The Frozen Witch Book One (21 page)

“What? He said I didn’t deserve the
injury. Said he needed me fighting fit for the job
tonight.”

Cassidy shot Alice a meaningful look. Then
she leaned in. Somehow she managed to control her tone, even though
she was usually as loud as a firecracker. “He’s never done that for
one of us. You keep coming to his attention, ha?”

Tingles escaped up my back. I tried to shrug
off her comment, but with the both of them seated around my desk
staring at me, it was hard.

“Anyway, you did good. Especially for your
first job,” Alice conceded as she shifted back and crossed her
arms. “But why the heck didn’t you call?”

“I tried to. Oh crap! I left your phone in
the taxi.”

She snorted. “Doesn’t matter. It’s already
back. Seriously, though. When we didn’t appear, you should have
called. It would have saved you a broken nose.”

“I had no idea how to call you. I didn’t
recognize any of the symbols on your phone.”

Cassidy made a face. “Really? You haven’t
been inducted yet? Oh my god, you really are behind.”

“Inducted?” I put a hand up and scratched
my neck, that sick confusion returning. And hot on its heels? The
anxiety. It started as a hard knot deep in my gut then began to
climb my spine one vertebra at a time.

Maybe Alice could tell that I was becoming
undone, because she cleared her throat in a strong, officious move.
“There’ll be time for that. Let Middle Manager Ben know – I mean
Ben,” she corrected as she cleared her throat. With a surreptitious
look around the office, she continued, “And he’ll find someone to
take you through the ceremony. You’ll be able to read runes after
that.”

“Runes?”

“The language we use when we work for
Vali. It’s on all of our phones, on all the files, on everything –
only those who have been inducted can read it. But go back to the
bit about a warlock from the Chaplain gang hitting you. Did you get
a good look at the guy?” Alice peered closely at me.

I frowned. To be honest, I should have
gotten a good look at the guy. He had been up in my face, after
all. But now I pressed my memory into the task, I realized I hadn’t
been able to note anything defining. The guy looked like a
cookie-cutter, huge, strapping goon.

Alice sighed when I didn’t immediately
answer. She shifted back and ran a hand through her short hair.
“It’s a pet project of mine.”

“What?” I frowned.

“Alice is out to get every mobster she
can,” Cassidy said matter-of-factly as she pushed off my desk,
skidding back on her chair. “It’s a personal project,” she
added.

“You’re allowed personal projects?” I
questioned.

Alice let out a harsh chuckle. “Only when
those personal projects are criminal bastards like the Chaplain
gang. And only… when you lost as much to the mobsters of this city
as I did.”

Just as a commiserating smile spread across
my face, she put up a stiff hand.

“They bribed me, and I took a bribe – I’m
not trying to apologize for that fact. I’m trying to make up for
it. So you sure you couldn’t remember what the guy looked
like?”

I offered her a rough description and
promised to tell her if I remembered anything else.

Like a dutiful detective, Alice brought out
a pad of legal paper, produced a pen from somewhere, and scribbled
down every word I said.

It took until the end of the interaction to
realize how easy it was. Just this morning these women had been
nothing more than felons to me. Now? They were quite possibly my
only friends.

The rest of the afternoon passed easily.
Cassidy took me under her wing, inducting me as Alice rumbled and
quipped from beside us, commenting whenever she could.

It was easy and weirdly normal. Sure, we
were all magical sinners, but it was the friendliest interaction
I’d had in days.

It could not, however, take away from the
fact that in several hours I’d be attending my first real job with
Vali himself.

I could still remember Megan’s expression as
she’d stalked from the room. Her cold cheeks, her pale eyes, the
sweat slicking her brow.

Cassidy had wandered off to rustle up some
food, and Alice had gone back to writing fastidiously on her legal
pad, her teeth clenched and expression dark. She wrote with the
same gritty determination she held her magical gun with.

Though it looked suicidal to interrupt
her, I cleared my throat.

She flicked her gaze up to me.
“What?”

