Magic Claims (Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years, #2; Kate Daniels, #10.6)

“Don’t we all.”

I had sent her a report on Darin’s rescue, complete with all the sins of the Order’s former knight-enchanter, Aaron, spelled out in excruciating detail. And there were a lot of sins. Kidnapping, imprisonment, human trafficking, conduct unbecoming a knight, reckless disregard when practicing magic…

I tilted my head and waited.

Above us, the undead shifted a foot to the left. Claudia glanced up. If she could’ve fired laser beams from her eyes, a smoking undead corpse would’ve plummeted to the ground in a fraction of a second. So the vampire wasn’t a welcome guest.

This was a flex by Barrett. He’d waited until the tech was up—otherwise the wards would’ve kept the undead off the building—and parked his vampire in the tower, knowing full well that the Order would never tolerate it. Claudia had to chase it off. There was no question about it. But she also would have to avoid making a spectacle or damaging the vampire. A spectacle would make the Order look weak, and any harm to the undead would escalate tensions with the Farm and, again, would cost the Order their street cred. Whichever party resorted to violence first would lose face.

“What do you want?” Claudia asked me.

“Access to Knight-Pathfinder Isaac Silverstein.”

Before I left the fort, I’d called down to Atlanta’s chapter of the Order and asked Nick to look up Isaac Silverstein. After he told me that he wasn’t my secretary and we’d bickered for ten minutes about who was keeping score on favors, he came back with an interesting tidbit.

Silverstein was a really good pathfinder, highly decorated and experienced. He’d come to Penderton as a part of a five-man knight team specifically dispatched to handle this problem. Five knights went in, Silverstein came out alone, and after he came out, he stuck around in the area. Officially, he was on an extended mental health leave. Unofficially, he’d hung around Wilmington for the last six months, but the Order had no address for him. His mail was forwarded to the chapter.

The Knights of the Order were like soldiers in enemy territory. When possible, they preferred the company of their own and the safety of their base, so Isaac was likely inside the Wilmington Chapter right now. He’d probably lived here for the last half a year.

“That’s a big ask,” Claudia said.

“I realize the knight-pathfinder is working through some things,” I said. “But I’m about to go into Pender Forest.”

“Ask the National Guard,” Claudia said. “They can brief you.”

“What’s the point? They didn’t see anything. Knight-Pathfinder Silverstein saw something, because instead of leaving, he’s here impersonating a monk. Like you said, it’s a big favor, but there are five thousand people trapped in Penderton.”

She sighed. “You don’t need to be anywhere near that damn forest. I’m sure Penderton promised you the sky and the moon, but all you’ll get is pain and death. This isn’t me dissing you. This is me speaking as an expert with two decades of experience in the field: powerful people tried to resolve this and failed. This is above your paygrade. It’s not worth it.”

Claudia was trying to look out for me. I felt so…touched. Genuinely touched. This meant three things: Claudia was a real-deal, by-the-book knight, Nick hadn’t told her who I was, and I wouldn’t see Isaac Silverstein unless I convinced her that I was capable of surviving.

This would require a show of power.

If it was just about me, I might have hesitated. Showing my cards to Claudia meant she would start digging deeper. Eventually she’d figure out exactly who I was. But I wouldn’t go alone into the woods. Curran would be with me, and we would be bringing Keelan and his crew. I had already made the decision to take Penderton up on their generous land offer, cracking the door open. Might as well open it all the way so I could get through.

Letting go of the need to hide was surprisingly easy.

Above us, the vampire shifted again.

“I appreciate where you’re coming from,” I said. “But I already gave my word to Penderton. Getting the knight-pathfinder’s input would really help me.”

Claudia shook her head. The world was filled with fools, and I was clearly the dumbest of them all.

I gave her a smile. “While you’re thinking it over, would you like me to get rid of your unwelcome visitor? I can take it off the tower without damaging it, and if you humor me, Barrett won’t ever put one up there again.”

Claudia pondered me. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

She didn’t ask how I would do it. I pulled off my hoodie and held it out. “I need one of your knights to put this on with the hood up, get on my mount, and ride around the block. The undead needs to see me leaving.”

I didn’t want Barrett’s attention focused on me. Eventually he and I would have a reckoning, but not yet. Not for a while.

Claudia nodded. The female knight walked over and took my hoodie. “Which horse is yours?”

“The black and white mammoth donkey up front. Trust me, you can’t miss her.”





“Incoming,” Claudia murmured.

“Barrett?” I asked through the undead’s mouth.

“In the flesh.”

Getting from the Farm across the river to the Wilmington Chapter took about half an hour. Barrett made it in twenty minutes. Either he was already in the city, or he was very motivated. He wouldn’t have trusted just anyone with antagonizing the Order, so whoever piloted the vampire on his behalf had to be good. If someone had yanked an undead from one of my best navigators, I’d be motivated, too.

My new vampire crouched behind a whiteboard stand I borrowed from the Order’s situation room, on the side of Claudia’s desk. I’d taken a fat roll of paper from there, too. English letters were a lot easier to write through a vampire than Shinar’s flowing sigils. There were few things better for training precision navigation than writing out your family’s lineage in a dead language while your aunt despaired over the sad state of your calligraphy.

“He looks pissed,” the other female knight murmured.

I’d locked myself in their armory, so the vampire was my eyes and ears for this little date. From my vantage point, I had an excellent view of Claudia, but the screen blocked the entrance and the windows, so I had to settle for imagining pissed-off Barrett marching across the street.

The door swung open, and firm footsteps announced Barrett approaching.

Claudia raised her head from her paperwork. “Well, this is a surprise. What can the Order do for you, Mr. Barrett?”

“You have something of mine.” His voice was light. You could almost hear the smile.

“Do I?” Claudia frowned. “Oh, the vampire. Is it one of yours?”

“All of them are mine.” Barrett chuckled and pushed the whiteboard stand aside. I twisted the undead into a picture-perfect impression of a person caught naked in the shower and tried to cover myself up with my undead hands.

The male knight made a strangled noise.

Barrett blinked.

I spun the vampire around, picked up the long roll of paper I’d been writing on, and held it out in front of Barrett. On it, in a beautiful cursive, I’d written a little song.

Old Barrett had a Farm

E i e i o

And on his Farm he had some cows

E i e i o

With a paw print here

And a paw print there

Here a paw print, there a paw print

Everywhere a paw print

Old Barrett had a Farm

E i e i o

And on his Farm he had some vampires

E i e i o…

I’d covered about five feet of paper with that nonsense. I’d mentioned the vampires, the journeymen, the cadre, and so on.

Barrett stopped smiling.