“I don't know.”
“Why would he take him?” Beth asked, always reasonable and calm in a bad situation.
Goran shrugged but Alanna could tell he was infuriated. “I don't know. Being Earth bound is a complete waste of my talent,” he ground out. “I feel useless.”
“I know what that feels like.” Alanna sighed, refusing to allow guilt to cloud her mind. She leaned back against the wall next to him and closed her eyes. What a morning. “So what can we do with the resources we have?”
“Clarissa,” Goran barked and both sisters jumped. “I need you!”
Within seconds, Clarissa appeared in a burst of blinding, urgent light. “I come. I'm here!” Large flames erupted from her nostrils, singeing Goran's hair and earlobe as she alighted on his shoulder.
“Gregori has taken Anton. Do you know anything?”
Larger flames erupted from Clarissa. “Nothing to report. Clarissa was making goo-goo eyes at Albert.”
Goran held up his hand. “No need to reveal the details of your love-life. Go to Aden.” He gave a brief explanation to his familiar. “Get him to look for Anton at Marylebone. Do not reveal anything to Eleisha. We will ascertain facts first. Perhaps Gregori will release Anton, but he could also be planning revenge on those who encased him in stone.”
Clarissa's head nodded up and down. “Aden. And Rosa?”
“Tell Rosa, if she's there, to return to Raven's Creek. Her sisters need her.”
“I go now,” Clarissa responded and winked out as quickly as she'd arrived.
“I need a change of clothes,” Gregori muttered as he rifled through Anton's wardrobe. “What have you got in here that won't make me stand out in a crowd?”
“Steal my energy and now my clothes as well?”
“A few hours rest and you'll be good as new.”
“And who, in the meantime, will govern Marylebone?”
“If you're lucky, nothing momentous will happen between now and then. You should be fully recharged in â ” Gregori estimated, “ â say, a day and a half.”
“Which gives you plenty of time to escape and evade your fate.”
“I could have killed you both.” Gregori continued to work his way through Anton's wardrobe. He didn't want to waste magic unnecessarily to conjure up items he could
borrow
from Anton. “But I didn't. I've every reason to hate you for what you did to me.”
Anton lay back in the chair in his changing room, too weak to call Mistletoe to his side and too embarrassed to alert Eleisha as to his current situation. It would be hard enough to actually admit Gregori had outsmarted him. Eleisha would be furious with her brother and he had no energy to deal with his formidable Dragoness right now. “That's true. But you're defying my word as the leader of Marylebone.”
“I can't go back!” Gregori's words were heated. “You've no idea what it was like in that cold hard stone. I may as well have been dead. I'm determined to prove my innocence and I won't allow you to stop me.”
“Alanna is magic bound, plus she's mortal. The bells haven't tolled for her. Go back in the stone. Wait until her magic is unbound. Once she has her power back, we will decide whether she is worthy of inviting to Marylebone. Then you will have all the time in the world to investigate the cause of her parents' death. Believe me, we've tried already, but have come up empty-handed every time. Even Zelda has found nothing.”
Stepping into the sole pair of jeans Anton appeared to own, Gregori snagged the only black T-shirt, that wasn't singed by Mistletoe, from a hanger and put it on. It was tight, fitting him a little too closely, but it was the best he could do. He would not waste precious magic on conjuring clothes, just as he would not risk flaming out unnecessarily, even if he silently acknowledged Anton's wisdom.
“I'll make a pact with you.”
Anton grunted. “I don't do pacts with Dragon warlocks in danger of flaming out. Even if you are my brother-in-law.”
“I'm more powerful than you. Give me credit where it's due.”
“So powerful you have to steal magic from others. You know when you're finally caught; you will have to pay for this infringement. You could have killed us both!”
“I'll come to you if I'm unsuccessful in my hunt forty-eight hours before my deadline. You can do whatever you like with me then.”
“You're playing with fire. If I have to report you to the Supreme Council of Magical Beings as missing, you'll have more than dragons to worry about.”
“I've never broken a Warlocks' Oath.”
