Missing powers, p.20
Missing Powers, page 20
“Did you tell Marian about the kattakyns?” Reg demanded. “When did you come into this story?”
He petted the cat and shook his head innocently. “I would not tell a human. They… make mistakes.”
“And your kind doesn’t?”
“Humans make many mistakes.”
“And immortals only make a few big ones?”
Harrison tilted his head slightly to the side, considering, then nodded. “Yes.”
“Who else knows about the kattakyns?” Francesca asked. “All of the immortals? Only you?”
“He is my kind. What happens to one of us affects all.”
“But you can’t automatically tell,” Reg argued. “You don’t know everything. You didn’t know where Weston hid himself. You didn’t know what happened to Destine until you saw the kattakyns. You’re not all-knowing.”
Corvin had tried to drill that into her. Not to give the immortals the attributes that Christians gave to their god. Immortal was not the same as all-seeing and all-knowing.
Now she was coming to understand that. Harrison didn’t automatically know what the other immortals were doing. Maybe they had to hide their activities if they didn’t want to be seen. Or perhaps they were just like humans, only more powerful and living longer lives.
“You didn’t tell Marian? Are you sure? You’re telling me the truth?”
“I told no human.”
“Okay.” Reg shrugged and looked back at Francesca. “I don’t know who it was, then, but I swear it wasn’t me. Maybe it was Damon. Or maybe Corvin bragged to her about the whole thing. Maybe he bribed her to find out where the kattakyns were. Told her she could have one of them if she helped him out. She wants a new cat. Maybe he used that.”
“Nobody had to tell Destine,” Harrison contributed offhandedly, scratching Nicole’s ears.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
For a minute, it seemed like the world stood still.
Everything was silent. Even the voices in Reg’s head went quiet, as if understanding what an important moment this was. Francesca turned her head slowly to look at Reg, her eyes going wide. At first, neither of them understood. On one level, it was clear what Harrison was saying. No one had to tell Destine what had happened because it had happened to him. On the other, Reg couldn’t quite fit this piece into the puzzle she had been building.
Destine knew what had happened.
Destine knew about the kattakyns. He was the one who had created the draugar. He was the one who had animated them and given them the ability to shift into their cat form. He was the one who had sent the last remnants of his essence out in nine different directions, split among the nine kattakyns so that they couldn’t completely kill him.
And he knew Francesca had been the one to bind the kattakyns. Because he had been there. She had bound him.
But it wasn’t Destine who had gone back to Francesca to find out where each of the kattakyns had been sent carrying their little sparks of Destine’s soul. It was Marian. And Reg knew that Marian was not Destine. Destine couldn’t have gone anywhere, couldn’t have told anyone anything, because he was bound. That was the whole point of the exercise, wasn’t it?
“Was it not really Marian?” Reg asked, trying to sort out the logic of the situation. “Maybe it wasn’t Marian; it was the Witch Doctor? But how could it be? We bound him. You bound him, I mean.”
“This could not be,” Francesca agreed, her Haitian accent thick, betraying her concern despite her calm tone. “It was not Destine.”
“Why did I come here?” Harrison asked, staring off into space, not looking directly at Francesca or Reg.
“Why did you come here?” Reg repeated. “Explain it to me.”
“Destine was here.”
“No. He couldn’t have been. Destine was split into nine pieces.”
“Yes.”
“He couldn’t come here.”
Harrison made a pinching gesture to indicate a small portion. “A bit of Destine.”
Reg swallowed. “Another one of the kattakyns has been unbound? Which one?”
Harrison shook his head. As he continued to pet the cat, Reg took a closer look to make sure that it was really Nicole and she hadn’t been fooling herself. But she could feel the cat’s aura and personality. It was Nicole, not one of the kattakyns.
“But the piece of Destine that was bound to Horace was lost. When Kareem attacked me and we had to fight back. That piece was… dispersed.”
They hadn’t been able to determine what had happened to that part of the Witch Doctor. They had speculated, but no one had been able to find it, and Reg had believed that it had simply been dispersed into the universe, as Corvin had suggested.
Marian hadn’t been with them. She could not be the one who had received his essence. There were only a few of them there who could have received that insubstantial piece. Harrison. Corvin. Reg herself. The elves would not have been able to receive it. Would they?
“Was it you?” Reg asked Harrison. “Were you the one who held that piece?”
In her heart of hearts, she couldn’t believe it. The Witch Doctor and Weston had proven that the immortals could be immoral and devious, but Harrison had always been childlike in his communications and behavior toward Reg. Guileless. Transparent. Could he have lied to her about holding the piece of the Witch Doctor? She didn’t believe that he could have. Maybe he could have lied with his words but, as with a child, his actions would have given him away. He wouldn’t blame Corvin or someone else for something that he himself had done. He wouldn’t see the need for it.
“I am whole,” Harrison told her, gesturing to himself. “No more and no less than one.”
“Where is the piece of Destine now?”
“It is no longer hidden.”
