A knock at the conference room door interrupted us. Mindy’s head phased through the wood, making Gavin yelp.
“Sorry.” She didn’t look sorry. “Nigel says there’s been unusual activity on the magical monitoring network. Three spikes in the last hour, all originating from the same area.”
“Let me guess,” Samuel said sourly. “North of the Crossroads.”
Mindy blinked. “Yes.”
My belly clenched.
“She knows we’re on her tail,” Didi said in a voice filled with ice. “Whatever she’s doing to the Lincoln sisters, she’s ramping it up.”
Samuel’s expression hardened. “Abby, call Mrs. Chen. Didi, talk to Melody. Convince her that this is the only way she’ll escape that witch’s control and have her bring the Ashgrove witches onboard however she can. We move at dusk.”
He ended the meeting.
I headed out to my desk, Bo padding silently by my side with his squeaky toy in his mouth. My mind raced as I sat down and reached for my phone.
Events were accelerating at a pace thatshould have made me uncomfortable. Still, I knew the plan we’d come up with was our best chance to rescue the Lincoln sisters.
Mrs. Chen picked up on the second ring.
“I was wondering when you’d call,” she said.
I blinked. “You were?”
“I’ve been feeling disturbances in the ley lines all morning. Something or someone is drawing on them aggressively.” Her tone sharpened. “I take it you found out who took the Lincoln sisters.”
I gave her a condensed version of what we’d discovered so far, including our findings at the warehouse and the Thornwick Family Trust, and carefully omitted any mention of my glamour-piercing and magic tracing capabilities.
Mrs. Chen was silent for a brief moment.
“A spell that can drain the Lincoln sisters of their magic would explain the ley line activity,” she finally murmured.
I told her what we intended to do next.
“That’s an insane plan,” the witch said bluntly.
“It’s a pooptastic plan is what it is,” Bo murmured from under the desk, his toy squeaking forlornly.
I sighed. “It’s the only one we have. Didi believes coordinated witch power is the best way to fight Esmeralda.”
There was a longer pause this time.
“Dorothy is right,” Mrs. Chen agreed reluctantly. “A three-line convergence can be used offensively, but it can also be turned against someone who’s drawing on it. If we get enough witches working in concert,we might be able to redirect the convergence’s energy.”
“Didi’s trying to reach Melody and the Ashgrove witches now. She said their magic was the right kind to fight this witch.”
“I know the Ashgrove witches personally.” Something steely entered the old witch’s voice. “Tell Didi to pick me up. I’ll talk to them.”
I hesitated, conscious I was asking the elderly witch to deliberately expose herself to danger.
Mrs. Chen sensed this. “Don’t worry. I survived Cordelia Thornwick’s attempted coup forty-six years ago. Another Thornwick witch doesn’t scare me. Even if I was, I’m too old and too stubborn to let that stop me.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Bo wagged his tail hesitantly after I hung up.
“Mrs. Chen is terrifying, in a bad poop kind of way,” my dog huffed.
