And Sondre is injured.
And Scylla is still healing.
And I don’t want to take Ellie into danger.
Prospero sighed. No one ought to be trying to do magic when that same magic was necessary to heal them. “If the barrier attempts are draining you, you could pause on that. Ellie twisted some vines and things over the open space.”
Scylla smiled but kept her eyes shut. “Of course she did.”
“What does that mean?” Prospero stared at Scylla more freely now that the other woman had closed her eyes. They were not the most affectionate of people, but sometimes that seemed to be the basis of their friendship, too. “And what can I do to make you more comfortable?”
Scylla’s eyes opened. “Feel any better after studying me?”
“I have been here studying you most every day,” Prospero confessed. “It isn’t helping a damn thing.” She took a shaky breath. “There was a bullet in you, and you weren’t moving. And then today Sondre… he just fell over. I should’ve been stronger-willed and seen through Aggie’s magic.”
Scylla rolled her eyes. “Agnes is more dangerous now that she’s unleashed. We knew that, Prospero.Youknew it.” Scylla sighed, and then promptly put her hand on her stomach. “That still hurts. Is Mae unwell?”
A scoff nearby made clear that the good doctor was listening.
“She keeps faltering. You know she was in the cot beside you at first?” Prospero pointed out. “She saved your life and then toppled over. She keeps doing that.” She glanced over at Mae. “I am forever in her debt.”
Mae came over. “Debts aside, I’m not as strong as I should be yet. Neither is Scylla.” She frowned, as if the words themselves were things she could glare into submission. “It’s as if I am not accessing all of my magic, and neither is Scylla or she’d be well by now.”
“Perhaps the bullet was poisoned?” Prospero suggested.
“What sort of poison canmagicnot cure?”
“Magical poison…?” Prospero thought about Howie and his shop of questionable wares.Was he a part of this?She’d searched his mind often enough that she thought she’d know, but perhaps that was arrogance.
“The Dealers Den?” Scylla guessed. “I thought you had that boy on a leash.”
“Perhaps Howie is not as easy to manage as he used to be,” Prospero mused. “I’ll pay him a visit, and I’ll send Sondre’s amplifier to help all three of you. Too many injuries over this fiasco for my taste so far.”
“So the visit over there was no use at all?” Mae prompted.
Admitting the whole of it was far outside Prospero’s comfort zone. Her own weaknesses had been used against her, as had Sondre’s serpent fears. All she admitted was “We underestimated Agnes, but Jenn has been nullified.”
“Dead?”
Prospero nodded once. “Aggie’s interference resulted in Jenn’s death.” Prospero tried to push away the memory of Jenn’s combustion. The scent of it would linger in her memory far too long. Guilt burbled up inside her, and she cringed at the fact that her guilt was not over the other witch’s death but over how adroitly Agnes had played on her memories and emotions.
Ellie is not dead.Prospero had thought and rethought that several times.Ellie is alive and safe.
“I often don’t like you these days,” Mae announced.
“Gee, thanks.”
“But,” Mae continued, “I know we are safer because of your loyalty to Crenshaw. No one who knows you would doubt that you did everything possible to restore order. If Agnes is not yet caught, it’s not for lack of effort on your part.”
“Or Sondre’s,” Prospero added, glancing at the curtain that gave him privacy.
Scylla gave her a strange look.
“Fine. He’s not all bad, and he’s been spying for me for years,” Prospero blurted out. “If either of you share that detail, I’ll make you think your mouths are surgically sealed so you can only speak in charades thereafter.”
“There’s the spiteful witch I’m used to,” Mae said, but she was laughing as she said it. “My patients need rest, though, and so do you, so…” She made a shooing gesture. “Go away. Maybe listen to my advice and try to rest.”
“You know I’ll stop her,” Prospero told Scylla. “I give you my—”