“Hidden…” Reg knew that it would take powerful magic to hide a part of an immortal from Harrison. Harrison might not be all-seeing, but if the piece were obvious, as it was when Marian held it, Harrison would know where it was.
And there was only one person she knew who was powerful enough to do that. Someone who already held most of Destine’s powers.
Corvin.
She hadn’t thought that he would be able to hide such a big secret from her. The conduit between the two of them would not allow it. She had been able to keep certain pieces of information from him, it was true. The locations of the kattakyns. The fact that she knew where Davyn was. Or at least, that she could sense where Davyn was. But she didn’t know how he could hide a piece of the Witch Doctor from her. To hold it, with all of the power it represented, and not to give himself away to her.
It took a lot of magic to hide it from her and Harrison. The type of magic that only Corvin had.
When Merneith had told Reg that she needed a body to rest her spirit in, she had mentioned Corvin. Her words came back to Reg, as strong and clear as if Merneith were standing in front of her today.
“This no home for my sah. I need a receptacle. A khet. to be able to hold my being. Like this one.” She motioned to Corvin.
Reg had thought that, like Norma Jean, Merneith had admired Corvin’s physical form and wanted to transfer her being into him. But she hadn’t meant that. She had meant that Corvin was already holding another being, another sah, within him, and Merneith had recognized this, even though none of the others had.
“How did Marian get the sah?” Reg asked, looking from Harrison to Francesca.
Her lips pressed into a long, thin line, and Francesca shook her head. “Disembodied, it could not just ‘land’ on her. Such a spark must be transferred deliberately from one form to another… physical touch is necessary. It was no accident.”
“It has to be Corvin, then, doesn’t it?”
Francesca was nodding.
“He had to touch Kareem to pull it out of him. And he had to… touch Marian to give it to her.”
“That is how it is done,” Harrison agreed.
“And… does that fragment, that little piece of what was left of the Witch Doctor… does it have a will? When it is held by a human, can it still… act independently?”
“This is very bad magic,” Francesca warned, making a claw shape with her fingers to ward off evil spirits. “This kind of magic should not be practiced.”
“But can it…? I don’t know what happens when the sah enters a new person. Does it affect their actions?”
“They still have some influence,” Francesca said. “They magnify the host’s personality. How much will they have… I don’t know.”
“So when Marian came to ask about the location of the kattakyns, it wasn’t really her asking.”
Francesca met Reg’s eyes. They both stared at each other for a few seconds, working it out. The Witch Doctor was the one who had formed the kattakyns and transferred his consciousness to them. And he was the one who had come by Francesca’s house to find out where the other pieces were. It wasn’t Marian’s inquiry; the sah had been in control of the khet.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Reg thought about Corvin. For weeks, he had not been himself. He had been angry and demanding, impatient with everyone around him. He had struggled to remain civil to her, when he had always pursued her and been so charming before. She had seen the darkness bleeding off of him and had never wondered what was inside of him that was releasing that inky blackness.
She had thought it was Corvin being Corvin. But of course it wasn’t. She had known Corvin since arriving in Black Sands and, while he had a certain devil-may-care attitude and that dark, predatory hunger, he had not been so full of darkness then. And it had not been a gradual increase. He added powers, he charmed and pursued Reg, but his frustration and anger and the blackness inside him, had not been there until recently.
Until he had saved Orri and taken the powers from Kareem. And the sah.
“I need to go.”
Francesca shook her head. “Where? Do not do anything reckless.”
“I need to talk to someone. I need to figure this out.”
She was missing something. She knew she was. She needed to figure out what it was before it was too late.
“Talk to Harrison,” Francesca encouraged, motioning to him. “He should know all of the answers.”
Reg looked at Harrison, who raised his brows politely, waiting for her questions. But she already knew that when it got down to it, Harrison would give her misleading and ambiguous answers, and she would be no further ahead than if she had not asked in the first place.
“I’ll talk to you later. Come by my house tonight. Right now, I have to go.”
“Humans must not interfere,” Harrison warned.
“Humans have already interfered.”
“Yes,” he agreed.
Reg bolted for the door. “Thank you, Francesca. Sorry to ditch you like this.”
She drove her car as quickly as she dared, and did not get pulled over by the cops and given a speeding ticket. Despite their name, speeding tickets were never quick. The cops always seemed to take a remarkably long time to write them. Maybe it was on purpose. Knowing that people were late or rushing, the police officer decided that to teach them a lesson, they needed to be slowed down. Maybe even to miss whatever it was they were hurrying to.
Reg didn’t know for sure where the sah would take Marian. Reg was operating from instinct, her unconscious mind a jump or two ahead of her conscious mind. She used hands-free commands to place a call to Corvin.
“Reg,” he greeted pleasantly. “I hope your day has been going well since we last saw each other.”
“Yes. But I need something.”
“I hope I can help.”
“Can you go out to Davyn’s house? Meet me there?”
“Davyn’s house. Why there? Do you think you’re going to find something? The police have already searched it.”
