“We came here to find information, Dizzy,” Callie said, tramping behind us.
“Oh yes, right.”
“Let’s hope there’s a clue in the mage’s house.” The spell from earlier was gone. The mages must’ve taken it down before they left. They had to get through it, too. “I wonder why the demon was randomly hanging out in the yard.”
“Following you, probably.” Darius reached the door first and went to grab the handle. He hesitated. “Would you like to kick this in, Reagan?”
“How thoughtful. But no. Let’s just go inside.”
He opened the door, having already unlocked it.
“Or maybe the demon already knew you would eventually find the mage in charge. It is hard to say.” Darius stepped out of the way so we could enter.
“If he got close enough to you in that ugly man’s body, he could have heard your thoughts,” Dizzy said. “Or my thoughts. Once that door is opened, are there any secrets anymore?”
“My mom came up with a way to block that,” I said to Dizzy as I entered the house. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
“Oh good. Yes. Very clever, your mom.” Dizzy followed closely behind me.
I looked around, not sure where to start. “My only question is, can I actually kill the demon without losing myself?”
“You can. I know you can. When you’ve solved a problem once, that’s it. You have it.” Callie riffled through papers on the counter.
“But we still have all the mages to deal with,” I said.
“We’ll take care of the mages.” Callie pushed an envelope to the side. “I’m nearly positive I finally recruited the little witch. Her mother doesn’t monitor Penny’s texts and calls, thank God. With her power at our backs, those other mages don’t stand a chance.”
“She’s a mage, hon. An untrained mage.” Dizzy yanked two drawers out and dumped them on theground. “You call her. I’ll help Reagan and Darius look through the house. I have an eye for picking things out of chaos. If there are clues here, we’ll find them.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Ihave a check stub,” Dizzy shouted. “He doesn’t make much at his job.”
I rifled through a desk drawer in his disorganized office. We’d been at this for fifteen minutes and still hadn’t found anything solid. Or helpful.
“What does he do?” I shouted.
Darius appeared in the doorway, and I jumped, knocking the rolling chair back into the bookcase.
“Jesus, man.” I put a hand to my heart. “Don’t just pop up like a poltergeist. I’m a little jumpy right now.”
Darius held up a blue uniform without saying a word. The front resembled a police uniform, with a sewn-on patch like a badge on the arm. He turned it, and I sawsecuritywritten on the back.
“Where did you say that skin suit was found?” Dizzy called.
“It wasn’t a skin suit, and it was in terminal thirty. Port of Seattle, I think. The shipping terminal.” I slipped out from around the desk and looked at the patch on the sleeve. It saidsecurity officer.
“Shoot,” Dizzy said. “I was hoping it would be the same company.”
“Perhaps they all work in security,” Darius said. “It would’ve been hard to get a body into the terminal in the later hours without being noticed. Unless you worked there and brought it in your car.”
“But they said all of the staff checked out. And yes, I realize these people probably wouldn’t have any priors, but Oscar also said none of them were magical…”
How stupid was I?
“The MLE office was keeping their mouths shut.” I shook my head. “They must’ve known a mage was responsible, and that one worked at the terminal, but they were warned away from mages, so they weren’t talking.” I bowed in frustration. “You even asked if I wanted to talk to the security people. I can’t tell most magical species, but I know mages. I would’ve felt his or her magic.”
“The thought had occurred to me, but I admit, it was in my best interest that you weren’t thorough,” Darius said. “I failed you there. I was thinking about feeding instead of covering all the bases. After hearing about the dangers in the area, we had new, more concrete leads. But this is telling.”
