Sabelle nods and jumps in. “Whatever ‘normal’ magic the Untouchables once had seems long gone now after generations of breeding with humans. Or suppressed. Something. But every thousand years, a recessive trait rises and the lineage produces a child that’s different.”
“Different how?”
“They’re Untouchable—and not merely in name. We’re talking about someone completely impervious to magic.”
Raiden frowns. “So any spell I hurled at them would?—”
“Roll off them, as if you never cast it at all.” Sabelle shrugs. “Or that’s what I’ve read. And according to this document, one such child was born in London twenty-five years ago, name redacted.”
“I suspect my father erased that child’s name to hide her identity.”
Raiden scrubs a hand across his face. “So no one would know who to hunt down?”
“That’s my guess,” I murmur. “My father never said for certain, but…I can guess why he would hide such knowledge. Someone with those abilities?—”
“Would either be the ultimate shield or the ultimate weapon.”
Sabelle nods. “Precisely.”
And the implications are terrifying. “I’m not sure how Mathias found out. Or even thought to look.”
Raiden snorts. “Given the fact that he was likely alive the last time an Untouchable was alive, we shouldn’t have to guess too hard.”
“Even if he wasn’t, don’t be fooled by his violence. Mathias is smart, strategic, and well-read. He understands magical history in a way few do, and if he managed to get his hands on my grandfather’s journals in the ashes of Goldcroft…”
The Doomsday Brethren’s situation is far more dire than anyone even suspects. At least that’s the expression on Sabelle’s carefully arranged face.
“Would your father have destroyed such a record to protect the infant’s life?”
I don’t even have to think twice. I nod. Then I realize— “Wait. The hospital my father and I visited when I was a girl! That was twenty-five years ago.”
As I cover my gaping mouth, Raiden’s face tightens. “The man persuaded your father to conceal the baby’s name.”
“You’re sure?” Sabelle asked.
I nod. “They gave the baby, a little girl, up for adoption that very night.”
I’ll never forget that heartbroken mother clinging to her daughter, shedding the most wrenching tears as she clutched the infant before the father tugged her swaddled form away and put her in the arms of a capable, professional looking woman who disappeared moments later, never to return. As a woman expecting a youngling, I can only imagine the devastation of being wrenched apart from your newborn.
“To protect her.” Sabelle’s face softens with compassion.
“Indeed.” Anything involving Untouchables is always dangerous. They’re often killed not only for their seeming immunity to magic, but also their ability to suppress all magic near them.
Whoever she is, if Mathias learns her identity, the woman is in terrible danger. And if she was given up as an infant, does she even know she’s Untouchable? How could she?
My blood runs cold at the implications. This woman would be completely unprepared. Completely unprotected. “We have to find her.”
“How? We can’t start with her parents.” Raiden points to the parchment. “The Untouchable’s mother died shortly after giving birth.”
“For refusing to divulge her daughter’s name?” I’m alarmed by that possibility. “Or perhaps not. Look, her father passed away mere weeks ago.”
But still most likely too young to die of natural causes.
Beside me, Raiden’s expression freezes. “If Mathias seeks this page, he must not know the Untouchable’s identity.”
“A logical assumption,” Sabelle grants, then frowns. “But…why find her now? If she’s uniquely able to derail whatever his nefarious plans are, why didn’t he track her down immediately after he rose from exile? What’s changed?”
Raiden’s eyes narrow sharply. “His last defeat at your mate’s hand? Ice handed him his ass.”
