49
Savannah
Fifteen minutes later, we’d parked along the Midway and were walking up the front steps of the Hall of Inquiry. The stone gargoyles on the roof looked particularly foreboding against the overcast sky.
We checked in with the two guards at the front, and a woman walked out of the elevator a couple minutes later, her heels clicking on the marble floor. Her silver hair was tied up in a bun, and she wore slacks and a tucked-in blouse. Her signature zinged around us with floral hints of lavender. “Jaxson and Savy?”
“That’s us,” I said. “We can’t tell you how grateful we are for your help.”
She gestured for us to follow and lowered her voice conspiratorially. “No problem. Just don’t mention what it is we’re doing.”
Great. The last thing we needed was to get her in hot water with the Order.
Her office was on the third floor, and she shared it with at least three others who were presently absent. Grabbing a cloth bag from behind her desk, she ushered us into the break room and shut the door. “Let’s see this thing.”
Jaxson handed her the black leather box, and she opened it and whistled. “A finger. Wow. Creepy.”
“Creepy doesn’t even come close to what we had to do to get that,” I said, taking in the dirty dishes in the sink and what smelled like day-old coffee in the pot. Jaxson tensed beside me, and the heat of his repressed fury practically blistered my skin.
Devi raised an eyebrow and gave me an appraising look. “Now I’m interested.”
I glanced at Jaxson. “Uh, maybe over a drink sometime.”
“Fair, especially since I’ve only got a few minutes.” She revealed the contents of her bag: a tall red candle with dried wax on the sides, some twiggy herbs and feathers, a jar of white powder, string, and a piece of polished onyx.
“Is everything all right? This place seems a little on edge this morning,” Jaxson said.
“You noticed?” Devi’s eyes flicked up as she poured the white powder into a circle on the table in the center of the room, then lined it with twigs and feathers. “Something’s going on at Bentham. A prison riot, by the sound of it. That’s why I was called in this morning.”
“A riot?” I asked, glancing at Jaxson nervously.
Bentham was jam-packed with some of the world’s most dangerous Magica criminals, and as of two nights ago, a couple dozen more shifters. I shivered just thinking about my first time visiting the prison with Neve and Amal. “Anything to be worried about?”
“Don’t think so, but after everything that’s happened at Bentham this past year, we can never be too careful.” She lit the candle and placed it in the center of the circle, then gingerly took out Dragan’s finger and set it next to the candle. “This will only take a minute, but you two should step back.”
I glanced at Jaxson and backed up after recalling what had happened with the lycanthropy test at Alia’s apartment. At least this didn’t require blood or any other bodily fluids.
We stood in the corner next to the coffeemaker while Devi closed her eyes and began moving her hands like she was rolling a ball in them. She whispered in a language I didn’t recognize. The shadows of the room lengthened, drawing inward toward the flame. For a second, it felt like I was being pulled in, but Jaxson caught my arm.
The candle’s flame flickered, and Devi picked up the black gemstone, cupping it above her lips before tossing it into the circle. It landed beside Dragan’s finger with a thud, not bouncing, but rather almost sticking to the table. The candle’s flame curled upward in a blinding explosion of light.
I shielded my eyes with my arm and froze when I peeked at the table. Dragan’s withered finger began inching toward the onyx like it was tied to a string and being pulled by an invisible hand. As soon as it touched the gemstone, the candle extinguished in a plume of smoke, and the ring of white powder ignited in a bright burst of fire.
A wave of magic blasted outward, pushing us back against the wall.
Perspiring, Devi held her hands over the object as if feeling an invisible force, and then she clapped her palms together and smiled. “It’s done.”
“That’s it?” I frowned. The white powder had completely burned away, leaving only the candle and the gemstone on the table. The finger was…gone.
She retrieved a tiny black linen pouch from her bag and used it to carefully pick up the gemstone, which she handed to me in its new wrapping. “Hey, it might have looked like nothing, but that was a pretty hefty spell.”
I looked at the strangely warm object in my hand. “Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I just imagined it would be different.”
She flashed me a friendly smile. “People always do. Now, give it a minute to cool off. The magic is still fresh, and the stone will scald you.”
“How will it work?”
“You’ll want to keep this talisman on your person at all times, holding it in your palm, if possible. It’s instilled with Dragan’s essence, so it will lead you to his soul if you concentrate on him.”
Holy shit. It was like a Dragan divining rod.