“Got her!” Kostya’s voice boomed within the contained space, then he and Rosey disappeared into the night. The threads I’d been watching were sucked out of the stairwell in the updraft.
“Clemmie, Laz, can you two hold on to me?” Beryl asked, climbing the stairs. “I’m going to try something I’ve seen other witches do.”
Laszlo squeezed ahead of her and wedged himself in the open doorway. He wrapped his arm around Beryl’s waist and motioned for me to get on his other side. “Go for it.”
Beryl pulled her wand from behind her ear and rolled it between her palms, chanting steadily until a flame lit its tip. She pointed the clear, blue flame toward the middle of the rooftop. “Lumen magnum.” A blue flare shot forward, providing a dramatic, short-lived arc of light.
A wall of sleet circled the building. Laszlo glanced down at me, concern written across his face. “I’ve seen water mages do this before. I say everyone goes to the ground floor while Kostya and I board up the windows in the workroom. The rest of you can come up with a new plan.”
I shook my head. “Beryl, keep throwing more lights. If Rémy’s responsible for this, then there’s something I want him to see.”
“Clemmie, you’re nuts,” she said, clutching her wand to her chest.
“Clementine, no.”
“We’ve already established I leap first, look later. Trust me. Laszlo will hold me,” I said. “Right?”
“Stubborn witch.” The demon nodded at Beryl to resume tossing lights and urged her to keep one hand on the railing. Cold, hard drops of rain pelted my arms and face as he walked us into the storm, toward Kostya and Alderose.
“What the hell are you thinking?” she asked, shielding her eyes from the frenzied gusts of rain.
“Sending a message to Rémy,” I yelled. “Give me your knife.”
“You’re crazy.” She handed me the handle end of a short blade anyway. Laszlo grabbed a fistful of fabric at my back as I held the front of my jumpsuit away from my chest, punctured the canvas, and sliced upward. I managed to not cut myself and returned the weapon.
Gathering my hair behind my neck with my right hand, I untied the scarf and pulled the left side of the jumpsuit down enough to expose the side of my neck. Rémy’s sigil and Gosia’s snake continued their slow movements.
“Rémy!” I yelled. “Rémy Ruisseau, look at me!”
“Keep the light coming,” Laszlo said, tossing the command over his shoulder while holding me tight to his chest. I arched back. More of my skin was slicked by the unrelenting rain. The wet surface would be more reflective. I wanted the mage to see the cryptic message I bore. Laszlo growled.
“Trust me,” I said. “Please.”
Kostya and Alderose flanked me and Laszlo. Kostya held his arms aloft. Flames licked along all ten fingers. Jagged blue and white flares streaked within the dark clouds above, flashing again and again until the water mage hovered twenty or so feet above us.
“Do you have my beloved, little witch?” he asked. The wind softened as he lowered his arms.
“Come closer. There’s something you need to see.”
He landed on the roof—which I didn’t expect—and strode directly toward me. Precipitation accompanied him, along with tight, roiling clouds and his chains. I darted my gaze to either side of the wind-whipped mage, hoping to glimpse the girl I’d seen the day before.
Rémy clamped his hand on my exposed shoulder and ran his thumb over Gosia’s snake. Gazing into the unforgiving landscape of his eyes, I took in his other features—blue-black skin, blue-white dreads, gaunt hollows between his cheeks and his jaw. I had to restrain myself from reaching for the story threads clinging to his hair.
“Answer me, Clementine, or—”
“I didn’t hear you,” I said.
“Who gave you this?” Gosia’s snake lay curled in his palm.
“I’m not sure I can tell you.”
Rémy lifted his face to the sky and screamed. Anguished. Frustrated. And when he lowered his jaw and returned Gosia’s slender little snake to the side of my neck, his movements were unnaturally stiff. A thick band of ice was creeping across the bottom half of his face, leaving only his nostrils free. He grabbed at the ice mask’s edges and pulled and pulled before he spun away, ran to the low wall surrounding the entire roof, and jumped. The streak of gray flying away from the center of town assured me he hadn’t fallen to his death. The need to follow him was overwhelming.
Laszlo swept me into his arms. “I’m getting her inside.”
Back on the third floor, freestanding iron radiators protested with insistent thumps as trapped air bubbles made their way through three floors of copper piping.
“Spill it,” Alderose said as soon as everyone was in the room. Rather than return her weapon to her duffel bag, she had straightened her arm and was pointing the tip of her blade at me. “Whatever’s on your neck completely freaked out the mage. Tía, Alabastair, have you had a good look at Clementine?”
Suddenly, I was the center of everyone’s attention and not in an adoring way. Alderose was angry. I allied myself with our aunt, who was quietly stringing a button on a cord. Two different buttons on two other cords hung from her forearm. “I believe it has been noted that Rémy affixed his sigil”—she lifted her gaze off her work and searched the front of my body—“on the left side of Clementine’s neck. It would also appear that another magic-imbued symbol has joined his. Together, they create a compatible pair.”
I almost gloated. The tone of Beryl’s voice stopped me. “Rémy was able to transfer the snake thing to his palm and back again. He wanted to know where Clemmie had gotten it, but then his mouth froze over.” She planted one hand on her hip and pointed her wand at me. “I noticed you didn’t give the mage an answer before
