Imogen and Lydia stood, not knowing what was being said but seeing his reaction.
“What do I—” He pulled out his phone and stared at it.
I touched his sleeve, regaining his attention.“Don’t call,” I murmured.“You go to her and get her back from him.”
“Yes.”He nodded robotically.“Yes.”He glanced to the right, saw the Panel staring at him, and jolted out of his shock.“She’s a Cassandra.I have to go.Lydia, please take over for me.”He ran out of the room and a moment later, we heard an engine rev and tires squeal.
“What did you see?”Imogen asked me.
Shaking my head, I walked back to our designated interrogation spot, Mom beside me.“That’s no one’s business but Malcolm’s.”
Imogen narrowed her eyes at me.“How did you know his name?”
I grinned.“How do I know anything, Imogen?I just do.”I glanced at a seething Catherine and added, “So, no.I’m not a sorcerer.I’m a Cassandra wicche, one who, because of my mother and grandmother, made it to adulthood.”
Mom sat down.
This part was up to me.I turned to Lydia.“Do you have a projection system here?”
She shook her head.“We don’t.”
“That’s okay.”I reached over for my backpack and Mom handed it to me.“I have my own, if you’ll give me a minute.I have information I’d like to share with the Council.”
Catherine looked ready to jump down my throat, but the other three nodded.There was a tall two-top table pushed against a wall, holding a tray with water glasses on it.I put the tray on the floor, then carried the table back to my spot.Moving quickly and efficiently, I got the laptop and projector set up and projecting on the white wall opposite me.
I tapped on the folder holding all the images and videos of Swans, then turned back to the Panel.“Unlike my accuser, I have evidence of the Swans dealing in black magic.”
Catherine shot out of her seat and threw a curse at Faith, who she no doubt saw as the weakest of us.We all moved at the same time.Mom lunged in front of Faith, ready to take the hit.Bracken held out his hand to catch it.I’d had the same idea and was closer to Catherine, so I snatched her curse out of the air and felt it burn my hand.I held the scream in, glaring at Catherine.Bracken was suddenly beside me with my octopus bottle, pouring the seawater over my burned hand.
I heard a ruckus and turned to see Mom stalking toward Catherine, the fingers of both hands going.Catherine was shoved back into her seat, and the chair flew ten feet across the wooden floor, so it slammed against the wall, Catherine’s head bashing into it as well.Mom had spelled Catherine’s mouth shut and kept her pinned to her chair.
The ground beneath us began to rumble with an earthquake.Bracken quickly sat down and put his arm around Faith, whispering that everything was going to be okay.
Mom, though, was too far gone to recognize that the quaking was caused by our very upset elemental.“Do you have any idea what I did to the man who stole her when she was three?”she ground out as she moved toward Catherine.“Who tried to assault my baby?There is nothing, you weak, petty old bitch, I wouldn’t do to protect mine.”
My hand was a bloody, blistered, blackened mess, but I moved quickly to Mom.We didn’t need her committing a murder with thirty witnesses taking notes.
She looked down at my hand.“Show me.”
I opened it, flinching at the sudden pain.
“Darling,” she crooned.She looked up at all the people watching us.“Is there a healer in here?”
“I’m sorry, no,” Lydia said.“My daughter is a healer, but she’s not with us today.”
“It’s okay, Mom.It looks better than it did a minute ago.Give it some time.”
Mom shook her head, looking suddenly exhausted.“Let’s go.This was a stupid idea.”
“No, it wasn’t.”I nudged her toward her chair.“And I still have a presentation to give.”I tapped on the first video.“This is surveillance taken from my art gallery.Catherine’s grandson Milo was on the crew who were packing up my artwork to ship to a buyer.Midday, I made cookies for the crew.Everyone had gone out onto my deck to take a break, but here is Milo hanging back.See, he’s pulling something out of his pocket that he shakes onto food in the display case and into a jar of tea on the counter.”
I paused the video after he strolled out onto the deck.“I walked by the cabinet later that day and my stomach seized.I touched one of the poisoned cookies and saw the little boy who was going to eat it and die.I also saw Catherine giving her grandson the poison.They had been working with my sorcerer cousin, Calliope.”
They were listening.I could see it on their faces.
“I sometimes help on difficult police cases, so I know two detectives.I called and they came, took the food and tea leaves, confirming the presence of poison.Milo was taken into custody, but Catherine seems to have influenced a judge to let him out on a reduced bail.”
I clicked on the next file.“This, we believe, is Milena.Milo was still in jail when this happened.You can see she’s holding the curse in one hand while the fingers of her other are working a spell.It didn’t work.She couldn’t break my wards.”
