THE HIDDEN THREAT

IZZIE BERENS: THE ARCANE ENFORCER™

BOOK THREE

MARTHA CARR

MICHAEL ANDERLE

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CHAPTER ONE

Stiff wind flung dust and leaves from the rooftop and fed a distracting cloud that blinded Izzie. She threw up her arm and squinted, not wanting to lose sight of her target. He and Izzie stood near the edge of a roof on a six-story building in east Austin. This was not how she predicted her day would go.

“Just stop already, Elion!” she shouted at her prey, an Arpak. “This is getting annoying. You’re not accomplishing anything, and you won’t get away. Plus, aren’t you embarrassed to fly around looking like that?”

The dark-haired Elion looked like a normal human with wings. Arpak males and females were mistaken for angels in the past. That didn’t make him all that unusual among Izzie’s suspects, nor was it enough to justify her comments.

Wings didn’t stand out in Austin anymore. For that matter, pointed ears, fur, and claws didn’t stand out.

Elion’s bright orange woven tunic and leggings covered with intricate geometric designs offered more exoticism than his wings. Something about the style and his striped headband annoyed Izzie. It was a weird throwback from the last century. Fashion aside, she cared most about his string of jewel thefts.

“It wasn’t me,” Elion shouted. He backed toward the edge of the building, his dark wings unfurling. “I was framed. It was another Arpak. People without wings often think we look alike. You’ve been hunting for no reason.”

“Oh, come on. Are you going to go with that weak excuse?” Izzie scoffed. “I’ve never once in my entire life heard people say Arpaks look alike because they all have wings. Now you’re insulting my intelligence.” She lifted her palm, ready to toss a stun bolt. “Besides, you’ve been hiding your wings most of the time.”

He frowned with a frantic, desperate look in his eyes. “You PDA goons have no real evidence. You can’t do this to me.”

“Oh, I have more than enough to bring you in, and I’m sure once we compare the residual magical signature, it’ll be a lock.” Izzie shook her head and narrowed her eyes.

“It was smart of you to use a magical item to hide your wings between the robberies, but this plan was never going to end well because you got greedy. You could have gotten away with one robbery, but you decided to stick around and do three more. That wouldn’t have flown twenty years ago, let alone now.” She winced. “No pun intended.”

Elion didn’t look like he believed her. “How did you even find me?”

Using her left hand, Izzie reached into a pocket and pulled out a long feather. “This is yours. Most times it’s hard to ride the flow of my magic for remote scrying, to the point that it frustrates me when investigating. Too many dark wizards and witches know the tricks to block that. But you didn’t think ahead.”

“I used an artifact to block tracking and scrying,” Elion replied in an exasperated tone. “This can’t be happening.”

One huge difference between hardened criminals and dabblers was their ability to resist cracking when cornered by law enforcement. Guilty consciences made suspects spout incriminating evidence. She pitied him a little, but only a little.

He’d struck at night and didn’t hurt anyone. She respected his restraint and offered the same as long as he cooperated.

“My ability is a little different than normal scrying.” Izzie waved. “Okay, okay. I’ll give you credit. If it hadn’t been me, it might have taken us longer to track down, but you were screwed from the moment we found this feather. Now, let’s stop wasting everyone’s time and surrender.” She shook her spread palm. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m not letting you get away.”

Elion yanked a faceted opal out of his pocket and held it between two fingers. Intricate etched sigils covered the gem.

He waved the gem. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, but I’m not going to prison. You can’t make me.”

“If you don’t want to hurt someone, then don’t, but you have the entire PDA and FBI after you now, not just me.”

“You don’t know what I can do.”

“We’ve been chasing you for the last two weeks.” Izzie smiled. “We know exactly what you can do.”

“Back off, or I’m going to have to hurt you. I’m serious.”

“We have it all figured out, Elion. We know you were stealing gems with a special resonance for magical imbuing.” Izzie stepped back from the building’s edge. “You can’t run. You can’t hide. Even if you can block my scrying, we can track your magical signature, and you’re not a master criminal who can stay under the radar for that long. And we both know if you had access to portal magic, you would have used it already. So, you need to ask yourself, what’s be the least painful play for you?”

Elion glared at her. “It’s your fault, you damned PDA wolves. You used magic to track me down.”

Izzie snorted. “That’s the whole damned point of the PDA.” She pointed at him. “You used magic to steal. Nobody forced you to rob jewelry stores, and nobody forced you to do it using magic. I don’t care that you’ve gotten away with it in other cities. You should have known better than to try it in Austin. Now, are you going to be reasonable, or are you going to be stupid?”

“I…” Elion sighed. “I can’t believe it’s come to this.”

“We all have bad days.”

“I really can’t.”

He flung the opal at Izzie. Izzie hissed and fired a bright stun bolt from her palm. The spell cut through the air and struck Elion in the chest. He collapsed to his knees, swaying. The opal burst against her shield in a shower of blue sparks that tore down her spell and burned tiny holes through her jacket and shirt.

“Stupid it is,” Izzie stated. “You’re under arrest.”

Elion groaned and reached into his pocket. Surprised at his resistance, Izzie strode toward him and nailed him with another stun bolt. His body jerked and rolled off the roof.

“Shit!” Izzie shouted.

She sprinted toward the edge while chanting a spell so loudly that the incantation echoed among the nearby buildings. A rope of light shot from her hand toward the falling Arpak and snagged his leg. She slid across the slick roof before dropping to her knees and stopping at the edge.

“This is why you shouldn’t have resisted.” Izzie pulled Elion onto the roof. “Before my partner and I go home tonight, you’re going to tell us where you’re hiding all the stolen goods.”

Her arms folded, Izzie surveyed the colorful array of tagged gems spread over the forensics table. Many radiated magic and featured sigils or glyphs, but the majority remained untouched by magic power or symbols. A young male forensics tech circled the table, taking pictures of the gems, his face a mask of focus.

The head of the PDA’s forensics lab, Katya Collier, wasn’t there. She was attending a meeting elsewhere in the PDA building. Izzie and Rafe were waiting for her to verify a handful of minor evidence points before heading home for the night.

Izzie wasn’t worried. Elion had cooperated once she cuffed him and was already begging for a plea bargain. The case was all over except for the boring reports. It was easy to clean up after a straightforward, nonviolent offense.

Rafe held a diamond up to the light and squinted. “This looks like an ice glyph on the side.”

Izzie walked over and held out her palm. He dropped the diamond into her hand. She brought the diamond close to her face. “Good eyes. It’s tiny. You should quit this job and spend all day writing sigils and magic circles. I’m sure you could do a better job than many magicals.”

“I’ve been reviewing a translated copy of Underwood’s Symbols of Power. Ever read it? He has an interesting way of describing glyphs.”

“I stopped reading grimoires, tomes, and boring books like that once I left school except when I’m forced to for this job.” Izzie set the diamond on the table. She placed her hand over her heart. “My family magic comes from here. It’s always more instinctual.” She picked up a ruby. “You know, I have to admit the case didn’t end the way I thought it would.”

“How did you think it was going to end?” Rafe squatted and looked at a sapphire. “Elion stuck to his MO. He just got sloppy when he came to Austin.” He chuckled. “Did you think we would have to fight a conjured gem giant?”

“I don’t know.”

Rafe’s gaze slid to her. “You did think we would have to fight a gem giant? You didn’t mention that to me.”

“Not that specifically.” Izzie shrugged. “Jewel thefts, a magical involved, nobody understood why the robberies were happening, and a pattern led to other cities and ended up here. We’ve seen that before.” She frowned. “It wasn’t that long ago we were carrying millions in diamonds around. I thought they had come back. It’s not a crazy thought.”

“The Arcane Syndicate, huh?” Rafe stood. “But you never sensed any dark magic at the crime scenes. You’ve been more relaxed during this case than normal.”

Izzie couldn’t deny that. The lack of dark magic helped her focus on the case. A straightforward crime was refreshing in a sick way. She wasn’t naïve enough to wish for a world without magical crime. Longing for a world of nonviolent crime offered a good compromise.

“We’ve been asking around since last fall, and we haven’t found any new clues,” she noted. “The lack of evidence makes me even more suspicious.”

“I’d say it makes it more likely the Arcane Syndicate hasn’t committed any big new crimes because they’re bleeding from before.” Rafe stepped out of the way of the forensics photographer. “Whatever long-term plan they have is on the back burner. I can’t imagine they were prepared for two major defeats so close together. A wounded beast needs time to heal.”

“That’s what has me worried. Many animals are most dangerous when cornered and wounded.”

Rafe tapped his watch. “Shouldn’t you be worrying more about the time more than the quiet Syndicate?”

Izzie frowned. “What’s so special about the time?”

He laughed. “You forgot, didn’t you? I feel a little sorry for him.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You told me this morning you were going out with Caden tonight.” Rafe looked concerned. “What was it you said? Oh yeah. ‘Unless we happen to luck into a piece of evidence that lets us track down our jewel thief, I’m going out to dinner tonight.’” He gestured toward the door. “You can handle the rest of your reports tomorrow. Elion’s processed and locked up. We’ve recovered all the stolen gems. You’re done for the night.”

Izzie opened her mouth to protest, then closed it and smiled. Waiting to write a report wouldn’t doom the city to destruction. Elion wasn’t an Arcane Syndicate enforcer. He was a cocky thief sitting in a holding cell.

“Thanks, Rafe. You’re right.” Izzie waved and jogged toward the door, almost colliding with another tech. “See you tomorrow.”

CHAPTER TWO

Good habits led a person to a good life. A bad habit weighed a person down. Both were hard to change.

Izzie accepted those truths as she scanned the dining room of the Italian restaurant with a careful gaze. She couldn’t shut off her paranoid bad habits. Her mind demanded she double-check for enemies.

Things wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t finished a case that day. Too much adrenaline left her seeing thieves and assassins everywhere.

Light opera played in the background from hidden speakers. The music was loud enough for patrons to appreciate the talent but not so loud it interfered with conservations. Nobody paid her any attention as they chatted among themselves, drank their wine, and ate their meals. She picked up her glass to sip her Chianti. She had paced herself, not wanting to get drunk.

Her obsession with avoiding anything that compromised her situational awareness was a good and bad habit. She’d learned to never let her guard down while being hunted by the Seventh Order. That trait persisted long past their destruction and wouldn’t let her commit to enjoying a nice meal with a handsome man.

Caden sat across her, his smile warm and inviting. He downed a forkful of penne. He looked great. His dark hair was perfect. His dark turtleneck balanced the relaxed and formal spectrum while protecting him against the mild chill of January in Austin when they’d walked to the restaurant from his car.

Izzie never knew what to wear for their dates. Her little black dress still left her uncomfortable and worried about what would happen if she needed to fight. Pearl had to take her out shopping to build up a date wardrobe after Izzie’s third date with Caden.

Her promised drink with Caden after the dark necromancy artifact incident grew into whatever it meant to be having Italian food in a nice dress. She tried to tell herself they were only having fun and blowing off steam, that it wasn’t anything important.

A waiter dropped low in her peripheral vision. Her gaze cut that way, uncovering he’d caught a fallen wine glass with a sheepish look. The customers at his table clapped.

Caden put his fork down with a smile. “Please tell me you’re not checking the room out for trouble again.”

Izzie’s cheeks heated. “I thought I’d…I mean…” She groaned. “Yes, I was making sure there wasn’t any trouble. In my defense, it’s not like I always do it. Fancier places feel more dangerous to me than coffee shops.”

“They do?” Caden’s brow lifted. “Why?”

“I don’t know. They just do. It could be a familiarity thing.” She frowned. “Although I can’t say I never check things out at coffee shops. I’m surprised you could tell.”

“We’ve been dating for four months now. You don’t think I’ve learned a little about you?”

He was right. Four months had passed since she met the DIA agent. They had shared information on a handful of cases since then, although they hadn’t needed to fight side-by-side. She couldn’t pretend this was only a work relationship.

Dating. Caden and her friends tossed the word out with a disturbing casualness. No matter how many times Rafe or Pearl teased her about dating, she tried to redirect the conversation. Romance was another thing the Seventh Order’s conspiracy took from her.

She’d given up on her first real love to keep him safe from the people hunting her. By the time she ended the Seventh Order, it was too late despite them reconnecting. Izzie had become a different person, hardened and unable to have a nice, fancy meal without worrying about lurking dark wizard assassins.

Caden grinned. “Relax, Izzie. You and Rafe put another bad guy away today. This should be a celebration.”

“I am relaxed. I’m happy. That guy was annoying, and there were all those infuriating articles asking why the PDA couldn’t catch ‘one magical jewel thief.’” She rolled her eyes. “Sometimes people act like we can teleport everywhere.”

“I keep telling you this and I will until you believe it.” Caden reached over and patted her hand. “You’re allowed to be happy, Izzie, especially on days you’ve done a good job.”

“I know that.” Izzie tried to stall with another sip of wine. “I’m here on a…date with you, aren’t I? This isn’t a case meeting. This is me having fun.” She nodded, more to convince herself than Caden.

“Are you here with me right now?” Caden arched a brow. “Really?”

“Where else would I be? Oriceran?”

“Are you in the past, worrying about an old case or everything else?”

She looked away. “It’s not like that. I’m not trying…” She sighed. “I’m trying to be present, you know? I’m not trying to dwell on the past. And you didn’t know me before. This is way better than I used to be.”

“I’m teasing you, but I’m not angry.” Caden smiled. “It’s the opposite. I want you to feel good about spending time with me. You had a rough time for half your life. Poking you is the way I’m trying to get you to look at your behavior.”

“Awareness is the first step. I get it. I really do.”

He gestured with his fork at his penne. “You’ve earned a night of pasta without paranoia. I swear the only time you let your guard down is in your apartment and barely then. I know, I know…” He shook his head and kept his easy smile. “It’s because it’s warded with enough magic to hold off a small army.”

“I can’t deny the truth.” Izzie shrugged. “I had to live that way for a long time. If I let my guard down, the Seventh Order was ready to pounce on me or the people I cared about. My parents made the hard choices first, then I made the hard choices once I had my memories back.”

“Your family and friends aren’t slouches or weak.” Caden chuckled. “Your mother, your father, your friends, and their families. You could take down a small army with those people alone. Forget a small army. A small country.”

“That’s the situation now,” she added. “It wasn’t always like that. I can’t pretend otherwise.”

“That’s my point.” Caden lifted his fork in front of her before turning it until its edge faced her. “You need to change your perspective because that’s the situation now. You can’t change unless you want to change, Izzie. I know your friends keep telling you that, so I’m going to start telling you that. Since I’m more and less than a friend.”

She frowned. “What brought all this on?”

“Nothing more than wanting you to be happier.” Caden shrugged. “I’m realistic. People like us will never be happy-go-lucky types because our jobs require us to stare down the darkest threats out there. We can’t do what we do without being affected, but if we let that darkness swallow us up, what’s the point?”

“I’m not letting the darkness swallow me. I’m here now. Alive. I won. They didn’t.”

Izzie glanced at her plate of penne. She’d barely touched her food. She speared a bite of the pasta and savored the well-balanced flavor of the sauce. Good meals were another sacrifice during her old lifestyle. Without Pearl and Rafe before and now Caden forcing matters, Izzie always defaulted to something quick and filling. Her average breakfast was coffee and a donut.

Caden set his fork down and reached into his pocket. “I have something that might help you feel better.”

Izzie’s heart kicked up. She wasn’t ready to admit she was in a relationship. She was far from ready for a ring.

Magic pulsed in the air. The light chatter of the rest of the dining room quieted.

Izzie’s cheeks burned. She’d jumped past the mere mortal realm of mistaken conclusions to the realm of subline ridiculous and embarrassing misunderstanding. “You have a sound inverter in your pocket.”

“Yes, and I’m happy to see you.” Caden winked. “I thought it might help you feel more comfortable.” He frowned. “You okay? You look a little red.”

“Too much wine,” Izzie lied.

“I hope this doesn’t come off sounding desperate, but I have to ask. Do you like spending time with me, Izzie? I like spending time with you, but I don’t want to make too many assumptions. You know what they say about assumptions. I’m going to keep pushing as long as I think there’s something there worth fighting for.”

Izzie let out a strangled laugh. “Yes. Making big assumptions can make people come off as idiots. Not that I ever have that problem.”

She struggled with her conflicting emotions. Getting engaged after dating someone for a few months was silly. She didn’t want that. At the same time, her disappointment over the lack of a ring was surprising and real. Projecting her problems over her past and regrets over her past onto Caden was unfair. She’d messed up everything with her first love, Luke, not him.

“I should have never agreed to go out with you.”

“But you enjoy spending time with me.”

“It’s not about you.”

Caden’s brow lifted. He laughed. “Oh. Is that the play?”

“What are you saying?” She scowled at him.

“This is the part where you run away, convinced you’re saving me from the oh-so-broken girl, beaten down by the dark wizards.” Caden laughed. “If you don’t like spending time with me and this boring you, I’ll gratefully step out of the picture. I’m more than happy to offer my professional assistance when it’s relevant, but if you’re thinking about ending what we have out of a misplaced sense of regret, self-sacrifice, and pity, don’t. That’s another unnecessary sacrifice. You deserve better.”

Izzie averted her eyes. “I can’t change who I am.”

“Everyone can change who they are. I’m not asking you to change who you want to be, Izzie. I’m asking you to stop punishing herself.”

“It’s not that simple.”

He patted his chest. “I’m a big boy. I don’t need you to protect me from your emotions. If all this is to you is the occasional free meal and a few hours and nights where you don’t worry about trouble, I don’t care if you’re using me.”

“How can you say that?” Izzie’s exasperation came out in her voice. “I can’t guarantee you anything. I can’t promise I’ll improve much more. I can’t promise you’ll be safe when I get caught up in more trouble.”

“The last thing I need is you to protect me.” Caden threw back the rest of his wine. “I’m sure if I asked your partner, he’d tell you the same thing. You don’t have to guarantee to protect everyone you’re around.”

Izzie looked away. “I don’t want people hurt because of me.”

“All life involves risk.” He smiled. “All I’m trying to tell you is that you’re dating a DIA technowizard who knows his way around an enchanted gun. I can handle myself, and I know who you are, your past, and what you’ve dealt with. If I’m not afraid, you shouldn’t be afraid.”

A waitress in an immaculate white shirt, vest, and pressed pants maneuvered toward the table. She stopped after approaching the table and blinked, looking back and forth before stepping backward. Her eyes widened. She walked closer to the table.

“Oh.” The waitress smiled at Izzie. “That explains it. I thought I recognized you earlier. You’re Agent Izzie Berens with the PDA, aren’t you?”

Izzie managed a weak, sheepish smile. “Yes, that’s me.”

“Did you do a spell?” The waitress gestured behind her. “I can’t hear anything from the rest of the dining room.”

“I did,” Caden explained. “Is that a problem? I didn’t see any no-magic signs.”

“No, it was just weird. It’s like noise-canceling headphones without the headphones. I wish I could do that.” The waitress looked at Izzie. “Thank you for all you do. I’ve read about your work in the news. It’s good to know there are people like you protecting the city. Do you need anything else? More wine?”

Izzie and Caden shook their heads. The waitress nodded and turned to leave. She stopped by Izzie and turned her head to mouth something. It took Izzie a second to parse the soundless message.

Your boyfriend is a hottie. You’re so lucky.

Izzie sighed at the waitress’ departure.

Judging from Caden’s smirk, he’d also read the waitress’ lips.

“I sometimes wonder if it’s a bad thing that people know me like that.” Izzie gestured between the two of them. “It’s the same reason I have trouble thinking about us.”

Caden didn’t look convinced and sounded even less convinced. “What exactly do you have trouble thinking about?”

“I have a hard time believing I’ll ever have a normal future. No matter, in the back of my mind, I always expect my past to come back to haunt me.” She frowned. “I was so relieved when I finally took down the Seventh Order. It was over. I thought I could restart. I thought everything would be different. And then…it wasn’t.”

Caden’s smile drifted into a frown. “Aren’t things different? Think long and hard before you answer. Don’t assume. Look at the evidence to find the truth. That’s what you do every day.”

“One of the reasons I came to Austin to work with the PDA was to start over. It was a full-circle moment. I’d follow in my mom’s footsteps and fight evil to make them afraid like they’d made me afraid. I could take back my future. That was the plan.”

“And now?”

“There’s all this Arcane Syndicate crap.” Izzie scoffed. “It’s not like I think it’s all about me, but I’ve chosen to throw myself back into the darkness. I feel good about protecting people, but I just don’t know.”

Caden reached over and squeezed her hand. “Which is why it’s all the more important to have an anchor outside of work.”

“You’re the anchor?”

“I could be. I understand that you’re closed off, and it will take you time to open up. I’m willing to wait.” Caden squeezed her hand once more and let go. “I’m not going to let an evil dark magic conspiracy organization run me off. It’ll take a lot more than that.”

“What could run you off?”

“An ancient dragon at minimum. He has to be at least three thousand years old.”

Izzie’s swirling, conflicting emotions erupted as a loud laugh. She was grateful for the sound inverter. Nobody looked her way.

“I almost wish they would make another move. At least then all this built-up tension would go away.”

“You want an ancient dragon to attack you?”

Izzie shook her head. “The Arcane Syndicate. It’s annoying having them buzzing around and not destroyed.”

Caden chuckled. “Maybe they took the fall off. Then they had the holidays to worry about.”

“Rafe and I head up the task force, and we haven’t made much progress since the necromancer case.”

“Which involved saving tons of people and ending a major threat.” Caden stared at her. “Do you think the Austin PD cops sit around worrying that they haven’t stopped all organized crime every time they save somebody?”

Izzie shrugged. “Of course not.”

“Then you should follow their example.” Caden patted his chest. “The PDA isn’t the only one trying to keep an eye out for the Arcane Syndicate. You have support from the intelligence and law enforcement communities. Always remember, you’re no longer alone on this.”

“Everything’s made my paranoia worse and my job easier. Major magical crimes are way down since September. It’s like everyone’s afraid of the PDA now because we ripped the Syndicate a new one. All our cases have been petty stuff with suspects who can’t cover their tracks well, like our Arpak jewel thief.”

“That all sounds good to me.”

Izzie narrowed her eyes and stared at him. “Since you have a sound inverter on, I’ll go ahead and ask. Do you think the Arcane Syndicate is done in Austin? I want your professional opinion, not the opinion of the guy worried about my paranoia or me overworking myself.”

Caden’s coy smile unsettled Izzie. He looked around the room before leaning closer, his smile lingering.

“The DIA isn’t sure. Neither am I. It doesn’t change that they’ve gone up to bat two times and struck out, losing major resources and people in the process. Given their losses in town, it’d make sense if they decided to go somewhere else. Austin isn’t the only place with old artifacts and mysterious elves tucked away in hidden gardens. We don’t have a firm idea why they’d care about this place.”

“Neither do I. Even Xelius didn’t know.” Izzie shivered as a memory floated up. “I can’t get over that veiled witch I ran into at the auction.”

Caden looked confused. “Unless the PDA has been keeping secrets from the DIA, you haven’t run into her since the auction. Do you have any proof she’s still in town?”

“That’s true, and I don’t. I didn’t see her face, and we don’t have a recorded magical signature, so it’s not like I can track her. I just…can’t get over how something about her felt familiar. I ran into the same sensation both times I dealt with the Arcane Syndicate, and it was stronger with her.”

“I get that.” Caden frowned. “It’s hard to separate what is with what we want it to be.”

“I didn’t imagine what I felt,” Izzie snapped.

Caden waved off her irritated comment. “I’m not saying you imagined anything. But everything comes back to interpretation. Working at the DIA has taught me people can always shove puzzle pieces together and make them think they fit with enough force and squinting. Sometimes we want something to be true so badly that we ignore the truth of the bigger picture.”

“I don’t know. Maybe you’re right.” Izzie stared into her pasta as if the penne held the answers to all her problems. “You get it, don’t you? It’s hard for me to move on when I keep running into a familiar sensation attached to the Arcane Syndicate. It’s like my subconscious is screaming a warning at me, but I don’t understand the language.”

“What would it take for you to be sure?” Caden’s voice turned quiet, and a serious look replaced his smile. “What would it take for you to be ready to look only forward, not back?”

Izzie thought over before letting out a long sigh. “I’m not sure, to be honest. If I knew the Arcane Syndicate’s true goals other than taking over Austin, it might help.” She looked down. “Which is why I don’t know if this…sort of thing between us is going to work.”

Caden laughed. She jerked her head up and frowned.

“Sorry.” Caden shrugged. “I couldn’t help myself. If I were a normal guy, you know, some guy at the bank or something, those lines would make more sense. But I’m a DIA agent. I won’t get scared off because of your job or the people I have to help take down anyway. I thought that was clear.”

He grinned. “I’m a stubborn guy. I’m going to make it work until you get sick of me. ’Cause you’re worth it. And that’s my professional and personal opinion.”

Izzie’s heart kicked up. She couldn’t look him in the eye. “Are you going to say that after the fifth time a dark wizard tries to murder you to get to me?”

Caden snickered. “It’s no different than my day job. You’re tougher than the other local DIA assets. I have a better chance of surviving if I’m hanging around you.”

Izzie laughed. “When you put it that way, I almost believe you.”

Caden was right. There was nothing wrong with spending time with a man who understood the danger. She liked spending time with him. That wasn’t wrong.

She wouldn’t be able to let go of the habitual paranoia fed by her past and her current job anytime soon. That would take years. The Arcane Syndicate was out there, but they weren’t the Seventh Order. She wouldn’t let them isolate her. She wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of her past.

“Where’s that waitress?” Izzie smiled, letting her happiness smother her paranoia. “I think I could use more wine. Tonight, I’m going to have a good time.” She pumped her fist. “Even if I have to force myself!”

Caden laughed. “That’s… Whatever. You’re getting there.”

CHAPTER THREE

Officer Jake Pierce of the Austin Police Department loved his job most days. He drove around the city in his police cruiser with the satisfaction of knowing he was helping make his home a better place like his father and grandfather before him. Traffic stops aside, most of the time people were happy and relieved to see him. He represented authority and safety, a friendly and reliable source of help.

That made his day-to-day life and actions important. Many people could go their whole lives before finding a job that offered meaning, but he grew up knowing the exact path he needed to follow. He always considered himself lucky because of that.

Magic and the integration of magicals into public life complicated his work sometimes, but he didn’t mind that either. He wasn’t old enough to remember being a cop before open magic returned to Earth. There was no point in nostalgia for a world now gone forever.

Besides, magic wasn’t a big deal as long as he was careful. The real-deal magical trouble was routed to the PDA. All he needed to do was stay out of the way when a crazy shapeshifter, necromancer, or winged jewel thief showed up. He might have to work a perimeter, but the PDA did the heavy lifting of taking down magical suspects.

There were cops at the department who didn’t like the PDA or other feds coming in to handle magical cases. He didn’t understand why those cops cared so much. Law enforcement was always about using the right tools and organization for the right job. Magic was no different.

Jake whistled with one hand on the steering wheel as he drove his cruiser down a street in east-central Austin. The bright lights of tall, nearby buildings pushed away the darkness. It was a clear, beautiful night, and it hadn’t rained in days.

Despite the chill of the January night, his uniform was enough to warm him. People who lived in places like Wisconsin and Minnesota were insane. They could have chosen to live in the great climate of Austin.

His radio offered sporadic easy-to-ignore transmissions, and his console screen didn’t highlight any nearby trouble or calls. Traffic accidents were a constant problem, but other officers were in the process of handling all current incidents throughout the city. With the capture of the jewel thief, Austin was back to its baseline peace.

“Just another quiet night in my favorite city.” He pondered the shapeshifter incident during the summer and the later trouble in the summer. The jewel thief didn’t compare. “It’s been a long time since anything super-crazy.”

Jake smiled. There was no point in worrying about insane shapeshifters or necromancers. All that trouble had come and gone. The city was still standing. The good guys won in the end. They always would if they showed up to the fight.

He chuckled when he realized everyone on the road was matching his speed. Nobody wanted to go crazy on the road while a cop was nearby.

That was fine. He wasn’t interested in ticketing someone for the sake of it. He understood how stressful a police encounter could be for civilians and always strove to confront people only when necessary for public safety. That was another part of his moral duty as a police officer.

A self-driving Currus taxi changed lanes behind him. He drummed his fingers on his steering wheel. After all these years, the lack of anyone in the driver’s seat unnerved him. He didn’t mind magic, but something about the idea of riding in a magical car bothered him.

The Currus swerved into another lane to avoid an accelerating blue sedan, the latter with a human driver. Jake frowned as the sedan screamed past his cruiser. He didn’t want to ruin anybody’s night, but reckless driving killed, and the driver in the blue car was going at least fifteen over the limit.

Jake accelerated after the sedan and turned on his lights. The driver didn’t slow. His heart kicked up.

“Don’t do this, man.” Jake frowned. “You make me chase you, and it’ll end up way worse for you. Just pull over so I can give you the ticket, and we can both go home tonight.”

The sedan maintained its high speed. Jake took a deep breath, ready to turn on the siren when the sedan slowed and drifted into the lane closer to the shoulder lined by trees. He matched the deceleration. The sedan pulled over and slowed to a stop. The driver turned on his hazard lights.

Jake let out a sigh of relief. “Input command system check, automobile plate lookup request. Number as follows.” He rattled off the plate number.

