“Zane, how do you take yours?”
“Black, please.”
She was pouring cream into Grayson’s when he joined her in the kitchen, his chest covered by a wrinkled gray T-shirt. She held out a mug. “This is yours.”
He took it from her with a murmured “Thanks.” She finished doctoring hers, and before she could grab Zane’s, Grayson had it. “I’ve got it.”
She followed him to where Zane was sprawled in the easy chair, his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, his head tipped against the headrest, his eyes closed. At Grayson’s approach, they snapped open with a disconcerting alertness.
“Here.” Grayson held out the mug.
“Thanks.” Zane took it and sipped.
Cass settled into the corner of the couch, her back to the armrest so she could see Zane, and crossed her legs tailor style. She waited until Grayson took a seat next to her, his thigh brushing her knee, before she spoke. “What did you find?”
“Russell Seagraves, a thirty-year-old Auctori mage, acquisition manager at Pythia Strategies, only son of Mira and Jared Seagraves of Huntington Beach, California. For the last seven years, he’s worked his way through various companies as he climbed from procurement analyst into contract work until finally landing his job at Pythia.” Zane set his coffee aside. “And for an Auctori mage, he’s done a shit job with personal relationships.”
“Not a surprise. He’s an arrogant dick,” Grayson said.
“Yeah, that’s the picture I got,” Zane confirmed. “His mother is a family therapist, and his father is a tenured faculty member at a local university. Both are well respected in their fields.” He absently tapped a finger against the chair’s armrest. “I managed to talk to the dad, who shared that they’re not close to their son—haven’t been in years. Their choice.”
Grayson frowned. “Any particular reason why?”
“Seems Russell decided that the nice comfortable lifestyle his parents provided wasn’t enough for him, nor did they appreciate how he could enhance that lifestyle if he just ignored a few ethical lines.”
It didn’t take a genius to understand the subtext, but Cass wanted to be sure. “He used his magic on innocents.”
Zane nodded, his expression shifting to something darker, colder. “It started in high school. Initially, it was getting teachers to change grades or overlook attendance issues, but it didn’t take long for it to spill over into his social life.”
Disquiet crawled over her skin. “How bad?”
“Bad. It started with a couple of incidents with some guys that were giving him a hard time, but nothing could be proven.” The darkness in the Hunter’s eyes deepened. “Not until two girls came forward and claimed he’d forced their affection.”
Her stomach rolled with the implication, and it was hard to get her question out. “Physically?”
“Emotionally,” Zane countered. “Not that that’s any better.”
No. If anything, it was worse.
Zane continued his story. “One of the girls had a boyfriend, a popular guy, and they were fairly serious. The boyfriend clued in before she did, mainly because her behavior was so out of character, and he was smart enough to recognize Russell’s influence.”
“Oracle?” Grayson asked her, probably remembering their earlier conversation about why Cass had caught Russ’s hex before he had.
“Maybe,” she said. “But they’re not the only type of mage that would recognize that kind of magic.”
“Key, actually,” Zane said. “He’s now part of the Guild in California.”
Which explained why Zane was able to get this kind of information so quickly. In her experience, most victims of manipulation mages tended to keep the details quiet. She remembered a timid, nearly broken man who’d been targeted by a powerful Auctori, a woman who didn’t take no for an answer. By the time he’d reached out to Des for help, his life was in shambles. Once she, Isa, and Des were done, it was the Auctori scrambling to pick up the pieces, and her chosen prey was rebuilding his life somewhere far, far away.
“What about the other girl?” Cass asked.
“Shared her supposed ‘feelings’ with her best friend, who told her parents, who then went to his parents. They were horrified and sent him off to a therapist who specialized in behavior modification, hoping it would help.”
She did not like where this was going. “It didn’t.”
Zane shook his head. “No, Russell just got better at hiding. He came back halfway through his senior year and spent the next few months toeing the line, but as soon as he hit eighteen, he left and hasn’t been in touch with his parents since. My impression from his dad is they would like it to stay that way.”
She couldn’t blame them. “All right. So after high school and ditching his parents, where did he end up?”
