Grayson
It was close to ten thirty when Grayson put Cassandra into the passenger seat of his car. He closed the door and turned, only to run into Elias’s glare. “When will you be back in the morning?” The older man’s frustration came through loud and clear.
“As soon as I have everything I need to help Sofia.” He rounded the hood, not giving a rat’s ass if Elias found his answer lacking, and got behind the wheel. After his conversation with Walter, Grayson didn’t trust either of the older Ambroses as far as he could spit.
He was pulling out of the drive when Cass asked, “You sure she’ll be okay?”
As they drove under the muted streetlights, he glanced over to see Cass staring straight ahead, unnaturally still, her hands fisted in her lap. He turned back to the road but not before taking one hand from the wheel to cover hers and give it a comforting squeeze. “The stasis spell will hold the curse in check.”
“But it won’t stop it.”
“No, but with the addition of your grandmother’s protection, it should last until morning.” He let her go and took the freeway exit.
She shifted in her seat. “What did you find out that you didn’t want to share in front of my parents?”
He wasn’t surprised by her perception. “The hex on Sofia is based on a Cabal spell.”
Instead of the disbelief he expected, he got a shocked “Cabal? You’re sure?”
“Positive.” He knew he looked as grim as he sounded. “And Sofia’s not the only one.”
“What do you mean?”
“According to my source, over the last year, there have been some alarming incidents that involve a handful of the original Families.”
“Alarming how?” When he didn’t say anything, she demanded sharply, “Grayson, alarming how?”
He kept his attention on the road. “Magical experimentation on unwilling mages, demon pacts, big-money fraud, kidnappings, and hexes for hire. The kind of things the Families don’t want made public.”
She was quiet for a moment. “The curse victims—they survived?”
It was futile to hope she wouldn’t zero in on that particular issue, but he wouldn’t lie, not to her. “Not all of them.”
She sucked in a breath and, on a choked sob, whispered, “Oh gods, Sofie.”
“Hey.” He reached out, found her hand, and held it tight.
She held on as words tumbled from her in a panicked rush. “You told my mother you could reverse it, but mixing dark magic and science—that’s not the same.”
“It is and it isn’t, Cass.” He forced his voice to stay level. “A Cabal-based spell is complicated because of how it’s created, but that doesn’t make it impossible to break.”
With her free hand, she rubbed her forehead and muttered, “Okay, okay,” as if trying to convince herself. When she tugged on her other hand, he let her go. A tense minute passed before she regained her composure. “All right. According to your source, the ones behind Sofia’s curse are part of the Cabal?”
He nodded.
“And they’re sure? I mean, like, you believe them?”
“I do.”
“Why?”
Old oaths prevented him from sharing details such as Walter’s name or how, in a previous life, Walter’s work with Cabal casts had been legendary. Instead, Grayson stuck with the simplest answer. “We have a business arrangement based on mutually assured destruction.”
“Seriously?”
It was one word, but in it he heard her flickers of doubt. He needed to head them off before they found fertile ground. Frustration and desperation left his voice hard. “There have been times when I’ve had to work with less-than-legit players, and one of those times includes this source. I can’t—not won’t, Cass, can’t—share beyond swearing to you that he would not risk the repercussions of lying to me.”
He waited, tension knotting his gut. The seconds stretched into eternity.