The registration information for the sedan appeared on his console. Everything was up to date. The vehicle hadn’t been reported stolen. That was a good start to the tense incident.

Jake stepped out of his car and rested his hand on his Taser. Most people didn’t cause trouble, even reckless drivers, but he couldn’t be sure.

He sauntered toward the car. The nearby light poles and stray lights from buildings offered good lighting. That was another bonus. People tried to get away with less in the light.

Jake stopped beside the driver’s door. The man inside looked like any other normal middle-aged man with a receding hairline in a business suit except for one choice that felt off given it was nighttime. The driver wore sunglasses and a surgical mask.

He also wore oversized leather gloves. Jake didn’t understand. They would make it harder to drive.

The driver’s side window lowered. The driver kept his shaking hands on the wheel.

“You sick, sir?” Jake gestured toward his face. “The mask and all.”

“Sure, I’m coming down with something.” The driver’s voice was low and rough. “But I had a meeting today, so I didn’t want to get anyone sick.”

“Sir, do you understand why I pulled you over?”

“I was speeding.” The driver’s hands tightened around the wheel. “It was just for a second. I needed to pass someone. I wasn’t speeding the entire time.”

“You almost collided with another car and maintained that speed well after passing several cars. You didn’t slow down until after I pulled up behind you, and there was a delay. I need to see your license and registration.”

The driver grunted. He made a show of lifting his gloved hands before reaching into his glovebox and retrieving the laminated documents.

He offered them to Jake. “We’re halfway through the twenty-first century, magic’s in the world, and we still have to carry around pieces of plastic. It’s kind of stupid when you think about it.”

Jake chuckled. “I’ve never thought about it that way.” He pulled a small scanner from his belt and ran it over the barcodes on the license and registration before handing them back to the driver. “Mr. Kayden Erikson,” he read aloud before confirming on the scanner’s readout that there were no outstanding warrants or alerts. “Please confirm that’s you.”

“Yes, I’m Kayden Erikson.”

Jake couldn’t get over how low the man’s voice was. “Thank you, sir.”

“Is this going to take long?” Erikson’s his hands still shook.

“Is anything wrong, Mr. Erikson?” Jake kept his hand on his Taser. “You seem a little nervous.”

“Of course I’m nervous. A cop pulled me over.” The words came out as a near snarl.

“I understand that all encounters with law enforcement can be stressful, Mr. Erikson. Please note that as long as you cooperate, this will be over soon. I’ll do my best to process this as fast as I can.” Jake stepped back. “I’m going to have to ask you to step out of the car.”

Erikson’s jaw tightened. “For fucking speeding? Give me a fucking break.”

“Please calm down, Mr. Erikson. I get that you might be having a bad day. I’m sorry about that, but you were driving erratically, and your hands are shaking.”

Erikson brought his trembling palms in front of his face. “Huh. You’re right. I didn’t even notice. Interesting.”

“I’m going to have to ask you to do a field sobriety test, Mr. Erikson.” Jake took a couple more steps back. “Your driving and current behavior suggests that you might be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

Erikson laughed. “Under the influence?” He opened the door and stepped out of his car. “I’m not drunk. I’m far from drunk.”

Jake gestured toward him. “Please take off the glasses and mask, sir. I need to see your eyes and face.”

“No.” Erikson shook his head. “No,” he repeated, this time with a growl.

Jake frowned. “Mr. Erikson, I’m ordering you to take off your glasses and mask. Please don’t make me ask again.”

Erikson squeezed his hands into fists. He trembled.

Jake reached for his radio and sighed. “This is 5-Charlie-11. Possible DWI. Driver is belligerent. Requesting backup. Non-critical.”

His radio crackled to life. “Routing backup 5-Charlie-11. Ten-minute ETA.”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Erikson warned.

“Sir, I need you to calm down.” Jake sighed. “I don’t want to haul you in, sir. It’s not going to do either of us any good. It’s not going help me, and I don’t think making a bad day worse by getting arrested is what you had in mind, so please take off the sunglasses and mask, and we’ll go from there. We can still salvage all this with nothing more than a speeding ticket.”

“And what happens if I keep saying no?” Erikson’s voice was somehow lower than before. He sounded more like an animal than a man.

“I need to see your eyes as part of the field sobriety test. I want to see your face to make sure you’re Kayden Erikson.”

“Do the other parts first. If I’m not drunk, it won’t matter, right?”

Jake frowned, not liking how Erikson dodged the second part of his concerns. He hadn’t needed to Tase somebody for a year. He didn’t mind keeping his streak going.

“Okay, we can do that.” Jake pointed past the car. “I want you to take nine steps, heel-to-toe, in a straight line. At the end of the nine steps, turn on one foot and walk back toward me the same way.”

Erikson scoffed. He turned and swayed, his balance so off that a five-year-old could tell he was under the influence. He managed to get his heel against his toe and take a step without trouble. He stumbled after the second. Five steps in, he turned and walked back toward Jake without bothering with the heel-to-toe pattern.

“Can I go now?” Erikson asked.

Jake shook his head. “I need you to stand on one leg and count to thirty. Can you do that for me, Mr. Erikson?”

Erikson shifted to one leg. “One, two, three…” He swayed and stuck his arms out for balance. “Four, five, six, seven…”

Jake grimaced as the man continued his slow count. Erikson’s shaking and swaying forced him to bounce a few times to keep his balance.

“Thirty.” Erikson lowered his leg. “I…need to go now. I really need to go.”

Jake licked his lips. “Okay, sir, there’s one last thing. This time I must insist that you remove—What the hell?”

Erikson growled. Sharp claws poked through his gloves.

Jack backed away and half-pulled his Taser from its holster. “Sunglasses and mask off now.”

Erikson yanked off his gloves and threw them to the ground, revealing nails extended into long claws on both hands. He tossed his sunglasses and tore off his mask.

Oversized fangs poked out of his mouth. His eyes glowed blue.

“You should have let me go.” Erikson’s low voice had little humanity left in it. “Everything would have been fine if you let me go.”

“Sir…” Jake took a step back and swallowed. All he needed to do was follow the Austin PD’s magical encounter protocol. His heart pounded. He took a deep breath.

“Pursuant to city, state, and federal laws, I will inform you that although it’s not illegal to change shape, I must ask you to maintain a humanoid form for the purpose of this interaction. If you need a representative of the magical community to interpret for you, we can call for someone.”

“I can feel it!” Erikson shouted. “I can feel it! I understand now.”

“Okay, sir,” Jake barked, injecting full cop order mode into his voice. “I need you on your knees with your hands behind your head. If you are unable to maintain a humanoid form and shift to a four- or more-legged form, I must ask you to lie on your stomach with your forepaws or other limbs over the back of your head if at all possible. As long as you comply, you won’t be harmed.”

“You don’t understand.” Erikson laughed. “You don’t understand at all.” He bared his teeth and growled.

Jake didn’t finish drawing his Taser, half-confused and half-terrified. He didn’t understand what was happening. His departmental training taught him that shifters’ form changes didn’t take this long.

“Mr. Erikson, I need to understand what’s happening to you. I need you to answer my questions. Are you a shifter?”

Erikson laughed again. “I’m not a shifter. I’m a normal-ass human being. Powerless. Nonmagical.”

“Then are you under the effects of a spell? Did someone curse you or threaten to curse you?”

“Who could say?” Erikson’s fanged grin looked all too hungry. He trembled. “It’s hard to think.” He tapped his fangs. “This is weird.”

“This is 5-Charlie-11,” Jake radioed. “AHMD escalation. Possible out-of-control shifter. Requesting immediate PDA assistance.”

“Copy, 5-Charlie-11,” Dispatch replied. “Forwarding to PDA. Exercise caution. Non-PDA backup will be there soon.”

Jake had been an Austin cop for ten years and never had to call in an active hostile magical disturbance. He’d run into magicals and talked them down or cuffed them. Nobody ever put up a real fight except one drunk gnome. The gnome kept kicking him in the shins until he Tased him.

He kept his attention on Erikson and his hand on his Taser as he crept toward his cruiser. Escalating the encounter without understanding what he was dealing with was dangerous.

“Mr. Erikson, I must ask you to comply with my instructions. On your hands and knees, right now.”

“Or what?” Erikson growled. “I feel so good right now. I never thought I could feel so good. You can’t take this from me. I won’t let you.”

Jake drew his Taser and pointed it at Erikson’s chest. “I’m ordering you. On your knees. Hands up.”

“You think you can stop me with that toy?” Erikson lifted his claws. “This is your fault. You didn’t have to stop me.”

“Put your hands behind your head.”

“No!” Erikson screamed. “You aren’t going to give me orders! I’ll kill you!”

Jake fired the Taser. The darts struck Erikson square in the chest with loud crackles. High-pitched popping followed.

Erikson grunted. He reached for the darts and tore them out. Erikson should have been on the ground, not glaring at Jake.

“No way,” Jake muttered.

Erikson growled and charged. Jake reached for his pistol. Erikson reached him first and tore through his vest and into his chest with a deep swipe of his claws.

The blow sent Jake flying. His back smashed into the front of his cruiser with a crunch. Pain shot through his body. He groaned. His back and front were both on fire. He managed to stay upright.

Erikson advanced, swaying and hunched over with his claws swinging at his feet. He let out a long, low growl. “I gave you the chance.”

Jake pulled out his gun and fired. Erikson jerked back and didn’t go down. Blood leaked from a hole in his chest.

“On your hands and knees,” Jake managed to sputter. “Please don’t make me shoot you again, Mr. Erikson.”

“I’ll tear out your throat.” Erikson’s nostril flared. He bent his knees. “You shouldn’t have stopped me.”

Jake shook. He fell onto his side, his battered back no longer able to support his weight. He fired again and didn’t stop until he put three more rounds into Erikson.

The man still didn’t go down. Erikson looked down at his bullet-riddled chest and tilted his head.

“I need backup!” Jake shouted over his radio. “This is 5-Charlie-11. 10-33 in progress. Magical suspect. AHMD. I repeat, 10-33 in progress.”

Erikson lunged at Jake. He knocked the gun into the road and crushed a rib with a kick. He snagged Jake by piercing his vest and lifted him one-handed.

His chest and back burned as Jake pulled his stun rod off his belt and slammed the weapon against the side of the suspect’s head. Erikson flung him against the front window of the cruiser.

Jake screamed. The collision blasted agony through his entire body and left cracks in the windshield.

I’m going to die. This werewolf thing is going to kill me.

Erikson threw his head back and let out a keening cry, half-howl, half scream. He crouched again, ready to pounce, then turned his head at the sound of approaching sirens. He stared at Jake before sprinting off into the trees.

“This is 5-Charlie-11,” Jake managed. His voice shook, and his consciousness was fading. “Suspect fled east on foot. Medical assistance is requested. Officer down.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“Is that what Caden said?” Rafe asked with a huge grin. “Now that’s the most interesting thing I’ve heard from you about him in a while.”

Izzie side-eyed Rafe from the driver’s seat of their car. Their conversation wasn’t unfolding the way she wanted. Her entire day had gone like that. That dampened her good spirits from her date the previous night.

She’d spent hours writing reports, trying to close the Elion case and catch up on older reports she’d put off. There wasn’t much field action. They’d been called to a report of a dangerous magical brawl at a Magical District bar only to find embarrassed local cops and a bunch of drunk dwarves headbutting each other for a contest with no actual magic.

The behavior was idiotic but not a clear danger to the public. She didn’t understand why that call made it through. The Austin PD was good at handling low-level matters and wanted to, more often than not. Everyone understood the system worked better when the limited staff of the PDA concentrated on true magical threats.

On their way back from the dwarf headbutting contest, she’d decided to broach the topic of her date with Caden the night before.

“I wish I hadn’t told you,” she grumbled to Rafe. “I was just trying to make conversation that didn’t have to do with, ‘That seventh report was exciting to sign’ or ‘Did that dwarf really say his name was Ironskull the Undefeated?’”

“Don’t try to change the subject. And he went by Steelskull the Indefatigable, not Ironskull the Undefeated.”

Izzie frowned. “Really?”

“Yes. That’s not even that close.”

“Crap. I’m going to fix my report. I had it right in my notes, but for some reason I typed the wrong name into the report.”

Rafe laughed. “Back to the real important matters. Caden’s into you if he’d go that far to make you feel better. What’s wrong with me telling you that and finding that interesting?”

“Because you were supposed to tell me he’s overstepping. I wanted you to be a reality check.”

“I am being a reality check.” Rafe smiled. “I’m nothing but a reality check.”

“You’re taking his side.”

Rafe shook his head. “No, I’m taking your side.” He looked out the window. “Has he told you he loves you yet? It’s been months now, and I don’t remember you saying anything about him saying that. I’ve only seen him the few times we’ve talked with him at the office and that one time at your place. It’s not like I’m going to go for a big conversation about his love life when we’re discussing DIA reports or while you’re standing there listening.”

“Love?” Izzie grimaced. “We’re not… That… You know…”

“No, huh? Interesting.” Rafe cupped his chin. “Very interesting.”

“Keeping it light is better. I keep trying to convince him of that, but he’s stubborn. He wants to escalate everything.”

“Escalate everything? That’s a very Izzie way of describing things.”

Izzie frowned. “You don’t think he’s stubborn?” Her annoyance led to a far too aggressive turn at an intersection. Fortunately, there was no one else around.

Rafe shook his head. “No, he’s stubborn, all right. It’s the part about keeping it light that I’m not so sure about.”

Izzie scoffed. “You know, the last time I talked to Pearl, she asked if you’re seeing anyone.”

Rafe jerked his head toward Izzie. “She did? What exactly did she say?”

Izzie smiled, back in control of the conversation. She wasn’t above ruthless tactics. This would end any more digging about Caden.

“Yes, she was trying to be all slick about it,” Izzie added. “It’s obvious how much she likes you.”

Rafe smoothed his features and returned to watching the traffic in the dark. “She just wants to mess with me more. It’s her hobby. I’m nothing more than a toy to her. You shouldn’t encourage her to mess with your partner.”

Izzie shook her head. “I don’t think it’s that. I used to, but not anymore. I always thought she’d been into you a little, and her view of you changed after the necromancer case.”

“Has she said anything in specific, or is this all based on women’s intuition?”

“She’s evasive. You know her personality.” Izzie smirked. “And now you’re interested in what she said? You don’t think you’re her toy?”

Rafe shrugged. “I’m more curious. It’s not like I care that much.”

“Sure.” Izzie rolled her eyes. “And I’m the deluded one.”

“What you have to understand about Pearl…” Rafe’s phone rang. “Martinez,” he answered. “Yes. Yes. Yes. Understood. I will.” He lowered the phone and tapped a couple of commands to route it to the car’s speakers. “We’re on, Bill.”

“We have trouble,” Bill announced.

Even without seeing her boss’ face, Izzie could imagine the scowl. He was one of the few people in the PDA more on edge than her.

“A city cop got tangled up in an AHMD,” Bill explained. “They reported it as a shifter, but the description doesn’t match. Humanoid with claws and fangs, blue eyes, strength and damage resistance, including taking bullets without going down. There was an issue with the backup routing, so I’m handing it.”

Izzie frowned, all her earlier concerns about Caden vanishing under the needs of the job. “What happened to the cop?”

“He’s pretty banged up but stable.” Bill grunted. “The suspect ran before conventional backup arrived, but Austin PD’s been tracking the guy with a drone. He’s less impressive than our big threats lately. I contacted you two because you’re the closest. It’s your lucky day.”

An alert marker appeared on their console’s navigational display. They were around five minutes from the destination.

Izzie frowned at the map. “Is he not moving?”

“He ran into a small furniture wholesaler,” Bill replied. “There was a small night shift working there, but they all ran, and the security guard was smart enough not to take on the obvious magical threat. Austin PD set up a cordon around the building, but they don’t want to go up against a bullet-resistant magical suspect.”

“Understood. Did you want us to wait for other agents or tactical support?”

“No. We wait around too long, and the suspect might decide to charge through the police cordon. We can’t risk dead cops because we’re being too careful. This situation’s already bad enough as it is.”

Izzie took a deep breath. “We have any info on the suspect?”

“His name is Kayden Erikson.” Bill grunted. “All our information indicates he’s not supposed to be a magical. We don’t know what that means yet. I presume nothing good.”

“Not everyone magical is comfortable with that knowledge being public,” Rafe interjected. “There are still magicals clinging to living in kemanas. This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve run into a magical who was still hiding their nature.”

“I don’t care if he wants to pretend to be a baby unicorn. He crossed the line when he attacked a police officer. Handle it before more cops get hurt. This beast man was Tased, shot multiple times, and hit with a stun rod. He still had enough strength to toss a cop around like a ragdoll and break a bunch of his bones. Don’t take him lightly.”

“Understood.” Izzie accelerated. “We’ll take care of it.”

Her palm was in front of her and covered with the soft glow of a layered shield spell as Izzie stepped into the furniture company’s lobby. Rafe walked by her side in a full tactical vest and a loadout of anti-magic bullets in his pistol. She had also layered a shield spell over him.

The overlapping red and blue flashing from the police vehicles outside formed a fence of light. Dozens of police officers crouched behind their cars, ready with pistols and shotguns to shoot the suspect should he dare emerge.

Izzie couldn’t blame them for the anger and fear on their faces. The beast man wounded one of their own.

Rafe surveyed the lobby, his gaze drifting to long claw marks across the curved front desk. The receptionist’s chair was far from the desk. The torn back lay severed from the bottom of the wheeled chair. There were blood stains on the front of the desk and the chair cushion along with a dripped trail running around a corner leading into a hallway.

Rafe frowned at the blood. “That must be the suspect’s blood. Bill didn’t mention anyone getting hurt other than the officer. Should I go for my glasses?”

Izzie shook her head. “I sense magic close by, but it’s hard to explain. There’s a weird, uneven quality to it. Our werewolf slash beast man is close.”

“We’ll have to ask him all about his magic after we arrest him.” Rafe patted his anti-magic cuffs. “How easy you think this is going to be?”

“He took a bunch of rounds in his chest. But those weren’t anti-magic.” Izzie walked closer to the claw marks to inspect their depth. “I’m more worried about a regenerator. If it’s not an active spell, your bullets won’t do as much.”

“You want to try going nonlethal?”

Izzie crouched by a bloodstain. “The cop tried to go nonlethal. That almost got him killed. I’ll try stun bolts, but it’ll be up to our beast man to control himself.” She looked at Rafe. “You disagree?”

He shook his head. “I wanted to make sure we’re on the same page.”

“This guy crossed the line. It’s up to him now to calm the hell down.”

Rafe nodded toward the trail of blood. “The trail leads farther into the building, not out. The drones haven’t tagged anything. I figure if he could use invisibility magic or had those types of artifacts, he would have used them on the way here rather than let the police pen him in like this.”

Izzie stood and followed the trail with slow steps. “Agreed. He took the bullets, didn’t heal the wounds, and is still bleeding. That points away from being a regenerator when I think about it. I’m surprised he’s still moving.”

“Beast man adrenaline.” Rafe followed Izzie. He kept his gun in front of him. “It could be he collapsed in there.”

“Then this will be an easy arrest. I won’t complain about that.”

Izzie stopped and peeked around the corner. The blood trail led down a hallway filled with office doors on either side. None of the doors were open. The trail ended at a set of large double doors.

Izzie and Rafe jogged down the hallway and stopped at the doors. A sign indicated they led to a storage room. She took a deep breath and concentrated.

“Is he there?” Rafe nodded toward the doors.

Izzie nodded. “He’s on the other side. I can sense magic in that direction. It’s weird and uneven like before, but it’s there.” She frowned. “That’s not good. There’s an undercurrent of dark magic I couldn’t sense before.”

Rafe frowned at the door. “We should hurry.”

Izzie reached for the door handle. “Ready, set, go.”

She threw open the door and stormed through with her palm up and ready to throw spells. Rafe charged in after her with his pistol raised. He swept his gaze back and forth, searching for a beast man in the tiled storage room.

Plastic-covered furniture with barcode stickers filled the room. Chairs dominated the front section before giving way to beds and couches near the far opposite end. Rows of lamps ran along the edges, interspersed with clusters of cabinets and chests.

Kayden Erikson was on the other side of the long, wide room, crouched behind a long couch. He growled and poked his head up. He matched the description passed to them with no further signs of change.

“PDA!” Izzie shouted. “On the floor now, Erikson.”

Kayden ripped into the back of the couch. “Get out now, or die.”

“We can help you. Whatever’s been done to you, we can treat.”

“Why would I want to reverse this? I’ll have to kill you. I won’t let you take anything from me.”

Izzie launched a stun bolt. Kayden ducked, and the spell hit the back wall.

“Erikson, don’t do this,” Izzie called. “This doesn’t have to end badly for you. That cop’s still alive. You surrender right now, and we can take that into account.”

He picked up the couch and hurled it across the room. Izzie and Rafe leapt out of the way. The couch smashed into the doors. Izzie rolled behind a recliner, which saved her from Erikson’s next weapon, a brass lamp. It sparked and skidded along the floor’s hard tile.

“No one can stop me,” Erikson bellowed. He threw his head back and howled, although the sound came out more like a man imitating a howl than a true call. “I’m powerful now.”

Rafe crawled behind another recliner and rolled onto his back, his gun in front of his chest. “He threw a heavy couch over a hundred feet.”

“I noticed.” Izzie stayed low behind her chair. “And he’s still talking. That means he’s not out of control. Not completely.”

Kayden grabbed a loveseat and spun to hurl it toward the agents. The loveseat struck the recliner and wrenched the top back. Chunks of cracked wood shot out, along with springs and twisted pieces of metal. The loveseat tore into two pieces that bounced past Izzie as she rolled behind another chair.

“Have you tested your shield spell against a high-velocity couch before?” Rafe asked.

“It’s not something I thought I’d need to block.”

Erikson continued the assault with another lamp, a plastic bucket, a mop, and a portion of a heavy sectional. The latest furniture projectile caught Izzie in the shoulder. She twisted with a hiss, stumbled to one knee, and rubbed her shoulder.

“You okay?” Rafe glanced at her.

“My spell took the bulk of it, but without that shield, I’m sure he would have broken my shoulder and put me on the floor.” Izzie ground her teeth and raised her voice. “I’m going to give you thirty seconds to surrender, Erikson,” she shouted. “Or I’m going to have to get rou⁠—”

She jerked her arm up and met an incoming mattress with rapid-fire light bolts that blew through the edge and sent the nighttime furniture tumbling away from her. Without waiting for the next incoming piece of fabric, wood, and metal, she sprinted away from the front of the room toward the mattress section. She kept her palm out and unleashed a stream of stun bolts toward Erikson.

“Enough already,” Izzie shouted. “Stop throwing furniture at us!”

Erikson stumbled and twitched with every few hits, but he didn’t go down. His tactics changed as Izzie closed the distance. He leapt onto a mattress and bound onto the next like an overeager child playing except for the claws and the deep, resonant growls.

Izzie put her hands together and concentrated on compressing her magical energy. She shoved both hands forward and released a large stun sphere. The bright spell zoomed across the room and hit Erikson square in the chest. He stumbled and leapt from his latest bed and onto the floor to barrel toward Izzie.

“I can’t slow him down, Rafe,” Izzie shouted. “We have no choice but to take him down.”

“I have your back, Izzie.”

Izzie whipped her hand through the air and conjured a spear of light. Erikson ran too fast. Her stun spells weren’t taking him down. Her remaining nonlethal options would take too long to cast.

Rafe jumped to his feet and aimed his pistol at the charging suspect. He fired twice. The rounds struck Erikson in the arm and shoulder.

Erikson tumbled to the floor. He landed with a hard thud and slid, leaving a long trail of fresh blood.

“Huh. Anti-magic bullets worked.” Rafe kept his gun trained on Erikson and walked toward him. “Right?”

CHAPTER FIVE

Izzie stared at Erikson and lifted her spear. She’d been jumped by magicals pretending they were dead more than once, before and after her time at the PDA. Letting her guard down and getting shredded by a surprise attack would be unprofessional, stupid, and embarrassing.

“Did I miss something?” She crept toward Erikson. “You only hit him in the arm and shoulder.”

Rafe shook his head. “You saw what I saw.”

Anti-magic bullets cut through magical-fueled defenses, but despite sharing the same adjective as anti-magic emitters, they didn’t project a disruptive field. Outside of specific situations, they also had limited power to affect innate abilities not fueled by active magical power.

“Erikson, are you ready to give up?” Izzie stepped between stacks of mattresses. “Once we’ve cuffed you, we’ll begin treatment. I know healing magic. We can stabilize you.”

He didn’t respond. She sighed, suspecting the worst.

Rafe moved forward and kept his gun pointed at Erikson. “Did you use something other than your stun bolts and spear?”

“No, I didn’t.” Izzie waved him back. “You stay there in case he has a surprise in store. I don’t want us both going in.”

“This isn’t great.” Rafe squinted. “He doesn’t look like he’s breathing anymore.” He nodded toward a bloodstain. “He got shot earlier. He might have bled out after all that effort.”

Izzie moved closer and stopped in front of his head. His eyes were closed. She pointed her spear at his arm before nudging the side of his head with her shoe. He didn’t move.

She released the energy from her spear and dropped to her knees. She placed her hand on Erikson’s back and murmured the incantation for a healing spell. A light glow suffused her hand.

“How is he?” Rafe asked.

“It’s too late.” Izzie sighed. “He’s dead. Go ahead and call it in.”

Rafe frowned. “Why? What was the point?”

Izzie stood. “We’re going to spend the next few days figuring that out.”

Austin PD and newly arrived PDA agents spread throughout the room collecting evidence and taking pictures. Izzie stood near the body with a scowl. She handed Rafe a pair of gloves she’d grabbed from their car and slipped hers on.

Izzie’s experience with the Seventh Order taught her that dangerous magic needed to be met with force in most cases. That didn’t mean she took killing someone lightly. Her lingering discomfort grew as she worried that Kayden Erikson’s transformation was the product of a hostile magical.

She wasn’t sure. His words proved he wasn’t berserk. At the same time, he was far from calm and in control. She couldn’t rule out mind magic or the loss of control due to a hidden magical nature that Erikson didn’t know about.

Izzie gritted her teeth. She couldn’t blame nonmagicals for fearing magic. There were too many ways evil magicals could hurt people and too many ways to twist their minds and souls. The only option left was to investigate and ensure Erikson wasn’t an innocent victim of somebody else. That way his death wouldn’t be in vain.

She lifted her hands and murmured a spell to see the magical flows rather than only feel them. A dead magical body couldn’t continue pushing power into a spell, but magical power didn’t vanish immediately. Twisting, fading magical residues clung to the body, dissipating into the environment, including mottled dark magic flows.

Before the battles, the magic emanating from Erik felt strange and uneven. Whatever he was doing, he hadn’t been maintaining an active spell with his magical power. This was consistent with her theory that somebody else cast a spell on him.

She nodded at Rafe. “Put on your glasses, too.”

“Why?”

“I want you to see this.” Izzie gestured at a nearby forensics tech circling the body with a camera. “They’ll get the pictures.”

Izzie knelt by the body and opened an eyelid. The blue glow was gone. Erikson’s brown eyes looked normal.

Rafe put on his glasses. “Not that strong of magic for a guy taking bullets, spells, and throwing couches like they were paper airplanes.”

“The magical residue is fading fast, far faster than I expected.” Izzie closed his eye, trying to figure out the implications of the evidence beyond Erikson not being magical.

She shifted out of the way as the tech continued taking pictures. Another tech walked over holding a plastic sample bag and a pair of tweezers.

Rafe squatted beside Izzie. “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know. We need more info.” Izzie gestured at the body. “This whole beast man berserker look is bothering me. I don’t know what he’s supposed to be. There are magicals with claws and fangs, but none that look like this with glowing blue eyes, super-strength, and can take bullets like that. Unless he’s a new kind of shifter, and in that case, I don’t get the whole not changing into an animal.”

“What if there’s a new type of shifter?” Rafe asked. “Shifters are technically an artificial race created by dark magic.”

Izzie stared at the body. “That was old dark magic from way back in the day. It’s not going to show up out of nowhere one January night.”

He lifted one of the clawed hands with a frown and set it back down. “Given who you are and who your parents are, I’m surprised to hear you say that. It’s not impossible.”

“We weren’t on Oriceran during the ancient days.” Izzie scoffed. “I don’t know what this is, but I think it’s something way more mundane. This isn’t a grand conspiracy of dark families.”

Rafe chuckled. “Sure, it’s only conventional evil dark magic.”

Izzie stood and brushed off her pants. “At least it doesn’t feel like them.”

Rafe lifted his sunglasses to the top of his head. “Them? You mean them?”

“The Arcane Syndicate. I’m not sensing anything familiar. There’s a touch of dark magic here, but not that type of dark magic.”

“I hate to be the one to fill your head with more paranoia, Izzie, but not everything involving the Arcane Syndicate is guaranteed to feel that way.”

“Sure, but not sensing it is a good sign.” Izzie watched a tech taking pictures of broken couch pieces. “It’s another good reminder that plenty of nasty things happen in this city without the Arcane Syndicate involved.”

Rafe stood and shook his head. “We’ll have to see what the medical examiner and Katya have to say about this guy.” He backed away. “Until then, it’s nothing but more theories.”