“I know. But I think… this time will be different.”
“Why? What could be different?”
“Did you see Marian this morning? Before we had our coffee?”
“Yes. But I don’t see…”
“What happened? What did you talk about?”
“I…” Corvin’s voice started strong, but then faded out. “I don’t remember it all. Small talk. Just a short consult.”
“You went to her for a reading?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to ask her some things about my future.”
“What things did you ask her?”
“No, I… I don’t know.”
“What did she tell you? Did you get the answers you were looking for?”
“She was busy,” Corvin said eventually. “She had other things on the go, so we decided to wait until later.”
“Then why did she set up an appointment with you?”
“I don’t think she did. I just dropped in. But she had to go out somewhere. On an errand.”
“To see Francesca?”
“I honestly have no idea, Reg. Could have been. Why does it matter?”
“Just meet me at Davyn’s, okay? Follow the path out back. To the altar.”
Reg disconnected the call. Either he would come, or he would not. She couldn’t control it.
But she thought he would. Corvin had always shown up when she had needed him. He would be too curious about why she needed him to go to the altar behind Davyn’s house to ignore her request.
She was right, and Corvin was close behind her when she got to Davyn’s house. Reg eyed him, realizing that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for her to be there alone with him.
If she were in luck, Marian would be there. But Marian would not be on her side.
“This way,” Reg called out to Corvin and dashed into the woods, following the path she had taken a few days before. Corvin followed her, quickly catching up and overtaking her. He grabbed her by the arm. They both experienced a sharp jolt of electricity. It took Reg’s breath away and she stared at Corvin, slightly stunned.
“Reg! What is this about? What’s going on?”
“If you don’t already know… you’ll find out in a minute. Come on. Not here.”
“Where is this altar?”
“Follow me.”
Corvin looked at her for a moment. Then made a “go ahead” motion with his hands. Reg turned and hurried on toward the clearing. They reached it in a couple of minutes, both of them puffing a little, out of breath. Reg wasn’t sure whether it was from the adrenaline or moving so quickly.
There was a figure kneeling in front of the altar. Reg drew in a quick breath and held it for a moment. Marian. Right where Reg expected her to be.
Marian looked up from the altar and scowled when she saw Reg.
It wasn’t the scowl that was so startling. It was the darkness in Marian’s countenance and, like with Corvin, the blackness bleeding out into her aura.
Corvin swore sharply under his breath. “What happened?”
“It was partially you.”
“What?”
“You saw her this morning, right? Did she look like that when you met?”
“No.”
“No,” Reg agreed. “Not until you gave her the sah.”
“The what?”
“You’re the one who is supposed to know Egyptian.” Though, of course, she had already found out he didn’t speak the same ancient Egyptian that Merneith did. Nor modern Egyptian. Somewhere in between, in something that Reg thought he had called Middle Kingdom. But maybe the word was close enough to the form of Egyptian that he knew that they could skip over that part. “The sah that you passed on to Marian. The Witch Doctor’s spark.”
Corvin’s forehead creased, and he shook his head. “We’ve talked about this. You know that I didn’t keep the Witch Doctor’s sah. You were there. It didn’t go into me. It was dispersed.”
“It wasn’t. And right now, it’s in Marian. Just look at her if you don’t think so.”
Corvin looked back at Marian, whose face was contorted with rage.
“You think she’s just upset because she needs a new cat to replace the one that died?” Reg demanded.
“Well, no…”
“I need your help. We need to work together to get Davyn back.”
He shook his head. “What does this have to do with Davyn?”
“You kidnapped Davyn and bound him here, on another plane.”
“I did what?”
“Or maybe you didn’t do it, but the sah did it while it was in control of you. How much of what you have done in the last few weeks do you remember clearly?”
“I remember everything. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Everything? What happened after the coven met on Monday?”
He shrugged. “Nothing particular. Everyone went their separate ways, back home to bed.”
“Is that what you did?”
“Yes, of course.”
“You didn’t come back here?”
Corvin looked around the clearing. “Why would I?”
“Because you wanted Davyn out of the way. You wanted the leadership of the coven.”
“We’ve talked about this. I only need to get six votes. I don’t need to kidnap or kill Davyn to do that. I am quite capable of persuading people on my own.”
“The Witch Doctor wanted to be sure. He didn’t want to leave it up to an election. He wants the power.”
“You talk about the Witch Doctor as if he was still alive. You know he is bound to all of the kattakyns.”
“Yes. And I know you wanted to find all of them so that you can free him.”
“No. To make sure that they were safe.”
“I told you that we had already checked up on them all.”
Corvin growled. “You didn’t know about Kareem taking the spark from his cat.”
“We found out pretty quickly. And then where do you think that spark went?”
“It had nothing to do with me.”
“Look at Marian! That’s where it is. You gave it to her this morning so that she could go ask Francesca where the kattakyns were. You—or the sah—thought that Francesca would be more likely to tell Marian than you.”
