Evie’s grin widened, and I sighed. Even Kyla’s eyes gleamed in a way that told me she’d be interrogating me as soon as we were alone.
I gave Vas a look, and he smirked but unwound his arm and went back to lounging on my sofa.
“I need some quiet,” I said primly.
Everyone shut their mouths, and I turned my attention back to the laptop.
Then I sent out a tendril of power. I had to work with a delicate touch or I’d fry the CPU. My mind turned blank, and I used my power to scan through Ilayda’s emails, looking for any keywords that could help. Then I paused.
“She has her phone synced to the laptop.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means if she were in this realm, I’d be able to track her. But she’s somewhere else.”
Kyla prowled across my apartment. Virtus lifted his head and stared at her, and she grinned at him, obviously having some private conversation. Then she dropped to her knees and petted his head until he closed his eyes again.
“Do you know where?” Evie asked.
“No.” I pressed with my power, but all I was getting back was static. “There’s a chance I can still reach her.”
Vas shifted until my gaze met his. “Is it dangerous?”
Overprotective demon. “Not really.” He didn’t look convinced, and I sighed. “I may exhaust myself if I use too much power. Temporarily.”
“How does it work?” His gaze was steady on my face, and I took a deep breath.
“Okay, so obviously, our realm is the only realm with service. Hence why Lucifer’s demons were crossing through the portals for their little recruitment drive before the battle.”
Vas nodded. “Then you blew their shit up.”
My heart pitter-pattered at the pride in his voice, and I forced myself to glance away. “Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Whoever took Ilayda will be expecting her phone to be dead. Untraceable. Even if they understand how the tech works, they won’t see it as a weakness.”
“But you can make it one,” Evie murmured.
“Yeah. As long as the phone has enough battery left, I can form a connection between this laptop and the phone. It’s difficult to explain, but—”
“We don’t need the tech-babble.” Kyla stalked toward us, impatient as always. “Explain it like we’re five-year-olds.”
I grinned at that. “Okay. I’ll use my power to form a kind of tunnel between the laptop and phone. That would allow me to get a message to Ilayda if she’s still alive. And it would allow her to reply back.”
“What if someone else has the phone?” Vas asked. “Will they know it’s you?”
“No. It’ll look like the messages are coming from Ilayda. As if she’s answering herself.”
“That’s some serious power,” Vas whistled. “What do you need?”
“I can create the tunnel and get the message to the phone. But I need someone to stabilize the tunnel and keep it from collapsing. Ilayda might not see the message right away. If we can keep the tunnel active, she could answer us any time of the day or night.”
Evie nodded. “You’re a genius. I’ll join my power with yours.”
It was the act of ultimate trust. This was a common way for black witches to steal their sister witches’ power.
“Okay.” I smiled at her. “We need to get a few things for the spell to create the tunnel. A couple of them can probably be substituted, but the vishiweed can’t. It’s only found in the middleground and only during the full moon. It’s what will allow us to use tech to communicate across realms without knowing Ilayda’s exact location.”
“I’ll talk to Gary,” Evie said. “If he doesn’t have any vishiweed, I bet he can source it for us.”
“Awesome. Then once the spell is created, it’ll work in the background to keep the connection active. If we don’t manage to contact Ilayda at the time we do the spell, she may get our message a few hours or even a few days later.”
