Author's Note

Yes, after a far too long hiatus, Nicci is back for all sorts of new adventures. I am EXTREMELY GRATEFUL for every person who kept reviewing my other work throughout the long gap without updates. Since FP has added reply to reviews in my inbox, it's much easier for me to say thanks. But, for those of you who don't have an account here, let me just say 'thank you' officially. Those reviews are what kept me going. I will update this as often as I can, but I hope by now you all know that I won't stop til it's finished. Please leave me any reviews you can! This is still a pretty rough draft at this point!

Now, get on with it - you've waited long enough!

Gratitude, thanks, hugs, love to everyone who read this -

confusionlove

Chapter One

The hallway was dark and musty, with a strong smell of wet paper and mold. Raziel coughed a little, and when I looked at him, he looked extremely miserable. “It stinks in here,” he complained. I touched the light switch, but flicking it in either direction produced no result. To top it off, I could see a cloud of his breath as he spoke because here, in the wet darkness, it was noticeably colder than it was outside.

“No lights, either,” I commented, but didn’t mention the temperature. I’d been complaining to him about being cold nearly non-stop. Complaining, actually, to anyone and everyone in earshot.

He cast a frown toward the light switch as though he could pressure it into working. “Great.”

“Well, there are windows. Come on already,” I said, going further into the room. “There has to be something here to say where they’ve taken Cernion.”

He followed, less enthusiastically. “It’s full of books, Nicci, any one of them could be what you’re looking for. It would take us months to find anything.”

The room seemed large, but I could only see a narrow hallway formed between two towering bookcases. “Hopefully not,” I replied, walking carefully to avoid stepping in anything. I could see pretty well in the dark thanks to my vampirically-altered powers, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed stepping in stinking puddles.

“Hopefully these things are more stable than they look,” he commented, warily eyeing the shelves as he followed. I walked slowly, trying to let my power alert me to anything noteworthy. Though Raziel was right, and I really didn’t know what I was looking for, we did know Cernion had been in here, so there should be something. I looked at the ground to see if anything was kicked or scuffed, but I’d never learned how to track someone, and the whole place was a mess. Raziel hovered behind me, also watching for the water on the floor. It was hard to seriously worry that I was going to get into trouble when he was there –just his tall, strong presence would have been reassuring, even if he had been a werecreature of average ability.

I knew, though, that he was more than capable of handling himself, and protecting me if necessary. You didn’t get to be a personal bodyguard to the pack alpha by being mediocre. Though, it was true that I’d never actually seen him transform or fight, I took it on faith that he was good at his job on top of being lithe and muscular, as he appeared while human. Besides, I was pretty sure he liked me too much to put me in any danger, so if he was here that meant he believed he was all the protection I’d need.

At the end of the passage was an ancient desk, cluttered with damp paper and books stained by overturned inkwells. “That’s a weird place for a desk,” I murmured. “It feels strange.”

Raziel shifted his weight uneasily. “What does?”

“I don’t know. Something feels strange. Like… strange power.” I reached for the topmost book on the stack.

He caught my arm. “Maybe you shouldn’t go picking up things that are strangely powerful?”

I shook him off. “I’ll be all right. We don’t have time to pick through every detail; you said so yourself.” Before he could interrupt me, I lifted the book. Nothing happened, but beneath it was a dirty, metallic key. “See?”

“Just try not to get blown up,” he answered, still disgruntled.

“It’s just a key.” I picked it up and felt a strange buzzing. What did that mean? “It’s definitely… enchanted, or something, though.” I slipped it into my coat pocket. “Let’s keep looking.”

I picked my way around fallen books and down a second passage, hoping to feel something else magical nearby. Truth be told, I was so unpracticed when it came to dealing with magic, I could only hope to stumble onto things as I had the key. I had an idea how to search the room with my power, but it wasn’t as though I really knew how to control it. And the last time I’d tried using power without a real idea what I was doing, well, I’d let loose a demon, and we all know how well that turned out. Even though Raziel must have been aware of this fact – that serious magic would be more than either of us could handle – he was nice enough not to mention it.

