I shuddered at that. Behind us, Kyla let out a low growl. I glanced at her as Evie got to work on the next ward.
“Stinks of black magic,” Kyla said. “I’ll never get the smell out of my hair.”
Evie held up her hand. “Ready, Mere?”
I raised my own hand and channeled into Evie’s power. The next ward popped, and then Evie held her hand six inches from the door, swiping her fingers over every inch of the blue wood.
“I think we’re good. But stay alert.”
I was holding my breath when she turned the doorknob. Of course, it was locked.
“Worth a try.” Evie grinned. “Kyla, you want to do the honors?”
“Finally, something that requires my skill set.” She elbowed us aside, lifted her leg, and kicked down the door.
I stared at it as it fell onto the floor in front of us with a crash. Then I glanced around, but no nosy neighbors were peering through gaps in their blinds or opening their windows to see what was going on. They were likely used to hearing much worse noises coming from this house. I shivered at the thought.
Evie stepped through the front door, and we followed her in. We were standing in a small entranceway, with a set of stairs on the left leading to the second floor. On our right was a doorway leading to a small living room. Past the stairs, another doorway opened into the kitchen.
I knew it was my imagination, but I could practically smell the evil. Could almost see it. I took a deep, steady breath. “Let’s split up, get this done quicker,” I said. “Kyla, can you scent any pleatix?”
She nodded. “It’s all over this house. Also, blood and death and black magic.” She wrinkled her nose.
“Okay,” Evie said. “How about you take the kitchen, Mere? Kyla, you check the living room, and I’ll go upstairs and poke around. She’s going to have more wards up there, but they won’t be as difficult as the main ward, so I think I can handle them.”
“Sounds good.” I blew out a long breath and strode into the kitchen. The sooner we got started, the sooner we’d be done.
7
MEREDITH
Two hours later, I was sweaty, exhausted, and disgusted. This was why humans hated witches. They didn’t hear about white witches who often used their powers to heal, or even gray witches who might not strictly be creatures of the light but would mostly never dream of sacrificing a living, breathing person for a spell.
No, humans watched news segments about witches like Lydia. I took a deep breath as I slowly got to my feet in the bloodstained spare room, which Lydia had turned into a workroom. Evie was currently going through the black witch’s bedroom.
“Kyla?”
She glanced at me, and her eyes had gone impossibly lighter. She’d never talked about exactly why her eyes had never returned to their usual color, but right now, they were so light and clear it was as if I was staring at someone not of this world.
“You smell any human blood in here?”
She nodded. “Mostly animal, though.”
“Are you okay?”
She shrugged. “The smell of the black magic, the scent of the blood and fear… It reminds me of the dungeon.”
Evie stepped through the door and squeezed Kyla’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I should have thought—”
“No. I need to get over it.”
I opened my mouth to tell her that wasn’t really how trauma worked, then I shrugged. What did I know? Kyla never spoke about her time in Lucifer’s dungeon, but the fact that she’d regained her human form at all was something of a miracle. And the fact that Nathaniel trusted her enough to allow her to visit crime scenes and black witches’ homes? She’d come a long way.
“Well.” Evie gestured to the white powder stacked against one wall. “We found what we came for.”
There was so much pleatix, it was terrifying. Lydia had clearly decided this was her new business, because the white powder was packed into hundreds of small baggies, all of them labeled in a language or code known only to her. This much pleatix could lure thousands of people to their deaths.
I stepped around the inverted pentagram Lydia had drawn on the floor and peered at her worktable. “She must have been keeping track of her sales. No laptop or diary here, though, which means she took it with her.”