CHAPTER SIX

Bill scowled behind his desk. Izzie didn’t take it personally. She never did since he looked like that most of the time. Having a dead magical beast man semi-berserker to explain away didn’t help. Nor did trying to explain why said beast man attacked a police officer over being stopped for a traffic ticket.

Izzie kept cycling back to that thought. Austin wasn’t Seattle, LA, or New York, but it was a good-sized city with a larger-than-average magical population. Police patrolled the Magical District and kept in close contact with the different races there. There wasn’t a police officer left in Austin who’d freak out over a speeder being a magical. Attacking the police officer made no sense except to cover up sinister dark magic.

Bill looked between Izzie and Rafe, his scowl deepening. “I trust you, and I know it’ll be in your report, but I need to hear you say it before anyone goes over the security camera footage and starts asking uncomfortable questions all over the news. What did you hit him with?”

“Only stun bolts.” Izzie nodded. “I was ready to get rougher, but he dropped before I could get him with anything else.”

“I shot him with two anti-magic bullets,” Rafe offered. “Shoulder and arm. We saw his other earlier bullet wounds. They hadn’t closed up. Yet he didn’t move like he was wounded.”

“Right.” Bill frowned and glanced at his phone lying on his desk. “A cop emptied half a magazine into him, and not only was the perpetrator strong enough to run away, he was still strong enough to toss furniture at you.”

Izzie nodded. “That’s how it went down. We tried to talk him down, but he either didn’t want to listen or couldn’t control himself. He spoke like he was rational, but he acted spun up. From what I can tell, he understood that something changed him, but he didn’t give many details.”

Bill rubbed his eyes. “What a damned mess. Right now, we have too many questions and not enough answers. Everyone’s sniffing around because PDA agents killing a nonmagical isn’t an everyday thing.”

“He was magical enough at the time,” Rafe noted.

“We tried to take him down without killing him,” Izzie added. “But I wasn’t going to risk my life or my partner’s for someone who’d already beaten and slashed a cop half to death.”

“I know you did, and I believe you. That won’t stop the hyenas who are obsessed with this. The optics are bad. The fact this man might have been under a spell only makes them worse.”

Rafe folded his arms. “How do you think this is going to shake out?”

“That depends on you two. I’m assigning you the case, and we need to figure out who this guy was and what the hell happened. We need to know all that yesterday. The longer we let the media and others offer theories, the more difficult it’ll become to cut through the noise with the truth.”

“Is it that much of a concern?” Izzie asked. “I’m interested in pursuing the case, but he’s dead. There’s no sign of an obvious threat to the public at large.”

“The best, easiest answer that would calm everyone down is this guy was a rogue magical who’d been hiding his nature and decided to be stupid one day.” Bill glared at his phone. “The mayor, the governor, and a senator have already called to express their desire for a rapid resolution to the case. They’re all disturbed that a cop got jumped like that during a routine traffic stop, and they want us to make sure this doesn’t disrupt magical-nonmagical relations in Texas.”

“It’s not the first time a magical attacked a police officer.” Izzie shrugged. “It won’t be the last. I don’t get why this individual case is such a big deal.”

“It’s been a while since a major magical attack on a regular cop, rather than a cop getting swept in responding to an incident in the Magical District.” Bill shook his head. “It’s political garbage. There are anti-magical groups out there with deep pockets. They’ve been looking for excuses all over the country to overcome the stigma of the anti-magical terrorism and conspiracies.”

“Is that really our problem?” Rafe asked. “There’s only so much we can do in one city to address the issue. We stop what we know about and chase down everything we can.”

“Austin has a strange way of being the center of trouble.” Bill snorted. “It’s been that since the older Berens ran around stirring the pot. We’ve become symbolic of the new country, magicals and nonmagicals side-by-side.”

Izzie frowned. “I’m not my mother. They can call her up if they want to talk with her.”

The words came out harsher than intended. They picked at the emotional scab that she came to Austin because of her mother’s role in the major magical incidents involving Oriceran before the gates opened.

“I know. I’m not blaming either of you. The Arcane Syndicate is the real problem.”

Her breath caught. She reconsidered everything she’d felt on scene. She’d been too quick to dismiss the dark magic.

“Are they involved?”

Bill shrugged. “That’s for you to find out. I’m not saying they are. I’m saying because of their necromancer and shapeshifter, people are way more on edge now than they would been last winter. People are just starting to calm down from the necromancer incident, and now we have this big, high-profile attack.”

Rafe frowned. “This is nowhere near the same level of threat. He beat up one cop and ravaged a bunch of furniture before dropping dead. I understand that’s scary for people, but the reality is the average thug with a rifle could do more damage during his rampage.”

Bill glared at his buzzing phone. “Damn it.”

“Problem, Bill?” Izzie asked.

“Yes, there is. Reports are coming from the media that our beast man isn’t a known magical. I thought we’d have more time.”

Izzie shrugged. “So what? Most people are used to the idea of magicals hiding around them. I’m surprised as many magicals are as open as they have been.”

“This is the problem.” Bill turned the phone around and pushed it forward so Izzie and Rafe could see an article headline. “They’re giving people annoying ideas.”

PDA, FBI, and Austin PD Tight-lipped about monstrous transformation and brutal assault on Austin police officer during routine traffic stop. Are normal people at risk of becoming werewolves? What is the government hiding?

Izzie winced. “That’s the angle they’re going with? Werewolves? He was more like a vampire than a werewolf.”

Bill stared at her. “Ax that word from your vocabulary. The last thing I need is a reporter saying the PDA is hunting vampires.”

“You know me. I’m the Queen of No Comment.”

Izzie rarely dealt with the media. Beyond Bill, PDA spokespeople handled media contacts, and agency policy steered agents toward avoiding the media.

She was grateful. Without those policies, she would have trouble avoiding a major gaffe or blowing up a camera.

Bill flipped his phone back around. “The mayor also expressed his concern, not about the theory but about the, in his words, ‘usual paranoid suspects spreading bullshit over the Internet.’ We need to shut misinformation down. This means we need answers before the media convinces half the city that they’re going to end up murderous werewolves, and we’re letting them get away with it.”

Rafe stared at the phone. “Are we so sure they’re wrong?”

Izzie looked at him. “Are you serious?”

“I’m just saying we need to be ready for all possibilities. We don’t know what we’re dealing with here. We dealt with an ancient necromancer not long ago, so maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the threat of werewolves that are something different than animal shifters.”

“I’m surprised to hear you say that, Martinez.” Bill sounded disappointed.

“Rafe could be onto something,” Izzie noted after a moment of thought.

Bill gestured at Izzie. “You’re supposed to keep her grounded, Martinez, not give her more bullshit to obsess over.”

“Sorry.” Rafe shrugged. “I was thinking out loud.”

“Sometimes the paranoid crazies aren’t paranoid enough.” Izzie stood. “We’ll find out the truth, Bill. We’ll let you and the spokesman handle the PR.”

“Good. The widow is verifying the body. Set up an interview for tomorrow. The woman deserves at least one night to sit with her grief.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Rafe and Izzie walked up the empty driveway to the front door of a lovely little southside home. Izzie stifled a huge yawn. She’d been up too late writing her reports on the beast man incident and checking into the suspect’s background. On top of that, she’d gone to the office too early without a proper cup of coffee. Caffeine was the real magic.

Izzie lifted her hand to knock. She thought they should wait until they’d collected more evidence before interviewing Kayden Erikson’s wife, but Bill didn’t want to wait that long. He wanted evidence to throw at all the people calling him asking for answers and trying to score cheap political points.

She lowered her hand. “Everyone’s spun up about something that could turn out to be nothing more a magical who was keeping a low profile and lost it one day. Last night I thought you were onto something. Now I’m not so sure I want you to be right.”

“I’d say the scenario you’re describing is a pretty big deal,” Rafe replied. “The more magicals integrate into the country, the more people will worry about the threat. At least on Oriceran, everyone had thousands of years of coexistence to settle them down.”

“I meant more the conspiracy stuff.” Izzie sighed. “I want this to be a regular, easy crime. Something closer to our jewel thief than the necromancer.”

“What does your gut tell you?” Rafe raised an eyebrow in challenge.

Izzie shook her head. “That it’s not a regular easy crime. The idea we might have somebody else besides the Arcane Syndicate running around causing serious trouble is enough to keep me up at night. So far, there’s no evidence linking them to this, which means somebody else could be making a move.”

“I know what I said to Bill the other night, so this will come off hypocritical, but we don’t want to run too far ahead ourselves.” Rafe nodded at the door. “We keep an open mind, but not so open we let anything slip in without interrogating it. If we get lucky, you’re right and this ends up being a stressed-out magical who couldn’t hold it in anymore. People will complain and chatter online, but he’s dead. He’s no longer a threat.”

“Until a necromancer shows up.”

Rafe snickered. “Always looking on the bright side of death, huh?”

Izzie scoffed. “I like how a man being dead because he lost it is our best-case scenario.”

Rafe eyed the door. “Just so you know, I’m not going to complain if this was nothing more than a hidden magical who got out of control. I’m also not sure that’s better than a magical who messed with a nonmagical.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Plenty of anti-magical groups out there think all magical powers should be registered.”

Izzie scoffed. “Good luck with that.”

“I don’t agree with the idea, if only because of the ridiculous impracticality.” Rafe shrugged. “But it’s out there. Cases like this end up fuel for politicians, which is why I understand why Bill wants this to go away. The longer this lingers, the more it fuels the fire.”

“I’ll leave that up to the politicians.” Izzie knocked on the door. “All we can do is focus on our job and making sure rogue magicals aren’t hurting people.”

Izzie didn’t know how she felt about the lingering distrust of the magical population. Her job and past highlighted how dangerous evil magicals could be. The existence of the modern federal bounty-hunting system, complete with classifications of threat levels, was an explicit admission by the government they couldn’t handle all the new threats.

Perhaps the high-water mark for magical crime and plots had passed when she was a child. Plotting mundane treachery didn’t, by its nature, leave a trackable trail or require bizarre reagents that called attention with nothing more than being in the area. Izzie knocked again.

The door opened. Kayden Erikson’s wife Darla stood there. She was a ghost compared to the happy pictures Izzie saw when reviewing the background information. She’d become a pale, disheveled woman with bags under her red-rimmed eyes. Her sad gaze darted between Izzie and Rafe.

“Can I help you?”

“We called you earlier.” Izzie pulled out her badge. “Special Agent Izzie Berens, PDA. This is my partner, Special Agent Rafael Martinez. We have questions about your husband we’d like to ask you, Mrs. Erikson. We scheduled this last night.”

“Oh, yes. I wanted to make sure you weren’t more reporters. They’re like starving animals who want to feast on my misery.”

“We prefer to avoid the media ourselves, Mrs. Erikson,” Izzie replied.

Darla sighed and motioned inside. “Please call me Darla. I’ve lost track of time. I’m sorry. I forgot you were coming by.”

Izzie and Rafe entered the living room. Pictures of the smiling couple during happier days hung on the walls. The furniture was modest and tasteful. The television was not that big. The only positive Izzie could extract from the situation was verifying her background information that the Eriksons were childless.

Darla motioned to the couch before taking a seat in a chair. “Can I get you something? Coffee?”

Izzie shook her head, not wanting to disrupt the flow of the conversation by sending Darla away for a drink. “I’m fine.”

“I’m good,” Rafe added.

Darla sniffled and rubbed her eyes. “They won’t even let me have his body yet. They didn’t confirm how he died.” She stared at Izzie with desperation in her wide eyes. “If the PDA or the police killed him, I deserve to know. I… I know something happened, but all I want is the truth. They made me identify his body, but they wouldn’t tell me anything else.”

Izzie shook her head. “The problem is neither the police nor PDA are sure yet why he’s dead.”

Darla stared at her. “How can’t you know how he died?”

“Because there were irregularities in the entire incident. That’s one of the reasons we’re here to speak to you and why the PDA is taking extra time to examine his body.” Izzie took a deep breath, trying to balance the investigation with letting the poor woman start on her closure. “I’m authorized to let you know he was shot during the incident altercation.”

“I know that. The Austin PD told me that, but they said he was able to leave and run far away. I don’t understand. Was he shot again?”

Izzie averted her eyes. Learning that Rafe also shot her husband could send the interview to a tense place. Darla also might not understand the nuance of stun bolts versus lethal magic. At the end of the fight, Izzie was prepared to take Kayden Erikson down by whatever means necessary.

“We won’t know for certain what happened until forensics and the medical examiner have finished their work,” Izzie explained. “It’d be irresponsible to speculate before then. I can promise that once we know for certain, the police or the PDA will inform you.” She forced a smile. “These things take time. We want to make sure accurate information is out there so irresponsible people don’t amplify it and use this tragic incident for their own purposes.”

“Like the reporters you were worried about,” Rafe added. “Hyenas.”

Darla wiped her tears away. “Why come here when you don’t know what’s happening? Shouldn’t you figure all that out first?”

“We’re just trying to understand what happened,” Izzie replied. “The more we know, the quicker we can get to the truth. We’re investigating everything right now, his family background, his work background, his body. It’s important that we figure out how he ended up transformed like he did and why he did what he did.”

“We’re deeply sorry for your loss,” Rafe offered. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a tissue to hand to the sniffling Darla. “The PDA and Austin PD always regret any incident where someone is injured or harmed. Our main concern right now is making sure we understand what happened so something like this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

Darla blew her nose. “No matter how crazy the world has become since people and…creatures started coming from Oriceran, nobody ever thinks this will happen to them. I woke up this morning and rolled over in bed, expecting Kayden to be there. Then it all hit me. He’s never coming back, and everybody’s talking about him like he’s a crazy Oriceran werewolf who eats children.”

Pushing aside everything else, Izzie knew they should have waited for the interview. Pressuring a widow a day after her husband died was cruel. She couldn’t believe they were there, but since they were, they needed to do their jobs.

Rafe took a deep breath. “We want to make sure of something, Darla. All our information and investigation indicates that your husband was a nonmagical human. Although it’s difficult to assay latent potential, it’s unusual for somebody his age to display spontaneous magical ability, especially post-gate opening. If he was a magical and hiding it, we need to know that now. You won’t get in any trouble. We’re only trying to understand what happened.”

Rafe had a point, although a more nuanced admission would confuse matters. Izzie’s mother was a good example of somebody who’d been well into adulthood before coming into her magical power. Rafe wasn’t completely wrong. Such cases were far less common now that magic flowed more freely on Earth.

Darla sighed and leaned forward in the chair. Now that Izzie had a good look, the piece of furniture reminded her of one of the chairs Kayden threw. She lowered her head.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Darla said. “A magical? My husband wasn’t a magical. We don’t even deal with magicals outside of seeing the occasional one when we’re shopping and a woman he works with.”

Izzie cleared her throat. “If you suspected he was a magical, we’d like to know that, too. Sometimes people don’t understand they have a magical heritage or abilities at first. Strange things can happen around them, and they misinterpret the cause.”

“He didn’t have any special abilities. He never claimed to be lucky or have great intuition. He wasn’t much of an athlete. He got where he was by hard work.”

“There were no gaps in his memory? No amnesia? He might not have known his true past.”

Darla’s horrified look told Izzie that answer before the woman opened her mouth. “People losing their memories and not knowing who and what they are? That sort of thing doesn’t happen to people in real life.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“It didn’t happen to him.” Darla shook her head. “We’re the least magical people in Austin. Both born and raised, by the way.” She lowered her voice. “To be honest, if I can avoid driving through the Magical District, I do. It’s not that I think all magicals are bad, but I don’t understand all of that lifestyle and culture, and I think things were better when they were on their own planet.”

Izzie frowned. Arguing about native magicals, Oriceran’s fate, and the necessity of magicals coming to Earth during an investigation wasn’t appropriate. She glanced at Rafe, hoping he’d take the hint to take control of the interview.

“Not all magicals are native to Oriceran,” Rafe noted to Izzie’s surprise.

“They had the kemanas,” Darla replied. “They should have stayed in them.” She shuddered. “It scares me that they had secret places hidden from us. It might be better if they spent more time in those places and less time around us. Then we wouldn’t have to deal with shapeshifters murdering other magicals in public and whatever nonsense that was last fall.”

Izzie didn’t know if she preferred the average person pay less attention to current events if it fed more paranoia. She kept quiet, trusting in Rafe to be more diplomatic.

He nodded with a dismissive smile. “Getting back to the original question, Darla, if you’re sure your husband wasn’t a magical, are you as sure he wasn’t dealing with magicals? I know you mentioned trying to avoid the Magical District, but most people come into contact with magicals in the city at some point. You mentioned a woman at work?”

Darla’s mouth twitched. “That’s it, isn’t it? A magical tempted him. Was it that witch he worked with?” She sneered. “I never trusted her.”

“Ah, so the woman was a witch.”

“Yes, she works at his bottling plant.” She shrugged.

“What’s her name?” Rafe asked.

“I don’t recall.” Darla frowned. “Something with a G. He didn’t talk about her much because he knew I didn’t like hearing about her. Did she summon a succubus and twist him into a monster?”

“That’s not really…a thing.” Izzie sighed. “Do you have any evidence that this witch or any other magical manipulated your husband? Like, you overheard or saw a conversation? You say he didn’t like to talk about her, but maybe he said something before that you didn’t pay much attention to but in retrospect seems more important.”

“Nothing I can think of.” Darla stared at Izzie, then Rafe. “I didn’t think of it before. Your agency employs magicals.”

“Most field agent pairs are a magical agent and a nonmagical agent. It’s a more efficient arrangement for both investigation and containment.” Izzie patted her chest. “I’m the magical in our pair.”

Darla wrinkled her nose. “So you’re a witch?”

“No. I’m of mixed human-elven heritage. Jasper and light elf, specifically.”

“I don’t really know much about the different types of elves.” Darla tilted her head and stared at Izzie’s ears. “You could at least have the courtesy to…” She sighed and looked away. “I’m sorry. That’s rude. You’re trying to investigate this and find the bad magicals who did this. I apologize.”

Izzie glanced at Rafe. She didn’t speak until he nodded. “It’s fine, Darla. We’re all interested in finding out the truth. Right now, we’re just trying to verify the facts. We’ll talk to people at his place eventually, so we’ll follow up on the witch in his company.”

“I want to be clear I meant no offense to you, Agent Berens.” Darla gave a strained smile. “The bad magicals always try to hurt people and blow up the city. I know since we have to allow them here that the PDA is doing everything they can to stop them.”

Annoyance flared in Izzie, tempered by pragmatism. She didn’t like being lumped in with killers and dark magicals, but the woman was right. The PDA wouldn’t exist if magical threats weren’t a problem. The days when the Silver Griffins and smaller groups like theirs could handle most Earth-based magical problems were long past.

The Arcane Syndicate, Seventh Order, and other groups like that were the reason nonmagicals didn’t trust magicals. The world didn’t have to be full of distrust. That made their crimes so much worse.

Rafe leaned forward with a smile. “Setting aside the magical issue, we’re also surprised by this incident because our initial background check indicates your husband has never had trouble with the law before.”

Darla nodded. “He was so law-abiding he didn’t like jaywalking.” She took a deep, shuddering breath and closed her eyes. “He didn’t like speeding. He’d never had a ticket before. It’s absurd to think he’d attack a police officer. His uncle is a retired police officer.”

Izzie wanted hard evidence. She’d settle for pruning investigation paths with basic logic. A man with the discipline to hide his magical nature for decades, including from his wife, wasn’t the type of man who would lose it out of nowhere and attack a police officer.

His wife was right, except for the succubus part. This situation pointed to a nonmagical man transformed by a third party. She cared less about the “how” than the “why” and “who.”

“Did anything change in his life recently?” Rafe asked. “Was anything upsetting him?”

Darla looked uncertain. “Nothing that would lead to…”

“Anything you can think of would be helpful. The smallest detail can help in this type of investigation.”

“He got a promotion a few months ago.” Darla shrugged. “To operations manager at the plant. He was stressed out.”

Rafe smiled. “That’s at the Austin Bottled Lightning plant?”

Darla nodded. “They make energy drinks. The company’s expanding. They were ready for a nationwide rollout. They’ve undergone major growth in the last…” Her shoulders slumped. “Not that it matters now.”

“You said he was stressed out,” Izzie prompted. “Why? Was something going wrong at work?”

“Not in particular. It was all normal reasons. New responsibilities and having to be a key part of the expansion plans. When he spoke to me about it, he said it’d all be worth it when it was over.” Darla frowned. “This isn’t the first time in my husband’s life he’s dealt with stress. He wouldn’t have turned into a monster if a magical hadn’t done something to him.”

Izzie nodded. “Did your husband talk about anyone giving him something or helping him? Don’t just think about obvious magicals like the witch. Also, did he receive a strange gift from anyone recently, talk about a new therapy he was trying, or mention anyone giving him a blessing or incantation?”

“No.” Darla shook her head. “He worked out every weeknight and avoided trendy supplements. He was healthy. He was suspicious of magic, even if he only had positive things to say about that witch. He never mentioned her giving him anything.” She frowned. “I still think you should check into her.”

“We will.” Rafe offered Darla an apologetic look. “I have to ask this. Did your husband use any illegal drugs? We’re not here to make your husband look bad. We’re here to investigate why he underwent this inexplicable transformation.”

“Drugs?” Darla’s lip quivered. “He would never do anything like that. He never touched drugs or alcohol. His older brother was an alcoholic who passed away in a drunk-driving accident. Kayden wasn’t involved in the accident, but he hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol since then. If it wasn’t the witch, there must be another hidden magical at the company who wanted to hurt him.”

Rafe’s brow lifted. “Had he been threatened?”

“Not to my knowledge, but those things happen. You’d know. You’re the PDA.”

Izzie looked away to hide the suspicion on her face. She doubted Kayden Erikson was a perfect, innocent victim. In her experience, dark magic often centered around people’s greed and lust for power. Without evidence, her thoughts were nothing more than cynical assumptions.

“There is…one thing,” Darla admitted, unable to maintain eye contact with Rafe or Izzie. “It’s nothing big. But you did say the smallest detail can help.”

“What is it?” Izzie asked.

“He didn’t use drugs or alcohol, but he did use his company’s product, the ABL energy drinks.” Darla rubbed her shoulders. “He was overworked, you have to understand, and he didn’t like the taste of coffee.”

Rafe smiled. “It’s not illegal to consume energy drinks.”

“All the late hours with the promotion and the preparations for the national rollout were exhausting him.” Darla sighed. “He was drinking more of them than usual. But only his company’s brand. He was a loyal employee and only had good things to say about his boss.”

“That makes sense. Don’t want to look like a traitor.”

“He drank them for years,” Darla added. “They give them to employees for free at the plant as part of their perks. But it’s not like energy drinks change people into monsters.”

“They do say they give you win—” Rafe began and stopped at Izzie’s hard stare. He lifted his fist to his mouth and coughed. “Do you have any discarded bottles here? We’d like to take them to our labs for analysis. We can’t set aside the chance someone tampered with one of his bottles.”

Darla gasped. “You think he was poisoned?”

“We don’t know anything at this point other than your husband demonstrated magical strength and a physical transformation. We need to be thorough to determine what happened and ensure there’s no greater risk to the public, although we don’t believe there is one at this time.”

“One moment.” Darla stood and disappeared into the kitchen. She returned to the living room after a couple of minutes of rattling cans. “I checked both the garbage and the refrigerator. I don’t have any. You could check with the trash company. They picked up our trash yesterday morning.”

Izzie wrinkled her nose. Trying to sort through half the trash in Austin to find empty bottles didn’t strike her as a great use of her time.

Darla took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. She narrowed her eyes, the sadness of before swept away by an angry scowl. “My husband was cursed. That must be it. I demand justice. I don’t know what else I can tell you, but please find the magical who did this to him and make them pay.”

Izzie stood. “We’ll do our best to get to the bottom of the case.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

When Izzie received a text from Katya later that afternoon, she grabbed Rafe and headed straight to the forensics lab from her office. Moving forward on the case without establishing the facts about Erikson’s death and the magic affecting him was nothing more than groping around in the dark.

Darla Erikson was right. The PDA needed to establish what happened to him and why he died. It might not answer why he’d changed, but it would be a good start given that all his wife could offer was conspiracy theories about coworkers who happened to be witches.

Izzie and Rafe stepped into the magical forensics lab. A new table filled with test-tube racks stood near the front of the lab, forcing them to step around it to get to Katya’s desk. Tagged samples, paperwork, and a laptop crowded her desk. Technicians glanced up from their computers or microscopes to look at Izzie and Rafe before returning their attention to their work.

Katya sat at her desk typing on her keyboard with her lips pursed. Izzie folded her arms and waited to be acknowledged. She glanced at Rafe, who shrugged. Patience never hurt when dealing with the head of forensics.

After a minute, Izzie’s patience failed, and she cleared her throat. “Katya?”

“You came sooner than I expected.” She continued typing without looking up. “I wanted to let you know we finished our preliminary analysis, but I also was in the middle of something. Can this wait?”

Izzie shook her head. “No. It can’t. We need this before we can move on. Right now, we’re running around with too many questions and not enough answers. I don’t want to spin our wheels while there could be someone out there transforming people. We told people there’s no public threat, but right now, we don’t know if this was nothing more than a one-off or a preview of things to come.”

Katya rolled her eyes. “There’s no need to be melodramatic.”

“I’m being honest, not melodramatic. We have a dead body, and we need it explained.”

“You’re being both. Then again, you usually are.” Katya stopped typing and turned toward Izzie. “I’ll send you the full report, but the first and most important finding is Mr. Erikson wasn’t killed by his gunshot wounds, regular or anti-magic bullets. Nor is there any indication of direct damage from your spells.”

Izzie frowned. “You’re saying he dropped dead for no reason? That’s an interesting coincidence, and I don’t think it’s one that other people will buy.”

Katya sighed. “I didn’t say that now, did I, Izzie?”

Rafe looked relieved. “I don’t regret shooting him, but it’s nice to know I didn’t take him down.”

Katya gave him a disappointed look. “It’s more complicated than that. I spent half the day working closely with the medical examiner on this, including cross-checking the unusual findings. You see, we needed unusual procedures to determine certain facts.”

Rafe nodded. “Such as what?”

“The medical examiner needed to establish blood volume.” Katya turned her laptop to face them, revealing images of the autopsied body. “That was a point of interest early on in the autopsy given the nature of his death.”

Izzie grimaced. She was no stranger to death working for the PDA and hunting dark wizards before her current job, but that didn’t mean she liked seeing sliced-up bodies.

“What’s important about blood volume?” Rafe stared at the laptop. “You’re saying this guy bled to death? That would make sense with the blood trail we saw.”

Katya shook her head. “I doubt that since as far as the examination shows, he didn’t have a net loss of blood from his body.”

“Huh?” Izzie leaned closer to look at the images. “He lost blood. You can check out the scene photos from the initial traffic stop and the furniture company.” She motioned at Rafe. “That blood trail he mentioned led us right to Erikson.”

“The volume of blood drained from the body after death was consistent with a finding of no net blood loss for a man of his general size and weight. You can look through the numbers yourself if you’d like.”

Izzie shook her head. “We’ll take your word for it, but I know what we saw.”

Katya turned her computer back toward her and restarted typing. “His size didn’t change during his transformation. There’s no reason to suspect he had more blood than one would expect of a man that height and weight. We could be wrong about baseline, but there’s no reason to suspect that without knowing more about the specific nature of his transformation.”

Izzie frowned. “I’m not following the implications.”

“He left a trail of blood.” Rafe gestured at the floor. “But he had no net loss. That suggests regeneration, after all. If he didn’t need the blood, like he was a zombie, it wouldn’t matter if he lost it.”

Katya nodded. “Exactly. There was evidence of the wounds starting to heal around the bullets as well, including the anti-magic bullets, but at reduced levels compared to the earlier nonmagical gunshot wounds. That said, due to the delay between the first and second shootings, we can’t rule out that the wounds around the anti-magic bullets wouldn’t have healed farther with more time.”

Rafe gestured at the computer. “You’re saying his death canceled out whatever regenerative properties he displayed?”

“That’s the working theory.” She cupped her chin and frowned at the screen. “To be clear, there was evident residual magic throughout his body with greater concentrations near the wounds. The observed generation was almost certainly a product of an active enchantment.”

“Okay, so he didn’t die from bleeding out or the trauma of getting shot,” Izzie concluded. “I get that. Then what did he die from? Acute lead poisoning?”

“Cute, Izzie.” Katya chuckled. “And close.”

“You’re serious?” Izzie winced. “Please tell me you’re not serious.”

“I’m always serious when it comes to my work.” Katya frowned. “Corpses and causes of death aren’t my specialty, but to save you the trouble of bothering the ME and peppering him with questions, I’ll note the short version. Mr. Erikson died from, among other things, a type of anaphylactic shock that led to a severe myocardial infarction. That is, in a sense, he suffered a severe allergic reaction that caused a heart attack.”

“Because of the bullets?” Izzie asked. “You saying he died because of a lead allergy? Is that a thing that can even happen?”

“He didn’t die from a lead allergy as such.” Katya shook her head. “In a dark little ironic twist, the most-wounded parts of the body demonstrated reduced levels of the relevant allergic inflammation biomarkers. The healing and/or regenerative properties of the magic he was under were trying to protect him, but that might have led to a feedback loop stressing his system. In general, there was a correlation between upregulated allergic inflammation biomarkers and residual magic in the body.

