The Enchanter Heir (22 page)

Rachel tilted her head toward Jonah. “Who is this . . . your bodyguard?” she asked.

Greenwood didn’t even look at Jonah. “I got no idea who that is,” he said. “He just showed up. We hadn’t made it to introductions.”

“We heard gunshots. What was that about?”

“I was shooting at
him
,” Greenwood said, nodding at Jonah. “I think I winged him, too.”

“Where’s the gun?”

Greenwood shrugged. “I don’t know where it got to.”

“Hey! I recognize him,” Graham said, pointing Fragarach at Jonah. “He broke my Viking cue—the one with the Predator shaft.”

“What are you talking about?” Rachel snapped.

“Remember? I got into it with him at that bar in the Warehouse District,” Graham said, with a hint of swagger.

Rachel scowled. “This is
exactly
why we aren’t supposed to draw attention to ourselves. You never know who you’re talking to.”

Graham didn’t get the hint. He turned, swinging the massive sword, thrusting and parrying invisible opponents, setting Jonah’s teeth on edge. “I think I should get to keep the sword. You know, in payment for the cue.”

“Rowan will decide what to do with the sword,” Rachel said. “And when he hears about all this, you’d better hope he’s in a good mood. Getting thrown out of the syndicate is the least bad thing that can happen to you.”

Graham’s expression clouded. “D-does Rowan really need to know about this? I mean—”

“Would you just shut up?” Rachel turned back to Greenwood while Jonah, fuzzy-headed from pain and blood loss, struggled to recall who Rowan was. Then it came to him. Rowan DeVries, the wizard he’d seen with Wylie and Longbranch in London. Head of the Black Rose.

“Look,” Greenwood said, “if you want drugs, I don’t have any. I don’t have much money, and what I do have is in the bank. There’s nothing here worth stealing. But if you drive me to the ATM, I’ll get you some money.”

He’s trying to get them out of the house, Jonah thought.

Because of Emma.

“We’re not after money,” Rachel said. “You know what we want—information about Thorn Hill.”

“Thorn Hill?” Greenwood shook his head, drawing his eyebrows together. “What is that?”

“We’ve already been to Brazil,” Rachel said, ignoring the question. “There’s nothing there. After it was abandoned, the property burned to the ground, except for the buildings around the mines. There must have been records, notes, lab books, something.”

“Brazil? I’ve never been there. The only records you’ll find around here are vinyl albums and old sheet music and bills I need to pay.”

“Everyone’s dead, except for you,” Rachel said. “Why is that? How come you’re the only one that survived? Or are there others we don’t know about?”

Greenwood said nothing.

The young wizard reached out and brushed her fingers against Greenwood’s neck. The sorcerer went rigid, arching backward. His pain surged through Jonah like an electrical shock, but Greenwood didn’t make a sound.

Empathic connection—the gift, and the curse of enchanters everywhere. The gift of perceiving the pain and emotions of others. The curse of sharing them, whether you wanted to or not.

“What was your connection to the Black Rose, back then?” Rachel demanded. “How did you know my father?

He didn’t keep very good records because, you see, he didn’t plan on dying.”

“Tell me what you want to hear, and I’ll go ahead and make something up,” Greenwood said. “What makes you think I’m this dude you’re looking for?”

Rachel pulled out her phone, brought up a photo, and shoved it into Greenwood’s face. “Give it up. You’ve been on our list for years. We knew that, sooner or later, you’d slip up. And you did, in Memphis. Who are you working for now, Tyler? Who is killing wizards? Tell us what we want to know, and we’ll finish you off quickly.”

Rachel flamed him again, her fingers leaving behind a trail of blisters and charred skin. Sweat rolled down Greenwood’s face. He’s not screaming, Jonah thought. Why isn’t he screaming? I would be screaming.

And then he answered his own question. Because he doesn’t want Emma to hear. Because he’s hoping she’ll stay in the basement, out of harm’s way. He doesn’t know she’s tied up.

Rachel snorted in disgust. “Hang on to him,” she said to Hardesty and Somerset.

She turned her attention to Jonah, unzipping his jacket and sweatshirt and patting him down thoroughly. It was all Jonah could do not to flinch as her hot wizard fingers prodded his blistered skin. As she ran her hands down his sides, she jerked away and peered at her bloody fingers. “You’re bleeding,” she said, rubbing them together.

Jonah said nothing, because he was, of course, “immobilized.”