“What’s that?” Raziel said, and I blinked out of thought to see what he was looking at. There was a necklace sitting on a shelf, and the moment I paid attention to it, I knew it had some kind of power on it. This one felt decidedly unpleasant – a specific, usually silent part of my brain was telling me to stay back.

“Wait!” I exclaimed, but he’d already picked it up.

It flashed brightly with a sizzling sound and he shouted in pain, flinging it away from him. When it hit the ground, the light was gone. “What the hell was that?”

I pulled on his arm until he let me see his hand. It was smoking faintly and looked as though he’d grabbed a hot coal: in short, painful and gross. I raised my hand to touch it and he pulled back. “Let me see it,” I insisted. “I can help.”

Still grimacing from the pain, he reluctantly offered his hand again. “It felt like silver,” he said, as I concentrated a little power into my free hand. “But more intense. More magical. Ouch,” he complained, when I touched the burn.

Before I answered, I concentrated on the task of using just enough power to hurry his healing factor along. “Sorry,” I apologized, as his skin began scabbing over. “I don’t know why it stings at first. I don’t think it’s supposed to.”

“It’s okay. I mean, it’s better like this anyway…” For a second he just looked at me, then he blinked and said, “Thanks,” awkwardly pulling his hand back from mine.

Luckily there was a convenient distraction to pretend that moment had never happened. I carefully lifted the necklace by its chain, studying it. The charm was just a cheap circle, maybe silver, but it looked more like pewter. “Whatever burned you was designed for a werecreature, I think,” I said. “It doesn’t even tingle when I touch it, and if it was meant for vampires or humans I’d feel a little something.”

He stuck his hands in his coat pockets. “That’s not very nice.”

“No, it’s not,” I said, wondering what it was doing there. Uncertainly, I stuck it in my pocket with the key. “Come on, there’s only one more place to look, and that key has to go somewhere.”

“Whatever you say,” he murmured, trailing me again. I still felt odd having a bodyguard again, on top of the strangely reminiscent feeling of being with Raziel. It had been a few weeks since we’d gone anywhere together.

The last corridor of bookshelves seemed devoid of anything interesting at first, but as I turned to leave, I noticed Raziel seemed distracted. “What is it?”

“It’s… the air. I can’t smell anything over all the mold, though,” he added, with an irritated frown.

“The air?” I stood still and tried to feel anything out of place. It felt slightly fresher, not a breeze exactly, but there were no open windows… “Oh,” I said, and looked down at our feet. There was a dirty rug on the ground. I pushed it aside with one shoe and revealed a trap door bearing a metal padlock.

“Ugh, that thing stinks even worse,” he complained, coughing again.

I could only imagine the stench of mold to a werecheetah’s senses. As it was, I was just glad that I wasn’t allergic, and that this might be the clue I was looking for. “I think this is our lock,” I said. The key tingled in my hand as I fit it into the keyhole, then there was a quick burst of light, and the door opened easily.

It took me a second to recover my night vision, but when I did, the door revealed a ladder and a tunnel lowering into the ground. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Raziel asked.

“No, but I can’t give up,” I pointed out.

“All right. The air smells better under there, but let me go first.” He studied the passage for a moment, then began climbing carefully down. I waited until he said, “All right, it’s clear,” before I followed. Though it was only about six feet down, I hadn’t heard a sound from him climbing.

Down here was even darker. Even using my ability, I had to strain to make out details. Raziel, standing in front of me, spoke softly. “Are you all right?”

“It’s a little dark for me,” I answered. “Can you see okay?”

He looked around, then said sheepishly, “I can see perfectly.”

“Then you get to go first,” I said, “but don’t pick anything up without letting me see it first.”

He smiled, ghostlike with my dim bluish vision. “All right. Come on.” He took my hand and we made our way down the tunnel. The ground was sloping noticeably downhill. After a few hundred yards, it turned sharply to the left and the floor made a different sound under my feet. “Something’s not right,” he murmured, barely a whisper. Though he still led me by the hand, I found I couldn’t hear him move or even breathe beside me. It always made me nervous when he acted so cautious.

