Lucifer opened the drawers, searching for papers that might reveal a clue of where she could have gone.

  “Who else could have been here the night of the ball who might have been jealous of Abigail? Maybe a young man she spurned?” He tried to think of a possible answer, something he wasn’t seeing. “What about those children who used to make fun of her for not having a complete soul?”

  A wistful smile laced her lips. “They’re friends with her now. All it took was a batch of brownies to win them to her side. The brownies didn’t even have magic in them.”

  Lucifer opened her books, shaking Pride and Prejudice to see if any secret letters fell out. A pressed red clover slid from between two pages, an arrangement of lavender from another. Pink petals of a rose fell out, the scent wafting toward Lucifer. He felt mildly guilty that he was ruining her collection of pressed flowers.

  He closed his eyes, shifting into the subtle energies of the room once again. He tried to pinpoint the last place Abigail had stood, where her essence was strongest. It was easier to pinpoint Hattie, as there was less of her in the room. She had stood at the window where Izzy now stood. Apprehension lingered in the air, feeling like pain in the chest, shortness of breath, and trembling hands. It was difficult to determine whether it had been Hattie’s anxiety, or it was Izzy’s current state.

  “Would you mind moving to the side?” Lucifer asked.

  Izzy stepped away from the window. Lucifer unlatched the window and opened it. A ghostly imprint of Abigail’s essence lingered on the frame, as did Hattie’s. Lucifer gazed down at the ground three stories below. The thick clematis could be used for climbing. Abigail had told him the other nurse’s secret lover came in that way. He reached out his awareness, finding more of Abigail’s essence outside. It was recent too.

  “Son of a Fae,” he muttered.

  “What? Do you see something?” Izzy asked.

  “It’s how they got out without going past you.”

  * * *

  Lucifer stood below Abigail’s window, mentally reaching out to find the place her trail left the vines she had used to climb down. He still found it unbelievable she had somehow convinced Hattie to climb down with her.

  It was easier to follow their trail in the garden. Whispers of her older trails lingered, but none were as strong as this one. Lucifer passed gardeners clipping hedges and weeding. Every so often he caught another kind of plant magic mixed in with Abigail and Hattie’s. It was the kind of dark-bright magic he’d come to recognize as a leshi’s.

  His belly cramped with panic.

  Lucifer hastened to follow the trail. A gardener walked toward him, a man named Yoshi. Lucifer remembered meeting him the night of the ball. Yoshi was small, his build as slender as a tree. There was a hint of Fae glamour around the man, making him look more human than he naturally was.

  The man shuffled along the path toward Lucifer, examining the bases of the hedges. He was so lost in whatever task he was performing he didn’t see Lucifer, who had to step out of the way for the man.

  “Pardon me,” Lucifer said, watching him warily.

  Yoshi didn’t answer. Lucifer found that peculiar. He’d been friendly enough when Abigail had introduced them.

  Yoshi was Abigail’s teacher. A Fae, but one whose affinity was tied closely to nature. She had said he’d been teaching her plant magic. Lucifer wondered how a kimura differed from a leshi—aside from being Japanese.

  Yoshi’s magic wasn’t the same as the dark-bright remnants Lucifer had felt earlier. The fatigue weighing down Yoshi’s body bordered on painful.

  “Excuse me. We met before. The night of the ball,” Lucifer said. “Abby introduced us.”

  “Abby?” the man turned in a full circle, as if looking for her in the garden, before eyeing Lucifer again. His eyes were drooping with fatigue. “Have you seen our Abby?”

  The way he said “our” reminded Lucifer of how paternal and protective he’d been to Abigail when he’d met him before. This man didn’t seem to look at Lucifer as much as look through him. It was that fatigue pressing in on Yoshi.

  Lucifer placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, trying to draw his attention back to this world. “I haven’t seen Abby lately. I thought I would ask you when you had last seen her,” Lucifer said. “You teach her plant magic, don’t you?”

  The man rubbed his eyes. “Yesterday, I saw her. For a lesson.”

  The man went back to examining the bases of the hedges.

