I bit my lip, my stomach churning. Flawlessly perform high-stakes magic surgery four more times?
The pug weakly licked my hand before growling at the eye-laden poodle who’d snuck closer, while the lab shot past, bumping along the ground in a propulsion of electricity.
I exhaled sharply and shook out my hands. I was all these puppies had. “Can you hold the fireball down?”
“Yes.” Miles passed his phone to Arkady.
“Bring it here.”
One by one, I wrangled the puppies and removed their magic. The lab almost fried me and the mutt tried to take a chunk out of my arm with its hammer head, but all of us survived.
Arkady placed his hand on the back of my neck, then snatched it back with a grimace, making a big show of wiping it on his jeans. “Wow, sweat monster. You okay?”
“Peachy.”
“What kind of magic was on the yarn?” Miles took his phone back and stuffed it in his pocket.
“Good job, Ash,” I said. “Thank you so much for your valuable service and for being super careful not to kill any of these poor dogs with magic you yourself barely understand.”
“The yarn?”
“You are literally the worst. If I had to guess, it was level five Animator magic.” I held out a hand and Arkady helped me up once more, supporting my weight.
The puppies had gotten their second wind, running around the space and tumbling on top of each other.
“Yevgeny was killed at a dogfighting ring, right?” Arkady said.
“Right.”
“Having animals with magic opens up gambling opportunities,” he said, “since it’s no longer down to mass and muscle. But to do this to animals is totally unethical and cruel. They do not and should not have magic.”
“Was this something that Tatiana and her brother did on their own or was it part of a bigger Chariot plot?” Miles said.
“I’m going to pay a visit to the men we apprehended from Chariot’s lab,” Arkady said. “Get some answers out of them.”
“By way of…?” I mimed throwing punches.
“Miles doesn’t let me beat people up. He’s a stickler for doing things by the book.” Arkady pouted.
“We don’t want any reason for the courts to toss the case. It’s bad enough that the only charge we could get them on was kidnapping,” Miles said. “Most of the evidence was in the lab that they’d set up in Hedon. The facility here was barely more than a holding cell for those kids. Nor do we want to pour fuel on the fire with allegations of Nefesh brutality.” Miles’ brown eyes turned flinty. “Though I doubt you’ll get far. Some high-powered lawyers got involved and transferred the suspects to a maximum security facility.”
“So?” I said.
“The men are Mundane. They’re out of our jurisdiction now.”
“There are still legal ways to gain access to question them,” Arkady said, disengaging the black-and-white mutt’s teeth from the hem of his jeans. The puppy took it as a cue that this was their new game and dug into the cloth with renewed vigor.
I raised my voice to be heard over all the barking. “I think I have my answer to the lack of a ward on this house. You saw how the dogs reacted when the magic burst out of them. They were a danger to themselves and anyone around them.”
Wards worked differently than artifacts. The magic was overlaid onto an object instead of directly injected into it and then permanently fused together.
“Right. Wards sense hostile intent,” Miles said. “Tatiana had to disable the ward whenever she worked on the puppies because they’d attack and subsequently be frozen with their magic neutralized, which would make it impossible for Tatiana to carry out these freakish experiments.”
“Chances are she usually did have a ward in place,” Arkady said, “she just hadn’t reactivated it.”
Miles eyed the crate with distaste. “I’m not putting them back in there. The cops can speculate about what went on in this room. Ark, help me gather up the puppies. We have to get them to the animal rescue shelter. We can phone the murder in on the way.”
“Ark? Whatever could have earned him name-shortening privileges?” I said.
“Absolutely nothing.” Arkady tossed the crate into the corner, where it hit the wall with a jarring clang.
“Arkady,” Miles warned.
Arkady snapped off a sarcastic salute, and picked up the mutt.
“Jesus.” Miles bent down to grab the pug, but she dashed between his large hands and beelined for me.
“Oh no, dog.” I backed up, favoring my left leg. “I have a fifteen-year-old mystery involving my father to solve. I don’t have time for you.”
She thumped her tail imperiously twice.
“I’m allergic?”
She growled at me.
“Fine.” I crossed my arms. “I’ll come to the animal rescue, but that’s it. We will not play with slobbery toys.”
The tentacles and teeth had vanished, only to be replaced with something much worse: big, chocolatey puppy-dog eyes.
I tsked. This was basic, level-one con techniques: don’t let yourself get suckered. “Nice try, dog. Save it for someone who likes your kind.”
Chapter 3
Three hours later, the pug had been given a clean bill of health, a bunch of shots, and a ride to my house.
Arkady lugged all the dog supplies I’d hobbled around a pet store to buy up the stairs, along with Gavriella’s lockbox. Meanwhile, I guarded with my life the bottle of wine I’d also picked up.
The dog pranced ahead of us, her new leash trailing on the ground.
“Are you freaking serious?” Priya pulled the front door open, her hands on her hips. “You stuck around some dead woman’s home?” she fumed. “Were you hoping the murderer came back and upped their body count?”
“Arkady, you rat.” I bent down for the leash. “When did you have time to even phone her?”
“Ash got a dog,” he said, and dumped all the purchases into Priya’s arms. Then he fled for the safety of his apartment.
Priya’s eyebrows shot into her hairline at the sight of the pug.
“Arkady slept with Miles,” I
