When I was certain that the radish had been infused with Tiwaz, with lawful justice, I added a layer of rosemary. The piney scent of the herb permeated my kitchen, and I heard Ophelia's famous line from
Hamlet
: “There's rosemary. That's for remembrance.” I pushed the distraction away. Better that I concentrate on the here and now. On magic.

I pressed the rosemary, leaning heavily onto the rune. By the time I repeated the process with vervain, my kitchen was filled with a heady scent, with the golden aroma of fresh-cut grass.

Breathing deeply, I moved the rune into the silver bowl, making sure that all of the bruised herbs accompanied it. I added rainwater carefully, taking care that none splashed out of the container.

Using my stained palm, I stirred the liquid four times, once for each of the cardinal points of the compass. In the silver bowl, the water seemed as bright as liquid emeralds. I cupped my dripping hand over the container, and then I lowered my face to my palm. Inhaling the scent of magic, I whispered a spell.

Rune of justice, rune of law,

Let rainwater power draw.

Herbs protect us, green'ry share

All your strength'gainst worldly care.

I felt the power I had raised, thrumming within the silver bowl. It wasn't anything mighty, anything terrible. I had purposely woven a gentle spell, a condensing and strengthening of the magic inherent in the elements before me. I did not want to contort the pure natural power; I did not want to turn it into anything unnatural.

And, a tiny whisper nagged at the back of my mind, I did not want to work a spell so monstrously strong that David would be summoned. I was a witch. A strong and independent woman. I didn't need my warder watching over me for something as simple as basic magical protection.

Forcing all of my attention back to the silver bowl, I held out my hand. “Neko?” I asked.

Of course, my familiar understood my magical need. He passed me the first of the tiger's eye bracelets. I lowered the tawny stones into the water, taking care that every surface was submerged. One swirl through the potion, a second, a third, and a fourth.

When I fished out the stones, they shimmered with more than light. They had absorbed the protective magic, enfolded it, incorporated it into their being. I smiled tightly and tied the bracelet onto Sarah's waiting wrist, next to her hematite band.