“It’s difficult to be certain, but the working theory is the more he pushed himself, the more he upregulated the anaphylaxis, along with other stress compounds.” She gestured toward her screen. “There was more generalized cellular damage throughout his body farther away from the main wounds. It’s as if the regeneration effects were using more magic to heal the bullet wounds and not taking care of the general stress on the body.”

Izzie rubbed her temples, trying to process the revelations. It wasn’t like she’d received the greatest medical molecular biology and immunology education at the School of Necessary Magic. Even potion-making was focused more on the magical conceptual side than the true chemical and biological side of mundane reality.

Rafe stared at Katya with open-mouthed shock. “You’re saying he was allergic to magic? That’s not possible, is it?”

“I’ve never heard about it expressed that specific way,” Izzie replied. “But people can die from spells overstressing their bodies. Is that what this is?”

“I’m impressed.” Katya’s surprised look annoyed Izzie. “That’s a good way of summarizing the issue. The examination also uncovered mild brain hemorrhaging, but it was not advanced enough to explain his death. Given the results of other tests, the general conclusion is his body couldn’t handle the magic fueling his beast man rampage.”

She looked at Rafe. “To be clear, we believe getting shot was an indirect factor in increasing the influence of the magic on his system, but it’d be difficult to determine that for certain. Overall, our evidence suggests he would have died sooner or later, regardless of his wounds.”

“Could he be a botched shifter?” Rafe mused. “Shifters can’t use magic.”

“Other people can cast spells on shifters,” Izzie replied. “They’re resistant but not immune to magic. If I’m following Katya’s explanation, their magical resistance would make them less likely to have this reaction, not more.”

Katya shrugged. “It’s hard to say for certain.”

Izzie folded her arms. “If all you needed to do to kill a shifter was stress its body with magic, they would be far less distrusted and feared by the rest of the magical community. I read more books about ancient Oriceran magical history during school than I like to remember, and I’ve never read about anything like this taking down a shifter. Whatever Erikson was, he wasn’t a shifter.”

Rafe nodded. “When I think about it, his only real shifter-like traits were the fangs and the claws.”

Katya shook her head. “All fanciful considerations. There are clear magical and biological signatures that mark shifters. We checked. Mr. Erikson wasn’t a shifter. But you’re asking the right questions. You could always come work for me.”

Rafe chuckled. “I think I’ll stick to being a field agent.”

“Not going to tell me the same thing?” Izzie asked.

Katya chuckled. “We both know you’re not patient enough to work in a lab.” She typed more. “We’re fortunate that Mr. Erikson had a physical a month ago. That allowed for comparisons that clarified matters, including further establishing that he was a nonmagical human under the effects of magic, not a magical. I want to table that part of the discussion for a moment while we consider something else.”

Rafe looked as confused as Izzie felt. “That sounds important.”

Katya stood and walked to the table filled with test-tube racks. She lifted an opaque black test tube covered with intricate runes. “This was the part where I got to do something interesting. With the ME’s help, I was able to isolate remnant compounds from a likely potion in his bloodstream. Unfortunately, because he was already under the active effects and had metabolized most of the potion, it was difficult to determine the exact potion. The best we can do is determine some ingredients by their metabolic byproducts and magical signatures.”

Izzie eyed the test tube. “But that doesn’t any good with potions unless we know the exact procedure and how the magic was infused as part of the prep process. Or do you have a new machine or technique I don’t know about?”

“You’re right, Izzie.” Katya slid the tube back into the rack. “There’s no such technique. Alchemists, potion witches, and their ilk would love to be able to steal recipes by running a potion sample through a machine. That means without an original sample of the potion, it’ll be difficult to verify the exact one in his system.”

Rafe nodded toward the rack. “Knowing there’s a potion in his system isn’t the same as knowing whether he took it on purpose.”

“Oh?” Katya’s brow lifted. “You suspect he was given a potion against his will?”

“I’m not saying someone shoved it down his throat. His wife mentioned he’d been downing tons of energy drinks from his company lately. Someone could have mixed the potion with a drink. Depending on the potion type, it could still work.”

Katya gave a shallow nod. “Yes, depending on the potion type. Again, we can't be certain without knowing the specific potion recipe and preparations.”

Izzie thought that over and shook her head. “This all feels overcomplicated. If someone wanted to mess with him, why not poison him? Why turn him into a half-berserker beast man?”

Rafe shrugged. “Revenge? The entire city and half the country are talking about the Werewolf of Austin. His name’s getting splashed everywhere. That idea will cling to this story.”

“Or we could be missing something else. I have a hard time believing a random operations manager at an energy drink company was worth a major magical revenge scheme.”

Katya looked between the two with a blank expression. “I’ll leave determining the motives and delivery mechanism of the portion to you. Right now, I’d summarize this by saying all available evidence suggests this man had no latent magical potential. I must offer the caveat that there is no one hundred percent effective way of determining that with current technology and spell techniques.”

Izzie nodded. “That all lines up with our background information and our initial witness interview.”

“It’s uncertain, but he might have survived the transformation if he were a true magical.” Katya went to her desk and sat. “The current theory is the effects of the spell attempted to draw on magic that wasn’t there. This led to a systematic reaction that killed him, with the immediate proximal causes of death being myocardial infarction-inducing systematic inflammation and stress.”

Izzie rubbed her temples. She wasn’t sure what to do with the information. They knew enough to squash the secret magical in hiding theory, but the mysterious transformation potion implied somebody else was involved. She didn’t want to jump to conclusions about the witch at Erikson’s company.

“What about the issue you wanted to table?” Izzie asked. “You mentioned something about he’d had a physical not that long ago?”

“Ah, yes.” Katya tapped her screen in a few places to bring up an entire display full of colorful overlapping line graphs. “He’d recently had a genetic screening as part of a physical, including partial sequencing. That provided a nice, clear baseline. There are prominent genetic changes in the body since the physical.”

Izzie scowled. “Is this similar to the shapeshifting magic used in the first Arcane Syndicate incident?”

Katya shook her head. “Similar idea, but not the same type of spell. We also can’t be certain if the genetic changes would have reverted with time.”

“Any chance of tracking the magical signature of the potion in his system?” Rafe didn’t sound hopeful.

“We encounter the standard problems with that. Potion signatures are difficult to track as is. Those in a body are worse. Potions interact too much with the target body, and that alters the magical signature when the person who consumes the potion isn’t the creator.”

Katya nodded toward the test tube rack. “Had he been the potion maker, it might have been different, but then again, all that would have done is help you track him back to his home.”

Izzie pondered all the new evidence. They better understood what happened to Kayden Erikson but not why or who supplied the potions. He wasn’t poisoned, so she couldn’t be sure if anyone was trying to kill him. She circled back to the most obvious question.

“Why would a random operations manager at a bottling plant have a potion that changes him into a superhuman beast man but also kills him?”

Katya shrugged. “All I can tell you was that it was in his system. The rest is for you to figure out, Izzie.”

Rafe pulled out his phone and scrolled. “Did the Austin PD send over the car yet? If we can get any magical signatures off that, we might be able to have field support track them to the source.”

Katya shook her head. “There’s a paperwork issue, but the police promise it’ll be sent over by tomorrow.”

“Then look for energy drink bottles in the car when they do,” Izzie suggested. “Our best working theory is someone spiked one of his energy drinks or that he hid a potion in an energy drink.”

“Interesting theory. Any basis to support it?”

Izzie shook her head. “Nothing solid. We’re working on that. Thanks, Katya. You’ve been a big help.”

She smiled. “I always am.”

CHAPTER NINE

The average nonmagical citizen didn’t appreciate that magic had limits. They assumed that because magic could accomplish feats beyond normal physics, anyone and everyone with access to spells could work miracles.

A powerful ritual could work a miracle. Izzie had seen it firsthand and been the target. Still, people’s misunderstandings about magic led to a frustrating reality for a magical investigator like Izzie. Every spell had a counter. Magic operated beyond physics, but that didn’t make every spell a miracle.

The PDA couldn’t solve crimes by waving a wand and throwing out a single incantation. Such thoughts annoyed Izzie during her busier days, including that morning as she stared at her computer monitor at her desk, reading a headline from a local news site.

A city in fear of a hidden threat!

What is the PDA hiding about the Austin werewolf?

“I can’t believe this crap.” Izzie shook her head. “These people are going to spin people up into riots before this is over. Damned idiots.”

Rafe looked over from his computer. “It’s time like this I just ignore the news. You know how they are. If they think they can get people hooked by talking us up, they will. If they think it will be the opposite, they do that. All we need to do is keep our heads down and figure this out. The truth will prevail.”

“I admire your optimism. I don’t know if I share it.” Izzie blew out a breath. “It’s too bad this didn’t end with Erikson, but it is what it is.”

The revelation of magic’s existence led to decades of Earth governments trying to figure out how to handle their new reality with many mistakes along the way. Their previous efforts focused on using small governmental groups and relying on non-governmental organizations like the Silver Griffins to deal with the rare magicals who risked exposing themselves. The baseline limits of magic in the world before the gates to Oriceran opened also limited the threat to manageable levels.

Everything was different now. More magicals meant more threats and nonmagicals seeking to take advantage of that fear for their own purposes.

Izzie narrowed her eyes at another annoying headline on her monitor. She muttered profanities.

PDA insists public remain calm while offering no clear answers concerning brutal attack on Austin police officer.

“Do they insist the Austin PD solve all crimes right away?” Izzie asked.

“Many times they do.” Rafe walked over from his desk and leaned over her shoulder to read the headline. “I was serious about avoiding the news. This is why I’m glad I’m not Bill. I don’t envy having to deal with the press and politicians.”

“Everyone appreciates us until they don’t. Things were easier when I only had to watch out for myself.” Izzie closed the browser windows with the offending articles. “Does it ever bother you that people don’t trust the PDA? It’s easy for me to brush it off as people distrusting magicals, but it’s different for you.”

“It doesn’t bother me much.” Rafe shrugged. “People are always like that. Magic is a convenient excuse, but it doesn’t make that much difference in the end. Like I was saying with the Austin PD, the FBI and local cops get it the same from a different angle.”

“And what about the threat of magic?” Izzie turned her wheeled chair to face him. “You’ve seen the worst of it. It’s easier in a way when it’s magicals messing with magicals.”

Rafe smiled. “I see the wonders helping the world and the dedicated people like my gloomy partner who put their lives on the line to stop bad magicals.” He dropped into his chair.

“The wonder I felt for magic when I was younger and didn’t understand that not everyone could learn it has never gone away, so I take it personally when people misuse magic. That doesn’t mean I’ll let them spoil it for me. Besides, humanity had thousands of years where magic was more myth than reality, and it’s not like that history is a time of peace and goodwill toward man.”

Izzie looked confused. “The kemanas were there. Magicals were there, even if they weren’t always out in the open and not in the same numbers.”

“Yes. And how many people knew about them? How much did it affect things?” Rafe chuckled. “My big point is it’s not like we had thousands of years of peace and unity before the return of full magic.”

He pulled back his jacket to reveal his shoulder holster. “Guns, bombs, nukes. Is blowing up a city with a spell that much scarier than using a nuclear weapon? Sarin gas is way worse than whatever Kayden Erikson had in his system.”

“That’s an interesting way of…” She let the sentence trail off as Katya wandered into the room, her lab coat covered with dark stains. “Good morning, Katya.”

Katya peered around the room. “I had to go talk to someone else near here, so I thought it’d be more efficient to come and speak with you directly.”

“You have something more for us?” Izzie eagerly asked.

“We got our hands on the car this morning,” Katya replied. “There were energy drink bottles, three of them, all branded with the labels of the Austin Bottled Lightning Company. Two bottles contained nothing but the residual compounds one would expect from said drink. The other contained potion residue. There wasn’t enough left for major component analysis. However, we can solidly link the partial magical signature of the residue to the signatures and compounds detected in Mr. Erikson’s body.”

She folded her arms. “Far be it for me to offer anything other than my analysis, but how certain are you that Mr. Erikson is a victim versus an accomplice?”

Izzie frowned. “I’m not sure at all. Hiding a potion in an energy drink bottle would make sense if he was concerned about somebody at work or his wife noticing. At the same time, there’s a chance someone could have spiked his drink.”

“Why take a transformation potion to get out of a ticket?” Rafe asked. “That’s what I’m going back to. The guy wasn’t rich, but he wasn’t poor. Other than going to traffic school, he wouldn’t have suffered much.”

Izzie frowned. “He was wearing sunglasses when the officer pulled him over, too. That makes it sound like he already had taken the potion, but we can’t ignore the chance of general contamination. He might have started changing and freaked out, drawing the cop's attention. Then he panicked from there.”

Katya’s expression turned curious. “If there was widespread contamination, one might expect other incidents to have occurred. The fact they haven’t doesn’t prove it for certain, but it lowers the chances.”

“We need to go check out the bottling plant. We need to be one hundred percent certain.”

Rafe looked uncomfortable. “We don’t have a warrant yet to do that. We go busting in there demanding they shut everything down without proof, and they’ll be less interested in cooperating going forward.”

“We don’t need a warrant if we can convince them of the danger. We need to interview the CEO anyway.” Izzie grabbed her phone from her desk. “Time to make another call.”

Izzie’s last PDA-related encounter with a CEO set her on the path to fighting a revived ancient necromancer in a pitched, desperate battle to protect the city. She hoped Barlow, Austin Bottled Lightning's founder, owner, and CEO, wasn’t conspiring with another deadly evil.

The nervous, sweaty man with a comb-over and ill-fitting gray suit didn’t project a sinister vibe. That didn’t mean he was innocent. Not every villain liked to walk around in dark veils or ancient robes.

Rafe and Izzie sat across from him in his cramped office. She surveyed the decoration choices. Those always said something about the person behind the desk.

Framed photos of his family, plant employees, and local business awards covered his wall. His University of Texas at Austin diploma hung high on the wall behind his desk. Posters from old Austin Bottled Lightning advertising campaigns filled an entire side wall.

The posters varied. One featured a cartoon steer reminiscent of the UT Austin mascot Bevo chugging an energy drink. Another offered a classier image of a man in a tuxedo holding an ABL bottle in his palm. He looked familiar. Izzie assumed he was a celebrity.

Barlow gestured at the poster. “There was a time when the idea of being able to afford an actor of his caliber for one of our ads would have been a cruel joke. That ad campaign was proof of how far this company has come since we first started selling locally.” He shook his head with a gloomy expression. “We need to make sure the nationwide expansion succeeds for Kayden. I’d hate to see all his efforts go to waste and have him remembered only for the sad final minutes of his life.”

“We all would like that. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us, Mr. Barlow.” Izzie extended her hand. “We know this is a difficult time for you. We’ll do our best to minimize the impact of the investigation on your company.”

Barlow’s handshake was weak, his hand clammy. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to dab away his brow sweat. “I want to do anything I can to help, Agents Berens and Martinez.”

He let out a nervous chuckle. “Of all the problems I expected to face before our national rollout, I can’t say that a magical incident like this was on the list. It’s rare for any of our workers to have major legal troubles. I can’t remember any employee ever having trouble like this. None of our active employees have ever been involved in this serious an incident.”

Rafe nodded. “This is different than our average incident. It’s rarer than you think to have a magical-related death that’s not clearly linked to an otherwise obvious underlying crime, such as hired murder or robbery. Grand conspiracies involving dark magicals tend to target other magicals first. Starting with nonmagicals draws attention quicker from people like us.”

“I see.” Barlow shivered. “This special distinction isn’t something this company needed.” He licked his lips and dabbed more sweat. “I need you to level with me. Are we in danger?”

“That’s what we’re investigating.” Izzie looked him in the eyes and searched for guilt there. She saw only nervousness and fear. “Our discussions with Mr. Erikson’s wife and forensics have raised questions that we hope this visit will clarify.”

Barlow offered a shallow nod. “Of course. Just tell me what you need to know, and I’ll do my best to help.” He dabbed more sweat off his forehead. “Subject to trade secret restrictions.”

Izzie frowned, now far more suspicious. “Trade secrets?”

“There’s no reason the PDA needs to know our exact production process to investigate this. I don’t want our company IP coming out in the media or in court. You must understand we have a special product.”

“Don’t you care about your dead employee?”

“Of course.” Barlow swallowed. “I don’t know why he lost it or why how he turned into a monster. I don’t want to remember him that way. But he’d worked hard for this company. He wouldn’t want us destroyed. He’d tell you the same thing.”

“We’re not interested in your trade secrets at this time.” Izzie narrowed her eyes. “And won’t be unless we find that’s somehow relevant to what happened, but first, let’s take a step back. It’s our understanding that Mr. Erikson was recently promoted.”

“As I said, he was a good and hard worker.” Barlow nodded. “Our old operations manager retired. He’d been with the company since we were founded twenty years ago. Kayden had been with the company for ten years and deputy manager for the last four. In truth, he was doing most of the work anyway as deputy manager. The promotion was more about aligning his compensation with his efforts at work.”

Rafe pulled out his phone and started typing notes. “That sounds like he might have resented the old manager.”

“There were…complexities involved in the working relationship.” Barlow shrugged. “But the old manager retired, and Kayden took over. Not only did he get a raise, but his raise also made his pay higher than that of the old operations manager. That was our way of making it up to him. Kayden didn’t voice any complaints about compensation after his promotion.”

Izzie nodded. “His wife mentioned him being under stress. The implication was his stress level was higher than normal. He was upset about something.”

“Of course,” Barlow replied. “We’re ready to move beyond being a regional product. Going national is stressing out everyone at the company. I don’t think anyone in the entire company would say these last few months have been easy.”

He patted his heart. “We all understand that his pain is part of growth. Everyone is working hard, but we’ll all benefit in the end. Most employees who have been here more than a couple of years have stock. We offered discounted stock purchase as part of our benefits.”

Rafe kept his gaze on his phone as he typed. “Did this include Mr. Erikson?”

His question surprised Izzie. They’d already done a high-level check of his financials and found shares of ABL stock. She realized he was trying to pry loose any suspicious threads from Barlow. They needed to have analysis support dig deeper into Erikson’s accounts.

“Yes, but Darla will still benefit from that. It’s a tragedy.” Barlow sighed. “Kayden was a good employee, but in the end, this incident has nothing to do with our company. There’s nothing here for you to find.”

“We can’t be sure of that,” Izzie noted. “You’d be surprised how these things can tie together.”

“Beyond our employees not being in trouble outside of work much, we’ve never had a violent workplace incident in the entire history of this company.” Barlow pointed at a photo of the entire plant workforce posing in the parking lot. “I won’t allow this company’s reputation to be harmed because one man went crazy and decided to mess around with magic to deal with his stress.”

Izzie opened her mouth to voice a harsh comment before shutting and nodding at Rafe. The investigation was more important than her satisfaction.

“It was more than going crazy.” Rafe smiled. “A potion transformed this guy’s body.” He brought up an image of an ABL bottle marked with a tag and code. He showed it to Barlow. “Do you know what this is?”

“One of our bottles.” Barlow looked annoyed. “What about it?”

“Our forensics techs found traces of a potion in an ABL bottle in his car. We think it’s unlikely, but that raises the possibility of contamination.”

Barlow’s eyes widened. “We’ve never had a complaint about anyone getting sick from our product, and we wouldn’t dream of adding magical ingredients to our product without proper labeling, testing, and regulatory approval. And let me tell you, dealing in magical consumables beyond an artisanal scale isn’t worth the compliance headaches right now.”

Rafe’s smile stayed light. “At this point in the investigation, it’s difficult to distinguish magical contamination at the source versus later.”

Barlow narrowed his eyes. “You can’t suggest our product’s contaminated without proof.”

“We have no intention of doing that. We haven’t proved anything beyond there was magical contamination of a single bottle.”

“We have a highly skilled specialist, a potions witch, Georgina Rosen,” Barlow replied.

Rafe nodded. “Darla Erikson mentioned her.”

Izzie frowned. “Having a potion witch who helps make your product is the opposite of what you told us. Care to explain the discrepancy?”

Barlow shook his head. “You misunderstand. We wouldn’t be able to sell our drink at a reasonable price if we included significant magical ingredients.” He scoffed. “Forgot about regulatory approval. We’d go bankrupt. The PDA, of all people, must understand that.”

“Then why hire a witch?” Izzie asked.

“Because she’s integral to our QA process. We didn’t have to hire her, but we wanted to make sure we could tell the consumer that our drinks are free of any contaminants, magical or nonmagical. It’s not an industry requirement. We’re trailblazers in energy drink product safety.” Barlow folded his arms and lifted his chin.

Izzie bit her lip not to scoff. She’d seen tons of commercials for products playing up their one hundred percent nonmagical nature as an excuse for premium pricing. With magical products spreading to a wider audience and commanding higher prices, the two product categories fed off each other in a feedback loop.

She worked for the PDA, not the FTC. She didn’t care if he ripped off people by tossing money at a potions witch to sign off that his overhyped energy drink wasn’t magical. More importantly, confirming a potions witch as an integral part of the bottling process established means and opportunity for magical contamination. Darla Erikson might have been on to something with her suspicions.

“It wouldn’t hurt to check your product to be sure,” Rafe noted, still smiling. “The attack on the Austin PD officer links your operations manager and a dangerous potion. I think you can agree that we want to make sure there isn’t a hidden threat to people.”

“You’re right.” Barlow closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Our customers come first. I’ll have our current batch of shipments delayed to double-check for contamination.”

“That would be for the best,” Rafe replied.

“But only if you keep this theory to yourself.” Barlow scowled. “You know how the media is. They always are looking to hound an honest business.”

“We have no intention of spreading rumors.” Izzie was surprised. She expected more pushback. “But we’ll need to talk to Rosen face-to-face about her role in plant operations.”

Barlow sighed. “She had to leave town for a family emergency but said she’d be back tomorrow. Sadly enough, it was the same morning as the day of the incident. They say trouble comes in threes. I only hope we can finish out the week without another tragedy.”

Izzie frowned. “She’s not in town?”

“No.” Barlow frowned at her. “She’s in Los Angeles, and she’ll be back tomorrow. It was a death in the family. She’s only coming back so quickly because she didn’t want to do anything that would delay ABL going national and understands her importance to our process.”

Izzie’s suspicions grew into a raging pyre of doubt. They could be close to the end of the case. Sometimes the most obvious explanation was the truth.

Izzie smiled. “That’s useful to know, Mr. Barlow. We’ll need her number and email address.”

CHAPTER TEN

Ten minutes later, Izzie left the ABL bottling plant with Rafe. She strolled toward the parking lot with her phone in hand and set to speakerphone. “I’m sorry to bother you at this difficult time, Ms. Rosen, but we’d like to talk to you in person about the case. Mr. Barlow told us you’d be back tomorrow, so we’d like to arrange an interview with you at your earliest convenience, in the morning if possible.”

Rafe removed his sunglasses and tucked them in his pocket. He’d put them on after leaving the president’s office. There was no restriction against the PDA looking for magical signatures in direct line of sight. The legalities were a little murkier for agents like Izzie with the inherent ability to sense magic. The law continued to change and adapt with each new case.

“I understand, Agents Berens.” Georgina’s voice was quiet and restrained. “It’s just life. It piles up all at once. It’s hard for me to believe that Kayden’s dead. He was a good man. It’s a shame he met such an ignoble end.”

“You knew him well?”

Izzie stopped as they reached the edge of the packed parking lot and remembered Darla Erikson’s claims of magical seduction. She couldn’t dismiss the theory out of hand, but it had been a while since she’d run into a crime of passion at the PDA. She wasn’t sure what that said about magical criminals.

“I knew him well enough. He was the operations manager.” Georgina sighed. “He took a big, personal interest in every part of the bottling process. It was one of the reasons he ended up promoted when the old operations manager left. That man was dedicated to producing quality energy drinks.”

“So we heard. You didn’t see him outside of work? Casually? Socially?”

“We went to work dinners now and again.” Wariness filled Georgina’s voice. “There were always other employees there. I wasn’t sleeping him if that’s what you’re implying. I considered us friends, and Kayden would never cheat on his wife.”

“Sorry. I had to ask.” Izzie faked a cough to stall. “But to be clear, and acknowledging you were only friends, you’re saying you never dealt with him outside of work without anyone else there?”

“What are you getting at, Agent Berens?” Hostility dripped from Georgina’s voice. “Are you accusing me of something?”

“I’m not implying anything or accusing you of anything, Ms. Rosen. I’m only trying to investigate all aspects of Mr. Erikson’s background so we can figure out why he ended up transformed into a beast man berserker who attacked a police officer and two PDA agents.”

Georgina sighed. “I apologize for losing my temper.”

“It’s understandable. We understand you’re under stress.”

“Please hold on one second.”

Scratching and shuffling noises sounded over the line. Georgina spoke to somebody else, her voice muffled. Izzie strained to hear but couldn’t make anything other than what sounded like a man’s voice.

Izzie turned to Rafe with a questioning look. He shrugged.

“Are you still there, Agent Berens?” Georgina asked.

“I am,” Izzie answered.

“Look, this isn’t something I can do over the phone.” A hint of desperation underlaid her tone. “I’m trying to finish up in LA, but I understand your concerns.” She paused to offer more muffled words to her local conversation partner.

“I guarantee that I’ll be back in Austin tomorrow morning. I’d be more than willing to talk to you at my house. Let’s say 9:30 AM. Would that work? Or could we talk at the plant a little later? It might be better to talk away from the plant.”

“Why?” Izzie asked as they reached the parking lot.

“Because Mr. Barlow called me earlier to ask me about doing a more thorough QA analysis on the entire current bottling run. I think it’ll be less stressful for everyone if the PDA stays away from the plant.”

Izzie scoffed. “We have a duty to investigate the crime that overrides your company’s conce…” She let the sentence trail off and sighed as Rafe shook his head.

“I understand. We’ll do the 9:30 interview at your house. Be prepared for a more formal interview. For now, can you answer one question? Do you believe someone could have contaminated your product with an active potion?”

“That would be all but impossible.” Georgina scoffed. “I developed a sensitive custom assay for detecting magical influence at the ingredient and final bottled product level. The assay would pick up any magical influence strong enough to affect even a young child in any obvious way. There’s no way somebody could have contaminated the product without my assay picking it up at any wide scale.”

There was genuine hurt in her voice. She was offended or a convincing liar.

Izzie prompted, “In other words, you’re suggesting it’s impossible for someone to contaminate a bottle at the plant without you picking it up?”

Georgina hesitated. “I’m saying they couldn’t have contaminated the entire run. I do spot checks of the stored products prior to shipping, but I’m not sweeping the entire plant for magic.”

Izzie smiled with self-satisfaction at finding a hole in the defenses. “Then you’re saying it’s not impossible.”

“Agent Berens, with all due respect, somebody could have contaminated a bottle at any point. Do you have any proof it happened at the plant?”

Izzie frowned. Georgina had a good point.

“To make sure of that, we need to confirm your quality control,” Izzie replied.

Georgina’s annoyance grew in her voice with each sentence of the exchange. “Before ABL hired me, I used to work for the EPA. I have experience in detecting low-level magical contamination. I based my current assays on similar techniques I developed while working for the EPA. Any contamination of a current product occurred after primary bottling. I’m willing to swear that under a truth spell.”

There were ways to beat truth spells. Rogue witches and wizards wouldn’t have lasted long without them, but they also tended to be complicated and detectable if one expected them.

Izzie’s best way of testing Georgina was being in the same room as the witch. She could sense any dark magic or question any unusual spells even without the presence of dark magic. A magical criminal could kill somebody without dark magic.

“Ms. Rosen, this is Agent Martinez,” Rafe interjected. “I have one other quick question if you have time. These background questions will help us better focus the interview tomorrow. That way we’re as efficient as possible and won’t waste your time tomorrow.”

Georgina sighed. “I have ten minutes.”

“Switching from a federal job to a regional bottling company is a big change. Why the career change?”

“It’s not like I wanted to change jobs. It was budget cuts two years ago.” Georgina snorted. “Everyone’s so afraid of magic, yet Congress in all their infinite wisdom decided that long-term magical contamination isn’t a big deal. They’re more interested in giving money to people like you.

“They’ll spend billions for hunting and demeaning magicals, but a couple of extra dollars to use magicals in a long-term way that would help everyone? Oh, no, no. We can’t have that now, can we? All my work is ignored. Someday, when there is a big contamination incident, cry, but it’ll be too late.” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. That’s not helpful.”

“The PDA is important to monitoring dangerous magicals, but I’m sure you have things you need to do. We’ll see you tomorrow at 9:30 AM.”

“Yes. You’re right. I have far more important things to do than this. See you tomorrow, agents.” Georgina ended the call.

Rafe whistled. “That went in a weird direction.”

Izzie grimaced. “That’s one bitter witch.”

“She thinks we’re trying to pin this on her.”

“She’s an obvious suspect, but I doubt she’d decide to mess with a coworker over losing her EPA job two years ago.”

“I also have trouble believing changing jobs two years ago would lead to this. It would make more sense to target anyone but her current company.”

“But I’m not crazy, right?” Izzie asked. “The woman just happens to have a family emergency the same day somebody at her company goes crazy after a bad potion? That’s beyond suspicious.”

Rafe headed toward their car. “I agree. It’s suspicious. She has to know she can’t run. If she doesn’t show up tomorrow, it’ll scream guilty. But I don’t think we have enough evidence to ask anyone to grab her right away.”

