She then gave me a brief rundown on hypothetical matches, based on the elements. When she got to water mages, Irina advised searching for aquatic creatures, those who needed proximity to bodies of water, be it a river or a lake or an ocean. She made me promise to call her if I came up with more questions, and invited Alderose, Beryl, and me to visit her in the Carpathians anytime.
After I hung up with the loquacious air mage, an underlined notation in my mother’s ledger caught my eye. It referenced a database of eligible beings. “Beryl,” I said, lifting my gaze. My sister was working across the table from me. “Did you come across any other ledgers?”
She slid a page out of the folder in front of her and waved it me. “You mean a list of beings who would make a good match for her clients?”
“Exactly.”
“No.”
Crap.
“I have this sinking feeling Mom kept that kind of information in her head.”
I surveyed the table, with all the files laid out in the space between me and my sister. Mom was great at making lists, creating questionnaires, and pulling informative answers from her clients. What she wasn’t good at was leaving a logical trail her daughters could follow. Moira Brodeur had left the three of us at a distinct—and painful—disadvantage. “We’re never going to figure out Mom’s methods without help. Magical help.”
“We need to cast a circle, Clemmie. A big one.”
Beryl stared at me across the table, challenging me to chicken out. “When was the last time you cast a circle?” I asked. “A real circle?”
“In July. When I made my annual pilgrimage to Mom’s gravesite. Kostya had a very determined demoness on his tail.” My sister employed her matter-of-fact, do-not-judge-me princess voice. “I had to cast a circle of protection around the hotel bed. Almost started a fire.”
“In the bed?”
“There too.” Neither of us was successful at holding back an attack of the giggles.
“One of the hazards of dating a demon.” I let the silliness run its course, then traced my fingertip around the rim of Mom’s bone-dry scrying bowl. “We need Tía Mari.”
“Let’s start with bringing Alderose up here. Between the three of us, surely we can create something…useful.”
Beryl jogged to the stairs, called for our sister, and spun in place, clapping her hands and bouncing on the balls of her toes. “She’s here,” she said. “She’s here! Tía’s here.”
Our aunt materialized in the doorway, with Alabastair towering behind her petite frame. Maritza was smaller than I remembered and, like our mother, preferred to dress mostly in black. Where they diverged was in the styling, and accessories. Maritza wore acid-yellow high-heeled boots, black skinny jeans, and a boxy, black-and-white-striped cowl-necked sweater covered with jeweled bumblebees. Her dashing escort was covered shoulder to shoes by a deep blue velveteen cloak.
I ran to my aunt, right into the arms she held wide and which already embraced my sobbing sister. Alderose pushed Alabastair aside and joined us. For looking so frail, our aunt was deceptively strong. And powerful. I reveled in the waves of loving energy winding a protective web around us.
“I love you, each of you, y gracias a la diosa we are all here. We have work to do and everything will go better if we work together.”
Alabastair urged our tight quartet into the room so he could pass. He carried a designer duffel in one hand and a vintage suitcase in the other. A loaded backpack, also designer, was strapped over his shoulders.
“Why all the luggage, Alabastair?” Alderose asked, swiping at her cheeks.
“This is my special valise,” he said, thrusting the hard-sided suitcase forward. “It contains everything we need for casting circles to call on the dead. And please, call me Bas.” He shook out an oversized handkerchief and handed it to Alderose. She pressed it to her eyes.
“May I see what’s inside?” At Bas’s nod, Beryl knelt on the rug, flipped two catches, and lifted the lid of the crocodile-skin case. “Ooh, sisters, come see.”
“Girls.” My aunt clapped her hands twice. “Alabastair informs me we have a deadline.”
I wanted to paw through the treasures Bas had brought and take note of every detail—where they came from, why he chose them, and how they were to be used. “We do, Tía, and we’re all ears and ready for your help. Because I, for one, feel like I am in way over my head.”
Beryl nodded, setting her giant hoop earrings to swinging. She sat cross-legged on the rug and tucked her dress around her thighs. “We’re discovering all kinds of surprising things about our mother.”
Maritza joined our circle. “It has come to my attention that our family has secrets,” she said, tossing a look at Alabastair. “Something that my darling and I were made aware of in July, when your grandparents visited from México.”
Alabastair shed his cape with a superhero-worthy flourish and draped it over one of the dress dummies. His clothes fit him as though they’d been tailor-made for his tall, lanky frame. I knew I shouldn’t be drooling over my aunt’s lover, but something about him had me wondering if all necromancers favored sartorial resplendence. He leaned against the table covered with all the files and papers and crossed his ankles. “Tell us what you have learned thus far. I recounted to Mari everything I could recall about the water mage’s initial appearance and his demands.”
The three of us had everything laid out in under ten minutes, including Rémy’s aggressive actions, the discovery of the ropes behind the bathroom wall, the fact that the bathroom turned into an elevator, our inadvertent discovery of Mom’s laboratory in the cellar, the magical mascara, and our frustrating lack of direction.
Oh, and that Mom had been given a glowing review from the air mage she’d paired with an eagle shifter.
Maritza absorbed our stories, asked
