“We can help you,” I offered weakly.
Melody’s laugh was barely a sound. “No, you can’t. She’s stronger than anyone you’ve ever faced. Stronger than she should be.” Her eyes glistened. “She’s been planning this for longer than any of us realized. And she doesn’t just want the Lincoln sisters. She wants everything they had. Their power. Their influence. What their family built. And more.”
My chest tightened. Though she was in pain, Melody was working around whatever was binding her and giving us what she could.
“She wants to rule the covens,” Samuel said in a deadly voice.
“She wants the East Coast,” Melody mumbled.
My mouth went dry.
Melody winced and bit her lip hard, her complexion ashen. Whatever was inside her was punishing her for talking.
I swallowed. “We’ll leave.”
The words tasted of bitter defeat as they left my mouth.
Melody didn’t look up. “Don’t come back here. She watches. She’s always watching.”
Samuel headed for the exit. I paused in the doorway, Bo at my side.
“We’re going to find out who she is,” I told the witch where she stood frozen by the mantelpiece of her sitting room. “With or without a name.”
Melody’s voice followed us out, barely louder than a breath. “I hope you do. Before it’s too late.”
22
COFFEE AND BAIT
We were halfwaydown the street when Samuel’s phone rang. He hit the hands-free as he pulled away from the curb.
Didi’s voice filled the car, clipped and taut.
“I got the results back from my contact. The scrying expert I asked to examine the Ashgrove coven’s magical signatures remotely.”
“And?” Samuel said.
“Their signatures are being smothered. Something’s layered on top of them. My contact nearly had a panic attack when she realized what she was looking at.”
My alpha and I exchanged a worried glance as we waited for the witch to continue.
“It’s subjugation magic, Samuel.” Didi’s voice hardened. “The kind that was banned by the covens centuries ago.”
My belly clenched. Samuel’s hands tightened on the wheel.
“The Black Chalice Rite,” I mumbled. “Arthurmentioned subjugation being one of the abilities it confers on its user.”
“I think you’ll find the same thing if you have your friend scry Melody Flowers’s magic signature,” Samuel told Didi grimly.
We gave her a breakdown of what we’d learned from the fae-witch and the magic we’d sensed in her home.
“I’ll keep chasing my contacts about the Ashgrove witches,” Didi said flatly. She hung up.
I stared distractedly out the windshield. The truth behind the Lincoln sisters’ disappearance was turning out to be uglier than any of us expected. And its ramifications went far beyond Amberford it seemed.
The mate bond pulsed with Samuel’s restlessness.
“We need to find out who’s behind that Delaware company.”