  “Are you all right?” Lucifer asked.

  “Fine.”

  Yoshi didn’t look fine. His eyes were ringed with blue.

  The man crouched down and picked up a green ribbon. It looked like something Abigail might wear. Instinctively Lucifer reached out with his mind. There was a remnant of a childlike presence, but it wasn’t Abigail’s. Yoshi frowned and tucked the ribbon into his pocket.

  “Do you know where she might have gone to?” Lucifer asked. “Do you think she ran away?”

  “She has a boyfriend she’s always talking about. She might have run away with him.”

  “I’m her boyfriend.” Or close to it.

  Yoshi turned to look at him again. “Are you? Have we met?”

  “Yes. At the ball.”

  Yoshi rubbed his face. “Excuse me. I didn’t sleep last night. I was out searching the forest for her with her family.”

  It touched Lucifer that her teacher should care enough to go to such efforts. Perhaps that was why Odette had been so prickly, lack of sleep. Then again, Odette had never been warm and friendly.

  “I think she climbed out her window with Hattie. I found traces of her coming this way.”

  “Did you? Are you a tracker?” The creases around Yoshi’s eyes deepened.

  “More of a healer. I wasn’t looking for tracks, more like traces of magic from her soul.”

  “Oh.” Yoshi’s eyes widened. “Don’t let me stop you. I’d like to see this.”

  So much for her plant-magic teacher providing any useful clues. Lucifer closed his eyes and reached out for ghostly remnants. It was easier out here in the open to find the path where she and Hattie had gone together, as opposed to the more distant echoes of solely Abigail’s resonance from previous occasions.

  Lucifer kept his eyes closed so that the sights of the garden didn’t distract him. He stubbed his toe on a rock in the path and nearly tripped. Yoshi grabbed his arm, his grip surprisingly firm for such a slender man.

  “Excuse me,” Lucifer said.

  Yoshi held Lucifer’s arm. “Keep going. Let’s see if you do better at tracking her than I have.”

  Lucifer closed his eyes again, allowing Yoshi to hold on to him to keep him from tripping. He imagined this must have been something like the journey Abigail and Hattie had taken before, the blind girl holding on to Abigail. He still couldn’t fathom what would possess Abigail. Or Hattie.

  He followed the thread of their journey, halting when he came to a wall. The remnants of blood and pain lingered. Lucifer opened his eyes and leaned closer to a stone fence. Mingling in with the white moonflowers and large green foliage were pink petals.

  Lucifer shifted a leaf aside, careful to avoid the thorns hidden underneath.

  “Ei!” Yoshi exclaimed. “I keep pulling those dog roses out, and they keep coming back.”

  Lucifer’s heart quickened. “Have you had a visit from any leshi lately?”

  “Yes. From time to time,” Yoshi said. “Abigail has a friend who comes to see her from the forest.”

  Dread chilled the blood in Lucifer’s veins. “MacCoinneach?”

  “Yes. Abigail said he’s a friend of yours. Is that correct?”

  “I don’t know if he’s a friend. Especially now.” Lucifer shifted the bushy leaves aside and showed Yoshi the blood staining the thorns.

  Mingling within the traces of Abigail’s magic and Hattie’s essence, Lucifer tasted the dark-bright energy of MacCoinneach’s leshi magic.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Cues and Clues

  Lucifer still didn’t understand Abigail’s motive for sneaking out her window with Hattie—probably in the middle of the night—but he knew where she’d exited the grounds. He thought back to the pink flower nestled in the pages of her copy of Pride and Prejudice. He should have realized it was there for a reason. Abigail had picked that flower. Or someone had given it to her.

  “What do you know about this leshi? Do you know where he lives?” Lucifer asked.

  Yoshi held up his hands and shook his head. “He’s your friend, not mine. Don’t you know where he lives?”

  Unfortunately, MacCoinneach wandered the forest, setting up traps for animals in multiple locations.

  Lucifer struggled not to panic. There had to be a way to use what they knew so far to their advantage. “Are kimuras similar to leshi?”

