“I wasn’t—” He stopped when I’d moved too far away for him to protest without Emily hearing.
“What have you been up to, dear?” Nana said when I reached her.
“We visited the infirmary.”
Her eyes flashed in my direction. “It’s a horrible sight. But you aren’t to worry. I will find a cure.”
“Are you continuing your research?” Arik’s stare followed Nana as she removed a bottle from within a cabinet and brought it over to me.
“Now, take a few sips of this before bedtime, and it’ll help you sleep,” Nana said, obviously ignoring Arik’s question. But he was determined to get an answer.
“The Wizard Council sent an order for you to cease your research,” he continued.
Nana folded her hands on the counter. “The Fey have insisted I continue my work to find a cure. The council doesn’t rule here. Now, if you don’t mind, I have work to do.”
“Are you excusing me from your laboratory?” The firm tone of Arik’s voice startled me.
“I am,” Nana said. “I’ll let you know when I have what you need ready.”
“All right, I see how it is.” He turned to Emily. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to be rude.” His eyes found mine again, and he hesitated. “I’ll check on you later.”
“Okay, I’ll see you then,” I said.
Something was going on between Nana and the Wizard Council. And I could tell by Nana’s actions that she wasn’t going to tell me with Arik around. She waited until we heard the lab door shut behind him before she clicked on her computer screen.
“Come here,” she said. “I want to show you something.”
I shuffled across the floor and leaned over her shoulder to view the screen. She had two windows up. One image looked like a twisted ladder and another resembled a dandelion. “Is that a DNA strand? What’s the other one?”
“It’s DNA from a Sentinel.” She pushed a few buttons, and three-dimensional versions of the images came out of the screen and floated in front of us. “See this sequence here?” She pointed out a part of the strand. “It’s the Sentinel gene. It’s very rare. Without wizard DNA, it’s useless.” She pulled up another image. “This is your DNA. You have the same wizard gene as others, but your Sentinel one is longer, most likely because both your parents are Sentinels.”
“Where did you get my DNA?”
“Morta went to the hideout in Boston,” Nana said. “I had her gather a blood sample from you and bring it here.”
I glared at her through the 3-D image. “Without my permission?”
“You were out cold, dear. I couldn’t ask you for it.” Nana gave me one of her how-could-you-not-take-in-that-cute-kitty looks. She used that stare a lot to soften Pop. That was how she got us to give Cleo, my cat, a home.
“Lives were at stake,” she was saying. “The cure we created from another Sentinel’s blood only lasts a few days, then our subjects go back to being sick. We tried other donors, and had the same results. But what we do have, though temporary, is keeping many patients in that infirmary alive a little longer until we can save them.”
I studied my DNA. “Exactly when did you become a scientist?”
Nana clicked off the screen. “I did have a normal human job in a medical lab before retiring. Being a Pure Witch isn’t my only skill.”
That makes sense. “But I don’t remember you working.”
“When your mother passed away, I decided to stay home to help your pop out with you.” She gave me a warm smile. “Best decision I ever made.”
“I’m glad you did.” I returned her smile. “Okay, what do you need from me?”
“She needs more of your blood,” Emily said.
Nana looked smaller sitting in the chair in front of the computer. She was worn out. Worried.
I placed my hand on her shoulder. “What is it?”
“After we make more of the cure, we must test it. Then I need you to sneak out of Tír na nóg and deliver it to the Greyhill coven. Bastien will meet you. He’ll make sure the sick receive the cure. The entry is in the Abbey Library of Saint Gall.”
The thought of seeing Bastien quickened my pulse. But going against the Wizard Council’s orders made it thud to a stop for a beat. What would they do if they discovered our plan? I didn’t even know what the punishment was for such an action.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why doesn’t the Wizard Council want to share the cure? And why can’t I tell Arik?”
Nana rubbed her chin. By the bags under her eyes and the slump in her shoulders, I could tell she’d been pulling late nights working on the cure. “Arik will never go against the Wizard Council’s orders. How many people knew you were going to New York that day Veronique found you?”
I shot her a puzzled look. “Only Uncle Philip. Why?”
“Veronique didn’t just happen to be in the neighborhood.”
“I know. She said her spy told her I was there. That whoever it was had spotted me.”
“This spy just so happened to spot you? I don’t believe it.” Nana covered my hand with hers. “Someone told her you’d be there.”
“Uncle Philip?” I didn’t want to believe it. “But he could’ve had me killed many times. Besides, I tested him with my truth globe, and it showed that he was trustworthy.”
“I’m not saying it was Philip.” She cut me off. “He must’ve shared your jump schedule with the council. There is unrest within the havens. It started with the high wizard murders during Toad’s trial. There are many new high wizards. We’re not sure if we can trust them all. Tell no one about the mission I’m sending you on. Many lives depend on your success.”
If the council was corrupt, I had to convince Arik to see the truth. He’d listen to me. See that we had to get the cure to the Mystik covens. Just then, I remembered something from when the council had questioned Bastien about Conemar’s disappearance. It was during the dispositions regarding our part in Toad’s escape from the gallows under the Vatican.
“The disease is spreading to the havens, too,” I said. “Akua of the Veilig haven in Africa mentioned it at a hearing I attended.”
The vials clanked against the counter as Nana set them down. “That explains why Arik has instructions from the council to bring a substantial amount of the cure to Asile. He was told it was for testing, but they wouldn’t need as much as they requested for that. They’d save the havens and not the covens. Merl would never have stood for such cruelty.”
Merl had been the high wizard before Uncle Philip. He’d died during an attack on Asile. He and Nana had a little romance thing going before his death. By the sadness in Nana’s voice, I wondered if she missed him.
“Why would the havens not want to help the covens?”
Nana picked up a vial and inspected it. “When the Mystik world was first created, it was to hide the magical and unusual beings from human persecution. The high wizards in that time believed the havens and covens could live in harmony. But there were some xenophobic wizards who didn’t much like that idea. People in the havens were divided. Most wanted to remain connected to the covens, while a few wanted separation.”