“You just did by stealing my magic. Plus, I can't fight the combined power of the Council.”
“Anton, listen. I can find the Greenwoods' killer. I'm sure of it. I was there within minutes of it happening, and I'm positive it wasn't an accident. I need to get to know Alanna in order to plumb her memory of that day. I'll be building a relationship with her as I'm hunting.”
He quirked his head to the doorway and went still, as if hearing something. “Damn it!” He twisted back to Anton. “I'd hoped for more time to convince you. I'll not break my promise. I will return within forty-eight hours of my deadline.”
And he disappeared, quietly, without an extravagant burst of power, ensuring his trail of magic would be difficult to pursue, even along all the ley lines surrounding the earth.
Rosa arrived in the Gallery in a small gentle burst of crimson light within minutes of Clarissa's departure. Without saying anything she took Goran to Lavender Cottage to rest before returning and pinning Alanna with a stern glare. “I can't believe you kept this a secret for so long!”
Here we go. Bossy-boots had arrived.
“I've heard that already from Beth. Try something new.”
“How about you start at the beginning and tell us everything?”
“That would require a couple of hours and the Gallery is due to open any second. Plus, we need a replacement dragon in the courtyard.”
“Call Zelda. She'll look after the Gallery. Aden will craft a new dragon. Or you could if you put your mind to it.”
When would she stop harping at her?
“Zelda? She'll scare the customers away. Besides, I don't want her to know anything about this.”
“It's likely she already knows.”
Zelda Mortiboy had been their mother's best friend and confidant. She'd arrived in Raven's Creek within hours of hearing of their parents' death to look after the girls and stayed to ensure their safety, nursing them through their darkest days as they gradually came to terms with their orphaned status.
As if she'd known they talked of her, Zelda walked through the door. “You sure know how to court trouble,” she said without preamble. Her eyebrows arched behind her horn-rimmed glasses as she focused an all-too-knowing gaze on Alanna.
“And you sure know how to stir the pot,” Alanna muttered and kissed Zelda's cheek with affection. The old woman gave her a hard time, but she always knew exactly where she stood with her.
“That's my job,” she flicked her hand at them in a go-on, get-moving gesture. “I'll mend the stone wall. Don't fuss over that. Work out how you're going to replace the jade dragon. I may be a sorceress, but I'm no artist. I'm likely to conjure up a cross between a lizard and a turtle if I tried.” She walked them to the Gallery door. “Go. All of you. Discuss. Come back and give me the shortened version once you've figured out what you're going to do. It's best to have a united front in this type of situation.”
Alanna was fed up with being blamed for everything. “It seems trouble has a way of finding me with or without a spell.”
“You're a good girl,” Zelda patted her on the back, and both Rosa and Beth's mouths gaped. “Go get that coffee, calm those nerves. Don't worry about a thing here. Take as long as you want.”
“Oh shit, I'm in deeper do-do than I thought.” Alanna's heart pitter-pattered in her chest. “You're never nice to me.”
“I'm always nice, girl,” Zelda shrugged off her jacket and hung it on a peg behind the office door. “You're usually too self-involved to notice.”
“That's so not true.” Alanna trailed after her as the old woman picked up a mug, pointed her finger at it and the cup filled with a pale green liquid.
“Green tea,” Zelda said. “Full of life-giving antioxidants.”
“According to Aden, you don't need life-giving anything. You're immortal.”
“Doesn't mean I shouldn't be a healthy immortal. I can shape-shift. You cannot. It would be wise to look after your health so that when immortality comes knocking you won't look like a saggy old crone.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“Alanna!” Beth gasped. “I can't believe you said that.”
“You were thinking it, though.”
“I was not.” Beth looked to Rosa. “Say something.”
Rosa shrugged. “Don't look at me. I've only seen Zelda in her present form. Aden has seen her, though.”