  “We’re both a kind of tree sprite, but kimura Yokai don’t eat people.” Yoshi leaned forward, examining the thorns of the dog rose.

  “Why would you let her associate with someone who might eat her?” Lucifer asked.

  “Why wouldn’t I? She knew him.” Yoshi set off along the wall. “She said he was safe.”

  Because Lucifer hadn’t explained how dangerous MacCoinneach was. He hadn’t wanted to scare her or prejudice her. But he would have warned her if he had known MacCoinneach was going to come see her.

  To lure her.

  “The leshi was only a child. He wasn’t skilled and didn’t use a glamour. I assumed he was Witchkin at first, but she told me he was Fae. Funny, me being a Fae myself and not catching that.” Yoshi laughed, the sound dry and brittle like tinder about to catch fire.

  Yoshi pushed back a curtain of moonflowers and revealed a well-hidden gate. It would have been far easier to use than climbing over a wall so high. The metal of the gate squeaked as Yoshi pushed it open.

  “You have to go tell Clarissa what we’ve found,” Lucifer said.

  He needed to find MacCoinneach. He’d done it before in order to find leshi tears. Now he would need to do it again.

  Lucifer used the spell Baba had taught him to transport himself back to her cottage. It was still dark when he arrived. The first tool he grabbed was the ax from the yard.

  Baba sat in her chair, knitting so quickly her needles clicked together in a dance.

  Kelsie was at the cauldron, stirring some foul-smelling concoction. A bottle of milk thistle and apple cider vinegar rested on the table. She was preparing some kind of brew for liver detoxifying. She looked up when he strode in.

  “Kelsie, I think your moment has finally come,” he said. “You’ve always wanted to hunt a leshi. Now’s your chance to help me.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Go Down Singing

  Kelsie examined the knives.

  Too bad Baba didn’t have cold iron.

  “Under bed there is special tool for you,” Baba said to Lucifer, jabbing a knitting needle toward her privacy curtain. “I keep it safe for all these years.”

  Lucifer had to lay flat on the floor and reach as far as he could to feel the cold metal stick. He pulled it out, finding the copper pipe he’d once procured from the Morty Realm to use as a lightning rod. It had helped him funnel his magic, but it wasn’t like using a magic wand. He stared at the three-foot length of metal. This pipe had been Abigail’s undoing. If he hadn’t used his electricity to aim it at Coinneach, he wouldn’t have struck her accidentally. She wouldn’t have lost her Amni Plandai powers. So much could go wrong if he used it again.

  He swallowed. “No. I don’t want to use this.” He didn’t want to accidentally strike Kelsie or Abigail. He didn’t want to relive the past.

  “You will have to use affinity as weapon if you want to survive, nyet?” Baba waved a needle at Kelsie. “You are with Elementia. Kelsie can call storm outside. You will call lightning.”

  He set the rod down on the bed. He didn’t want it.

  Kelsie picked it up and shoved it into his hands. “It’s time to hunt down our enemies. There’s no turning back now.”

  He knew it was true.

  * * *

  Lucifer used a combination of divination and astral-projection tracking to search for MacCoinneach, starting by placing his awareness outside the castle where Abigail and Hattie had last been with the leshi. It was easier to follow MacCoinneach’s threads in the forest with two additional people accompanying him, even through portals. Lucifer recognized one place they had passed in the forest with a hollowed oak, which was where he had found MacCoinneach once before.

  He used his recently learned portal spell to bring himself and Kelsie there. The forest was gloomy with morning light, the sky that was peeking through the barren boughs of trees overcast and gray.

  “Why would he do this?” Kelsie asked.

  “Revenge.” Lucifer stomped over decaying leaves. MacCoinneach hadn’t been the innocent child he’d pretended. “He remembers. You know how I told you that the old Abigail fed Coinneach her baked goods soaked in her blood to lure him? He’s had a taste of her blood, and now he’s ready to finish the job.”

  “And Hattie?” Kelsie’s face was pale. “You suppose he lured her because he wanted to finish consuming her too?”