Yanking his T-shirt free from his jeans, she lifted it up and poked at the bullet wound while sweat trickled down between Jonah’s shoulder blades. “Well,” she said, “they’re telling the truth about that, anyway. This one’s been shot— looks like a clean pass-through.”

She ran both hands over Jonah’s chest, found the Nightshade amulet, and pulled it out from under his sweatshirt. Standing on her toes, she lifted the chain over his head, turned, and held it up so it dangled, glittering in the moonlight. She sucked in a breath, swung around, then, and took another hard look at Jonah.

Clenching the pendant in her fist, she pointed at him, murmuring a charm. Disabling the immobilization charm, Jonah guessed, so she could question him.

“Greenwood claims he doesn’t know you,” she said, “that you just showed up here. Why?”

“I’m from Medieval Pizza,” Jonah said. “
Somebody
here ordered a deluxe with extra cheese.” He glared around the room, as if to find the culprit.

Several of the young wizards snickered.

Rachel was unimpressed. “
Did
Greenwood shoot you?

How come?”

“We had a disagreement,” Jonah said. “Mr. Boykin claims he didn’t order any pizza.”

“What’s your name?”

“Jonah.”

“Jonah. Why were you at the club that night? Were you tailing us?”

“I went to the club to hear the band,” Jonah said. “Didn’t you?”

“And now you just
happen
to be here,” Rachel continued.

“Are you and Greenwood working together? Did you know we would be here tonight?”

“Yeah, we’re working together,” Jonah said. “That’s why he shot me. Frankly, if I had known you were going to be here tonight, I would have come last night.” He nodded toward the wizard posse. “What
is
this? Take-a-wizardlingto-work day?”

Rachel’s lips tightened. The wizardlings muttered among themselves.

Stop it, Kinlock, Jonah said to himself. You’re getting cranky. You can’t afford cranky, not right now. “I’m intrigued by your pendant,” Rachel said. “Where did you get it?”

“I bought it in an antique shop,” Jonah said. “I think I have a receipt for it somewhere.”

She snorted. “Did you know that we’ve been finding nightshade flowers scattered over the bodies of murdered wizards?” Extending her hand, she opened her fingers to display the amulet, then looked up into Jonah’s eyes. “I’m no botanist, but this looks very much like deadly nightshade.”

“Nightshade?” Jonah held her gaze. “Oh, no,” he said. “Those are trumpet flowers. Some things look deadly, but they’re totally harmless. And other things look harmless, and they’re totally deadly.” They stood, their eyes locked, for a long moment. Rachel extended her free hand, as if to touch his face.

“Hey! Rachel?” Graham tapped her on the shoulder. “You all right?”

Rachel blinked, took a step back, shook her head. “What did you . . . ?” She took another step back, apprehension stealing over her face. “Graham. Let me see the sword.”

Graham handed it over reluctantly.

Rachel turned Fragarach so it reflected the light. “This looks like a museum piece, and yet . . . very functional. Did you buy this in an antique store, too?” Not waiting for an answer, she handed it back to Graham. “I’m calling Rowan,” she said, all business again. “We’re going to take these two someplace more secure for questioning, someplace where we won’t be interrupted.”

She gestured at Jonah, spoke a quick immobilization charm, and turned away, punching numbers into her phone. After a hurried conversation, she rejoined the group. “He’s coming, and bringing some help,” she said.

We need to be gone before the posse arrives, Jonah thought—me and Emma and Tyler. But how to manage that? And where the hell were Cameron and Brooke?

As if called by Jonah’s words, Cameron and Brooke walked in from the living room, hands raised. Followed by Emma holding Tyler’s pistol like she knew how to use it.

“Emma!” Greenwood said, his face gone ashy with dismay. “Go on! Get out of here!
Run!
”

“No,” Emma said. “You’re all I’ve got, and I am not going to lose you, too.” She raised her voice. “You let my father go,” she said to Somerset and Hardesty. “Then . . . all of you . . . get on out of here before I start shooting people.”

The wizards looked at one another, seeming more amused than frightened.

What’s
wrong
with them? Jonah thought. Aren’t they the least bit concerned? Hasn’t it occurred to them that this might be dangerous work? Then again, maybe not. Being at the top of the magical food chain, they weren’t used to worrying about other predators.

“Don’t you remember her?” Cameron said to Graham, pointing at Emma. “She’s the labrat that beat you at pool.”