“I’ll ask Bill to call the LA PDA and FBI just to give them a heads-up in case she decides to run.” Izzie put her phone in her pocket as they arrived at their car. She reached into her pocket to unlock it with her key fob. “To be honest, even if she runs, I’m not that worried.”

Rafe headed around to the passenger’s door. “Why is that?”

“A witch working a nine-to-five corporate lab job is a witch who doesn’t have the resources to hide that easily. She also has a house filled with personal items.” Izzie grinned. “I bet I could track her to Oriceran with those things if necessary.”

Rafe laughed and slid into his seat. “That’s a little outside our jurisdiction. You’re really not worried?”

“Nope.” Izzie sat behind the wheel. “There’s a big difference between magicals like her and magicals like Xelius. Getting too comfortable in nonmagical society also means having a harder time fleeing it without leaving a trail.” She leaned forward and pressed the engine’s start button. “But we don’t have much yet other than potion residue in one bottle. Assuming she shows up tomorrow, that’ll go a long way to prove her innocence.”

“I wondered about that,” Rafe admitted. “I didn’t see much magic in the plant. The only noticeable amount was faint magical flows when we passed the QA lab.”

Izzie pulled out of the spot with a frown. “Same. I didn’t sense much. Whatever’s going on is subtle. That could be good or bad. It could mean it’ll be hard to figure out how that bottle got contaminated, and it might just be someone grabbing it in his car when he wasn’t looking.”

She sighed. “You know what I haven’t sensed yet on this case?”

Rafe shook his head. “What?”

“Familiar dark magic. I sensed dark magic from Kayden, but nothing that felt like what I’ve run into before. That means we haven’t accidentally stumbled into an Arcane Syndicate ritual.”

Rafe chuckled. “They’re not behind everything terrible that happens in the Austin magic scene.”

“No, just the big, terrible, city-threatening incidents.”

“All this means is we have to be careful. We need to walk with a light step before we accuse anyone of anything.”

Izzie turned onto the street and joined the traffic flow. “I didn’t accuse her of anything. I didn’t accuse the CEO of anything. All I did was ask questions.”

“I’m not saying you or I crossed the line, but we don’t want to get too stuck on the bottling company. They might have nothing to do with this. The contaminated bottle could be a coincidence or bad luck.”

“We need more background. We should interview Erikson’s direct subordinates to see if they noticed anything.”

“I doubt they’ll have much other than he was stressed out because of the national rollout, but we can add it to the checklist.”

Izzie’s hands tightened on the wheel. She slipped into an HOV lane, her attention focused more on the case than her driving. “The real problem is we still don’t know what this case is.”

Rafe frowned. “You’re right. We can’t tell if he understood he’d taken a potion. He understood he was under the effects of a spell, but what if he didn’t care or assumed it was latent magic manifesting? We proceeded with an implicit assumption that someone contaminated the bottle when the way he acted, complete with the sunglasses at night, suggests he knew he’d taken something.”

“Knowing he changed doesn’t mean he understood why, but you’re right. For all we know, he stole a potion from Georgina Rosen. It feels like there’s something big here, something we’re missing. I can sense the outline of the threat, but I can’t see any details, not enough for me to walk away.”

“They’re delaying the shipment,” Rafe pointed out. “That means no one else is at risk if there’s contamination. Plus, nobody else has turned into a beast man berserker from the company. If there was widespread tampering with the product, we’d see someone else with the same symptoms.”

Izzie scowled. “We haven’t seen anybody else turn yet. What if there’s a minimum dose required or it only happens with certain people? There’s far too much we don’t know about the potion.”

Rafe glanced her way with a thoughtful look. “You’re really that convinced there’s a bigger conspiracy here?”

“I’m not sure of anything other than a potion turned a normal man into a killer. If Katya and the medical examiner are right, it wasn’t intended to kill him. That means everything goes back to where he got that potion and whether he knew about it. The most obvious person to look at is Georgina Rosen.”

Izzie’s phone chimed with a message. She checked the phone and sighed. Timing wasn’t her friend.

“What’s wrong? Don’t tell me it’s another beast man.”

“That depends on your definition. It’s Caden. He wants to have a drink tonight.”

Rafe laughed. “That’s not a bad thing. Why do you have that look on your face?”

“We’re in the middle of a case. I don’t have time.”

“What are you planning to do tonight? Go through the same evidence again and again?” Rafe shrugged. “I doubt we’ll have any big leads until we have a chance to talk to Rosen. Analysis support is still knee-deep in checking his records and background.”

“We need to interview more people at the plant,” Izzie insisted. “I’m going to talk to Bill about that. I might do them tonight.”

“The company will want to set something up with the interviews because of the workflow and the rollout, which means it won’t happen today. Besides Rosen’s interview and the analysis support stuff, we’re also waiting on more forensics reports. Unless that all comes in to us in the next couple of hours, the best thing for you is to relax and get refreshed for tomorrow.” He wagged a finger. “Nobody says you have to work sixteen-hour days when there’s no clear and present danger to the public.”

Izzie thought it over. Rafe had a point. Their main lead was Georgina Rosen, and either she came for the interview the following morning or the PDA hunted her across the country. Either way, it wouldn’t be in Izzie’s hands anymore.

“Why are you pushing me toward Caden so much? I’ve been meaning to ask you that for a while.”

“I’m not pushing you toward Caden. I’m just telling you it’s not the end of the world if you have a drink with him tonight.”

“This isn’t the first time you’ve told me to go out with him.”

Rafe smiled. “Because I’m your friend, and I’ve only been able to do so much to help push you forward.”

Izzie frowned at him. “What do you mean push me forward?”

“You’re letting the Arcane Syndicate drag you back into the old Izzie.” Rafe looked off in the distance and frowned. “You’re trying to convince yourself you don’t deserve to have a life because of dark wizards and witches hunting you years ago. Caden coming out of nowhere and asking you out for drinks was the jolt you needed to get out of your social rut.”

“He said something similar.” Izzie scoffed. “That’s not…” She sighed. “It’s not wrong to keep the dangers that accompany being a PDA agent in mind when dating people.”

“Your boyfriend is a DIA field agent who’s also hunting the Arcane Syndicate, among other threats. He went undercover to investigate a corporate conspiracy and the Syndicate.” Rafe patted his gun. “He doesn’t need you to protect him. He helped us fight a necromancer’s army. He’s proven he can handle the heat.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Izzie snapped.

Rafe arched a brow with a smile. “Oh. What is he then?”

“A guy I spend time with on occasion in social settings.”

Rafe laughed. “That describes me, too, and I’m not your boyfriend.”

“That’s not the same, and you know it.”

He leaned back in his seat with a satisfied sigh. “It’s simple, Izzie. You’re my friend and partner, and I want you to be happy. Caden seems like a good, talented guy who knows and accepts your background. I might as well be his wingman. It’s not every day handsome wizards take an interest in you.”

“It’s weird to think about this during trouble.” Izzie’s cheeks burned.

“This is Austin. There’s always weird trouble here.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Izzie stared at the floor in front of Caden’s apartment, hesitant to knock on the door. Rafe’s words about her evening work schedule proved prophetic. Austin Bottled Lightning was willing to do more interviews but insisted they be scheduled to cut down on disruption to the company’s national rollout plan. Bill wanted to see what happened with Georgina Rosen but agreed to contact the LA PDA to get them ready for an arrest if she didn’t show up in Austin tomorrow for her interview.

All that left Izzie and Rafe not much farther along in investigating the case than after they met with the CEO. Additional reports from forensics only reinforced what they already knew. Field support confirmed they couldn’t track anything based on the current evidence. Analysis support needed more time to dig. The case was far from at a dead end but also weighed down by forking paths demanding examination.

Izzie took comfort in the fact that nothing else had happened yet. The lack of additional incidents convinced her there wasn’t hidden mass contamination. She wasn’t sure that first night with Erikson whether beast men berserkers would show up all over Austin.

The apartment door swung open. Izzie jumped back and lifted her palm. She wouldn’t let anyone ambush her at her boyfriend’s apartment.

Caden stood in the entrance with a smirk. He was in total casual mode with his T-shirt and sweatpants. “Are you going to hit me with a spell for the crime of being in my apartment?” He glanced down at his clothes. “Or do you hate these sweatpants?”

“I…” Izzie looked away and lowered her arm. “You surprised me. Sorry.”

“I tease you about being paranoid, but…” Caden gestured around the door. “It would be a little hypocritical. Don’t be too down on yourself.”

“I’ve always sensed the magic. I’m so used to it at my place, I never thought to question it. Wards, or privacy?”

“A bit of both.” He grinned. “I’m only half as happy-go-lucky as I seem. It’s hard to work for the people I do and be that way one hundred percent.”

He motioned inside. “And it makes sense given who I’ve gone up against since arriving in town. Austin sure knows how to make a man feel welcome with all the ancient necromancers and other fun guys.”

Izzie stepped into his living room. Everything was the same as her prior visits. Caden still didn’t have much furniture, having only added a table and chairs to the couch and coffee table he’d purchased when he first moved into the building. She never criticized his style given that she also tended toward Spartan interior decoration, a habit she picked up from being on the run for years.

Caden closed the door behind him. “You okay? You’re jumpy tonight, even by your standards.” He frowned. His gaze shifted to his bedroom. “Do I need to be ready for something or someone? You know I’ll always have your back, Izzie.”

“I wouldn’t have come here if I thought trouble was following me. I don’t want to bring you my problems.”

“Okay, good to know, but you can if you ever need to. I have your back, both personally and professionally. Keep in mind, supporting the PDA against the Arcane Syndicate was the main reason I was assigned here.”

“I’m head down in the case. That always leaves me a little off.” Izzie sat on the couch and laid her head back.

“The investigation is trudging along. There’s not enough for us to get a solid handle on what’s happening yet. I hope it doesn’t involve me having to read through old dusty tomes in an ancient library, but at the rate we’re going, I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to read an old alchemy text.”

Caden sat beside her and chuckled. “There are worse ways to work a case than doing research, and at least nobody else is dead yet. No strange attacks. That must mean something.”

“I was thinking that earlier.” Izzie scoffed. “That said, one of our main suspects is out of town conveniently enough. There’s a good chance we drive to her house tomorrow and find she’s not there. We’ve alerted the LA PDA and flagged her passport, not that it will do much if a witch decides she wants to leave the country and is prepped with the right spells and artifacts.”

“I know what you mean. There are so many DIA procedures and policies that still assume everyone we deal with will be a nonmagical human subject to conventional arrest and containment. It’s like everyone at the top has acknowledged that magic is real and in the open, but also act like it’ll go away if they ignore it long enough.” He leaned over and offered his shoulder. “You ever think about what the world will be like in a hundred years?”

Izzie rested her head on his shoulder. “I don’t like to think two months in the future, let alone a century. I wonder if it’ll be that different.”

“You don’t think it will?”

“It will and it won’t. We both know people who won’t look that different in a century. Magic will continue to get more integrated, but it’s always interesting how so many magicals have changed more to suit nonmagical society than the other way around.”

“You really think so?”

Izzie closed her eyes, enjoying the comfort and warmth of Caden nearby. “Numbers matter. Billions of nonmagicals will always set the tone. It might have been different if we had fewer people mixing, say millions of nonmagicals going over to Oriceran versus more of them coming over here and native magicals coming out of hiding.”

“I’ve never thought of it that way.”

“The truth is there’s always been fewer magicals. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to hide for thousands of years.” Izzie frowned. “And now I don’t know what’s going on with a case in my backyard. It could be the start of a new major threat to the city. So far, it doesn’t look like that.”

“Not every PDA case is a sprawling arcane conspiracy.” Caden chuckled. “That’s a good thing. Or do you want it to be more?”

Izzie frowned. “It’s not that I want it to be more. I just…” She looked down. “I don’t like loose ends. In my experience, they trip you up when you least expect it.”

“Oh, trust me. I know the feeling, but after a few years in my current job, I forced myself to accept that the world doesn’t always tie everything up in a nice bow, no matter how much we’d like it.”

“I’d take a half-assed knot and ugly bow.”

Izzie opened her eyes and looked at Caden. He didn’t talk much about his past assignments. She understood. Most were classified, and the DIA’s desire to maintain an open and helpful relationship with the PDA and Izzie didn’t mean they would tell her everything.

She’d been suspicious that Caden’s interest in her was more about her mother and father. He only asked about them when she brought them up. That had gone a long way toward quelling her concerns.

Caden’s smile faded into a faint frown. “Sometimes I could never be sure if that magical terrorist I was hunting at a given time was dead or hiding out somewhere, Earth, Oriceran, the World In Between, wherever.”

Izzie shivered. “It’s…not that easy to get in and out of the World In Between. My family has experience with that sort of thing.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Caden kissed the top of her head. “I didn’t mean to bring up any bad memories.”

“It’s fine. I overreacted. Sorry I got testy.”

“That’s not testy.” He waggled his eyebrows. “You know what? Why are we sitting around here? I’ll switch into something less lazy, and we can go out for an hour or two. You can spare the time.”

“No. It’s already so late.” Izzie shook her head. “I don’t feel like going out. I just wanted to recharge a little. We can do that here.”

“That’s fine with me.” Caden hopped up. “You want a beer? I could use a beer.”

“No, thank you.”

Caden grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge and wandered back to the couch. He popped the lid. “Let me give you a piece of advice, Izzie, that my first supervisor gave me. He always told me that burning all your fuel in the first battle means you’ll run out early and lose the war.”

Izzie rolled her eyes. “Not if you make more fuel.”

Caden grinned and sipped his beer. “Is that what I’m for? Making more Berens fuel?”

“Yes. Something like that.”

A stray thought intruded into Izzie’s mind. No matter how comfortable she was sitting next to Caden, she couldn’t forget her last few days.

Izzie turned to face him, a little guilty about messing with the comfortable atmosphere. “I have a favor to ask.”

“Anything. I’m here for you.”

“I’d like the DIA to keep an ear out for anything that might be linked to our beast man berserker transformation. Just in case there is something more we haven’t picked up yet.”

Caden’s smile faded. “I’d do that anyway.” He stared at her. “Is there anything you’re not telling me?”

Izzie shook her head. “No. Why do you ask?”

“Because as far as I know, you’re the only one who’s run into the Arcane Syndicate who seems to have a way of sensing them. Who knows why that is? I’m not going to question it, but I trust you, and I trust that sensation.”

Izzie frowned. “I always worry they’re involved, even when I can’t sense them. They’ve been pushing into this city in obvious ways, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out there trying any smaller schemes.”

“Do you have any evidence this is the Arcane Syndicate? If you do, telling me now will help move things along. Always remember that one of the DIA’s main interests in Austin is finding and suppressing the Arcane Syndicate. I’m not just here to be a handsome face and a body pillow for you.”

“Body pillow?” Izzie groaned. “Did you just call yourself my body pillow?”

Caden grinned. “Tell me it’s not true, but first tell me about the Syndicate.”

Izzie scrubbed her hand down her face. “It’s pissing me off because something about this feels like they’d do it, but I’m not sensing anything like you were saying.” She patted her chest. “I sensed dark magic from Erikson, but I didn’t sense that haunting familiarity I did around Xelius and the auction.”

Caden nodded. “You don’t think it’s them?”

“I don’t know. This is one time where I can’t link them to the case. Everyone’s probably right and this is nothing more than a petty local grudge by a local magical who also uses dark magic. There’s no reason for the Syndicate to make a big, sudden move when they haven’t for months.”

She shrugged. “I’d be a little more comfortable if it were them.”

“Then solve the case and move on.” Caden sipped his beer. “That’ll clear things up if the Syndicate comes back. For tonight, though, don’t worry about it. Just relax. I’ll push things along in the morning on my end, and you can do the same.”

He smiled. “You came here for a reason.”

“I have to be honest.” Izzie sighed. “I only came because Rafe convinced me.”

Caden chuckled. “Rafe convinced you?”

“Yes. He’s your wingman now. He said so himself.”

“I didn’t know he liked me that much. I’ll have to remember his birthday and get him something.”

“He says it’s for me. He thinks you’re good for me in a way he can’t be as my partner and friend.”

Caden laughed. “I’d like to think I’m good for you. I’m a little surprised to hear all that about him.”

“Why? He didn’t trust you when we first met, but he’s been nice to you otherwise.”

“It’s not that.” Caden looked away with a frown. “I wondered if he had a thing for you. It wouldn’t be crazy given how closely you work together.”

“I think it’s because we work so closely together that it wasn’t going to happen. And he’s a good guy, but he’s also not my type.”

Caden gulped down more beer. “Then what is he?”

“Why?” Izzie snickered. “You jealous?”

“I’m an intelligence agent. I like to have a thorough understanding of any threats and assets around me.”

Izzie shook her head. “He’s a good friend who was there for me when I needed it most during my transition from my old on-the-run lifestyle. Having a partner who’s a nonmagical helped me a lot. He grounded me in a way people like my old friend Alison can’t.”

Caden finished off his bottle and set it on a side table. He took her hand and squeezed it. “I’m glad you feel that way. Were you that messed up?”

“Does going undercover ever mess with you?”

“A little.” Caden shrugged. “It’s not been something I’ve had to do for most of my assignments, but I know what you’re getting at. When you have to live a certain careful way, it can be hard to turn that off.”

“Exactly.” Izzie looked around the room, trying to locate wards and other spells by the flow of the magic alone. She hadn’t thought about it that much before. The overall magic level was far lower than at her apartment.

“What’s wrong? You got a distant look in your eyes.”

Izzie turned her head to look at him. “I spent so many years hiding from the Seventh Order that I withdrew from society in ways I didn’t realize, both magical and nonmagical. Everywhere I went, I always thought, ‘If they come for me here, I’ll get innocent people killed, so I need to make sure I have nothing and no one tying me down.’ I still think that at times. I didn’t even want to get Alison or my parents involved, and my parents and the Brownstones are…”

“I know.” Caden snickered. “I had to sit through a dedicated briefing on your parents and the Brownstones before I was assigned to Austin. The Fixer, the original magical bounty hunter, the ultimate current bounty hunter, a drow queen. They’re a colorful group.”

Izzie eyed him. She didn’t know how deep his knowledge of the world's magical secrets extended, let alone her old friends and family. “Then you know the real deal with James Brownstone?”

“I know what happened during that big LA incident, among other things. Being a technowizard intelligence agent, I didn’t think I could be surprised anymore. Funny how that works out.” He rubbed the back of his neck and smirked. “We also shouldn’t talk about all of them outside a secure facility.”

Izzie’s brow lifted. “Even in your warded and protected department?”

“Some secrets are more dangerous than others. Then again, considering who your parents are, I feel petty acting like the DIA knows anything special.”

She frowned. “My parentage is no longer a secret.”

“True, but for a long time… Let’s just say the US government would have loved to have known the Fixer had a daughter because they’re convinced he’s sitting on access to artifacts the DIA would consider as dangerous as nuclear weapons. And… Forget it.” He chuckled. “My point is many of your friends and family are powerful.”

“They are. Enough that I don’t have to worry about them.”

Caden patted her shoulder. “It doesn’t mean everyone you know has to be that way. You’re allowed to have friends who aren’t drow queens or related to living WMDs and tomb raiders. The Seventh Order’s gone, and you’re not the same person you were. Sure, you have that person’s memories, but you told me that the girl you were at the School of Necessary Magic died a long time ago. Why not let the woman who was hunted by the Seventh Order die and be reborn?”

“I worry about you.” Izzie’s cheeks burned. “That’s what this is about. You’re different. Rafe’s my partner. Pearl and Dax are my friends. I’m not used to…caring so much about someone I can’t just tell to run off and hide if things get dangerous.”

“I’m not a Berens or a Brownstone, but I’m all right.” Caden grinned. “I’ve danced with my share of magical terrorists and criminals. We fought side-by-side.”

“I know, I know. I don’t doubt your skills. I’m saying this is how I feel.”

Caden nodded. “And I’m telling you that you don’t have to worry about me. I’m just happy I don’t have to worry about the threat closer to home. It’s always the shot from the back you don’t see coming.”

Izzie stared at him, and her heart rate kicked up. “What threat closer to home?”

“My new wingman.”

“So you are jealous of Rafe?”

“It’s more that I like to know who I’m up against now.” Caden’s charming smile relaxed Izzie. “But he’s on my side, so this works out for me. I don’t have to watch my back around him.”

“You know what?” Izzie nodded toward the kitchen. “I think I will take a beer, after all.”

Caden hopped to his feet. “Okay, sounds like a fun time.”

“I was serious about the DIA help earlier,” Izzie added. “You hear anything that you think might be related, no matter how distant, I want you to tell me right away. I don’t want to get blindsided by an overcomplicated DIA secret plan like before.”

Caden stopped at the edge of the kitchen and looked over his shoulder. “You couldn’t even go a couple of minutes without your mind going back to the case? You do need a beer.”

“I’m a PDA agent. It’s what I do.”

“Burning your tank to the fumes.” Caden clucked his tongue. “Now I’m beginning to think you didn’t come to relax.” He lifted the beer. “I’ll have to fix that.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Rafe kept sneaking glances at Izzie from the driver’s seat on their way to interview Georgina Rosen. An earlier text from the witch confirmed she had returned home, leaving Izzie less sure about her being a suspect. Guilty suspects halfway across the country didn’t tend to come back to suspicious PDA agents, especially ones with reputations like Izzie and Rafe. For now, Izzie was more concerned about her partner’s odd behavior.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” There was no point in dancing around it. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

“How did everything go last night?”

“I thought this was about something serious.” Izzie scoffed. “That’s what you want to talk about? My love life? Come on.”

Rafe grinned. “What’s more serious than your love life? Being able to concentrate better means you’ll do your job better and you seem less on edge. But if you don’t want to kiss and tell, that’s fine. You know me. I’m not a man who likes to pry too much into people’s private affairs.”

“Caden was suspicious of you.” She wasn’t sure why she blurted that out. “Of our friendship and partnership.”

Rafe’s brow lifted. “I picked up on a little of that when we first met, but I just figured he was probing. I’m surprised he feels that way now.”

“It wasn’t a big deal. He was more surprised you were helping push things along.”

“You told him?”

Izzie nodded. “I didn’t want any tension between the two of you.”

Rafe nodded. “Fair enough. It’s not crazy for a man to worry about his girlfriend spending all her time around another witty, charming fellow.” He laughed. “One who knows all her favorite coffee flavors.”

Izzie rolled her eyes. “I don’t think it works if you describe yourself as witty and charming.”

“I disagree. You can let him know I’m cheering for both of you. Anything that gets Izzie Berens thinking about something other than taking down dark wizards twenty-four-seven is fine by me.”

Rafe slowed and turned at an intersection into a dense residential area filled with single-family houses. The GPS showed they were close to Rosen’s home. Any suspicious plotters were running out of time to ambush them, not that Izzie was worried at that point. Rosen would have run if she were guilty.

“We’re going to have to start pushing deeper into Erikson’s background soon,” Izzie noted. “We might find something that explains everything.”

“Like a big million-dollar payment out of nowhere?”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

“I think Bill wanted us to be careful with Erikson if only to keep the secret magical theory from getting more attention.” Rafe’s hands tightened around the wheel. “You know what’s lacking in magical crime investigation?”

Izzie shook her head. “More magical investigators?”

Rafe shook his head. “The opposite. I’m talking about the most nonmagical thing in the world. Good baseline statistics and study methodologies.

“There are too many old-fashioned nonmagical mindsets applied to our job, from victim association patterns to perpetrator likelihood, that are based on faulty statistics. I feel like we’re stuck thirty years ago. We’re not admitting, on a fundamental level, that the world has changed.”

“Our cases often involved magical scholars and tomes. We’re admitting it a little.” Izzie shrugged. “We do fine without all that other stuff. And magic might not be all wild and crazy, but it’s still magic.”

“Which many magicals learn about in a semi-systematic place at magical schools.” Rafe shook his head. “‘We don’t need the data. We can trust our instincts.’ That’s what nonmagical law enforcement used to say, too.

“Knowing what’s going on versus what you think is going on changes things. A whole generation has grown up with open magic being a thing, and there’s still too much we don’t know to handle it the best way.” He frowned. “Earth isn’t Oriceran. We can’t operate the same way they did.”

Rafe slowed the car and pulled into a driveway. Georgina Rosen’s cute little home didn’t look any different than most of the other homes on the street, other than her large bay window. Closed blinds hid the inside rooms from outside inspection. A small flower garden filled out the front lawn. A walkway connected from the driveway and ran past the garden to the porch.

No exotic or magical plants grew in the garden. Rosen didn’t conceal the path to her house with a complicated enchanted head maze. The average person could drive by without knowing a witch lived inside, much like they could drive by Izzie’s apartment without knowing a powerful PDA agent lived inside.

“Is it weird that I’m disappointed she agreed to the meeting?” Izzie eyed the house. She didn’t sense as much magic as she expected from a witch’s home.

“You wanted her to be behind everything.” Rafe opened his door and stepped out of the car “I get it. Sometimes our job makes a mockery of the idea that the most obvious suspect tends to be the one behind everything. But you don’t have to get too depressed. There could be an evil explanation for why she came back.”

Izzie winced. “I wasn’t saying I need her to be evil. I’m only saying it would be convenient if she was.”

Rafe laughed. “That should be the new PDA slogan. ‘It would be more convenient for us if our main suspects were evil.’”

“It would.”

“If she ran, we’d have an easy suspect. She knows that as well as we do.” Rafe closed his door and peered at the house. “You of all people know how hard it is to be on the run.”

“You’re right about that. Although now I wonder if it’d be harder to be on the run from the entire US government versus dark wizard families.” Izzie stepped out of the car and slammed her door. “She came back. You’re right. She still might know something. This could be about throwing us off.”

Rafe squinted at the door. “It’s open. You sense any magic?”

He was right. The door was cracked open. Izzie took a deep breath and concentrated on the magic flows around her.

“Yes, I feel magic, but not a huge amount. It’s well above basic background magic for a place in the non-Magical District. It doesn’t feel like a place about to explode if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Why is the door open?” Rafe’s gaze darted back and forth.

“It’s not a big deal.” Izzie was surprised Rafe was the paranoid one for a change. “She’s expecting us.”

“Ah. I get what’s bothering me. It was almost subconscious.” Rafe gestured toward the garden. “Look at the back row closest to the front porch.”

“What… Oh.”

Someone had trampled a path through the back row of flowers, a mix of crushed pansies, snapdragons, and bright purple violas. Dirty boot prints led from the garden up the walkway to the front door.

Izzie motioned toward the door and jogged toward it. Magic flared inside the house, invisible but an unmistakable sensation.

“Stop!” she shouted at Rafe.

He glanced her way and down at his jacket with a frown. Izzie raised her hand and chanted a shield spell to cover Rafe. She cast a spell over herself and raised her palm, ready to launch a stun bolt.

“Ms. Rosen,” she shouted. “This is Agent Berens with the PDA. I’m here with my partner Agent Martinez. Are you okay in there? Are you in need of assistance?”

Izzie and Rafe crept toward the front door. Rafe kept his hand in his jacket, resting on his gun. They stepped onto the porch. A strong, acrid scent wafted out of the house, so strong it turned Izzie’s stomach.

“Ms. Rosen, can you come to the door, please?” Izzie asked. After Rosen didn’t answer, Izzie looked at Rafe, who nodded and reached toward the door handle. “We’re going to let ourselves in. Please don’t be alarmed.”

Izzie threw the door open and sighed. “Damn it. That would explain why she bothered coming back.”

Georgina Rosen lay on her back on the floor, staring at the ceiling. She clutched a small, empty vial and wasn’t breathing. Nasty purple bruises covered the sides of her face and neck.

Izzie dropped her shield spell and ran to Georgina. She reached for her neck to feel Georgina’s pulse.

“It’s too late.” Izzie gritted her teeth. “She’s dead.”

Bloodstains covered Georgina’s right hand and arm. Two of her nails were jagged, like they’d snapped off. Izzie searched the floor nearby but couldn’t find them.

Izzie noticed a long scratch on Georgina’s arm. She pulled back Georgina’s sleeve, revealing more bruises around her wrists and arms.

Grim-faced, Rafe pointed toward the other side of the body. A wide-bottom boiling flask lay on the floor, empty except for a few dark green droplets. Judging by the smell and the message etched into the coffee table, the flask contained acid.

Izzie walked over to inspect the message. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She frowned. “Okay. This case either got far simpler or much, much more annoying.”

Rafe put on his sunglasses and tapped the side. “I see magic all over the place.”

“I’m betting it’s wards for the most part.” Izzie knelt by the body. “There’s still residual magic coming from the body, but nothing that strong. No active spells. I felt a big pulse of magic earlier. It might have been her acid potion.” She stood. “I’m going to the car to get gloves. Call it in. At least we have a body.”

A few minutes later, Izzie stepped into Georgina’s bedroom after casting a magical visualization spell. She was suspicious of the bruises and scratches on Georgina’s body. They looked like defensive wounds. The overturned mattress and emptied dresser drawers in the bedroom only added to her suspicion that Georgina Rosen hadn’t killed herself.

Rumpled clothes, jewelry, and perfume bottles lay scattered all over. A handful of vials radiating low-level magic were on the floor. They were potions. A diamond twinkled under the rays of light streaming through the blinds. Someone was looking for something, but this wasn’t a robbery.

Izzie remembered Georgina’s snapped nails. There was a good chance Georgina clawed her attacker. That meant DNA evidence and tissue that could serve as a source for a sympathetic magic-based tracking spell.