  “That or he’s simply opportunistic. Why stop at one innocent girl when he could have two?”

  As they traveled along the path, the leshi magic grew thicker. More trails of it crossed, the ghostly remnants wafting in the air with the perfume of roses, trees, and the hint of decay. The stink of rot increased as they headed through a patch of barren trees. There were no birds singing or chipmunks chattering here.

  They were getting closer.

  “Baba said you could raise a storm for me,” Lucifer said. “I think it’s time you started.”

  He didn’t know if the wind and the scent of rain might drown out his ability to detect leshi magic, but he needed to arm himself with electricity before he encountered his enemy.

  Last time Lucifer had used his electricity, Abigail had been drained and injured. He needed to proceed carefully, not just for Abigail’s sake but also for Kelsie’s. He didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.

  The wind picked up, whipping Lucifer’s hair into his face. Trees creaked all around them. Kelsie lifted her arms to the sky. Rapture rang through her body as she drew in her element. The clouds above turned dark, churning with violence. Lucifer inhaled the perfume of ozone. The air was thick with humidity.

  It had been a long time since Lucifer had called lightning to himself. He went over the steps in his mind to prevent getting burned—to prevent anyone else from being harmed. He strode away from Kelsie. She might have been able to call the elements and handle a storm, but that didn’t mean an electric shock wouldn’t harm her magic.

  When he deemed he was far enough away, he lifted the copper pipe above his head, holding it like a lightning rod. He sang with the voice of the storm, calling out for the sky to hear him. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed so close that it shook the earth. He sang again.

  Lucifer kept his eyes on Kelsie to ensure she remained far enough away to be safe. The wind blustered, clawing at Lucifer, but the air near Kelsie was calm. She was in the eye of the storm.

  He was in the thick of the chaos. A branch on a nearby tree snapped and fell. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed again, this time closer. Lucifer pushed his will into his voice, reaching up into the sky to pluck up the electricity. He sang, and the lightning answered his call, shooting down through the rod he held and into his body.

  Bright light flashed so brilliantly it was all he could see. The ringing in his ears was all he could hear. His head hurt, and his ears ached.

  Lucifer drank in the pure energy, intense and raw, as it filled him. He sent it into his arms and legs, fortifying himself with shields. His affinity thrummed, wild and alive. Electricity danced over his skin. There was so much, he couldn’t contain it all. What Lucifer couldn’t hold on to, he sent into the ground under his feet to be reabsorbed.

  It had been too long since Lucifer had done this. He had hated the way this magic had hurt Abigail. Yet now that it was dancing within him, he realized how much he had missed it. He wished he would have asked Kelsie to do this for him sooner. But he supposed he wouldn’t have considered it for any occasion less dire than this. Too much could go wrong.

  His head felt light and dizzy. The bright brilliance passed. Lucifer fell to his knees and dropped the rod, clutching at the earth. He fought to hold on to the magic wanting to burst out of him. He needed that electricity. There was a good chance he would need to use it for fighting as well as healing.

  Kelsie approached, though her voice sounded far away. Lucifer placed his hands over his ears, using a fraction of that energy he’d gained to soothe the vibrating bones in his ears and heal punctures in the membranes. He soothed the pain behind his eyes and used more energy to heal himself.

  Kelsie kneeled in front of him. Tentatively she reached out a hand but withdrew it again. “Are you all right? I saw the lightning strike you.”

  “That was the idea.” His voice came out hoarse, not sounding like his own.

  He used the pipe to lift himself to his feet. His body ached.

  With the abundance of energy swimming inside him, it was easy to direct some of that into healing himself. His affinity was happy, far more satiated than from sex, cuddling, or touch. Lightning was a pure and unforgiving master. He could only imagine what he might be able to do with this much energy if he had the ability to call storms as Kelsie did.

  Lucifer used his magic to home in on the trail he’d followed earlier. The dark-bright magic of the leshi was easier to see, the remnants wafting in the air in misty clouds. What Lucifer had failed to realize previously was that it wasn’t the trail of one leshi crisscrossing this path.

  It was the trail of many.

 

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