I nodded, and after a deep breath to center our energy, we began to spell, weaving line after line of protection magic around and through the remaining threads. Monty then ran an alarm thread around the entire lot. While it wouldn’t take much to unpick, he assured us we’d all know the minute anyone attacked our spells, no matter where we were in the reservation.
By the time we finished, twenty minutes had slipped by and all three of us were close to exhaustion.
I picked up the empty cups and climbed wearily to my feet. “Are you coming in for breakfast tomorrow?”
He hesitated. “No, as I’ll need to check in with Aiden on the murders first. Besides, it’s better if we leave the council of war until the afternoon, when you’re not as busy. But I’ll send Ashworth a text when I get home—the sooner he’s updated, the better.”
“It’s close to midnight—he’s not going to be happy.”
“I know,” he said cheerfully. “That’s the whole point.”
I snorted and headed out of the room. As I rinsed the cups, Belle followed him to the front door and locked up behind him. Then she walked back and gave me a fierce hug.
“It will, in the end, be all right. I’m positive of that, if nothing else.”
I smiled. “Is that wishful thinking or one of those vague premonitions you’ve started getting?”
She shrugged. “Who can be sure? It’s not like I’m used to this whole premonition thing. That’s supposed to be your talent, not mine.”
And it had been, up until the moment we’d been forced to utterly merge minds in order to thrust out a white witch who’d decided to claim Belle’s body as her own.
“Unfortunately,” I said, “My premonition skill set is telling me quite the opposite; if we get out of this alive and intact, it’ll be something of a miracle.”
Belle’s gaze swept my face, concern evident. “Clayton might be incandescent with fury, but even he wouldn’t resort to murder.”
“He doesn’t have to—not to make life hell for us.” I shivered and rubbed my arms. “But you were right before—we can’t let him get to us. We need to continue on as normal—with just a little bit more caution.”
“Which means no going anywhere alone.” She pointed sternly at me. “Got that?”
I saluted lightly. “Loud and clear, ma’am.”
She snorted and pushed me toward the stairs. “Go to bed.”
I did. And, rather surprisingly, slept long and deep. But perhaps my body was simply getting as much as it could before the shit hit the fan.
* * *
The café was insanely busy from the get-go, so it wasn’t until midafternoon that I had a chance to look at my phone and saw that Ashworth had left a message asking me to ring him as soon as possible.
“Hey, what’s up?” I said, the moment he answered.
“A hell of a lot from the sound of things, lassie.” His Scottish accent was a little more evident this morning, suggesting he hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. “Got a text from Monty at midnight and have set a few things in motion.”
My stomach twisted. Every step we took toward protecting ourselves was one step closer to confrontation.
“With the Black Lantern Society, I take it?”
“Yes. My sister was none-too-pleased about being woken at such an ungodly hour, but that soon passed once I told her it was about Clayton.”
I frowned. “Why? What’s changed up there that’s made him to go from an eminent and well-respected member of the High Council to someone who has more than a few enemies?”
“Everyone in high power has enemies, lass, but Clayton has done himself no favors over the last few years. Even your father has somewhat distanced himself—”
“Is he still in Canberra?”
“He was as of last night.”
A tide of relief swept me. It didn’t really mean anything, because it really wouldn’t take that long for him to jump on a plane and get to the reservation. But, at least for the time being, we only had one autocratic asshole to deal with.
“Sophie agrees that our best shot of bringing both him and your father to court to face questioning, and hopefully disciplinary action, is to employ the services of a reader and auditor immediately. As such, they’ll be down within the next thirty-six hours.”
I blinked. “That’s fast.”
“We need to be fast.” His voice was grim. “If either man gets word of the Society’s uptake of your cause, it could escalate things badly.”
I wasn’t entirely sure how things could get much worse than what was already coming, but I wasn’t about to put that out there, just in case fate was listening and decided to take up the challenge.
“Thanks, Ira. I really do appreciate your help.”
“Least I can do for my favorite witch—aside from Eli, of course.” The amusement in his tone faded as he added, “In the meantime, use that anti-tracking charm we created for you.”
“Will it work against someone like Clayton?”
“Until he gets close enough to sense the magic or he realizes the reason he can’t track you means there’s a spell at work, yes.”
“Hopefully neither will happen anytime soon. We need the breathing space.”
“Chin up, lass. You’re not alone in this fight. We’re all behind you, no matter what happens.”
Tears touched my eyes and I blinked them away. “I know.”
“Good. Then stop fretting; you’ll only make yourself ill.”
I smiled. “You’re sounding more and more like my grandfather every day.”
“This would be the dead grandfather?”
“Well, yes, but you know what I mean.”
He chuckled. “I do. Talk soon.”
I hung up and accepted the mug of coffee Belle shoved into my hands. “Just got a call from Monty—he’s off to meet some friend of his who’s an expert in the occult. Apparently he’s only in Victoria for the day.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Why did he ring you rather than me? And how did he get your phone number?”
“I gave it to him
