“Such as?”
He gave me a pained smile. “I cannot share those with you, cousin.”
I bit my lip. “But you think they brought themhere?To Magique?”
My cousin only returned my gaze, his stare empty.
I nodded, mostly to myself. I folded my arms, wrapping my fingers around my elbows, and squeezed. I fought to think about everything he’d said. Why would Magicals, even Dark Cathedral, be abducting humans? Or my brother, for that matter? He wasn’t even of age. He hadn’t evengottento Magique yet.
Was this about me? Ankha?
I didn’t dare think deeply about Caelum, or what Alaric and I had been up to, but my fears skirted the edges of those topics, too.
Could someone have found out? Might it be blackmail? A warning?
Bringing captured humans to Magique, particularly in a way the Praecuri couldn’t track their whereabouts on the other side, had to be quite the magical feat. It also had to be exceedingly illegal. In fact, it might be more illegal than if they’d just killed them outright.
How in the world had they managed it?
They must have used a mirror, but the Praecuri had spells that informed them the instant a mirror got activated as an inter-world portal, from either side. They would have known, wouldn’t they? Particularly bringing so many through? That was why my aunt neededmeto be the one to activate the mirror when she abducted me, wasn’t it?
Had this group done something similar? Set up some patsy to open the portal for them?
“But they didn’t succeed?” I asked, maybe needing to hear it again. “With Archie, I mean?”
“They did not.” Valor’s voice grew a touch fierce. “Some of that was luck, frankly. The couple who took over guardianship of your brother had concerns for his safety, particularly in light of your aunt’s death. They put a number of precautionary measures in place, well beyond those sanctioned by the Praecuri. They also set a number of magical traps. One got triggered in the attack, and we believe it wounded at least one of the assailants.” Valor La Fey gave me a more meaningful look. “Your brother’s guardians hadn’t informed anyone of the additional protections, cousin. Which is extremely fortunate, since the kidnappers got through theofficialdefenses with astonishing speed.”
I heard the meaning of his words and stared at him.
“You have a spy,” I said in disbelief.
His lips twitched.
“The Praecuri have aspyin their ranks.” I couldn’t tear my eyes off his. “You don’t think it’s an actual praecurus?”
Valor hesitated. He shut his mouth before opening it again.
“Officially, I cannot comment on that.” He gave me another apologetic look. “But it is a logical conclusion, dear cousin.”
My jaw tightened. “Where is he now? Arcturus?”
There was another silence.
I could practically feel Valor struggling that time.
“What?” I asked in alarm. “Where is he?”
“As promised, he’s perfectly fine, Leda,” Valor said, again lifting a hand to calm me. “However, there were…” Valor hesitated. “Well, I don’t know how much of this you will understand, given your newness here.”
He hesitated again, then cleared his throat.
“Since the attack, there has been a bit of a panic related to your brother’s security, as you can probably imagine. The probability of an intelligence breach intensified that reaction. A number of steps were taken to assess your brother’s readiness for being moved to Magique, in the event that ended up being necessary. In the process of those assessments, anomalies were noted. In his magic. They were significant enough to trigger a formal, and far more detailed, magical evaluation.”
“Anomalies,” I said numbly. My mind fought to unpack everything he’d just said. “Anomalies,” I repeated. “Is he sick?”
Valor again shook his head. “No. These are natural things, Leda. I honestly wonder that your aunt didn’t notice while she lived.” He cleared his throat. “Unlike many magical abilities, these should have become obvious at a young age.” He gave me a curious look, not quite a question, but almost. “Ankha was gifted in theurgy, so it is surprising she didn’t pick up on thedifferences in his aura after so many years of you both being in her charge.”
I managed to not scoff at that, but only barely.
