“Update me,” Rabbi Abrams said.
Rohan told him about the list. Rabbi Abrams asked for each individual name, closing his eyes. Once again, I’d have sworn he was asleep if he hadn’t been fidgeting with his kippah. “Stop,” he said at the seventh name. “Ilya. He trained here as an initiate many many years ago. His brother still lives here. Mischa didn’t carry the Rasha gene, but they were inseparable. I can put you in touch.”
“Wouldn’t his brother have been told he was dead?” I asked.
The rabbi opened his eyes. “Most definitely, but Mischa was his twin. How well did you believe being told Ari was no longer being Rasha?”
I pulled Ro to his feet. “We’re in business. But first I have to see a witch about some demons.”
Gelman was in-between chemo treatments and looking a lot better today. In fact, she was dressed and waiting around for her green light to return to her sister’s house. That was the good news. The bad news was that when she glowered at me, holding the photo of Ferdinand and the woman tight enough to turn her fingers white, she was healthy enough that if she decided to blame the messenger, I was toast.
Fuck it. What was one more target on my back? “Do you know her or not?”
“This photo is a fake.” She flung it back at me.
I picked it up off the ground and brushed it off. “Based on your savvy Photoshop skills?”
“Based on the fact that Tessa would never have anything to do with a Rasha. She isn’t working with one and she certainly wasn’t involved with one.”
I picked up the photo and shrugged. “Looks pretty chummy to me.”
“Then she’s being coerced.”
“Yeah, at a patio restaurant with a good view and a fancy-ass bottle of wine. Scary.”
Gelman slammed her hand on the arm of the chair. “She hates the Brotherhood.”
“You sure? Love makes people do stupid things.”
“Yes, I’m sure, you insolent girl. Who do you think I got the Vashar from?”
“Whoa. Hang on,” I said. “She made the Vashar? Is that not a case for her being involved in black magic?”
“That magic was gray at best.”
“Tomato, tohmahto. How can you defend her when she sicced the gogota on you? Those demons may have been modified by the Brotherhood, but Tessa was the only one who could have forced them to attack us. Bad enough the demon came after me for the Vashar, it came after you, period.”
Gelman crossed her arms, jutted her chin out, and looked pointedly away.
“This is your last warning. Quit upsetting her,” Sienna said, entering the room.
I glared at her. She had bags under her eyes and her cartoony penguin scrubs were a glaring contrast to her listless shuffle. Even her dreads hung limply.
“Do you have an APB out for my visits?” I said.
“Yes. The nurses on this ward call me when you show up. Did you pack your toiletries?” Sienna went into the bathroom.
“I already checked,” Gelman said.
“Uh-huh.” Sienna returned, holding up a toothbrush. She hipchecked me off the hospital bed to toss the toothbrush into Gelman’s open suitcase.
“You’re a total witch,” I said.
Sienna raised her eyebrows. “And?”
Grr. I pulled up a chair. “Lure kids to your gingerbread house, much?”
“Nah. I have celiac. It’s straight up puppies and candy out the back of vans.”
“Your patients must love you.”
“They do.” She rubbed her temples.
“Pulling overtime again?” Dr. Gelman said.
Sienna blinked at her confused for a second, before nodding. “Yeah. Rough night.” She pointed at me. “I don’t like you and I certainly don’t trust you.”
“Sienna, enough. Nava is annoying, but her intentions are good.”
I pressed my hand to my heart and fell back in the chair. “Such praise. I’m verklempt.”
Sienna picked up the photo. “Since when is that Tessa’s type?”
“It’s not,” Gelman said. “He’s Rasha.”
The room went absolutely, eerily still. Sienna’s lip curled and any trace of tiredness vanished. “Who is he?” she growled.
“Since you both seem to be so chummy with her, how about one of you call her and find out what the deal with this guy is?” Suddenly, I was levitated horizontally, then crashed onto the ground. Hard. On my tailbone. Bypassing the nice chair I’d been sitting in altogether.
I rubbed my butt, letting Sienna see the magic crackling over my hands. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“You want to earn a drop of trust with any witch who isn’t Esther? Give me his name.”
If Sienna went after Ferdinand, I suspected it wouldn’t go well for him. I shut down my magic and hauled myself back into the chair. “Ferdinand Alves. I don’t know where he is but he attacked me and he has ice magic, so if you want to rip his balls off for taking advantage of your friend or whatever? Go nuts.”
Sienna dropped the photo in my lap. “Bloodthirsty. There may be hope for you yet.” She scanned the empty closet and closed up Gelman’s suitcase. “Call me if you aren’t feeling well tonight.”
I didn’t rate a goodbye.
“Will I be able to levitate someone like Sienna did? Or wait.” I slid the photo into my pocket. “Fly?”
“Levitating, even a split-second elimination of gravity, takes years to master. So I’m going to go with no. You want to fly? Book a plane ticket.” Gelman rummaged through her purse for her phone, scrolled through her contacts, and called Tessa. She left a message saying it was urgent. “We’ll be lucky if she gets this any time soon. This week was solstice. She’s probably at the Santa Barbara celebration.”
“There are witchy vacation destinations?”
“There are places of interest for our community, but Tessa lives in Los Angeles. It’s not far.”
“Is Tessa powerful enough to wield black magic?” I said.
“Possibly, but she wouldn’t do it for the Brotherhood. Tessa’s a very talented witch who fervently believes that organization is to blame for our community losing strength.”
“How so?”
“What do you know of the Laws of Thermodynamics?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
She muttered a few choice words about the dumbing down of humanity. “First Law. Energy can’t be created or destroyed. Same with magic. Think of all magic as a cup of rice. The number of grains are finite. They can be divided into piles but to do so you must take from one pile and give to another. No adding in new grains.”
My stomach growled. “Hold that thought. I’m just gonna run to the vending machine.” I’d forgotten to restock my purse stash of snacks in all the excitement of the past couple days.
Gelman rolled her eyes, reached into her bag and tossed me a granola bar.
“Aw, thanks, Mom.” It even had chunks of dark chocolate in it. Sweet!
“Feel free to chew before swallowing.”
“I’m channeling my inner anaconda. So what you’re saying is the more Rasha, the smaller the witches’ pile?”
“Yes.” She unwrapped her own granola bar, eating it with pointed slowness. “Tessa figured she could reverse the problem. Magically castrate the Brotherhood and all would be replenished.”
“Hence the Vashar.”