“Did you kill Erikson too by giving him the potion, our mysterious third party?” Izzie pondered. “And did Georgina write that or did you?” She looked around the room.

Judging by the patterns of magic flow on the walls, Georgina covered the bedroom with more wards than in the living room and outside, with overlapping wards in one small corner near the closet. Izzie didn’t spot or feel any magic from the dresser.

She questioned why somebody would tear through it. Anyone who would kill a witch and leave diamonds behind was most likely a magical.

Izzie walked over to the corner with a frown and knelt. “I’ve found wards in a weird place,” she called out to the living room. “I’m going to try to dispel them.”

“Okay,” Rafe called. “I’m taking pictures out here. Try not to get blown up.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Izzie held her hands out in front of her as she poured magic into unraveling the interlaced wards. They covered a small one-foot-by-one-foot corner of the bedroom with overlapping and different types. She had never been good at this type of precision work, preferring a blunt force approach to disabling wards—overwhelming them with her magical power.

This time she needed whatever evidence lay on the other side. Breaking through the wards risked damaging the evidence. Beyond that, there was no reason to rush. She didn’t think a deadly assassin was hiding behind wards so small they wouldn’t protect a pixie.

That made her wonder if there were any pixie assassins out there. She hadn’t encountered one, but a small, flying being with a high level of magic could get into places that larger races couldn’t. Poison and magic went a long way to compensate for lack of strength. There had to be one murderous pixie with a name like Slayer Slyphide flying around in the magical underworld.

Izzie shook her head, trying to clear out the ridiculous thought, and glanced at the dresser drawers. Georgina Rosen would have no reason to tear her room apart, but whoever was responsible didn’t appear to know where or how to look for her hiding place.

That worried Izzie. Despite her earlier assumption, the evidence pointed to the killer being someone who lacked active magic. A noncombat-trained witch died as easily as any noncombat-trained regular QA inspector.

The conspicuous ward location called for a careful approach. From what Izzie could tell after minutes of removal work, the spells combined protection and alarm wards. Izzie didn’t worry about alerting the dead Georgina Rosen that someone was looking into her special spot. The dead body lying in the living room established sufficient probable cause for her to tear the house apart searching for evidence.

Rafe stepped into the bedroom with his glasses still on. He took a picture of the warded wall. “Forensics is on their way. I told Bill there was no immediate threat, so no reason to rush to set up a cordon. He’ll coordinate with Austin PD to get units over here to keep the property secured in case there are more hiding places we haven’t found.”

A strand in a ward flashed and disappeared under Izzie’s efforts. She flexed her fingers and continued pushing and twisting magic to disrupt the wards. She’d forgotten how annoying that type of spellwork could be.

“Tell me what you’re thinking. I know what I thought, and I was wrong.”

“I don’t want to jump to conclusions,” Rafe replied. “It could be everything from she killed herself and someone took advantage of that to look for something, to someone killed her and tried to stage it as a suicide.”

Izzie scoffed. “They did a crap job. Whoever else was here wasn’t a criminal mastermind, which makes this more annoying.”

“Most of them aren’t, even for us. The world would be a far worse place if they were.” Rafe took a couple more pictures. “Let’s review. Kayden Erikson takes a potion that turns him into a beast man berserker. A potions witch who worked with him is found dead. We have at least one third party present based on those boot prints.” He squatted by Izzie and peered at the warded corner. “Judging by the size of the boot prints, those aren’t from Georgina Rosen unless she decided to use an enlarging spell before working her garden today.”

Izzie offered a weak nod and continued tugging at the flows of magic fueling the wards. She was getting close. “This better not be something as petty as a love triangle.”

“I told you before. Love is a serious business.”

Izzie scoffed. “That doesn’t justify killing people.”

“Love is one of the most fundamental human emotions.” Rafe squatted next to her. “You prefer people kill each other over money and power? Naked ambition? Hatred?”

“I prefer people not kill anyone regardless of reason, and I’d love it if people would stop targeting Austin for their complicated magical criminal conspiracies.”

Rafe gave her a knowing look. “Do you?”

“Yes.” Izzie frowned at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If everything went calm here, I have a feeling you’d up and move to LA or Seattle looking for dark magicals to hunt.”

Izzie scoffed. “All I’m doing is working to my skillset and experience. But this isn’t reading dark magical conspiracy yet.”

“Even with the dark magic traces with Erikson?”

“Every dark magic magical doesn’t belong to a secret society.” Izzie frowned and looked around. “I haven’t picked up any dark magic traces here yet, but there’s so much magic around I could be missing something.”

She scowled at the weakening wards. “Everything’s getting more complicated. Maybe you’re right. A straightforward love triangle-based murder would be easier to solve.”

“I haven’t technically worked a true crime of passion since joining the PDA. Although other agents have.”

Rafe cupped his chin. “Does that mean magicals are more controlled when it comes to that? I’m so used to magicals being more passionate when it comes to ambition, and I’ve read plenty of historical examples of magical crimes of time and the occasional crime of passion from other cities.” He grinned. “But the historical cases are crazy. Like the time that Queen Saraphain cursed an entire city because⁠—”

“Let’s focus on this,” Izzie interjected. “Unless you think this Queen Saraphain’s a suspect.”

“She’s been dead for two thousand years.” Rafe shrugged.

“I don’t think modern magicals are above that kind of thing. You said yourself it’s happening in other cities.” Izzie shook her head. “Think about your beloved stats. Fewer magicals mean fewer crimes committed by magicals per capita, which is why there are way more cops in Austin than PDA agents. Plus, magicals get away with things more.”

“Then if this was a crime of passion. How do things fit together?” Rafe’s brow lifted. “You think she gave a bad potion to Erikson? Who’s our mysterious boot owner? Mrs. Erikson in disguise? That’d be a twist.”

More portions of the ward flashed on the wall. One flared red and disappeared, sublimating into dark smoke.

Rafe gestured at the wall. “Should I be concerned?”

“Alarm ward.” Izzie took a deep breath. “I was a little rougher with it since it’s not like she can react to it activating, but I also wanted to make sure there wasn’t a hidden secondary ward linked to it.”

Rafe stood and stepped away from the wall. He frowned at the diamond. “Was that always lying out?”

“Yes.”

“Then not a robbery.”

“That’s what I think, but it could be a targeted robbery for something less obvious. We’ll need forensics to confirm, but I agree with you. From the look of the body, someone was trying to make it look like she killed herself but wasn’t that careful. As much as you and Caden think I’m obsessed with conspiracies, I get the most obvious answers tend to be co⁠—”

She jerked her head toward the door. She sensed powerful magic outside with an undercurrent of dark magic. The sound of glass shattering sent Izzie to her feet, murmuring a shield spell to throw around Rafe. By the time she finished and cast a shield around herself, he’d drawn his gun and run into the living room.

“We got another beast man!” Rafe shouted.

Izzie ran into the living room and skidded to a halt beside him. “Okay, it’s not an isolated problem.”

A fanged, clawed blond man with glowing blue eyes stood in a pile of glass shards. Given the pile's location and the only remaining glass in the central window pane being large, jagged pieces on the edges, he’d busted into the house from outside.

The unusual features contrasted with his banal black leather jacket and faded T-shirt featuring a cartoon vampire. He wore cowboy boots. He growled and twisted his neck toward the pair.

“Please step out of the glass and get on your knees,” Rafe ordered. “Hands behind your head. This weapon is loaded with anti-magic bullets.”

“We’ve fought somebody like you before,” Izzie added. “You need to calm down.”

The beast man’s nostrils flared. He glanced at Georgina’s body and narrowed his eyes at Rafe.

“We have her dead body, a trashed bedroom, and boot prints from the garden. Next time, I guess we should secure the perimeter before starting our investigation.” Izzie lifted her palm. “I’m Special Agent Izzie Berens of the PDA. This is Special Agent Rafael Martinez. On your knees, hands up, like my partner said.”

“Or what?” the beast man growled.

Izzie narrowed her eyes. “You don’t want to add more charges, and I don’t know what they told you about that potion, but if you stress your body, you’re going to die.”

“Bullshit.” He bared his fangs. “Get out of here, magic pigs, and I won’t rip your throats out.”

Rafe kept his attention fixed on the beast man. “Turn around right now. If you make any sudden moves, I’ll shoot.”

The beast man’s glowing blue eyes darted back and forth. His chest rumbled with a low growl that Izzie felt more than heard. He already presented more self-control than Erikson. They could de-escalate the situation.

Izzie edged away from Rafe without lowering her arm. “We’re willing to hear your side of things, but we’re going to secure you with anti-magic cuffs for your safety and ours. You have to comply.”

The beast man raised his hands and turned. Izzie let out a sigh of relief. This proved the potion didn’t turn the users into borderline mindless berserkers.

“Thank you,” Izzie said. “Now please drop to your knees.”

The beast man spun and leapt for Rafe. Izzie launched a stun bolt. The bolt struck him square in the face. The spell only pulled a grunt out of the beast man before he slashed at Rafe with his long claws.

The claws struck the shield spell with a flash. The blow knocked Rafe backward into the hallway. He crashed against a wall and slid down, his shield spell weakened but holding.

“Rafe!” Izzie shouted.

“I’m fine!” He grunted and lifted his gun. “Watch out!”

The beast man lunged and swiped at Izzie’s neck. She ran and blasted more stun bolts into the beast man before his next swipe tore at her shield.

Izzie gave up on stunning him and shoved a light bolt into his face next. He growled and stumbled backward with his face blackened.

“Stop now, or I’ll be forced to put you down,” she shouted. “I’m trying to save your life, you damned idiot.”

She groaned in annoyed anticipation when the beast man grabbed the coffee table and swung it like a bat. The furniture connected with her arm before snapping in half. The attack launched her to the other side of the living room. Her body knocked over a lamp. Her shield spell disappeared with a flash.

The beast man scraped his claws together and howled. Rafe still sat on the floor as he put three rounds into the beast man’s chest.

A stumble by the beast man provided Izzie enough time to chant a new shield spell and hop to her feet. Dripping blood from his chest, the beast man backed away, his gaze jerking between Izzie and Rafe.

“We know you’re not a berserker. This doesn’t have to end badly for you.” Izzie twisted magic flows into a bright spear of pure light. “You can speak. You responded to commands. You have a sense of self-preservation. It’s not too late to save your own life. You need to stop right now.”

The beast man charged Izzie. She leveled her spear and thrust it toward his leg. The spear tore through his thigh while she pivoted and ducked to avoid his claws.

He roared in pain and swiped at the spear. Each blow against the spear of pure magical energy left his claws shorter.

Izzie let go of the spear and jumped backward. The light spear vanished. She flung another stun bolt into the beast man’s side. He didn’t react to the hit, but the pain from his other wounds contorted his face.

Rafe scrambled to his feet. He kept his gun aimed at the beast man and fired again.

The beast man jerked. He shook his head and growled. He swayed and stomped toward the window.

“You need to surrender,” Izzie shouted. “If it comes to taking you down or risking innocent people’s lives, I’m taking you down. You don’t understand. If you’re similar to Erikson, you’ll need immediate help for us to save your life.”

“Shut up, magic pigs!” the beast man bellowed. He backhanded a large TV hanging on the wall. His blow cracked the screen. Sparks shot out, leaving the carpet blackened and smoking.

His leg and chest wounds oozed blood. He knocked over another lamp and tore through a row of books on a bookshelf, leaving a cloud of paper fluttering through the room. After his book massacre, he dropped his arms and swayed in place.

Rafe crept closer to the beast man with his gun pointed at his back. “You’re under arrest. We’re not going to ask you again.”

“He’s right.” Izzie’s heart pounded. “Don’t make us put you down. We can still help you if you surrender.”

The beast man fell to his knees.

“There you go.” Rafe reached into his jacket to pull out anti-magic cuffs with one hand while keeping his gun pointed at the beast man’s head. “Now hands on your head.”

The beast man pitched forward. His body landed with a thud next to Georgina’s. He coughed up blood and shuddered once before he stopped moving.

Rafe walked closer. “It’s not a surprise, but he’s not breathing.”

Izzie grimaced and lowered her arm. “I’m guessing this wasn’t a love triangle. And what is it with these guys and furniture?”

She walked over and prodded the body with her foot before leaning over to take his pulse. His heart had stopped.

She released the magic fueling the shield spells and attempted a healing spell with her hand on his beast man’s back. After a couple of failed heals, she stood and shook her head.

“Now I’m even more interested in whatever she’s hiding.” She sighed and turned to Rafe. “You okay?”

Rafe nodded. “Only a little sore thanks to your shield. If he hits that hard through a shield, he would have broken my ribs and back unshielded.”

Izzie frowned at the beast man’s body. “Call this one in, too. Request a tactical support cordon for the property and double drone coverage from field support. We might be able to find another accomplice nearby.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The murmur of PDA agents and support staff filled the house. Police officers and tactical support operators set up police tape all around the yard. Whatever else happened, there was full staff there now. Another ambush attempt would be more suicidal than the first.

Kneeling in the bedroom, Izzie didn’t worry much about another beast man showing up. Even a woman with her atrocious luck wouldn’t get ambushed by a second assassin while investigating a crime scene. The PDA drones hadn’t picked up anything suspicious in the area.

She put the thoughts of a third beast man out of her mind and continued to unravel the wards. It was half precision handwork, half pure concentration as she pushed and pulled at the magic fueling them.

Her working theory was the beast man hadn’t found what he’d been looking for. He’d come back, perhaps after getting more instructions, and discovered two PDA agents on-site. His dramatic entrance might have been an attempt to scare them off and give him precious minutes to continue searching the house. Someone might have told him about the alcove.

Rafe stood next to Izzie with his arms folded and a curious expression. He watched her work on the flows using technomagic sunglasses.

“To cover our bases,” Rafe began, his voice hesitant. “You didn’t sense anything familiar in the magic since we arrived, have you?”

“Familiar?” Izzie unwound another strand of a ward. “The dark magic I felt was similar to the dark magic I felt with Erikson. I don’t need Katya to tell me it was the same type of potion.”

“I didn’t mean that.”

“You mean familiar as in Arcane Syndicate?”

Rafe nodded. “Just trying to be thorough. This isn’t like with our jewel thief. One person committing a crime is easy to play off as a bad egg. Two people doing something bad can be chalked up to the influence of troublemakers. Three people marks the beginning of a real conspiracy.”

Izzie shook her head. “I haven’t felt anything like the sensations from the Xelius and necromancer cases. It’s nice that the Syndicate is letting somebody else engage in a big magical conspiracy. They’re changing things up for everybody.” She scoffed.

“It could be a sign they’re gone. It’s like how when the FBI and police tear down a gang or a mafia, it leaves a hole for a new gang or mafia to invade their territory.” Rafe shrugged. “Whac-a-Mole but for criminal gangs.”

Izzie didn’t know how to feel about that idea. The obliteration of the last two Arcane Syndicate schemes could have chased them away from Austin. That would be a victory, but it would mean they couldn’t follow up and destroy the entire organization.

“You could be right, Rafe.” Izzie squinted as the last ward flashed and disappeared. “I won’t believe it until we have more people in our interrogation room explaining why they targeted Austin.”

“How do you prove a negative? What if we don’t see them for a year? Would you believe it then?”

“That weird, veiled witch from the auction house needs to show up in a different city before I’ll buy that they’re done here. I know she has something to do with the Arcane Syndicate. When she was nearby, it was worse than with Xelius. But enough about her. We need to figure out the deal with our dead potions witch and these beast men.” She gestured at the wall. “I’ve finished disabling the wards.”

She felt around the wall until she heard the satisfying click of a hidden button. A small panel retracted with another click.

“There we go.” Izzie gestured at the open wall. “Whatever’s in here might have cost Georgina Rosen her life.”

A small alcove lay on the other side. A small rack of stoppered vials containing different colored and patterned liquids lay inside.

Rafe took a picture with his glasses. “Confirm you sense magic.”

“I do. These are potions, not a new street drug, or for all we know, they are a new magical street drug.” Izzie pulled the rack out and frowned. “I didn’t sense it until I was holding this, but there’s subtle dark magic coming from one or more of these potions.”

“The last thing Austin needs is a magic drug powered by dark magic.” Rafe grimaced.

“Whatever these potions are, Georgina didn’t want them lying around. Those wards provided a combo of defense, alarm, and anti-scrying. Somebody needed to be right here to suspect anything was hidden here.” She stood and held the rack with bold hands. “It looks like Katya’s going to earn her overtime.”

That afternoon, Izzie followed Rafe into Bill’s office while trying not to smile. She wasn’t happy that three people were dead, but her instincts and all the evidence told her there was more to the case.

Sometimes having one’s paranoia confirmed was strangely refreshing. She hated mistaking shadows for monsters. Someone popping out of the bushes and trying to kill two PDA agents proved she wasn’t crazy. An appearance by the Arcane Syndicate would have been better and offered her the chance to finish them off, but she would take what she could get. She would protect her city from any threats, major and minor.

Bill looked up from his computer with his standard Resting Boss Face scowl. “We went from one self-destructive motorist to three bodies in as many days. The mayor and the governor are starting to get worried about the city turning into a magical warzone…again.” He shook his head. “It could be worse. We could be LA.”

Izzie and Rafe sat. She nodded at Rafe to indicate that he should initiate the briefing. She was waiting for her latest dose of caffeine to kick in and help her organize her thoughts.

“Forensics is still going over all the potions we found in the hidden alcove,” Rafe explained.

“What about Rosen?” Bill asked.

“Analysis has already confirmed Georgina Rosen died from a magical poison delivered via a potion. The potion displayed a general signature that suggests she created it. The defensive wounds and bruising on her arms, face, and legs suggest she was attacked, and forensics recovered DNA from underneath her nails. It matches the DNA of our second dead beast man.”

Bill frowned. “The DNA matches even though he was changed?”

Rafe nodded. “That’s just it. It matches his beast-form DNA.”

“Then he was already transformed when he forced her to drink the potion,” Bill concluded. “That explains how he overpowered her.”

Izzie nodded. “That’s our working theory. It would also explain why she didn’t have a chance. We found her wand underneath her couch with scratch marks and her and his blood on it.”

“And you contacted her before you went over there.” Bill frowned. “Did she act evasive or scared?”

Izzie shook her head. “A little tired and annoyed-sounding. If a beast man threatened her, she kept it out of her voice.”

“That means our killer forced her to leave an apology message and kill herself with a poison potion, and then a few minutes later he came back. There’s a good chance either somebody’s watching you, or they were in communication, and our beast man knew when you’d show up.”

“It also means he could do all that without dying,” Izzie noted. “Just like we saw with Erikson, who drove while transformed. Without the stress from body damage, the potion might not kill the users.”

“I understand.” Bill’s expression hardened. “In both cases, the beast men attacked police or PDA. In the second case, he likely already killed someone. I’m not going to spend too much time crying about these men trying to use a magical power to hurt others and finding out it has costs.”

Izzie didn’t reply. She only mentioned her take on the potion’s nature because of Bill’s complaints about politics. The beast men’s actions in both cases proved they retained their human intelligence, even with anger. They chose violent resistance despite Izzie and Rafe trying to talk them down. The second man went so far as to fake surrender.

“Katya confirmed that the potions Izzie found have a different magical signature from the one that killed Rosen,” Rafe added. “She doesn’t know what they do, but it’s likely they were made by two distinct magicals, with the bulk of potions being made by a single magical.”

Bill frowned. “In total we have three dead people who might be involved in this potion incident, and one other if not two others involved. Nobody makes a potion like the beast man potion without understanding what they’re doing.”

Rafe looked uncertain. “Here’s where things get tricky, Bill. All indications point to Rosen as the creator of the two known used beast man transformation potions.”

“Rosen?” Bill asked. “Our dead potions witch? Not the mysterious fourth and fifth suspects?”

Rafe nodded. “Katya says the potion residue we found in the energy drink bottle in Erikson’s car is likely Rosen’s product. Now that we have the body of the original witch, it’s been easier for them to tie her to that potion and the potion in the system of the second beast man. We have enough evidence to say on a warrant or to a judge that Georgina Rosen crafted the potions that changed those two men.”

“What about all those other potions?” Bill asked.

“Katya is still working on that.”

“I wonder if Rosen used those potions as examples,” Izzie added. She folded her arms. “That’s my guess, but it would explain everything. She needed samples in addition to whatever recipe she knew. There could be a beast man transformation potion in there.”

“That points us back to our mysterious fourth and fifth magicals we won’t be able to track off potion signatures alone.” Bill ground his teeth and grunted. “Perfect. Just damned perfect. Until we have them accounted for, we could be dealing with beast men every week for the next ten years. We have no reason to assume Rosen’s the only one who could make that potion.”

Izzie shook her head. “We’re far from cold on this.”

“Good, because we need you to move harder on this until it is cold, dead, and buried in the ground with a nice little bow on top.” Bill looked between the two agents. “This is turning into a real shitshow.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“What you’re telling me is the witch made the potion that turned two nonmagicals into berserker beast men. Yet there’s a pile of hidden potions we haven’t identified that don’t seem to be hers and are associated with two other magicals of questionable moral character. So we’re all on the same page, that’s what you’re saying?”

Izzie nodded. “That’s all accurate, Bill.”

“Do we have her known magical contacts?”

“Not at this time. We’re trying to look into that.”

Bill clicked his mouse and looked at his screen. “Our second beast man is Lloyd Mathers, according to DNA.” His eyes tracked back and forth. “Unlike our first, he’s had brushes with the law. He’s exactly the type of guy you’d expect to end up in a situation like this.”

“Yes. Sometimes it’s nice when things aren’t a surprise.” Izzie gestured at the monitor although she couldn’t see anything from her position.

“I wouldn’t say he’s the exact type of guy we’d expect. He’s a small-time thug with no recorded magical ability. He’s done time for assault, drug dealing, and armed robbery. According to his records and parole officer, he has no known magical current contacts, but he’s not known to hold any anti-magical views.”

Rafe frowned. “He was smart enough to show up without any ID, a phone, or anything else we could have used to identify him without the DNA test.”

“But not so smart that he didn’t stop Rosen from scratching him and getting his DNA,” Izzie noted.

“He underestimated her,” Rafe replied. “Guys like him often underestimate magicals who aren’t as flashy as…”

“Me?” Izzie asked.

“Yeah.”

Bill’s gaze flicked her way. “Take a step back. I don’t like the way you phrased something. You said he has no known current contacts? What about before?”

“He was friends with a dwarven gang enforcer a few years back,” Izzie explained. “The dwarf was killed during an armed robbery, but not one Mathers participated in. The PDA and FBI ripped apart the dwarf’s gang about five years ago. The ones not in prison haven’t been seen in town for years.”

“You’re talking about the Garm Thunderscale gang, aren’t you?” Bill asked.

“Yes.” Izzie nodded. “They were a little before my time here.”

“Mine too,” Rafe added.

“They were always too dangerous and violent for such penny-ante operators.” Bill shook his head. “I never thought I’d hear their name come up again, and now we have bodies piling up.”

He scowled at his screen. “I can spin the plates to keep the politicians off you for as long you need, but we need to figure out what’s going on before public sentiment gets out of hand. As sick as it sounds, having a magical victim proves this isn’t the magicals targeting nonmagicals.”

Izzie scoffed. “I’m still not convinced the first guy was a victim, and Mathers was far from a victim. He busted into the house already changed. He was there to clean up after forcing that woman to kill herself. He might have survived had he surrendered. We tried to get him to surrender.”

“She’s right,” Rafe added. “If Rosen was behind everything, Mathers wouldn’t have shown up. There’s somebody else, and from what field support and Katya are saying, you’re right, Bill. We won’t be able to track them off those potions alone.”

Bill leaned back in his chair. His gaze shifted between the two agents as he processed their report.

“Any suspicious activity in Kayden Erikson’s financials?” Bill asked.

“Not so far,” Izzie replied. “Analysis support is still going through everything, and his wife hasn’t exactly been helpful. That’s delayed things since they have to figure everything out themselves.”

“Mathers is more important. We need to find the connection between Mathers and Rosen. Sometimes the old-fashioned, nontechnological, and nonmagical techniques work the best.” Bill slammed his fist on this desk. “Tie this shit off before another monster shows up.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Izzie stared out the passenger’s side window at the setting sun while Rafe hummed at the wheel. They’d called ahead to Mathers’ building to ensure there was someone to let them into his apartment.

Uncertainty clouded Izzie’s thoughts. That was one of the reasons she asked Rafe to drive.

They had made progress on the case, but three dead people with the risk of more worried her. Most PDA cases were like Elion the jewel thief, a matter of finding and arresting the suspect. This week was a reminder of how dangerous rogue magicals could be even when they weren’t associated with the Arcane Syndicate.

“Let me ask you something, Rafe. Presuming my theory is right and Rosen was making a copy of the potion, do you think whoever made the original beast man potion is still in town?”

“Yes. They sent someone to kill Rosen. They’re trying to protect their operation. A panicked runner would have been halfway across the world. They wouldn’t have bothered to come back.”

He shrugged. “The reality is it’s far too easy for magicals to hide as long as they keep to themselves. We both know that. The problem with criminals is they are greedy by nature.”

The taller buildings blocking the sun grew sparser. Izzie squinted and looked away from the sun.

“Sure.” She rested her cheek in her palm. “It’s not like I did all the appropriate travel paperwork or always obeyed Customs when I was on the run. I barely worried about that type of thing.”

“And you weren’t a rogue or dark magical plotting against people. You didn’t have a vested interest in whatever this plan was.” Rafe’s face twitched into an annoyed scowl.

“No, they’re still here. The plan’s not over because a couple of people are dead. The type of person who’d make that beast man potion doesn’t care if people die. Whatever this is about. It’s not about being stopped by such basic concerns over life. I don’t think this is just about money either.”

“Do you think they were trying to turn thousands of people into beast men?” Izzie asked. “They’d have to scale up their production, and once people started changing, it wouldn’t take long to figure out. After that point, they might already be gone, and the damage would be done.”

“It’s suspicious that two people from the bottling plant were involved.” Rafe shuddered. “The real scary part is that we’re lucky. The only reason Barlow dumped all those drinks was because of the incident with Erikson. If Erikson was trying to help Rosen tamper with those drinks, all it would have taken was that cop not catching him for the plan to continue. The country might have been cleaning up after a brutal magical incident.”

Izzie frowned. “True. I’ve been thinking about Erikson. The potion might wear off without killing them as long as they don’t get hurt.”

“You don’t think it would have caused trouble?”

Izzie shook her head. “No, I do. People changing like that would lead to fights. While we keep saying the guys weren’t berserkers, Erikson acted like he experienced heightened emotions. The plan wouldn’t need everybody to freak out to spread terror.”

She frowned. “The potion isn’t the best tool for people planning to fight anyone who can fight back, but Rosen’s death proves it can work when you surprise someone. All that only points to it not being intended as a weapon.”

Rafe turned at an intersection. “We’re almost there. What do you think we’ll find?”

“I don’t care as long as it leads to whoever’s behind Rosen.”

Mathers’ apartment manager rubbed his hands together as he led them up a flight of stairs to Mathers’ second-floor apartment. The unkempt, greasy man grinned a little too much for Izzie’s taste like he found the idea of Mathers being dead and the authorities searching his apartment amusing.

Izzie looked around the apartment complex. The four-story buildings featured two apartments per floor, facing opposite a shared concrete landing. Their cracked and faded paint was in dire need of a fresh coat.

Half the lights in the parking lot were out. When she and Rafe arrived, a couple of tough-looking men glanced their way, then jumped into their cars and sped away. She noted their license plates for later checks but suspected they mistook her and Rafe for FBI or Austin PD detectives. She had too much to do to worry about regular criminals.

The but led them to Mathers’ front door. Someone had carved profanities into the center, though from the worn look of the words, they’d been there for a while.

“You ever have any trouble with this tenant?” Izzie asked. “Did he threaten you, or did other tenants complain about him?”

“Funny you ask.” The manager alternated between looking at Izzie and Rafe. “He always paid his rent on time and never caused no trouble for me. That’s better than half the trash that lives in this complex. I like an honest crook.”

He swiped a keycard over the lock. “That’s all I know. Whatever things he was doing here, I don’t know nothing about it.” He gave Izzie and Rafe suspicious looks. “You can’t use those magic spells to prove nothing on me ’cause I know nothing.”

Rafe smiled. “I think you misunderstand the nature of PDA investigations.”

The manager’s eye widened. “I don’t know nothing. You can’t torture me with a spell without a lawyer. I know my rights.”

“It’s fine. We’re not here for you.” Izzie pulled on the pair of latex gloves she carried. “We’re only interested in Mr. Mathers.”

“I didn’t know he was no magical.” The manager nodded toward the door. “He didn’t tell me that.” He waved his hands. “Not that I have nothing against you magical types. Just don’t want magical trouble. I don’t understand all that shit.”

“We feel the same.” Izzie held out her hand. She didn’t want to waste time listening to him ramble. “We’ll give you the keycard back when we’re done here. Your presence isn’t necessary for our investigation.”

The manager looked relieved. “Thank you, Agent Berens.” He handed over the card and ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Rafe chuckled. “Brave guy.”

“It’s not like I can blame him. Nobody wants to be tied to the beast man case.” Izzie opened the door and wrinkled her nose at the unpleasant, sour bouquet of smells. “It won’t be long until the reporters and drones show up.”