“I was just… I was just wondering… who
Vali’s secretary is? Megan?”

“Megan Ross,” Alice reeled off, “28, has
been working for him for eight years. Solstice witch. One of the
strongest in the city, if not the country. She’s Vali’s go-to witch
for the tough jobs.”

I blinked quickly.

“That was a lot of information for you,
wasn’t it? Let me break it down slow.” Alice leaned back, tapping
her finger against her pen. “A solstice witch is also known as an
equilibrium witch. Her magic comes from balance. It’s kind of
esoteric, and it will take you a while to wrap your head around.
Basically, she can turn someone’s magic against them, tipping the
balance, as it were. She can make water flow backwards, make the
wind suddenly change direction, make a fire burn back on
itself.”

I made a face.

Alice snorted. “See, like I said – hard to
understand. But trust me, she is powerful. That’s why Vali takes
her on the big jobs.”

“And what exactly is a big
job?”

“Simple sinners like you and me,” she
shrugged as she indicated me with a flick of her pen, “we don’t
really change much. I’m not using that as an excuse,” she brought
her hands up in quick defense, “I’m just saying that in the grand
scheme of things the sins we commit don’t affect too me people. But
there are sinners out there,” her voice suddenly dropped low,
“whose crimes affect us all. You’re talking mob kingpins, drug
dealers, serial killers. The guys with truly evil hearts. The
irredeemable, cold, and soulless. When Vali goes out to take one of
these guys down, he requires backup.”

My nose scrunched. “I don’t get it. He’s a
god.”

Alice shot me an even look. “Technically.
But that doesn’t make him all-powerful, and it sure as hell doesn’t
make him invulnerable.”

I blinked in surprise. “It
doesn’t?”

Alice let out a rattling sigh. “Crap, you
really need to learn this stuff; you’re walking blind here, kid.
Saunders is an incredibly strong practitioner, but at the end of
the day, he’s still mortal.”

“I don’t get it. How can a god be
mortal?”

“Beats me. All I know is that Vali isn’t
all-powerful. And when it comes to taking down the kingpins, he has
to tread carefully. Especially in this city.”

“Why? What’s so special about this
city?”

“Because there’s magic everywhere. Even
before I… took the deal,” Alice punched her tongue against her lips
in an obvious move of shame, “I started hearing about it. You’d see
it on cases sometimes – things just wouldn’t add up. Rumors,
legends – they’d fly around. After a few years on the force, I knew
something was up.”

“Are you saying there’s more magic in
Saint Helios than elsewhere?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. And I’m
saying the city’s criminals – the big guys – they all know about
it. That’s why Chaplain’s gang went after you today with a couple
of warlocks.”

I sucked in a calming breath, cramming a
hand over my stomach as nerves welled in my gut. This was kind of
too much. It was a hell of a revelation to be told that the city
I’d grown up in was steeped in magic. And more than that, magical
crime.

“Anyhow. The really big guys, the guys who
run the cartels, the trafficking rings, the drug dealers – they all
invest in magical protection. Vali has to plan for months,
sometimes years to take one of them down. When he does, he needs
backup like Megan.”

That cold sensation in my chest suddenly
returned. On overdrive. It felt like a blizzard started to swirl in
my sternum. I tried to keep my emotion in check as I took a
stuttering breath. “So… so one of these big jobs, they’re…
important, right?”

Alice nodded earnestly. “You bet. But
don’t look so pale, kid. I doubt the function Vali is taking you
tonight is a job. He’s not suicidal. You’re a newbie. My guess is
he’s giving you an opportunity.”

My stomach
sank. “An
opportunity?”

“He gives them to us occasionally.” Her
tone dropped. “I missed the last one.”

“What do you mean?”

“An opportunity to redeem yourself. Think
of it this way – every time we successfully solve a case, we buy
back some of our sins. But occasionally we come across a case so
big, so pertinent, that it can reduce a sentence in half. Maybe
he’s feeling sorry for you – and maybe you’ll get one of those
opportunities tonight. My only advice to you is to take
it.”