After a few minutes of this indomitable silence and darkness, the hall ended in a door. He looked at me before opening it. “It feels normal,” I whispered.

He nodded and listened at the door for a moment before opening it. Luckily, I was right, and there was no enchantment. Rather, it led to a hall with some flickering electric lights and more sloping passage. Raziel still seemed extremely paranoid, so I tried not to make noise, but it seemed strange since the lighting and air seemed so much better.

“What is going on?” He asked hopelessly, releasing my hand.

“What are you talking about?” I was unable to see what was making him so upset.

“This hall, this tunnel… I’ve been here before. We’re in the panther underground, Nicci. Look… a few more feet and you’ll see.” He led me hurriedly to another door, and this time when he opened it, a long passage lined with doors was on the other side. “This is part of the living quarters.”

I blinked, stunned. “What… does that mean?”

“It means we need to go see Logan, right now,” he said urgently. “If something’s going on… he might already know. But I need to report to him, either way.”

I had a horrible thought that he’d hired some thugs to kidnap Cernion, but refused to believe it. At least, not until I saw him again and heard any explanation he might offer. Besides, Cernion was living in panther property, there was no need for this kind of force… right? I didn’t pretend to fully understand the politics of werecreature business, nor did I fully understand Logan himself. But I still couldn’t let myself believe that he would do something so horrible. Raziel led me through all-too-familiar halls toward Logan’s house, and it felt strangely as though nothing had changed. “Raziel, you don’t think he…” I began, but wasn’t sure how to continue.

“Nicci, for once in my life, I’m glad I don’t have a vivid imagination.” He answered curtly, and I could practically feel his anxiety in the air around me. I kept quiet until we’d arrived. He stayed in the strange, short hallway with the doors to Logan’s rooms, not entering the house, and went to the only door I’d ever seen opened; it led to Logan’s bedroom.

Raziel rapped on the door with his knuckles, and as we waited to see if Logan was home or not, I noticed that he seemed flushed, almost feverish. “Are you all right?” I asked, my voice instinctively hushed. He hadn’t seemed like himself all day.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, glancing at me unhappily. “It’s just… you know. It’s a full moon tonight, Nicci.”

Am I so out of touch with that, now that I’m not living with three werecreatures? I wondered briefly, amazed at how easily I forgot what had been habitually remembered not so long ago. “Is it? I… I’m sorry,” I apologized immediately and too quickly, “I wouldn’t have… I mean, I shouldn’t have made you come…”

He made a face that I hadn’t seen before; he looked almost frustrated, or annoyed. “I’d always come to help you, Nicci, you know that.”

Cowed by his intensity, I merely nodded. He sighed and looked back at the door. “Logan’s not here. I don’t know why he would be; the ceremonies will start in a few hours…”

I rubbed my eyes. “Raziel, really, you can… you can go. The sun will be down soon and Saxon will help me look then. And… I can keep looking by myself until then. I don’t mean to impose on you… I… you don’t owe me anything,” I stammered, mixed up on why I’d asked him in the first place. Saxon knew that I’d slept with Raziel before; he knew just about every detail of what I’d done while he’d been gone. And just because he forgave me didn’t mean I didn’t feel guilty, or stop me from remembering that night whenever I was with Raziel now.

He put his hand on my shoulder and turned me to face him. “Nicci, you and me have gone through a lot, and I wouldn’t change a minute of it, even if I could. I…” He broke off, and moved closer, speaking quietly now. “I know what you’re doing, trying to stay away from me. I understand why you’d want to. But you don’t need to bother. I’ll help you whenever you ask me to, and the full moon or…” he hesitated, then continued, “or whoever you’re seeing, isn’t going to stop me.”

I felt both foolish for trying to separate myself from our friendship, and relieved that he wasn’t bothered to be helping me as he’d used to. I hugged him impulsively and he laughed a little. “You never change,” he murmured.