A single, torn couch lay in the center of the room, and a folding table in the corner. Fast-food wrappers with dried stains lay all over the living room and the table. Used syringes and baggies filled with small crystals and powders covered the table.

Izzie scoffed. “This is like a training scenario environment for forensics techs.” She gestured at a baggie. “At least he liked to keep his illegal drug options varied. You have to respect the hustle.”

“A quality criminal thinking ahead.” Rafe frowned and motioned to the other side of the table. “In more ways than one.”

Piles of empty vials, tapered bottles, and a handful of empty stoppered flasks sat on the table. A small, dark, smooth hole ran through the table with a pile of glass shards underneath.

Rafe crouched. “What are we thinking? Spilled acid potion?”

“Something like that.” Izzie walked past a half-crushed pizza box toward the table. She squatted beside Rafe and picked up one of the glass shards. “A tiny bit of residual magic on this. I’m guessing it used to be one of the potion bottles. That idiot must have left it open or spilled it.”

Rafe put on his sunglasses and looked around. “There’s a little magic here and there, but not as much as I’d expect from all these used potions.”

“That tracks with what I’m sensing and what we know about this guy.” Izzie stood, picked up an empty vial, and squinted at it. “I think Mathers got his hands on more than the beast man potion, and he’s not the one who made it.”

“You still think he’s working for whoever made the beast man potion you found in the alcove?”

“I think he was a bridge between Rosen and somebody else.” Izzie nodded. “Nothing here’s convinced me otherwise.” She looked around the room. “Mathers was a man who either wasn’t worried about getting caught or believed he would never get caught.” She set the vial down. “I wonder what these other potions were.”

Rafe looked at the table. “Getting a regular supply of healing potions would be great for a low-level criminal.” He gestured around the room. “This isn’t the apartment or neighborhood of a man who could afford that. It’s incongruent.”

“Not if he was receiving them as payment in kind for services rendered.” Izzie set the vial down. “Such as agreeing to take a transformation potion and assassinate a witch, or coordinate with her to begin with.”

“Contractor or employee?”

“Good question.”

She scanned the living room with a deepening scowl. “The more we find, the more I’m worried about this situation. Somebody’s using a bunch of tools to keep out of sight. There are too many puppets getting their strings cut.”

Rafe wandered into the kitchen. He reached behind a wall where Izzie couldn’t see and pulled out two phones. “He was smart enough not to carry a phone at Rosen’s place, but not here.” He ran his finger across the phone screen. “Locked. Careful criminals are annoying.”

Izzie snickered. “You don’t like the challenge?”

“I prefer the straightforward guys like Elion.”

“Analysis support will crack those for us.” Izzie headed into the sole bedroom. She found more empty pizza boxes, a blackened glass pipe, and a worn, stained mattress without sheets and a single thin blanket. “Mathers should have kept to the rule about not using your own product.”

“You think he was dealing?”

“I don’t need to be FBI or DEA to know that there’s way too much on that kitchen table for personal use.”

Rafe set the phones down and headed to the bedroom. He adjusted his glasses and looked around. “I don’t see any magic in here. It’s all in the living room at the table. That means no hidden storage compartments.”

Izzie scoffed. “Why bother when he has potions and drugs out in the open?” She frowned and looked at the bedroom one last time before returning to the living room. “There are plenty of drugs left out, but assuming all the vials and bottles contained potions, he’s used them up. He wouldn’t have them here if he was selling them.”

“Someone wanted Georgina Rosen dead before she could talk. They sent Mathers to do the job.” Rafe pointed at the phones. “These are our best bets for finding out who that is.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

As Izzie followed Rafe into the forensics lab later that day, she reflected on how her current case compared to bigger incidents in the summer and fall of last year. This time their investigation was unfolding without ancient prophecies or visits to hidden magical libraries. That offered hope they could track down the culprits behind everything with standard PDA methods and not waste days trying to reconstruct lost history.

She didn’t mind having to hit a magical library, but every unusual path slowed an investigation. Dark forces conspired in the shadows against the city. The quicker they went down, the fewer people would get hurt. There was no way this would end with only Rosen, Erikson, and Mathers dead if they didn’t find her suspected puppet master.

Izzie froze in the lab’s entrance. A cloying miasma overwhelmed her, far worse than anything she smelled in Mathers’ apartment. She waved her hand and covered her mouth. Her stomach churned. For a second, she wondered if she was under attack.

“What’s that smell?” She coughed. “It’s awful.”

Rafe coughed and waved his hand in front of his face. “Did a little kid take over the lab and decide to invent the opposite of a stink bomb?”

“I’d prefer a stink bomb to whatever I smell. I’m glad I only had a light lunch.”

Katya stood farther inside the room. She was in front of a lab bench wearing a white lab jacket, a mask, and goggles. Her dark ponytail was tucked into her jacket.

“Oh, you’re here.” She glanced toward the door and looked up. “One moment. I need someone to take over for me.”

She snapped her fingers at a nearby tech and pointed at her bubbling flask. The flask sat on top of four blue-white flames burning out of a glowing red plate covered with red sigils.

Izzie’s upbringing, nature, and education gave her a firm basis in traditional magic. The limited technomagic at the School of Necessary Magic, including that favored by certain clubs, was never a huge focus for her. That always left her a little confused when dealing with more niche applications of modern magical techniques.

“Is that the source of the smell?” Izzie gestured at the flask with a grimace. “Or is it left over from something else?”

Katya scooted around the lab bench and strolled toward Rafe and Izzie. She pulled her goggles up and her mask down. “Identifying and isolating the fundamental nature of the magic of unknown potions can be difficult depending on the potion when you have no insight into the intended function. I was double-checking one of the alcove potions. Unfortunately, this type of assay requires active magical ability, which limits the number of techs in the lab who can perform it.”

Izzie lifted her hand and whispered a spell. A faint glow surrounded her nose and blocked out the oversweet scent. She could still taste it in her mouth and gagged. “Talk about killing someone with kindness. This is what pixie terrorists would use if they were evil.”

“I sent you a message about this.” Katya frowned. “We’ve been unable to find any indication of any magical contamination at the bottling plant in any of the samples. There was little indication of stray magic outside the QA area, nor any in the drinks intended for disposal. We’re not equipped for a complete process audit, but our cursory examination suggests no major contamination.”

Izzie nodded, relieved to hear it aloud. “I read that earlier. The CEO is so spooked about PR that they’re taking the hit and disposing of the entire run that hasn’t been shipped. Even if something managed to slip through, that should handle it.

“He understands the dangers involved, and they’re not dumping themselves so it doesn’t end up in the water supply, just in case. He’ll work with an industrial waste handling company. It turns out there are grants for that kind of thing. Who knew?” She shrugged.

Katya’s brow lifted. “That’s an interesting and expensive choice. Even if the government subsidizes the disposal, it’ll impact his company’s other plans.”

“I was worried the company might have been part of a conspiracy, but they’ve been nothing but cooperative.” Izzie breathed easier now that she couldn’t smell the killer sweetness. “Assuming nothing comes up in any lines of investigation with the CEO, that’ll make it easier to concentrate on the other people involved.”

Katya eyed Izzie with a hint of detached amusement in her eyes. “You hoped this would be as easy as the Arpak jewel thief case, didn’t you?”

“Nobody wants a difficult case. I didn’t become a PDA agent for the challenge. I became a PDA agent to stop innocent people from suffering because of magic. If I can do that with minimal effort, I will.”

Rafe looked around before he found a box of disposable surgical masks and pulled one out. He put his on. “By the way, what potion is that?”

“A poison cloud potion,” Katya announced.

“From the hidden alcove, you said?”

“Yes.”

Izzie backed toward the door. “Poison cloud? You could have warned us when we walked in here.”

Katya waved dismissively. Her bored expression lingered. “Don’t worry. That smell isn’t the toxic potion. That’s a byproduct of the assay technique. We’ve long since neutralized the dangerous portions. I know a good amount about how not to poison people in my lab.”

She pointed at six labeled healing potions in a clear emergency glass box. “Which is why I go through so few of those in this lab, and you two go through so many.”

Rafe nodded toward the healing potions. “In our defense, people don’t often come in here and start shooting or casting dangerous spells at you.”

Katya stared at him with a frown. “I’ll concede you have a point.”

Izzie turned back toward the original potion. “I don’t like the idea that beyond the beast man transformation potion, we also have to worry about toxic cloud potions. Spin it how you want. In the end, that’s a chemical weapon.”

Katya pointed back toward the glass-covered negative pressure vent hood chamber holding colorful, filled flasks. “You don’t have to worry as much as you did with the other potion. The toxic cloud potion vaporizes when exposed to sufficient oxygen. It becomes a billowing toxic cloud.”

Rafe grimaced. “That could have been nasty.”

“Unlike the transformation potion, it requires a small amount of innate magic to fuel it. Otherwise, it’d just be an unpleasant smell, more sour than sweet, if you’re curious. It’s not a potion a nonmagical like Mathers could have used.”

“The question is why would Georgina Rosen need a potion like that?” Izzie asked. “She was a witch. She had more than enough innate magic to fuel a potion like that, but something like that isn’t your standard self-defense potion.”

Katya shrugged. “You’d know better than I would. Our full analysis only confirms that she didn’t create any of the potions you found in the alcove. Initial testing suggests the same for the potion residue collected from Lloyd Mathers’ apartment, at least the ones we could identify.”

“Do you think she was worried about someone coming after her?” Rafe looked around the lab, his gaze lingering on different assay setups. “She might not have known how to make a poison cloud potion, so she got one from somebody else in case Mathers or somebody like him showed up.”

“There are two distinct magicals who made those potions,” Katya noted. “Again, neither of those was Rosen. As for the limits of her knowledge, we verified beyond a doubt that she made the poison potion that killed her, and it has similar components to a potion in the hidden alcove cache. Anyone with a reasonable knowledge of potion crafting and that baseline knowledge would be able to make a cloud version of the potion.”

Izzie folded her arms. Every answer they found unearthed more questions. They had too many dead bodies and no guarantees that would be the end. Who were the victims? Who were the accomplices?

Rafe stared at the strong-smelling flask across the room. “Izzie suggested they might be prototypes. Recipes are great, but having a sample is even better. That’s as true for magic as other forms of creation.”

“That could be true,” Katya observed.

“It still doesn’t answer the question of who made the potions,” Izzie countered.

“We have another suspect,” Rafe reminded her.

Izzie sighed. “Yes, we have another suspect.”

She tried to put herself in the mind of the dead witch. It was difficult. They didn’t know much about her other than what they’d learned during the brief phone conversation the day before and their follow-up to verify her claims of EPA employment.

“Rosen was bitter about being pushed out of her job,” Izzie noted. “She took a big pay cut, too. Sourcing good ingredients for potion-making can be costly. Magical reagents in general are expensive. Agreeing to help someone in exchange for ingredients isn’t unusual.”

She looked at Katya. “Poison and poison cloud. Was there enough residue or residual magic in the vials collected from Mathers’ place to identify the original potions?”

Katya flicked her wrist toward a lab bench holding a tray of stoppered vials with different colored liquids near the back of the room. “We couldn’t verify the function of all the empty potions, but there was overlap between the alcove potions and a handful of the spent potions at Mathers’ home. That included one direct ingestion poison potion, a healing potion, and a type of exploding potion.”

Crime was like magic in that both favored exploitable patterns. Potions were a tool. Izzie needed to figure out how the tool was applied. That would help point her at the remaining culprits.

Georgina Rosen wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble to make a poison potion just to kill herself when things got tough. The wounds on her body also supported that theory. The range of the alcove potions and their mystery creator was the key to solving the mystery, but Izzie couldn’t connect them other than noticing a defensive theme.

“Besides the poison, toxic cloud, healing, and fire, was there anything else from Georgina Rosen’s alcove?”

“Oh, many dangerous potions of questionable legality and use.” Katya chuckled. “The highlights include strength enhancing potions, emotional manipulation potions, and lower power transformation potions.”

Rafe looked down at the floor, lost in thought for a few seconds. “More importantly, was there a beast man transformation potion among the group?”

Katya snapped her fingers. “You’ve anticipated me, Rafe. Yes, by cross-referencing the isolated potion component from the two beast men, we confirmed the presence of a beast man transformation potion in the alcove. It could be the prototype Izzie was thinking about.”

“But the signature of the potion points away from Rosen making it?” Izzie questioned. “If Rosen didn’t make the potion and my theory isn’t crap, this case is far from closed.”

“That’s correct. I’m almost certain someone else made the beast man potion found in the alcove. I’d testify to that in court, if necessary.”

Rafe waved his hand in front of his face and coughed again. “A little help, Izzie? This mask isn’t cutting it.” He pointed at her face. “And you haven’t had trouble since you cast your little spell.”

“Oh.” Izzie winced. She lifted her hands and cast the same spell protecting her nose. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“I don’t get how the techs here can take this assault.” Rafe grimaced.

“Good equipment and patience.” Katya smiled. “One builds up a tolerance to these things, much as you field agents build up a tolerance to violence and lies.” She pulled her goggles down. “I’ll send you the full report once we finish this last batch of tests. I presume my initial explanation is sufficient to satisfy your curiosity and push along your investigation?”

Rafe nodded. “It’d be better if we could track the maker of the remaining beast man potion, but at least we know we’re looking for someone else.”

“Rosen’s dead, and Mathers killed her,” Izzie stated. “I’m confident in that. It looks like Rosen was trying to copy dangerous potions that one or more unknown magicals created. Rosen’s linked to Erikson through the plant, but the overall product line wasn’t contaminated. That leaves Mathers’ phones as our best bet for figuring out what happened.”

“Have fun talking to analysis support.” Katya lifted her mask and headed toward her tech and the bubbling flask. “Unless you need a fundamental magical forensics analysis on the phone?”

Izzie headed toward the door. “No, this is more straightforward. We need to know who he was calling and who was calling him. I didn’t detect any magic from the phones.”

Rafe opened the door, hurried out of the lab, and removed his surgical mask. Izzie took one last look at the potion before following him and closing the door.

Izzie waited until they were halfway down the hall to dispel the magical facemasks. “Any theories on how Rosen’s tied to Erikson? It’s hard to ignore she worked in magical QA of the product. Anyone who wanted to tamper with the drink would need her out of the way or on their side, but she also made beast men potions.”

“I’m not convinced Erikson was that surprised about his transformation. His behavior from his clothes to what he said to the police officer and us showed he was agitated but in control. He understood what was happening to him. It’s unlikely that someone would go through a change like that without knowing why and remaining that calm until a cop stopped them for speeding.”

“Then Rosen gave him a transformation potion. How did he know about it to begin with? Did he go to her and ask for help? I doubt he went and said, ‘Give me a potion that gives me super-strength and minor regeneration.’” Izzie frowned. “Or he asked for a stamina potion, and she decided to use him as a test subject for her version of the beast man potion.”

Rafe shrugged. “It would be nice if she were still alive to ask. From what analysis support said, she didn’t have much online presence other than her work accounts. We weren’t able to find a journal or notes at her place. They haven’t found anything unusual in her financials yet, but like you said earlier, she could be operating in the magical barter community.”

“Then it circles back to Mathers and those two phones.” Izzie headed toward the elevator. “Time to check with analysis support.”

Izzie pored through the forensics reports on her computer at her desk, verifying that Katya hadn’t forgotten to mention anything important in their earlier discussion. After an hour of review, she rubbed her eyes. An alert popped up on her computer indicating a report from analysis support.

Their earlier visit to the AS office ended with the staff asking them to leave. The staff were in the middle of collating data and didn’t want the field agents looking over their shoulders until they were ready. With a promise of a report that day, Izzie and Rafe returned to their office.

“Izzie,” Rafe began. “It’s from AS.”

“I see it.” She clicked to open the report and skimmed the summary with a growing smile. “Only one of the phones was used that day. This guy liked to keep it clean. Huh. Pizza delivery. Oh. A single message to Rosen’s phone, ‘I’ll come and take care of them.’ That was two hours before we showed up. That’s a little suspicious. All these little coincidences are piling up to a picture of conspiracy.”

Rafe’s eyes tracked back and forth as he read the report on his computer. “You think Mathers was supposed to get us, too?”

“Could be. It’s a bold move.” Izzie was annoyed that Mathers thought they would be so easy to kill. “Murdering two PDA agents would only get them more attention, not less. He could have been there for something different, but it’s hard to interpret a message out of context.”

Rafe snapped his fingers. “What if he meant he was going to grab the hidden potions before we found them?”

“It could be. That would explain why her bedroom was trashed. That idiot thug killed her before he got the potions, then panicked because we showed up. If he knew about the meeting time, he knew he should hide we before got there. Then, what, he decided to ambush us?”

Rafe tapped his screen. “Excluding the pizza place and Rosen, there’s only one other call that day from his phone. Our warrant doesn’t cover the conversation, so we’ll send that off ASAP.”

He frowned. “It’s to a phone registered to an old woman who died last year, yet somehow is still paying her phone bill? He connected to the other phone, but the other side hung up immediately. Before then, the phone wasn’t used for six months. Did grandma rise from the grave?”

Izzie scoffed. “That’s a cute trick, but this time I don’t think there are any necromancers involved with maintaining phone company profits.”

“Do we want to wait for the warrant and see what the conversation was?”

“No. We’ll shake the bastard loose. We’re allowed to go after the phone because Mathers called them.” Izzie hopped up and cracked her knuckles. “We need to get field support tracking the phone. I don’t want to spook whoever’s holding onto our dead lady’s phone yet.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Early that evening, Izzie and Rafe pulled up alongside the parking lot of a small building deep in the Magical District. Field support was tracking the phone with the help of the phone company and routing the information straight to their phones. Not everything in a PDA investigation required a complicated magical process.

Rafe held up his phone from the passenger’s seat. “The signal leads inside. If it is a dead old woman, I’m going to be a little disturbed.”

Izzie snickered. “I’ll pay for a nice dinner for you if it’s a dead old woman.”

“Are you worried that this is easy?”

“Easy.” Izzie scoffed. “Getting this far hasn’t been that easy. Although I know what you mean. It’s been a while since we worked a case where we relied on something as straightforward as tracing a cell phone without magic.” She looked out the window at the building. “Yet we still ended up in the Magical District.”

Rafe shrugged. “Are you surprised? We’re chasing someone involved in producing dangerous magical transformation potions.”

Izzie frowned at the building. “I’m not surprised we’re in the Magical District. I am surprised we’re at a place like this.”

A neon sign read The Eastern Warren. Blinds blocked the few windows on the old brick building.

A red-faced dwarf in a tracksuit stumbled out of the short front door. He staggered away from the bar after eyeing their car and flipping them off.

“Bugger off, you suited pricks!” the dwarf shouted. “Kiss my strong dwarven ass!” He cackled at the top of his lungs and staggered down the sidewalk with both middle fingers in the air.

Rafe snickered. “Nice guy.”

“See what I mean?” Izzie nodded toward the building. “This doesn’t strike me as the hangout for a careful dark witch conspiring to contaminate a bunch of energy drinks.”

“Evil people like to relax, too.” Rafe chuckled and looked at his phone. “You want to talk to that dwarf about disrespecting federal agents?”

“I don’t worry about rude dwarves unless he’s the one carrying the phone.” She frowned. “He’s not the one with the phone, is he? That would be a little on the nose.”

Rafe checked his phone. “Nope. Our dead grandma is still inside.”

Izzie shook her head. “I don’t know this place. Do you?”

“According to the map, it’s a bar.”

In normal human bars, the worst Izzie expected was a gun. The problem with magical bars was the wide range of different creatures and species, all with different abilities. That was one of the reasons many minor magical crimes were passed off to the PDA. Flexible magic was needed to deal with an unpredictable threat.

“You haven’t heard of it in passing?”

Rafe shrugged. “It’s not like we’re going to know every bar in the Magical District.” He put his phone away. “Questioning drunk suspects in a bar is better than having to crawl through a sewer or a graveyard.”

“There could be a beast man berserker in there.”

Rafe grimaced. “I hope not.”

“Don’t worry.” Izzie snorted. “We’re also not done with this case yet. There’s plenty of time for us to end up in a sewer or graveyard.”

“Keeping that positive Izzie Berens attitude. I like it.” He gave her a thumbs-up.

She pulled off the street into a tight parking spot between two kei trucks. Both were painted with elaborate cave scenes featuring intricate glowing crystal formations and horrifying monsters sporting features of different terrestrial and Oriceran animals. Dwarves in shining armor wielding rune-inscribed axes and spears battled the monsters. The detailed artwork brought the scenes to life.

A group of small bicycles were secured to a metal bar running at the front of the parking lot with a surprising variety of mechanical and electronic locks. One had a visible magical ward carved into a stone tablet connected to a bronze chain. None of the bikes featured elaborate scenes unless a field of pink flowers counted as elaborate.

Rafe opened his door and surveyed the bikes. “Do dwarves ride bikes?”

“Some do.” Izzie shrugged. “Most of those bikes are still too small for the average dwarf.” She thought through other common smaller races in town. “Same thing for gnomes. It’s almost… I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Somebody small is riding bikes.”

“There better not be a bunch of little kids in a bar.” Rafe shook his head. “When I was growing up, we started with sneaking beers in the woods. Nobody tried sneaking into bars until they were eighteen or nineteen.”

Izzie eyed him. “You snuck beers?”

“Not so much me. I didn’t want to go to confession and admit something like that to my priest. I knew guys who did that, though.”

Izzie smirked. “I bet you spent more time at the library than sneaking beers.”

“It pays to be educated.” Rafe winked and nodded toward the bar. “Not knowing the place means it hasn’t caught law enforcement’s attention. That means less chance of trouble. It’s not a known hotspot.”

“Or that they’ve been better at hiding their crime.” Izzie stepped out of the car with a frown. “The careful criminal is the successful criminal.”

Strong overlapping magical flows radiated from the building. The background power flows in the Magical District always made it harder to pick out traps. Visualization spells could end up more distracting than useful.

Izzie discovered that the hard way during her early months on the job in Austin. She’d need to wait for the right time to use such a spell.

Rafe peered at the front door. “That door is about a half-foot shorter than the average from what I can tell.” He nodded toward the trucks with a smile. “By the way, do you recognize those?”

“Should I, beyond knowing they’re those little trucks popular in Asia?”

“They’re not just any trucks. They’re AELA trucks.”

Izzie stared at him. “BFMB?”

“The Austin Eastern Legendary Army,” Rafe explained with a hint of reverence. “Custom kei trucks are their thing. That and super-deadly magical hand-to-hand weapons. Enchanted axes, legendary swords, that type of weapon.”

She snapped her fingers. “Oh. Yeah. I’ve heard of them. The dwarves.”

Izzie eyed the trucks. She hadn’t worked any AELA cases since joining the PDA, but her understanding was that they were half-gang and half-neighborhood protection association. They had helped the PDA in the past by passing along information about magicals they considered troublemakers.

“Could Mathers’ old dwarf friend have AELA connections?”

“That’s what I was wondering.” Rafe headed toward the door. “None of that came up in his background info, but we both know how that goes.”

“You can’t find what people don’t know or what they know and don’t report.”

Rafe tapped his nose. “Bingo.” He stopped in front of the door. “Try not to offend the AELA if you can. We don’t have a reason to alienate them. They’re a good resource for us.”

“That’s up to them.” Izzie shrugged. “We can’t do anything if it turns out our suspect is one of them.” She frowned. “Then this whole place is a dwarven gang bar skirting local building regs?” She followed Rafe, glad she wasn’t tall.

Rafe chuckled. “I don’t know what Austin city regulations say about door sizes, to be honest. It's not our jurisdiction unless they’re violating a magical ordinance.”

“I’m not here to worry about building regs. All I care about is Mathers’ contract.”

They stopped in front of the bar near the door and waited outside for a minute. Nobody else came out. The drunk dwarf was out of sight down the darkened street, no doubt offering his charm and rude gestures to the rest of the Magical District.

“Ready?” Izzie asked.

“We’re not doing a raid.” Rafe nodded at the door. “And it’s only the two of us. Keep that in mind.”

“Too many situations turn nasty for me not to expect trouble.”

Izzie opened the door and entered, followed by Rafe, who ducked his head to make it through. Once inside, despite being taller than her and the low ceiling, he didn’t have to hunch or lean over.

Quiet music played from speakers in the corners of the room. The technology was human, but the music didn’t sound like it came from human musicians. Strange squeaking and wordless singing combined with odd, staccato flute notes in a dissonant, melancholic chord progression that didn’t sound local. Izzie couldn’t articulate why the rhythms unsettled her.

Dwarves in leather jackets featuring embroidered ax and spear patches on the back and elbows filled up the front seats at the main bar. Many wore belts with sheaths for knives.

A handful of gnomes sat at tables here and there throughout the room. More unusual, small groups of Willens sat at the small tables, all in groups of two or three, all clustered together in one corner of the bar. Most but not all of the bipedal rat-like creatures wore bright yellow vests, all tailored to their size. The average Willen was no taller than a smallish dog standing on its hind legs.

The bartender was also a Willen. Unlike most of his customers, he wore a white shirt with a black bowtie. The overall effect was cute. The floor behind the bar was raised to allow him to reach his customers.

Everyone in the bar stopped talking and turned to stare at the tall newcomers. Once they got a good look, they returned to chattering among themselves. No one’s attention lingered despite the lack of other human-sized patrons.

Izzie leaned over to whisper to Rafe. “You know anything about yellow vest-wearing Willens? I assume the jacket guys are all AELA, but what about the Willens?”

Rafe shook his head. “No clue. Nothing’s come up in briefings from the FBI or Austin PD about any new Willen gangs.”

“Which means our yellow vests are new or keep to themselves.”

“How do you want to play this?” Rafe reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “The tracking resolution’s good enough to indicate our target phone is in the room, but not good enough to pinpoint the specific carrier.”

Izzie offered him a hungry smile. “Why not play this the straightforward way?”

“I’ll back your move. Just remember what I said about the AELA.”

Izzie pulled out her badge and held it up. “Excuse me, everyone, may I have your attention?”

Everybody stopped talking and stared at Izzie.

“PDA. We’re not here to cause trouble for most of you, only one of you, so I’ll make this easy. Somebody here knew Lloyd Mathers. If you don’t know who that is, go back to drinking and have a good night. We have no problems with you.”

She smiled. “Otherwise, please come with us. We have questions for you, and if you cooperate, you might be able to go home tonight.”

The patrons all exchanged confused looks. Nobody spoke, only the unsettling music played. Izzie assumed it was Willen music. The entire crowd burst out laughing.

“Get out of here, PDA,” shouted a dwarf in a leather jacket featuring a patch with a flaming battle ax splitting a skull. “Your kind isn’t wanted here. This is our place.”

A yellow-vested Willen raised his tiny cup. “Yeah. Get out of here. This is our bar, you furless sky kissers. Nobody here knows a sky kisser named Lloyd Mathers.”

The bar erupted with overlapping insults and shouts. Dwarves pounded their mugs and glasses. The Willens waved their clawed fists. Nobody drew a weapon or made a move more threatening than waving their fists, so Izzie kept her arms down.

Rafe smiled at Izzie. “I don’t know if the straightforward way was the best in this case.”

Izzie folded her arms, ignoring all the profanities and foul gestures. “We’re not leaving until we find our guy.”

“Quiet!” bellowed a gray-bearded dwarf on the other end of the bar. The music died. Once silence returned, he grunted. “I can’t enjoy my drink with all the shouting.” He nodded toward Izzie. “If you all are going to start trouble with them two, make sure you know who you’re fighting. That’s Izzie Berens there.”

Rafe chuckled. “Nobody ever says, ‘That’s Rafael Martinez.’”

“There are advantages to that,” Izzie replied. “But if more people knew what went down with that necromancer, they’d say that.” She shrugged and faced the crowd. “Half of this room is full of AELA. I know the AELA doesn’t want trouble in your territory. We’re trying to stop trouble from arising. Simple as that.”

Furtive murmurs replaced the silence. Many of the patrons returned to their drinks and averted their eyes. A dwarf stared at Izzie with undisguised hatred, but others looked more sympathetic now.

“See, Rafe? It’s not always good to be popular.” Izzie frowned. “Come on, everybody. We’re back to my original question. Lloyd Mathers. Somebody in this bar knows him.”

“We need to switch up tactics,” Rafe whispered. “I have a trickier idea. Listen for the phone and look for anyone reacting.”

“Okay.” Izzie nodded. “Go for it.”

He pulled out his phone and dialed. A jaunty tune sounded from a far table. A Willen wearing a cloak and a dark backpack jumped out of his chair and squeaked. His head jerked back and forth.

“Good move.” Izzie crooked a finger. “We need you to come talk to us, sir. We have a few questions for you.”

The Willen’s whiskers twitched. “No, no, no. I can’t go. Other places to go. Appointments. Important appointments.”

Izzie kept her broad smile and a light tone. “Yes, you have somewhere to go. You’re coming with us. Don’t make this hard. The last thing I want to do is catch you when you’re falling off a building.”

The Willen squeaked. “Falling off a building? No, no, no.”

He tilted his head and stared at Izzie. He locked eyes with her. His pupils twirled as he rubbed his paws together.

Izzie jerked her head to the side to break eye contact and threw up her palm. “I’ve tried being nice about this. And you tried to hypnotize me? Not a good move. You’re trying my patience.”

Rafe gave her a look of warning and shook his head. Everyone was watching. The yellow-vest Willens stood on top of their chairs, ready to pounce.

