“I’m thinking about throwing the fight.”
Her eyes widened. “Moira. No. You don’t know what she’s planning for you. What if you can’t escape?”
“That’s why I need you to stay hidden. Follow us if you can.”
Ari shook her head. “This is a terrible idea.”
“Then let’s hope Mom doesn’t show up.”
We went through the entire store and didn’t find a single thing other than normal spell supplies and tourist tchotchkes. Even her office records were on the up and up, which told me this was a front.
“She has somewhere else she goes to do the worst of her work.”
“Could be behind those wards,” Ari mused. She stepped closer, her eyes glinting silver as her magic rose.
I frowned. “It’s a spelling table and a bunch of herbs. There’s no way she cast that resurrection spell here.”
Ari shrugged, her expression sober. “You’d be surprised what can hide behind a ward, Moira.”
She raised her hand. “Prepare yourself.”
I gave her a sharp look. “What? What do you sense?”
“Something dark.”
A flash of silver speared from Ari’s hand into the ward, coating the area in a molten silver glow.
As soon as the wards fell, a foul odor rose in the air.
I gagged, the scent permeating everything in the room.
“Gods,” Ari croaked, covering her mouth with a delicate hand.
Death smelled a certain way. Difficult to describe, both pungent and sweet, and if you smelled it once, you never forgot the experience.
A rotting body lay on the table, the only thing recognizable about it, a sheet of pale dark hair.
I took several steps back. “We found Mom’s sacrifice.”
Ari’s eyes were wide with horror. “What did she do?”
Strange glowing symbols were etched into every piece of the corpse’s visible skin. I’d never seen them before. “This is where she cast the spell to bring Sarah back, and this woman’s life force was the catalyst.”
Ari stepped forward and crouched, peering closely at the symbols. “I’ve never seen these before. Maybe it’s some kind of language?”
I pulled out my cell and snapped several pictures, keeping the flash off. The symbols gave off enough light to make the pictures clear. “I’ll take these to Evie to see if she can help identify what these are.”
But Ari was frowning. She held her hand over the body. “This poor woman is still here.”
I stilled. “She’s alive?” Horror rose inside me.
“No. But her soul is still attached.” Ari blinked. “Shit. Do you have a way to reach Cliona?”
I nodded. “Get her. Now.”
Cliona was there a few seconds later. She sucked in a gasp when she saw the body. “Moira,” she barked, “hold on to Ari.”
I grabbed the fae’s arm.
