The new moon within the lunar cycle was attuned to fresh starts, emptying your life of things that didn’t serve you. While anti-magic—magic that actively harmed others like hexes and curses—wasn’t allowed, it didn’t mean that someone couldn’t have been performing it. The new moon was meant to help banish negative and toxic elements from your life, but if someone had the right ability for it… Could they be illegally casting anti-magic using the extra ritual power of that sacred night?
Could the HOA be behind it?
Saros already had his phone out, swiping and tapping a few times before putting it to his ear.
“Who are you calling?” I asked, eyes wide. The clock read 4:12 a.m. Who in their right mind would answer the phone right now?
“The Locksmith,” Saros replied, phone still held to his ear, a faint ringing whispering through the other end of the line.
“Locksmith?”
“Yeah, my contact at headquarters. The one who helps decipher things and break through wards like the one Acacia Mirabel had on the evidence we sent in.”
“Think he has something?” I asked, wondering what kind of hours this power locksmith worked where Saros thought nothing of calling him in the middle of the night.
“Hey, Theo,” he said, voice in its serious business baritone. “Anything new on the Mirabel case? … I need you to search for any notes about the HOA.”
He waited, silence filling both ends of the phone.
A moment later, I heard Theo’s distant voice, but it was too quiet to make out what he was saying.
Saros’s brows furrowed. “That’s all there is?” He ran a hand over the bottom half of his face, as if frustrated. “Not sure if that helps us, but if you spot anything else, let me know.”
“What’d he say?” I asked once he’d hung up.
“He said she had a map of the neighborhood where she was denoting possible HOA members.” He shifted things around on the board, clearing out the bottom right corner. “He’s sending it over to me now.”
The door creaked down the hall, and Lynx’s soft voice filtered into the room. “Hey, it’s us.”
Us.
I turned, spotting Aspen in his arms, a gummy grin with his one tiny tooth peeking up above his bottom lip.
“There’s my sweet little witch,” I cooed, taking him from Lynx and nuzzling his nose with mine. Then Lynx gripped my chin and pulled me in for a kiss, one that had my toes curling against the carpet. “How’s Atlas doing?”
“Well enough he decided to come along for the trip,” Atlas said, coming in from the hallway.
“Did anyone stop you on your way over here?” I asked, nerves jolting at the idea that our secret could be found out.
“You know they did.” Lynx chuckled, shaking his head at Atlas. “But it was the perfect test run to ensure his Illusion is up and running after the full moon last night.”
His attention snagged on Saros standing in front of their case board. Moving closer to it, he looped his arm around Saros’s waist, glancing at me from over his shoulder. “This wildling was hungry, though, so I figured I’d bring him to you and see how things were going. Didn’t want to interrupt, but I checked first to make sure we wouldn’t be disturbing anything.”
“Speaking of,” Atlas sat next to me on the edge of the bed before brushing some tangles out of my face. His hand lingered over the base of my throat, a familiar tingling sensation ghosting there, along with the memory of last night when he’d fed from me. “Someone looks beautifully flushed from a night of enjoying themself.”
Heat crept across my cheeks, and Lynx waggled his brows at me from the corner of my eye, making me shake my head at him.
“Well, you’re both just in time,” Saros cut in, thankfully taking the attention away from my blushing. “I think we might have just gotten another lead in the case.”
“Are we still working the case?” Lynx asked.
“Look, I am seeing this through until someone says otherwise. No one has come after us, which makes me think we still have our jobs.”
Atlas nodded in agreement. “I’ve taken Aleander’s spot as your handler, according to headquarters, so why not? Besides, don’t we want to get to the bottom of this?”
“Fair enough.” Lynx shrugged, squinting at the board. “Whatcha got?”
“Locksmith just sent the map Mirabel had in her files. She was trying to narrow down the HOA members.” Saros ran his hand over his phone, then waved it toward the newly opened corner of the board. “Oakley got an email from the HOA this morning with a warning, and I remembered seeing similar emails when we combed through the victims’ inboxes.”
