The Adept turned to Captain Reese and spoke through gritted teeth. “After our previous…encounters with House Medeis, our reputation and power as a Wizard House has been terrible. All we were seeking was to use the humans to reestablish a positive reputation. We made sure no one was hurt!”
“There was almost a stampede at the fireworks,” Sarge flatly said. “And cars crashed because of the ice. You were lucky: the damage could have been huge.”
Captain Reese shook her head at Sarge, then loudly announced. “Wizards of House Tellier. You are under arrest and charged with the crime of using magic to harm humans. We will be taking the Adepts, Heir, and all wizards present into custody, and calling in emergency troops to watch the House. You will stand before the Regional Committee of Magic—tonight—to answer for your crimes.”
The Adept cursed under his breath and a couple of the Tellier wizards groaned, but they seemed to accept the charge shockingly well considering how frantic they’d been moments ago.
The House didn’t beat us up when it logically should have given that we are a threat to its wizards. And most obviously, Adept Tellier doesn’t want us going inside. What is going on? Is the House rejecting them, and they don’t want other wizards to know?
I watched as Adept Tellier held his arms out in front of him, and waited until Tetiana secured a pair of cuffs on him before putting my dagger away.
Binx and Brody stepped onto the lawn, each of them taking a set of cuffs from Medium-Sized Robert before peeling the burnt wizards off the lawn and slapping cuffs on them.
In less than five minutes, we had the Adepts, Gideon, and the other top wizards of the House cuffed and stashed in our cars.
The humans that had been watching on the sidewalk were now gossiping with other nonmagical neighbors as they watched the spectacle.
“That resolved a lot easier than I thought it would,” Brody announced as he slammed a car door shut. “I thought we’d have to fight to get them charged with anything, but they practically put a bow on themselves.”
“Yes,” I said, still not satisfied.
“I thought it was plenty hard,” Juggernaut grumbled. “We just lucked out that House Tellier didn’t do more—it could have.”
“Yes,” Sarge agreed as he glanced back at the magical House. “It seems it isn’t on good terms with its current Adepts.”
“Thankfully!” Captain Reese cheerfully said. “Let’s move out! Keep an eye out for any potential attackers en route. Just in case!”
“Yes, Captain!”
“You got it, Captain!”
As the team shouted out their responses, my cellphone buzzed in my pocket.
I checked my messages as I approached the car I’d been assigned to. April had driven, and it was just the two of us for the drive home—probably because Sarge didn’t want to risk the Telliers complaining about House Medeis’s vendetta against them.
Sunshine had gotten back to my text.
Sunshine
The only thing I can think of that includes 29 days is the cycle of the moon. A full cycle is technically every 29.5 days. No idea why that would matter to Orrin. Fae magic isn’t dependent on the moon cycle.
Are there any kinds of magic that are?
Before I could even open the passenger door, Sunshine responded.
Sunshine
There are elf artifacts and weapons that survived until today that have powers that would wax and wane in power in 29.5 days to model the moon cycle, so it’s assumed some elves used magics that operated similarly.
You mean they are most powerful on a full moon or something?
Sunshine
Some, but not necessarily only a full or new moon. It was more like they used the lunar cycle to mark a power cycle, so it could be tied to any day within a 29.5-day moon cycle.
I fired off a text to thank Sunshine for her help, then slowly opened the car door while pondering Sunshine’s revelation. Elf artifacts and weapons… Maybe Orrin could have been referring to one? But why?
During the conversation, Orrin had referenced twenty-nine days, and that he believed I wouldn’t need to come back again. Obviously, he’d felt like he’d delivered information I needed to put together… something, but what?
Had I missed something else he’d said—or maybe not said?
I eased myself down into the front passenger seat of the car, double checking my weapons on autopilot before I closed the car door.
The night we captured Orrin, he said he had to finish things that night. We know he’d been testing Tutu’s seals with his creatures, so he was attempting to… break in? Blow the place up?
We’d never found out because of Orrin’s geas. And somehow, Orrin thought he’d given me enough information to go by.
April opened the car door and hopped in, rocking the car. “Ready, Blood?” she asked as she buckled her seatbelt.
I reached for my seatbelt and absently nodded.
If Tutu’s was the goal—whether breaking into it or trying to damage it—how could that be related to the 29 days thing? Is that why Orrin had said he had to finish it the night we got him? Because of elven magic going through a lunar cycle power up?
He’d used an elven necklace to make the gates he used to summon fae monsters, but we already knew that necklace had a seven-day power cycle.
Sunshine had mentioned elf artifacts and weapons. I didn’t know much about elven magic—as elves had been long dead, they were not on the slayer list of ‘foes to learn and be prepared to face’.
However, an elven holy sword had been used in an attack on the Magiford Curia Cloisters about two years ago. It had done major damage, and even I knew that it was just one of the many types of weapons the elves had created.
Tutu’s was pretty much the only storage solution for artifacts and weapons like that if the owners didn’t want to risk personally holding onto them, and the Magiford branch was the only one in the Midwest. If anyone in the area owned weapons and magic like that, they were stored here.
Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with what Orrin was trying to steal.
It was possible the dragon shifter even had elven spells on the place—elven magic could still be purchased on the black market; a few elven spells had recently surfaced in Magiford. Maybe the 29.5 days referred to when the spell was weakest on Tutu’s?
Wait… if Orrin was trying to break in or bust up Tutu’s on a specific day in the lunar cycle… and it’s been twenty-nine days since then…
I released my seatbelt and violently kicked my car door open. “Sarge!” I spun in a circle, looking for him.
I hope I’m not too late!
He was standing with Captain Reese next to the SUV Captain Reese had arrived in. The pirate-dressed vampire was in the driver’s seat and had the car on idle.
“Sarge!” I yelled.
Sarge turned around, his silvery hair gleaming golden from all the car headlights. “Something wrong, Blood?”