“So a labrat with a gun overpowered two wizards?” Graham smirked. “Not your best day, Cam.”

“She surprised us,” Brooke complained. “And then we immobilized her, but it didn’t seem to work.”

And I tied her up, Jonah thought. And that didn’t seem to work. Well, he
had
left her tied up in a room full of tools and sawblades.

“So you’re Greenwood’s daughter?” A gloating smile twitched Rachel’s lips. Jonah didn’t need to read minds to know what she was thinking. Emma would make a great weapon to motivate Greenwood to talk.

“I’ll give you to the count of three,” Emma said, shifting the gun to Cameron’s temple. “Then I shoot.”

“Go ahead and shoot him,” Rachel said, with a shrug. “I don’t care.” She paused. “But you
do
care about your father, don’t you? Somerset and Hardesty can kill him in an instant.

Even if you shoot one, the other will kill him. So put down the gun, and let’s talk, and maybe you both can survive this.” Wizards have persuasive powers of their own, Jonah thought. She’s stalling, counting on reinforcements. Jonah had to find a way to end this stalemate.

Greenwood was working the same problem. The sorcerer’s eyes flicked around the room, assessing his options. Nobody noticed when the ostensibly immobilized Jonah removed his gloves and dropped them on the floor. But before he could act, Greenwood made his move.

“Emma! Run!” he shouted, jerking free and plowing into Hardesty, taking him down like tenpins and landing hard on top of him. He slammed the wizard’s head into the stone floor, once, twice, three times. The last time there was a crunch, and Hardesty lay still.

Somerset extended his hand toward Greenwood. As flame spurted from his fingers, Emma set her feet and fired, and the wizard went down like he’d been axed. Cameron smashed into Emma, sending her flying into a stone fountain.

She landed, draped over the base like a broken doll.

Then Jonah was on him, and Cameron was dead before he hit the floor.

After that, it was a chaotic melee of wizard flame and killing charms and burning wicker, Jonah’s hands closing on bare flesh. All around him, wizard voices rose in a cacophony of nasty charms that had no effect whatsoever. Jonah flinched when they flamed him, but he was used to pain, remarkably resistant to it, unless it was somebody else’s. Most of the time they missed, often hitting each other. Even wounded, he was quick, while they were painfully, fatally slow.

Graham ran for the door, slowed by the weight of Fragarach, but Jonah was there first.

“Not so fast,” Jonah said, extending his hand. “I’m going to need my sword back.”

The wizard slashed at Jonah, a two-handed sweep, but Jonah nimbly leaped aside, gripping the wizard’s bare wrist with one hand and retrieving his sword with the other. Jonah released his hold, and the wizard crumpled to the floor. Rachel charged toward Emma, landed rolling, and came up with the gun. “If immobilization doesn’t work, let’s try this.” She fired four shots at Jonah in quick succession. The shots went wild, shattering glass all around. Wizards were not, generally speaking, skilled with firearms: they rarely needed them.

Jonah spun, swung, and cut Rachel down with his sword. “Rachel!” Brooke screamed.

Even when they tried to get out of his way, even when they scrambled for the door, he intercepted them easily, cut through them like a blade through silk, leaving dead bodies behind him. Finally, it was down to Brooke, who huddled, weeping in a corner, mascara running down her face. “Don’t hurt me,” she quavered, when Jonah squatted in front of her.

“This won’t hurt,” Jonah said softly. “I promise.” Killing wizards. He was finding that it was something he was good at . . . something that brought him a certain satisfaction in a dark and terrible world.

Chapter Twenty-three
Kiss of Death

When it was all over, Jonah stood alone in the silent conservatory. Nobody was moving.

The porch was a charred ruin. A bamboo curtain smoldered where wizard flame had set it on fire. Furniture was overturned, and pottery smashed, dirt strewn everywhere.

And everywhere, it seemed, there were dead wizards. Conscious of passing time, Jonah searched for his gloves, pulled them back on, then looked for Greenwood. The sorcerer was lying, facedown, amid shards of shattered glass and smears of blood.

Gently, Jonah rolled him over, searched for a pulse, and swore. He was dead.

Fury mingled with guilt and disbelief.
That’s another survivor of Thorn Hill gone. One more door to hope closed. Somebody who probably actually knew something.

What had killed him? His jeans were soaked in blood from a deep gash in his right thigh. Maybe that. Or was it Jonah’s touch, a fatal encounter in the confusion? Or a wizard’s killing charm?