“Thank you, Raziel, really. We just… I want to – no, I need to find him. If he’s been taken by anyone for what he is, then it being the full moon is only another life-endangering factor, you know?”

He moved back enough to look at me, very serious. “I know. We’ll find him, and fast. But we have to find Logan first,” he added, grimacing at the door.

“Check the house, he might be inside,” I suggested. “It’s worth a shot.”

He shrugged and nodded. “Oh, he’s… started renovating the place. So it’s a bit of a wreck,” he mentioned, opening the door.

“Wow,” I exclaimed softly. The front room’s floor and walls were stripped bare; even the staircase that curved to the upper floor was exposed down to bare wood, and seemed barely functional.

“Yeah, he’s… feeling ambitious, I guess.” He picked his way around piles of wood, tools, and buckets of paint, to the kitchen door. “He’s in here,” Raziel said to me, maybe so I wouldn’t be startled. “I’ll wait outside, okay?”

I’m sure I looked about as unhappy as I felt, but he wasn’t swayed by my expression. “Okay,” I answered, feeling suddenly nervous. Since I’d moved out, three weeks ago, I hadn’t spoken a word to Logan. And yes, I felt guilty. Regardless, I pushed on, and went in.

He stood by the sink, back to me. The first thing I thought on seeing him was that I hadn’t seen him dressed like this since the first time we’d met. Déjà vu, I thought as he turned to face me. The ankle-length vinyl trench coat was cinched with straps over his pelvis to remain decent, but otherwise, I was pretty sure he wore nothing. “Nicci,” he said, seeming surprised. Hard to believe that, though, since he probably heard us the moment we opened the door. Still, he always pretended as though he didn’t have super senses, at least around me – probably to be polite.

“Hi,” I managed, feeling unhappy even as he looked glad to see me.

Reading my face, he crossed his arms with a thoughtful expression. “I gather you have not come to celebrate the full moon with me. What has happened?”

I moved closer to the center of the room and rested my hands on the back of a dining room chair. Start from the beginning, I thought determinedly. “All right… well… it started this morning.” I felt as though I could visualize the day flickering past me like a movie in fast-forward. “Cernion called at eleven thirty to ask if he could spend the day with me. I guess because it’s the moon, but I really didn’t think enough of it to ask. I said yes, of course, and he said he’d take the bus.” Now I sighed, wishing he wouldn’t just parade around by himself on the streets where anyone could see him. “So… I just waited at home. When it started getting later, and there was still no sign of him, I started getting nervous. It was three when I called here to see if he was all right. Raziel answered and said Cernion had left at noon.”

Logan was watching me intently, thoughtfully, but I doubted he expected where the story was leading. I continued, “Saxon was still asleep, and Raziel said he was the only one here, so he told me he’d take the bus to my place and see if he didn’t catch a scent or something to suggest what had happened. He called me from a street corner, a bus stop along the route, and said the whole sidewalk smelled like someone had recently cast a spell of some kind. I went down there and I could… I could see the spell, Logan. I’m not totally useless anymore, I guess. I could see it on the ground, like it’d been drawn with some kind of glowing paint.” He seemed pleased, and I hated myself for thinking what I was thinking. Logan had always encouraged me. “So we followed the spell to this building… an old brick building on the outside. The door wasn’t locked, so we went in. It was full of books and it was leaking water in somewhere, so Raziel couldn’t smell anything for the mold, so we just looked around. I found this strange key that opened a trap door, and we went in. But… Logan. It led to the living quarters of the underground. Your underground. So we came to see you…”

“Let me guess,” he interrupted. “You think I had some part in this?”

I gestured helplessly. “What am I supposed to think? All I know is Cernion has been missing for over four hours now. You know he can’t fight supernatural strength. That means he’s as helpless as a human, and he’s been gone for four hours. What am I supposed to think?” I asked again, desperately.

He thought for a moment. “I do not know who might have taken your friend, Nicci. All I can say is if your trail led you to the underground, then he is probably still there. If you want, I will help you look. If you don’t like the thought of doing so, however, feel free to continue with Raziel.”

