“So you can’t think of anything whose natural abilities include turning someone into a desiccated corpse?” I asked.
“No one,” he confirmed.
“Dust,” Danzig said, before shoving more food in his mouth.
“Dust?” I repeated.
Marduk gave Danzig a look and touched his shoulder. They did this a lot and I knew it was so they could talk to each other.
After a brief conversation, Marduk nodded and looked at me. “Danzig was following you today. After you left, he looked in the house to see what had spooked you.”
Both of them looked like they were bracing for my anger, but honestly, I felt intense relief. I’d been battling guilt since I’d thought I’d manage to evade them this afternoon. The fear I felt when I’d found the bodies seemed less intense now that I knew Danzig had been close. I know that didn’t make any sense, but emotions rarely conform to cold logic.
I almost chuckled. Danzig had been there the entire time and I never saw him. It's a good thing I never wanted to be a spy; I'd suck at it.
He’d stopped chewing while I digested what Marduk had said. I met his gaze, stood up, and reached across the table to put my hand over his. He was holding a fork full of lasagna, but dropped it back down on the plate to grasp my hand back.
“Thank you for being there. I’m sorry I tried to evade you,” I said.
My words made both of them gape at me. Danzig recovered first.
Swallowing the food in his mouth, he grinned at me. “I wondered why you did a little happy dance when you got to your car.”
I snorted. “Yeah. I wish you hadn't seen that.
“I saw nothing," he said, then shoved more food in his mouth.
“Except I want to know what you saw in that house,” I said.
With his mouth full of food, he looked over at Marduk.
“When he got there, he watched the bodies turn to dust,” Marduk said. “What you saw was only part of the process, not the end of it. Whatever spell was used on them was meant to completely get rid of them, not simply kill them.”
I blinked, suddenly losing my appetite. “That could've been me.”
After the words slipped out, I expected Marduk to act triumphant and say something insufferable like “this is why we were following you,” or “this is what we are trying to protect you from.”
Instead, he simply nodded.
“It’s terrifying to think about,” he agreed, his voice soft. “You can’t see, smell, or sense magic, so you could’ve walked right into that house and been hit by the same spell. Sometimes the spell is woven so well that another magic user might not notice it until it's activated.”
I finally understood his fears. The human world was scary enough, but I knew how to assess those dangers. This magical world all around me was full of new and unfamiliar scary things.
“Ignorance is my only excuse," I said. “But it's not a good one.”
“What do you mean?” Marduk asked.
“There’s a saying that goes something like ignorance of the law isn’t a defense,” I explained.
They both nodded. “Humans die because of magic all the time. Not enough to make the authorities worried, but it has caused some interesting conspiracy theories.”
“What theories?”
“Human spontaneous combustion,” Marduk answered. “And what happened today.”
I nodded. “There's a gap in my knowledge. Would you guys teach me about your world? I’ve learned a little from Mila and her men, but I need a more systematic education.”
Marduk nodded, looking eager. “Yes, we can teach you.”