I just sat there. When I didn’t react, she
leaned forward, clapped me on the shoulder, and offered me the
Alice version of a commiserating smile. “You’ll be okay. Like I
said, it won’t be a job. It’ll just be an opportunity.”

There was a problem. It was a job. Vali had
already admitted that to me right in front of Megan.

But there was another problem, wasn’t there?
What if this was also a so-called opportunity?

I started to freak out. Who wouldn’t? As the
enormity of the situation struck me, my breath became ragged.

Alice returned to her work, but crumpled
her brow and ticked her gaze towards me. “Don’t freak out, Lilly.
Take a deep breath. Even if you miss out on your opportunity,
there’ll be others.”

Sure. Others. “Um, Alice? What do you know
about Hank Chaplin? I’m only asking because… because I think I
heard one of the guys mention his name today.” I weaved together a
pathetic lie. “Ah, he sent them,” I added weakly.

Alice sat up straight. “Really? They
mentioned Hank personally? He sent them? Not one of his lackeys?
You sure? That’s a clue.”

No. I was lying out of my ass. But right now
I had to learn everything I could about my target for tonight.

Alice took several seconds to scribble
something on her pad. Then she looked up. “He’s a bastard, that’s
what I know about him.” There was such conviction behind her words,
I almost didn’t want to press her for more information. But I had
to. “Why? What’s he done?”

“What did you do before you started
working here?” Alice asked.

“I was a waitress.” I shrugged.

“Kept your head down, then? Didn’t go out
much?”

I agreed with a nod.

“Hank Chaplin owns most of the strip
joints in Saint Helios. He’s a real piece of work. Has his fingers
in a lot of pies, and all of them are unsavory. Back when I was
still working for the legitimate police force, we were trying to
bring him in on trafficking charges.”

“You mean drug trafficking?” I asked
innocently.

She shot me a grim look. “No, I mean human
trafficking. Where do you think he got his strippers and
prostitutes from?”

I think I became as white as snow as I
leaned back and pressed a hand over my mouth. “That’s
awful.”

“Which is why Hank Chaplin is a bastard. I
didn’t realize he had any connection to Larry McGregor, though,”
Alice said excitedly as she continued to scribble on her pad. “I
would have thought Larry was too small a target for Chaplain.
Something must be up.”

Feeling seriously guilty for lying to her,
I cleared my throat. “I think that’s what they said. Maybe Hank
didn’t send them personally. Everything just happened too quickly,”
I muttered.

“Information is information,” Alice said,
looking up. She clipped the lid on her pen, pushed her pad away,
tilted her head, and looked at me. “You’re kind of
pale.”

Kind of pale? It was a surprise I hadn’t
blended in with the white wall behind me.

I felt sick. Thoroughly, thoroughly
sick.

I hadn’t signed up for this. I hadn’t signed
up for anything at all. I was being dragged into this world. And
tonight? I’d be dragged into a far, far darker world.

I sat awkwardly, staring at Megan as she
scowled at me from across the room.

She stalked over, dumped a bag on the desk
before me, and pulled a mirror from somewhere, resting it against
the wall.

God, this was going to take a long time if
she was going to sneer at me for the next hour.

She started to snatch things out of the bag
and arrange them on the desk.

Her lips were pulled tight, her expression
dark.

For several minutes as she busied herself, I
kept the silence. Soon, I just couldn’t.

I cleared my throat. “Look, I’m
sorry—”

“Just don’t stuff this up,” she snapped
through a snarl.

“I won’t,” I promised, though my voice was
so soft it couldn’t convince a soul. “But… why is this so important
to you?”

Oh crap – it was the wrong question to ask.
I instantly realized how inappropriately I’d phrased it.

It was too late.

“Because Hank Chaplain is relentless,
uncaring, and willing to destroy everything I ever had. He killed
my sister. Then, when he found out I was a witch, he went after
me.”