Startled, I interjected, “Logan, how can you on the moon? Raziel said… the ceremonies would start soon.”

He smiled, somewhat wistfully. “They are not supposed to start until dark. The moon rose early today.”

His expression made me feel strange. “Well… I mean… I don’t know where to look. I don’t want to just wander around, I…”

Logan’s eyes briefly flicked upwards, away from me. Raziel entered then, and I had a strange feeling he’d been summoned. “We need to find him before the moon ceremonies,” he pointed out.

“Yes, of course,” was Logan’s reasonable reply. I sat down at the table while he and Raziel discussed locations and directions in the underground that made little sense to me. Logan had once given me a map of the place, but it was a huge, confusing network of rooms and tunnels, and I knew they found their way around by smell more frequently than anything else. I had given up on remembering it all. If I could remember how to get to this house, and maybe the medical area, I was happy.

“I could cast a spell,” I realized. “Here, let me call Gillian. Maybe she has some advice on finding lost people… or unicorns in general…” I dug my cell phone out of my purse while I spoke.

“Just be careful,” Raziel answered uneasily. It didn’t seem like he was too fond of magic, but then, the burn he’d taken earlier had looked pretty painful.

“Oh – that’s right.” Distracted again, I dug the necklace and key out of my pocket.

“What is that?” Logan asked, curiously.

I explained briefly. “I don’t know if you’d want to have them looked at or anything. But that weird building we were in should probably be condemned and it’s got a trapdoor leading straight into your territory.”

Now he did look a little bit concerned. I wondered if it was an act, as that was how he knew he should look. “But the necklace burns us? Though not of silver?”

“It did once already, and I doubt you should test it,” I said.

Raziel said nothing, but he handed me a plastic baggie and I dropped both inside. He handed it over to Logan, who studied it briefly before secreting it away to a coat pocket.

Now, back to work. I was about to dial Gillian’s number when a jolt of power struck me so hard I dropped the phone. “Holy–” I exclaimed, but kept it short enough where I didn’t suffer any pain from making it a religious expletive. Sorcery had its own brand of downsides.

“What the hell was that?” Raziel demanded, suddenly next to me.

“I’m fine – really – it’s just… Saxon woke up I think, and…” I shook my head. Raziel still seemed unsettled, but he said nothing else.

What’s going on? Where are you? I heard him in my head, louder than a spoken word.

It was still surprising to me that he was able to form such coherent sentences with just his mind. It was trickier than he made it seem. Ever since my sorcery had started manifesting, telepathy was no longer the breeze it had once been for me. Saxon could still read my mind just about as easily as anything, though. So, I just visualized the events of the day until he spoke again. Panthers took Cernion, and Logan says he doesn’t know who? That’s bullshit.

I doubt I really had to try to express the next sentiment. What should I do? I asked, rather than deliberately answer his accusations, which I didn’t believe.

Well, by the time it’s dark enough for me to come help you, you’ll probably have found him already. If you want, I can meet you in the underground, if you’re sure that’s where he is. Otherwise I’ll just stay here.

Now to tell him what I wanted to do. I shut my eyes and imagined what I’d like to be doing next. I was just going to see if Gillian knew a spell I could cast, to find him, I mean. Raziel and Logan were still talking, but it was like a buzzing in the distance when I focused on telepathy.

That’s a good idea. Let me know what she says. And my head was silent again, so I picked up my phone and went back to dialing. I only had the business number, but I knew they were open, full moon or not. “Thank you for calling Manhattan’s premiere source for all your psychic and telepathic needs. Please hold.”

“No, wait—” I tried to interject, but the pleasant secretary didn’t listen. I was greeted with the kind of strange muzak one would expect from a combination psychic help center, wiccan supplier, and, for me, occasional sorcery school. “I’m on hold,” I said, when Logan and Raziel were giving me strange, slightly-concerned looks – most people probably didn’t start a phone call with ‘no, wait!’

“Oh,” Raziel said. “You think they have a spell for finding unicorns?”

“Maybe not unicorns, but probably missing people.”