“That's what he thinks” Zelda chortled. “He hasn't seen the real me either. You wouldn't know who I was if you saw me walking down the street in my true form. If I revealed to everyone what I really looked like, I'd never have any peace.” Zelda practically cackled. “There are many things you don't know about me. But there's a lot I know about all three of you. Including this current mess Alanna's found herself in. Here's a piece of news for you all. I participated in Gregori's ensorcelling. There are valid reasons for this action. No use asking what they are. I can't tell you. Go on. Go discuss. You need a plan. Alanna, you need to get that magic back or you'll be stuck without your broomstick for the rest of your miserable mortal life.”
“Enough of the miserable, thank-you. Besides, you forget. Goran reckons that will take several lifetimes.”
“He's playing with you, girl.”
Rosa sighed. “Marylebone won't leave you without the ability to protect yourself in a dangerous situation.”
Alanna's reply oozed sarcasm. “And this morning was a fine example of just how
clever
Anton and Goran are?” Alanna needed something stronger than tea or coffee. “Let's go to Clematis Cottage. I could do with a shot of something alcoholic instead.”
The whiskey was doing what it was supposed to. “My cheeks feel numb,” Alanna said and topped up her glass.
“Not as numb as that brain of yours,” Rosa muttered.
“That's not fair,” Alanna protested. “Like I said before. I didn't do anything.”
“You should have told me about Anton's visit two years ago.”
“I was sworn to secrecy.”
Rosa scoffed. “That's never stopped you before.”
“It was Anton. Grand Dragon Anton. How many visits would you say you've had from the head of Marylebone?”
Rosa shrugged. “None before I was Called.”
“No sense in blaming anyone,” Beth stepped between them. “Calm down. Zelda's correct. We need to provide a united front.”
Alanna looked at her fingers. They were beginning to feel as numb as her cheeks. “I can look after myself. He's not that scary.”
“He siphoned Anton and Goran's magic. He could have taken yours from your aura as well.”
Something she hadn't thought of. “No. He wouldn't do that.”
“Don't be fooled by his charm.”
Alanna scoffed. “You can't judge. You weren't there. You haven't met him.”
“Rosa.” Beth interrupted once again. “Before you return to Marylebone could you check the protection spells around the Gallery to ensure the repairs Goran did to them are all working correctly?”
“Listen to you,” Alanna sneered. “I've already got rid of one bossy-boots for a sister. I don't need another.”
“I'm not doing this just for you,” Beth shot back irritation in her tone. “I'm doing this for all of us.”
Alanna felt color rise on her cheeks. “The morning's been the strangest ever. It's all getting to me.”
“And alcohol first thing in the morning isn't going to help either,” Beth pointed out the obvious. She headed into the kitchen. “I'm going to make coffee and I've some healthy blueberry bran muffins I baked earlier. You need to eat something. I'll zap them in the microwave.”
All the bravado Alanna had been hiding behind deflated and she sunk into the closest chair before her knees buckled and she ended up in a puddle on the floor. “I don't know what to do next.”
Rosa accepted a muffin from the plate Beth held out to her. “Hopefully, Gregori's gone for good.”
“But why would he do that,” stated Alanna. She might as well tell Rosa the rest. “He's um ⦠suggested that I'm his destined mate?”
Rosa's muffin slipped through her fingers and broke into sections on the polished floorboards. “You're what?”
Aden Dragunis stalked the halls of Marylebone with his familiar, Albert, at his side. “Quiet little one. Don't let others think you're looking for anything. Best not inflame a situation already out of control.”
Albert nodded his head, a hint of smoke puffing out as he settled on Aden's shoulder. “Albert search out Gregori. Call you straight away. No fires today.”
“Go quietly. Go invisible,” Aden instructed. He looked over his shoulder to assure himself they were alone. The hallway was a busy thoroughfare but he was on Marylebone time and that meant it was early evening. Even immortals liked to relax at the end of a long day. “Now.”
He was asking a lot of Albert, who loved nothing more than to display a show of bright color and sparks whenever he winked in and out of wherever he went. But this time Albert nodded his head and whispered, “invisible,” before going deathly still, and quietly fading away until he was a mere smudge of gray on Aden's shoulder.