“I’d rather call an expert,” Wren said.
“Do you have someone in mind?” Teddy asked.
Wren pulled out his phone and video called a number before handing it to Teddy to hold so he could sign freely.
Midas answered after a few rings, raising a single eyebrow at the camera.
“Are you with Avery?” Wren cut right to the chase, signing as he spoke so both Teddy and Saint could keep track.
Midas nodded curiously.
“Can you please get him,” Wren asked. “We could use his help.”
“Me?” Avery appeared over Midas’s shoulder, making him jump on the spot before he caught himself and scowled.
“Yes,” Wren said. “We’re working a case and a lead got us here.”
Teddy panned the camera over to the device, switching the camera to front view so they could still see their reactions. Wren stood at his side while Saint came to stand on the other.
Avery’s eyes widened in shock and he slipped out from behind Midas, clutching a vase like a teddy bear. He was fixated as he drew closer, practically putting himself nose to nose with the screen.
“That is…”
“Terrifying?” Saint said.
“Beautiful!” Avery corrected. “Is it magical in nature?”
“Oh yeah. It feels like it’s trying to suck my soul out of my body,” Saint said.
Avery’s eyes sharpened. “Do you two feel that way too?”
Teddy nodded. “It does feel like it wants to draw in magic somehow. My cursemark aches.”
“Do you have an idea of what it might be?” Wren asked.
“What case are you working? Interpersonal?” Avery guessed.
They all frowned.
“No,” Wren said. “It’s an animal curse case. Someone has been stealing animals for their venom and developing it into a drug of some kind—”
“Using the magical properties found within,” Avery finished for him, nodding.
“How did you know that straight away?” Saint yelled. “That took us five months!”
“Two days for me, technically,” Wren corrected.
“An educated guess based on the information you just told me,” Avery said. “And it reminded me of a case file I saw from the 1930s that included a birdcage the owner used to identify different bird species’ defining traits. A coworker grew jealous and cursed the cage to extract the traits and curse the owner with them…I’d have to look up the specifics, but it was really quite fascinating—”
“Can you pull that case?” Wren demanded.
Avery blinked. “Oh…uh…sure. It might take me a while—”
“But what about this made you think it was interpersonal?” Teddy interrupted next, the niggling feeling he’d had since coming in here pulling at him. “I’m sorry. I know we’re throwing a lot at you at once.”
“It’s fine.” Avery adjusted his glasses. “And I can’t truly be sure. It’s just that the structure has Raddison conduits. You usually only see those in interpersonal-related magic.”
“Because they amplify that magic,” Teddy finished, recalling the chapter from class. He’d never seen a conduit up close, however, only their uses.