Logan pointed out aptly, “If there is, it is probably not something they like to share.”

Raziel gave him a strange look. “You think they won’t help her?”

He shrugged. “All I mean is, it would be a very powerful spell to locate anyone, anywhere. Powerful, and not the kind of thing that the average person would be trusted with.”

“They can wipe it from my brain tomorrow if they want, as long as I find him,” I said tartly, and Logan wisely shut up. I didn’t want to freak out about Cernion being abducted and possibly hurt, and it would be nice if my only ideas at finding him actually panned out. So what if he was, as usual, being calmly realistic.

Eventually, the muzak stopped and the voice returned. “Thank you for holding. How may I help you?”

She seemed reluctant to direct me to Gillian, until I told her my name, at which point she apologized verbosely and I was briefly back on hold. I could only wonder at how busy they were tonight. When I had first visited Madams Gillian and Rosa, they were working out of a small three-room office with barely enough space for all their books, let alone customers. Now, with the unmasking of the true world to all humanity, they had gotten a bit… busier.

“Nicci, what is the matter?” Gillian came on the line without so much as a ‘hello.’ I wasn’t surprised, though it was still a little sad. It had taken me a lot of gloomy effort to tell them that Aisling had left New York, and maybe the country, because of me. I hadn’t even been sure I wanted to tell them at all, but after they were released from their captivity – though I was still unclear on most of these details – they had called looking for Aisling. I was just glad I hadn’t had to tell them face-to-face; cowardly, sure, but I’d never claimed to enjoy delivering bad news. They had loved seeing Aisling a hundred times more than seeing me, for sure.

“Cernion is missing,” I said, not saying hello, either. “He’s been gone for over four hours and may be captured by werecreatures.” I decided not to say panthers, because I didn’t want to so blatantly blame Logan. Something else could be going on, after all. Just because their office was in Logan’s territory didn’t mean they would be willing to assume his perfect innocence. Is anyone? I wondered, thinking I still wasn’t sure what I believed.

“That’s horrible! Four hours?” She exclaimed, shrilly. Last week I had convinced Cernion to go visit my psychic tutors, and they had adored him. He was the only unicorn in the continental United States, so far as anyone knew, and cute on top of that. I hadn’t at all been surprised by their reception, considering that they had been fans of Aisling for at least half of the same reasons, and a lot more that no one felt like telling me. She lectured, “Four hours is a long time, Nicci. You should have called right away. Now, I’m not sure what we can do.”

“What do you mean, now? I was hoping you knew of a spell or a… anything I could do. We lost his trail and I’m… not sure where to look next.”

She sighed and I could visualize her expression just from that sound. I pictured her pinching the bridge of her nose between finger and thumb, eyes shut tight. It was the usual stressed, thinking expression that I frequently inflicted on her. “Nicci, there are a number of ways to find someone who is lost. Many of these are… black magic, and we do not practice that here.”

“Many of them, but not all of them?” I asked hopefully.

“I… well…” She broke off and sighed again. “Let me talk to Rosa. Hang on a minute.” She put the phone down and I heard a lot of nothing.

“Well?” Raziel asked, finally.

“They’re conversing on a way to find him that’s not black magic,” I answered.

“Hey… I’m sure he’s all right,” he stammered unhappily. I wondered what my expression was like.

“I hope so,” I murmured, studying the tabletop.

Seconds felt like eternities as I waited. Logan seemed nonplussed as usual, except I noticed that, even though he was only wearing a coat, he looked just as borderline-feverish as Raziel. Everyone had always stayed so far away from me on the full moon that I’d hardly ever seen the side effects before. “Where’s Chancy?” I asked, trying to distract myself.

Raziel said nothing, so Logan answered at length. “He is out of the city today. Too much time away from the countryside makes him… morose.”

“I never noticed that when I was here,” I commented idly, but Gillian came back on the line so I didn’t receive an answer. I probably wouldn’t have, anyway, considering the two men I was talking to.

“Nicci, are you still there?”

“Yes, I’m here.”

