Whom’s head turned nearly backward to glare at me. “Patience, young woman.” He frowned, glancing at Alice. “Whooo?”
“My apprentice,” she admitted, seemingly without joy.
I bristled. “Look, I’m getting tired…”
Whom whistled again.
My gaze slid past him, to the substance rising from Lea’s arm. I watched in fascination as oily black smoke saturated the ball of stuff the Doc had plastered over Lea’s wound. When the smoke stopped wafting out and the last of it had settled into the “poultice” Doctor Whom had put in place, the Doc reached over and gathered the blackened goop with his claws, flinging it over his shoulder. It dissipated on the air with a soft pop of sound.
Lea sighed and her eyes came open.
She looked from Whom to us and then back to the doctor. “That bad, huh?”
Whom laughed. “A minor hex poisoning. Nothing we couldn’t nip right in the bud.” He unfolded himself from the nesting position and dropped the stethoscope back around his neck. The doc pulled a pad of paper from a pocket and scribbled on it, tearing off a sheet and handing it to Lea. “Your bill for my services,” he said. Then he reached into a different pocket and tugged out a small rodent, holding it by the tail. It wriggled in terror, its little paws beating the air. “One mouse a day for a week. Here’s your first dose.”
Lea reached out and took the frightened critter, rubbing a soothing finger along its trembling body. “Thanks, Doc.”
He spun his head all the way around and smiled. “Pleasure. Good day to you all.”
The rotund little owl-man waddled around the shelves and I hurried after him, fascinated to know how he’d gotten to us so quickly.
An oversized wooden birdhouse squatted in the center of the open space at the front of the store. One wall of the small building rested against the table where I’d been working on my notes. The doctor’s conveyance had lifted the table a few inches off the floor on one side, dumping several sheets of paper to the carpet.
I made a small sound of delight at the sight. He opened the door of the charming structure, and several more mice ran out, escaping to relative safety underneath the bookshelves.
“That should cover the rest of the week,” he called over his shoulder. And then he disappeared inside, slamming the door firmly closed.
A beat later lights emanated from the windows of the small building. Doctor Whom’s birdhouse lifted off the carpet, spun several times, and disappeared with a whoosh.
“Holy owl spit!” I said, grinning widely. “That was icy.”
Lea came up and stood beside me, still holding the tiny mouse. It fixed me with a shiny black gaze, and I reached out to stroke a finger over its tiny white head. “You’re not really going to ea…”
Lea covered my mouth with her hand. “Shhh! You’ll scare the little guy. Of course not. None of us follow Whom’s after-treatment orders. We just take our ‘medicine’ so he doesn’t eat it.”
The little mouse gave off an alarmed shriek and Lea blanched. “Oh. Sorry.” She settled the creature to the floor. “Off with you now. Find your friends.”
Alice sighed. “I’ll have to have a talk with Fenwald. He’s quite the hunter, you know.”
Our gazes slid toward the front windowsill, where said hunter was licking his nether regions in the sun, oblivious to the newly arrived rodent family mere feet from his nose.
I snickered.
Lea had better sense. She cleared her throat. “Okay, so that was interesting. Whoever that was, he did go directly to the table and take the suitcase. Before he picked it up, he held a palm over it, and the thing jumped around as if he was drawing something from it.”
I felt my eyes go wide. “You think there was something alive in there?”
Lea seemed to consider that for a moment, then she shook her head. “Something that had been magically attached, but not necessarily alive.”
“Magically attached?” I asked.
“She means the suitcase was under the power of something. Or someone,” Alice clarified. She narrowed her gaze on Lea. “You suspect a mage?”
“Specifically a wizard,” Lea agreed. “He probably attached a masking spell to the suitcase so you couldn’t read any negative energy from it. That all but ensured you wouldn’t lock it into the toxic magic vault.”
Alice curled her lip.
“What?” I asked, only about half understanding their conversation.
“Wizards are nasty,” Lea said.
“How’d he get back out with the artifact?” Alice asked the witch.
Lea sighed. “I can’t be entirely sure.” She raised her gaze to ours. “He…” She bit her lip. “After he lifted the suitcase, he turned around and…” She shook her head, clearly struggling with what she needed to tell us.
“What is it?” Alice asked, impatience in her tone.
“He saw me. He shouldn’t have been able to see me. He was only a shadow. Something that happened in the past. But the shadow turned and saw me and…” Her gaze turned haunted. She shuddered violently and rubbed her arms, hugging herself.
“What is it?” I asked. “What happened in there, Lea?”
The earth witch expelled air in a rush, looking thoroughly spooked. “He threw a hex at me and I flew out of the divining. He cast me out of something that happened in the past. I didn’t even know that was possible. We’re dealing with a deadly and powerful wizard.”
8
This Is Your Legacy Magic
“Could you tell what he looked like?” I asked the witch.
Lea shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. What we were looking at was simply a shadow of what happened.” She rubbed her arms as if chilled. “There shouldn’t have been any crossover between the past and the present.”
“Except there was,” Alice offered.
“Yes.” Lea sighed. “I need to run some tests. Do you mind if I hang out here for a while?”
“That’s fine, sweetums.” Alice glanced at me. “We’ll just get back to work.” She all but danced toward the closet
