The curiosity burned him. He had to know more. But all in good time.
Augustine nodded. “Illusion mages are the same. We take advantage of misconceptions. As does every group of magic users. Our laws require that we identify the nature of our talents, and the economic reality compels us to sort ourselves into tiers of power. Everything else is secret. Now you know one of my talent’s secrets—the dead face. A sure way to identify a lower tier illusion mage in disguise.”
The silence lay heavy between them.
She raised her eyebrows and wagged them.
“Yes?”
“I’m reassuring you that I’m not an illusion mage.”
He almost laughed but caught himself.
“You still haven’t explained your conclusions,” she reminded him.
“Illusion isn’t a single talent but rather a collection of abilities related to disguising oneself. They weave together like threads that make a fabric to create a different appearance. Some people are better at manifesting certain traits than others. The abilityto retain an altered appearance on camera is called mirror-masking. Almost all illusion Primes and about thirty percent of Significants have it, but it sporadically occurs in people with lower power levels. Statistically, the duration of the illusion and the fact that the killer held it through the murder suggests someone who is at least a Significant, but the lack of emoting and that blur in the recording puts her in the lower range and possibly drops her down to an upper Notable.”
Diana caught on fast. “And you believe that she is a woman because she would’ve chosen a victim of the same size to make things easier?”
“That, and the way she moved.”
Explaining how he sensed that would take entirely too long. He spent most of his life observing human bodies to better imitate them, and he was rarely wrong.
“Is the ability to mimic scents an illusion skill?” she asked.
“Did the killer mimic her victim’s scent?”
“She did. She passed by multiple guard dogs, and Celeste didn’t sense an intruder. If her scent wasn’t familiar, she would’ve never allowed a strange human near her den.”
Augustine smiled. “That’s very fortunate.”
“Why?”
“Because the ability to duplicate a scent via illusion is extremely rare. That considerably narrows our suspect pool.”
“Narrows it by how much?”
“There are only two families in East Texas with hypersensitivity to scents and the ability to duplicate them.” He picked up his phone. “And I am going to eliminate one of them from our list.”
He tapped the phone, putting the call on speaker.
“Yes, Prime Montgomery?” Marwan’s voice echoed through the room.
“Where were you last night between 7:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.?”
“I’m still in St. Louis following the Guera case. Marina and I tailed him to RYSE and sat on him until he left at eight minutes past midnight.”
“And your brother?”
“He is testifying in Boston on behalf of House Talvert. He was up half of the night doing trial prep with the ADA.”
“Thank you.” Augustine hung up and looked at Diana. “As you can see, it wasn’t any of mine. That leaves us with one local option. Are you sure you wish to participate?”
“Yes.”
It wasn’t his habit to involve the clients in the investigation. He tried his best to discourage that. However, it wouldn’t be the first time the head of a House chose to attend to their problem personally. He would just have to work her presence into his plans. Besides, he had a feeling that spending time with Diana Harrison promised the kind of insight into animal mages no amount of background research could provide. Of all the magic specialties, the metamorphosis and the animal mages presented the greatest threat to his brand of power. No matter how meticulously he crafted his illusions, he couldn’t alter his scent. They could identify him by smell alone. The more he knew about them, the better he could minimize that risk.
This intel would be priceless.