“Do you have any of his possessions on hand?”

“Yes, everything he owns is upstairs,” I answered, getting up. “What do you need?”

“That’s a good start. Do you have anything that he might have given you? A present, maybe?”

I stopped to think. His present to me at Christmastime had been a necklace, which I wasn’t wearing today. Other than that… “No, I don’t… I don’t think so. I’ll see what he has in his room though…”

“Is there anyone there who he might have given something to?”

“No, definitely not,” I said, thinking on how unhappy he was that I’d moved out in the first place.

“All right, well, look for something that has sentimental value to him. Preferably something that you yourself have no connection to.” I picked my way cautiously up the decrepit-looking staircase.

“How is it that you either need something he’s given me, or something I’ve no connection to? That seems backwards.” I asked, while looking through Cernion’s room. It was very familiar, because it had once been Chancy’s, though now it was much better decorated. I only left three weeks ago, I thought, surprised at how many things had changed.

“If something is a gift, Nicci, it was meant to connect the two of you. That would make it easier for you to recreate that connection enough to locate him. But barring that, something without additional personas attached to it is better. Otherwise, they get jumbled up together. People usually think a picture is a good bet, but it’s surprisingly not. That has the photographer as well as whoever handled the film attached to it.”

“How about jewelry?” I asked. “He has like a million pairs of earrings.” I frowned at the collection, wondering that he had more than I did. How many styles of rings did he need, even if each ear had two piercings? A lot, apparently, though many looked identical.

“That’s very good. It will have a physical connection to him, not just spiritual. Pick something he wears often, if you can,” she said. “Now, is there anything else?”

“Um… well, I don’t know what else you’d want. I mean he has books and stuff, but nothing really personal. I think he brought his sketchbook with him on the bus…” I trailed off, feeling intensely sad. I didn’t have a lot of friends to begin with, but Cernion was one of the nicest people I’d ever met.

“I’m sure you’ve got enough,” she said, comfortingly. “Now, do you have any of your supplies with you?”

An odd question to the layman, but sorcery is frequently practiced by creating spells or performing rituals, and those are rarely just spoken words. My ‘classes’ were showing me that the only people who could cast magic with a word or a gesture alone were those who had magic in their blood, meaning, obviously, faeries. Apparently it doesn’t get more magical than that. Therefore, most of my spell casting would come from ritual, though sorcery wasn’t without its own unique capabilities, such as my telekinesis. Saxon, being a vampire, had magic in his blood as well, so to speak, but it was a very different kind. Vampires weren’t nearly as useful for general spellcasting as faeries were.

Times like this, I really missed Aisling. Even if his power was as screwy as people kept trying to tell me it was, he would have been able to help. He probably could have found Cernion already from an ‘aura trail’ or whatever he called it.

Missing Aisling had no effect on anything, though, except to make me feel worse. “I brought some of them,” I said, going downstairs again. I had to get out of here; there was no sign of renovation up on this floor, and it held double the memories when I was missing two people at once.

“All right, write this down.” She said, waiting until I found paper.

I’d stuck the black leather-bound journal I used for spell-related note taking in my shoulder bag before going on this search in the first place. Thinking ahead for once in my life, instead of grabbing a fashionable purse before leaving the apartment, I’d picked up the messenger bag I usually used when going to practice spellcasting. It held a wide variety of objects, though I could only hope I had ingredients for a spell this complicated.

Gillian dictated instructions to me before hanging up, with a direct instruction to call if anything went wrong. I took careful notes and could only hope that it worked on the first try, because I didn’t have enough tarragon for more than one attempt. I didn’t want Logan and Raziel’s presences to distract me or the magic, so once I’d taken a bowl and some matches from the kitchen, I went into the dining room with instructions not to disturb. They both looked pretty sad that I did – whatever Logan said or didn’t say, I knew he was just as exceptionally curious to see me cast a spell as Raziel admitted he was.

The vials of common ingredients, usually dried or ground-up flowers and herbs, fit neatly into a small black makeup box. I picked out what I needed, and began.