“We have no problems with the rest of you,” Izzie called. “This Willen is a material witness in an ongoing investigation. Stay out of our way, and we’ll stay out of your way.”

The nervous Willen scurried for an emergency exit as soon as Izzie took her eyes off him. He made it through the door before she could get the spell off. The remaining patrons grumbled as a shrill alarm sounded.

“Sweep around the other side,” Izzie shouted to Rafe and sprinted toward the emergency exit. “We can’t let him get away.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Izzie burst through the emergency exit. The Willen disappeared around a corner, the lingering tip of his tail betraying his position. She ran after him and tossed off a wild stun bolt, hoping a graze might slow him. Her spell struck a nearby brick wall, the magical energy dissipating without leaving a mark.

The Willen’s loud squeak echoed in the alley. He knew she was close.

“Stop running!” Izzie shouted, annoyed by how fast the little rat man could move.

“No, no, no,” the Willen shrieked, his high-pitched shrill voice echoing. “Go away, Izzie Berens! You get nothing from me. I tell you nothing. I saw nothing. I heard nothing.”

“All you had to do was talk to me.”

She cleared the corner, ready to cast another stun bolt. A vial filled with a red sloshing liquid tumbled toward her with magic radiating off it. It was a potion.

Not wanting to risk everything from an explosion to a toxic cloud, Izzie jumped to the side and started her chant to summon a shield spell. The vial struck the hard asphalt and blew apart in a green-blue blast that slammed her against the wall before she could finish her spell.

She grimaced and fell to one knee, her arm on fire from the collision. The Willen stood at the other end of the alley, grasping more potion vials. Between running out of the bar and down the alley, he’d tossed on an entire bandolier filled with potions sloshing around in tiny, thin glass vials. A different colored liquid filled each.

He danced back and forth. “I defeated Izzie Berens,” he sang. “I defeated Izzie Berens! I’m the strongest Willen. Yes, yes, yes!”

Izzie jumped to her feet and conjured her shield. A quick flash and a faint glow around her signaled the spell's completion. “Are you going out of your way to piss me off? Because from where I stand, you just tried to kill me, you little asshole.”

The Willen squeaked and shook the potions in his paws. “Value your life. Yes, yes, yes. Value your life, Izzie Berens. Do not face the strongest Willen in the world.”

She snorted. This was getting ridiculous. She didn’t want to waste time feeding a Willen’s ego.

“I could say the same thing to you,” she shouted. “Lloyd Mathers murdered someone and tried to kill two PDA agents. You have no idea how deep a hole you’re in. Stop digging, or I’ll drag you out of that hole no matter how many bones I need to break doing it.”

The Willen crouched low near a corner and hissed. “No jail for me. No, no, no. No jail for me. You can’t take me, Izzie Berens.”

He hurled an orange potion at Izzie. She replied with a stun bolt. He scurried around the corner, the bolt zipping past the edge of his tail.

His weak arm and poor aim couldn’t send the vial the full distance. The potion struck the ground yards short of Izzie. The orange liquid sizzled and spread out as a thick orange cloud.

Izzie held her breath and jogged backward. She raised her hand and flowed through a quick motion combined with a chant to push the cloud up and to the side with a gust of hard wind. There was no way she would let a rat with delusions of grandeur get away from her. His stubbornness concerned her that he knew something useful.

Heart pounding, she sprinted down the alley and passed through the wind-cleared path. The Willen’s scurrying footsteps betrayed his position.

Izzie frowned, realizing something important. The Willen’s path was sweeping him back toward the parking lot. Rafe could cut him off as long as she maintained the pressure.

That didn’t stop Izzie from wanting to take the Wilen down when she spotted him again. He’d not only embarrassed her, but he’d also hurt her with a dangerous potion. This wasn't a game. It was time for him to learn that.

She lifted her arm, eager to stun him. Another vial hit the ground, and a wall of thick vines grew from the dark green fluid until they blocked her way and stretched more than a foot over her height.

“Ha!” the Willen shouted. “Izzie Berens is not so tough. Furless sky kisser!”

“This is starting to get annoying. Remember I’m trying to take you alive, you damned idiot.”

She jumped, grabbed the top of the vine wall, pulled herself up, and vaulted over. She was grateful she hadn’t skipped her upper-body days at the gym. Too many of her cases in the last few months involved running and jumping after someone.

The Willen wasn’t that different from most suspects. Almost everybody ran, convinced their special abilities or magic would save them. She couldn’t remember the last time a suspect surrendered without a chase or fight.

Izzie cleared the wall and landed in a crouch. Her taunting Willen was already gone. A loud shriek cut through the air from the parking lot. A bright flash lit up the darkened street.

Panting, she ran toward the parking lot while layering another shield over herself with a wheezing chant. By the time she returned to the parking lot, the Willen lay on the ground. Rafe pinned him with a knee and covered him with his gun.

“You shouldn’t have run.” Rafe reached up and adjusted the sunglasses Izzie just noticed. “Too bad for you they updated these with anti-blinding a couple months back.”

“No, no, no.” The Willen squirmed, trying to twist his face to look up at Rafe. “Let me go, sky kisser. You have no right to arrest me.”

“Close your eyes,” Rafe barked. “A hypnotic special ability will be treated as assault against a federal agent.”

The Willen groaned and closed his eyes. “Unfair, unfair, unfair. This is all unfair. You are a petty man with petty rules. Damned human laws.”

“You’re under arrest.” Rafe frowned. “You have the right to remain silent.” He lifted his gun once he spotted Izzie. “You have the right to an attorney.”

She kept her palm pointed at the squirming Willen. “You really should have come with us when we asked. Try anything else, and you’ll get a stun bolt to the face. Understand?”

“I understand,” the Willen answered.

“What’s your name? Don’t dare lie to me. I’m not in the mood.”

“Eastlow.” The Willen squeaked and scraped his claws on the ground. “I thought I defeated Izzie Berens.”

She smirked. “No, no, no. There’s no way you could take me down.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Eastlow sat in a booster seat in a human-sized chair in a PDA secure interrogation room. He rubbed his paws together and reached for the tiny sunglasses they’d given him during processing. Willen hypnotism was an inherent ability related to magic but didn’t require active magical energy to work. The anti-magic field flowing through the room wouldn’t stop him from hypnotizing people.

Izzie glared at him across the table. She sat next to Rafe with her arms folded. “Don’t take those glasses off unless you want us to be unhappy.” She thought for a moment before adding, “Unhappier.”

“Izzie Berens is annoying,” Eastlow declared. “Very annoying.”

She smiled. “My mother dealt with Willens when she first got involved in the magical world. Destiny has a funny way of putting Willens and Berens women together, with you all losing.”

Eastlow wiggled his fingers and swayed back and forth. “The PDA can’t blame a rat for trying.”

Rafe chuckled. “Is that your idea of a joke?”

“Sky kissers are always too serious. You’re obsessed with your laws and treasure rather than only treasure.”

“Yes, in fact, we can blame a rat for trying.” Izzie scoffed. “You’re in big trouble, Eastlow. Are you sure you about waiving your right to a lawyer?”

“I don’t trust you sky kissers. Earth laws are stupid. Everything’s stealing here according to humans. I had an Earth lawyer once. He told me to admit I was a thief. Nobody lets anyone borrow treasure. What’s so wrong about borrowing treasure?” Eastlow folded his arms with a harumph and lifted his head.

“It’s not that different on Oriceran,” Izzie observed. “Taking things that don’t belong to you is stealing there, too.”

“When people give it to you, it’s not stealing. It’s borrowing treasure. Yes, yes, yes. Or a gift!”

“You’re right. Hypnotizing someone to take their property isn’t theft. It’s robbery.”

Eastlow stopped swaying. “Izzie Berens uses her powers to hunt others. Willens use their power to borrow treasure. How are we different?”

“Hypnotizing…” Izzie scoffed. “You know what? I don’t have time for a pointless debate with a criminal. This is about way more than petty theft and about more than what you tried to do to us. To be honest, I don’t know how much I’d care if all you were doing was stealing random crap.”

Rafe folded his arms. “These aren’t minor charges, my Willen friend. We’re talking real prison time.”

Eastlow raked his claws across the table. “I’m not scared of you. I’ve faced human police before.”

“Then why’d you run?” Rafe asked. “People run when they’re scared.”

“I was worried two tall sky kisser creeps would hurt me.” Eastlow chittered, a laugh of sorts. “They tried, but I⁠—”

“You got your ass handed to you by the nonmagical in this partnership,” Izzie observed. “Slamming me against the wall didn’t mean you won against me, either.”

Eastlow harumphed and turned his head. He folded his arms, and his tail twitched. “You have no proof. My treasure is mine.”

“Including all the questionable potions? Forgot those for now. You were caught carrying a stolen phone.” Izzie rolled her eyes, almost impressed by the Willen’s gall. “A dead woman’s phone.”

“I’ve never killed a human. I’ve never killed anyone. No, no, no.” Eastlow shook a claw at her. “You lie, Izzie Berens. Liar, liar, liar.”

“I didn’t say you killed her. I said you’re carrying her phone. She died of natural causes.” Izzie narrowed her eyes. “Somehow, you got your hands on her phone and kept paying her bill. Or someone else did until they handed you the phone. Impressive. Apparently, nobody ever bothered to check with the company.”

Eastlow pulled his head back. His nose twitched.

Izzie stood. She walked around the table until she loomed over Eastlow. “But that doesn’t change the reality. You attacked two PDA agents. You’re in big trouble no matter what, and I doubt you’re the person we’re looking for, which is why we’re having this conversation. I’m trying to give you a chance to do the right thing and save your tail at the same time.”

Eastlow chittered. “The PDA should hunt true evil. Willens don’t kill people. We only take treasure. We’re not dark wizards or evil Atlantean queens.”

Izzie leaned over the table and glared at the Willen. “A nonmagical human turned into a beast man and tried to kill a cop. He also tried to kill us. Another beast man ambushed us at the house of a dead potions witch. Any of this ringing any bells in your tiny little thieving brain?”

Eastlow shrugged. “Austin is Austin. Weird, weird, weird. Strange things. Too many tall people. It’s hard to breathe when you’re so tall. The air is too thin. It makes you do foolish things.”

Izzie walked back around the table. She dropped into her chair and waited for Rafe to slide into good-cop mode.

Rafe laughed. “Grade-school insults. Good for you, Eastlow, but you need to understand the situation.”

“I ran because a crazed human and a human-elf tried to kill me.”

Rafe motioned at Eastlow. “First of all, you carried a pile of dangerous potions. More importantly, you carried a potion that our lab already tentatively matched to potions we believe were responsible for two violent transformation incidents. What was the headline I saw last night? That’s right. I’m sure you’ve seen it. ‘Second werewolf incident rocks Austin.’”

Izzie scowled at Eastlow. “Second, we know you were in contact with Lloyd Mathers. All of this is adding up in a bad way for you.”

“Lloyd Mathers. Is that a weird incantation?” Eastlow’s tail thrashed behind him, and he clapped his paws together. “Anti-magic room’s going to make spells hard, Fixer’s daughter. Yes, yes, yes. Take me outside and try your Lloyd Mathers spell on me.”

“My dad’s not the one you need to worry about. The Department of Justice could send you to prison for years for your potion stunt outside the bar alone. I hope you like human prison food.”

Eastlow shook his head. “No, no, no. No prison for me, sky kisser.”

“We traced a phone call on the day Lloyd Mathers turned into a potion-enhanced beast man and attacked us to the phone you carried. Lloyd Mathers tried to kill us, and we have him at the scene of another likely murder. The question is how you fit into all of this. This is where you need to get it through your thick skull that you’re not talking or insulting your way out of this.”

Rafe offered a disarming smile to Eastlow. “You’re going down, no matter what. It’s only a question of how hard. I don’t care that much, but I figure you do.”

Eastlow lifted his head in a haughty gesture. “Name my crimes.”

Izzie stared at him. “Are you serious? Are you messing with us?”

“No, no, no. Name my crimes.”

Rafe raised his finger. “Resisting arrest. Obstruction of justice. They could toss that in there.” He ticked off a second finger. “Assault on a federal agent, maybe even attempted murder depending on how the prosecutor feels.”

He ticked off a third finger. “Possession of controlled magical substances.” He chuckled. “That’s only counting the potions you threw at us. Oh, and we found five stolen phones in your backpack, including the one we called you on. Add possession of stolen goods to the list.”

“I found those phones on the street,” Eastlow countered. “People should be better with their treasures. It’s not wrong to pick something up that’s in the street. That’s not theft. That’s scavenging. Not a crime.”

Izzie scoffed. “It’s a crime when you take it from people. I’m sure if we cross-reference theft reports, we’ll find at least one about a Willen matching your description around somebody who lost their phone. What did you do, hypnotize them into giving them up?”

Rafe smiled at Eastlow. “A Willen of your obvious intelligence should want to do everything he can to reduce his sentence. Prison isn’t fun. Don’t think you’ll enjoy prison just because we don’t have Trevilsom here. Remember, everything’s designed around human proportions. It’ll be annoying just getting through your day. They only make minor accommodations for nonhuman-sized prisoners.”

“No crimes.” Eastlow shook his head. “I threw potions in self-defense when Izzie Berens came to kill me. I didn’t know you were PDA.” His eyes darted back and forth. “I can’t help it if a human criminal called a phone I scavenged.”

“You didn’t know we were PDA?” Izzie asked.

Eastlow nodded. “You can’t trust scary sky kissers.”

“What about the part where we announced we were PDA and showed our badges? Did you forget about that?”

Eastlow turned toward her, his mouth locked in a grimace-like expression that she presumed was a Willen version of a smirk. “Anyone can show a badge. Maybe you stole the badges from PDA. You didn’t show the full badge spell.”

Izzie glared at him. “You sang a damned song about defeating Izzie Berens.”

“Who sang a song? No, no, no. I sang no song. Liar, liar, liar.”

Izzie rolled her eyes. “We could use a truth spell on you.”

“I know the rules, the human laws. Your judges won’t accept truth spells. No prison for me with truth spells.” Eastlow chittered. His tail twitched.

Izzie laughed and nodded toward him. “Listen to Mr. Eastlow, Esquire, Willen jailhouse lawyer. He’s under the delusion that he’s in control of this situation.”

Her smile vanished, and she slammed her fist on the table, rattling it. Eastlow hissed, and his tail straightened.

“You don’t get it.” Izzie scowled at him. “Let me spell it out for you. The attacks and potions you had on you alone are enough for you to go down. We know you were tied to Lloyd Mathers. Unless you give us something right damned now, we’ll call up the US attorney and tell him to throw you in prison for ten years with nothing but peanut butter sandwiches for every meal.”

“I told you I scavenged that phone. Izzie Berens hates Willen. She said it was destiny for Berens women to come after us.”

“That’s not what I said.”

Rafe pulled out his phone and scrolled. “A judge signed off on our warrant for electronics records search. That means by the end of the day, we’ll have a recording of you talking to Mathers.”

He smiled. “He was a dumb human thug. I’m sure it’ll be a straightforward conversation where you say all sorts of incriminating things.”

“That could be any Willen’s voice. We all sound the same to you humans.” Eastlow scratched his claws together. He shivered, and his whiskers thrashed. “No, no, no. No real proof.” His tail wouldn’t stop twitching. “All I do is provide products to people who want them. I scavenge the lost treasures. I’m not a criminal.”

Izzie stared at him. She kept quiet, watching him thrash and twitch in discomfort. His confidence was failing.

“We’re aware of your record. This isn’t your first time in trouble. You’ve had run-ins with the human authorities in Seattle, Los Angeles, El Paso, and Austin. You have sticky little fingers.”

“Those were all mistakes.” Eastlow’s tail stopped witching. “Not big problems.” He chittered. “You don’t understand with your earlier threats. Your jails are so large for my kind. Cells are big. The beds are wide. It’s luxury for a Willen.”

Izzie almost admired his stubborn defiance. She had caught people with far less evidence who cracked the minute they arrived at the PDA building and suffered one glare from her.

“That’s the thing. You’re a small-timer. Petty theft. Pickpocketing. Fraud. I’ll give you this. We didn’t see anything violent, and most of your crimes are so low-key you’ve stayed under the PDA’s radar.” She glanced at Rafe and laughed. “He’s a Willen who couldn’t stop getting caught by regular cops. He’s not exactly a dark wizard master.”

Eastlow gouged the table with his long, thin claws and hissed. “Then send me to the nonmagical police.”

Izzie eyed the scratches and looked up. “You’re at the center of a PDA investigation, and you threw dangerous potions during your arrest. We’re not cutting you loose to the locals, no matter what happens.”

She pointed at him. “This time you were violent, and we have a long list of felony charges. You’re going to real prison. You’ve pissed me off enough that if I ask around, I’m sure they’ll get federal funding to make you a little Willen-sized cell. Nobody wants you to have a good time in prison. No luxury bed for you.”

Rafe smiled. “Or it doesn’t have to be that way.”

Eastlow squinted at Rafe. “You’re going to let me go.”

“Those glasses you’re wearing block your hypnotism ability. And we can’t let you go. That said, you’re a Willen. You couldn’t have made those potions you threw at us, and we know you didn’t make the potions at the center of our case. That means you’re not the mastermind behind this.

“Be smart. Give them up and shave a few years off your sentence. Who made the beast man berserker potions?”

Izzie glared at Eastlow. “Don’t tell us it was Mathers. We know he’s nothing more than a small-time thug who doesn’t have the brain cells to do anything but attack people. You’re a genius compared to him.”

Georgina Rosen was the obvious suspect, but all their available forensic evidence undercut that theory. Someone else besides a thief, a thug, and the potions witch was involved. Izzie was sure of it. Eastlow was the key to the heart of the case. They just had to get through his defenses.

Eastlow’s whiskers twitched. He frowned and raised a paw, ready to protest before hanging his head. “I didn’t know about beast potions. No, no, no.” He punctuated each no with a headshake. “That wasn’t the deal.”

“Then tell us the deal,” Izzie pressed. “Because we’re not interested in you. We’re interested in whoever was at the center of this. Give them up. If anything, you should want them to go down, too. They’re the reason we’re so aggressive about this case. Did you know Georgina Rosen, the potions witch?”

Eastlow stared at her, blinking his beady, dark eyes. “Use your truth spell. I don’t know a potions witch.”

“Then who?” Izzie shouted. “Tell us!”

“A wizard,” he squeaked.

Rafe frowned. “A wizard? Not a witch? You’re sure.”

Eastlow’s whiskers twitched. “I can tell the difference between human males and females. They are ugly in different ways.”

“How do you know it was a wizard?”

“He cast spells and had a wand. What do you think he was, a shifter?” Eastlow chittered.

“Would you recognize him if you saw him again?” Rafe asked.

Eastlow shook his head. “He used a different face and voice every time.”

Rafe frowned. “Then how did you know it was him?”

“Same wand. Same words.”

Izzie tensed. She wouldn’t put it past the Arcane Syndicate to send another shapeshifter into Austin. Still, she had no proof this incident had anything to do with them other than an obsessive desire to link them to every major case in the city.

“How did you meet him?” Rafe asked.

“A month ago, the wizard approached me when I was on my way home one day. He said he’d pay me in money and treasures to help him give potions to people.”

“Is that where you got all the potions you were carrying?”

Eastlow nodded. “Not all. Many. I bought and traded for others with my new money and treasure. So many shiny treasures at my home. I became a Willen of fame. Even the Yellow Backs respected my treasure.”

Izzie drew a deep breath. They were finally getting somewhere. “You’re talking about the illegal distribution of controlled magical compounds. Why did you agree to that? Even if you didn’t care about anything else, you had to worry about the risk of being arrested.”

“The wizard said they would all be for fun.” Eastlow looked away. “Potions that made people feel good and let them see fun. He said it was all safe, that they’d been used on Oriceran before, but human laws cared only about taxes and rules. He needed someone to help him. He had a couple of special jobs for me, deliveries. I didn’t think anything of it.”

“Are you telling me you believed this wizard? That he was just a guy who didn’t like taxes? Come on. You’re not that stupid.”

Eastlow shrugged. “I didn’t ask too many questions. I wanted the money and treasure. Why would I think he wanted to give potions that made humans into beasts? How do you get treasure from that? It’s foolish even for wizards.”

Izzie glared at him. “Dark wizards don’t always care about money.”

Eastlow cocked his head. “He didn’t look like a dark wizard.” He tapped his claw on the edge of the desk. “He offered me a way to get treasure. I agreed. No one was supposed to get hurt.”

“How does Mathers fit into all of this?” Izzie pointed at him. “Don’t you dare pretend again you don’t him.”

She tried to think back to their encounter. The thug hadn’t said anything that useful.

“I needed help to sell potions. Mathers agreed to help me.” He tilted his head as if listening to something quiet in the distance.

“Humans don’t trust Willens because we look like Earth rats. If we go outside the Magical District, we stand out. No, no, no. He didn’t stand out. He was good for deliveries outside the Magical District. Yes, yes, yes.”

Izzie nodded. “You used Mathers as a dealer outside the Magical District. Okay. How did you know him to begin with?”

“He helped me find treasures before, things people left, and I scavenged, all very fair. In exchange, he only asked for a small amount of my treasure.”

“In other words, he helped you pick robbery targets.” Izzie snorted. “What about the wizard? What’s his name?”

Eastlow shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Izzie repeated, her tone infused with deep skepticism. “You started an illegal potions distribution business with a wizard you’d have trouble picking out of a crowd, and you don’t know his name, contact address, or have a phone number? I take it back. You’re a legendary-grade idiot.”

Eastlow’s whiskers twitched. “I didn’t need a name. He comes to my home every few days to talk and give me more potions. Why do I need a name or phone number when we talk in person?”

Rafe frowned. “You never dealt with a potions witch named Georgina Rosen? Are you sure?”

“Not that I know of. She could have been one of my deliveries. The wizard gave me addresses. I had them delivered by Mathers.”

Izzie rattled off Rosen’s address. “That sound familiar?”

Eastlow’s eyes widened. “I was supposed to deliver a special potion to that address. I had Mathers deliver to there before.”

“Did Mathers ever meet the wizard?”

“Once.” Eastlow shrugged.

Izzie nodded. They had connected Eastlow, Rosen, Mathers, and a wizard who might have created the original potion.

“When is your next scheduled meeting with the wizard?” Rafe asked.

“Tomorrow.”

The universe liked mocking the PDA. That was the only explanation.

Izzie looked at Rafe. “Damn it. We were too public grabbing him. There’s no way the wizard will come, and I don’t want to scare him off.”

“We can put out the word we lacked evidence and had to let Eastlow go,” Rafe suggested. “We can put a physical tracker and a spell tracker on him to be sure he doesn’t run. A wizard who shows up every couple of weeks in person to talk and uses a Willen to help him distribute isn’t exactly a guy sitting around on the net reading the mainstream news twenty-four-seven. A day turnaround isn’t great, but it’s workable. The worst thing that happens is nothing?”

“You’re right. It’s worth a shot.” Izzie stared at Eastlow. “We can call someone about a deal right away if you’re willing to help.

“Think about this before you answer. You got played. You helped distribute a dangerous potion that’s led to at least three people dying that we know of. Now, you can continue playing games, or you can shave years off your sentence and help us track down a wizard who’s getting people killed and hiding behind you to do his dirty work.”

“No, no, no.” Eastlow lowered his head. “I don’t kill. All I wanted was treasure. I’ll help you.” He chittered. “I want my deal first.”

“Fair enough.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

By the time Izzie drove home, it was well past midnight. They had to get a US attorney to sign off on a conditional plea bargain and convince their boss.

Bill greenlit their desperate plan to bait Eastlow’s wizard supplier, along with long-distance surveillance of the Willen’s apartment and phone monitoring. Armed with an expedited warrant, their review of the phone call between Eastlow and Mathers, including past calls, proved the link. However, the bulk of the conversations were them arranging times and locations for meetings.

There wasn’t much to do until the following evening or analysis support finished their work. If the plan failed, they would have to come up with a new way to track down the mysterious wizard.

Her phone rang. She checked the caller ID, surprised to see the call was from Caden.

She sighed, unsure of whether to take the call. The other night was relaxing, but she needed a good, long sleep to be ready for everything the following day. The long hours and battles were taking their toll.

She wished she could be more like her parents. They had met and grown closer together during a dangerous adventure. Maybe if the Seventh Order had never hunted her, she wouldn’t have to spend so much time reclaiming her existence and relearning what it meant to live a normal life.

Izzie stopped at a red light and pressed a button on her car’s console to link the phone to the car’s speakers. Avoiding Caden was cowardly. “Isn’t it a little late for a date? I’m sorry. Tonight’s not going to work. I have major movement on the case tomorrow.”

Caden chuckled. “As much as seeing you is always a pleasure, this is about business.”

“Business as in my investigation?”

“Yes. You asked for my help, remember? Or was that just sweet talk?”

Izzie’s breath caught. “No, if you have something about the case, I’d love to hear it.”

“Are you at home or the PDA? I’m not trying to be cute with this timing. It just worked out that way.”

“I’m on my back to my apartment.” Izzie checked her mirrors to ensure no one was following her. “What’s this about?”

“It’s about something we can’t discuss over an unsecured line.”

“It’s that sensitive?”

“Yes. I’ll meet you at your place.” Caden’s tone lost all mirth.

Izzie hesitated. “You’re serious? You’re not messing with me?”

“I’m always serious when it comes to my job.”

Izzie accelerated with the green light. Every new piece of information tightened the net around the criminal at the center of the conspiracy. She wasn’t sure yet whether that was Eastlow’s supplier or someone else.

“Okay. I’ll see you soon. Oh, and thanks. I appreciate this.”

“You’re welcome.”

When Izzie arrived at her apartment, Caden stood in the hallway with his hands in his jacket pockets, waiting for her. He smiled and nodded toward the door. His presence soothed her so much that she reminded herself this was about the case.

“I want to make it clear I didn’t time this to be annoying.” He winked. “The information just came in. It took a little time to verify it. Then I called you.”

“That’s okay. All I care about is that it’s relevant.”

She unlocked her door and ushered him inside. Once she closed and locked the door, she watched him and waited for the expected flows of magic from his gadgets.

Caden pulled his hands out of his pockets. “I assume that unless you upgraded your wards yesterday, using a sound inverter and a couple other anti-spying toys isn’t useless.”

“By the way, I want to make one thing clear.” Izzie trudged to the couch as an intrusive thought distracted her. “If this is about the Willen potions dealer, we’re not letting him go.

“If you found out he’s a big super-threat to the country, we can reel him back in after tomorrow. Until then, we need him out there. Don’t worry. We’re tracking him magically and technologically. We have it under control.”

“I was aware you caught and cut him loose. I didn’t know you had a plan, but I figured it was something like that. We didn’t get a formal agency notice that your press release was bullshit, but it felt a little off, and I get that the PDA can’t handhold the DIA on everything.”

Izzie grimaced. Caden figured it out. There was a good chance the dark wizard might.

“That’s just a story we’ve passed out there. We’re closing in on somebody, a wizard at the real center of all this, or closer to the center. He supplied our Willen with potions he was using our second beast man Mathers to give to others, including Rosen.”

Caden walked to the couch and sat beside Izzie with a soft smile. “You’re overworked. You know how I can tell?”

“I’m still awake, and it’s past midnight?” She shrugged. “You know how it goes. When the investigation’s hot, I work more. It’s the same for you.”

He shook his head. “No, I know you’re overworked because your first instinct on the phone was to think I called for you rather than about the case. It sounded like you forgot you asked me to keep you in the loop of anything the DIA found out.”

Izzie frowned. “You think it’s strange that I thought you wanted to spend time with me?”

Caden laughed and shook his head. “You don’t get it. Your general tendency is to think I’m calling you about cases rather than the opposite. You’ve been that way since I met you.”

“I don’t do that.” Izzie scoffed and tried to think back to her recent calls with Caden.

“You do. That’s why it’s ironic that it’s the opposite.” Caden grinned. “Don’t get all spun up. I think it’s⁠—”

“Don’t say cute.” Izzie grimaced. “Cute makes me sound like a little pixie. I’m not a cute little pixie.”

He grinned. “I like seeing you this way.”

“Frustrated and annoyed? Isn’t that my default?” She pulled off her jacket and draped it over the back of the couch. “That’s why you and everybody else keep telling me I need to relax more.”

“Sometimes I can’t always tell what you think about me. It’s good to see you let the hard PDA agent mask fall and the real woman underneath show herself.”

“This isn’t the mask. This is who I am.”

“Yes, it is.” Caden leaned so close his hot breath blew across her face. “You’ve worn the mask so long that you forgot it was a mask.”

Izzie’s heart rate kicked up. Her face burned, and she turned her head. It was nice to be wanted that way. The more time they spent together, the more she could let her guard down.

But this wasn’t the time. She needed to keep her focus before another beast man appeared or the wizard decided to stop playing around behind the scenes.

Izzie stared at the wall. She couldn’t look Caden in the eye. “We can flirt later.” Her uncertain tone annoyed her. “You said this was business. You mentioned verifying something. What do you have for me?”

“It was a combination of verifying and red tape,” Caden clarified. “I received the information earlier today, and beyond the verification, I spent half the day getting clearance to pass it along to the PDA.” His smile faded. “The topline takeaway is the military has encountered the beast man berserker potion before.”

Izzie’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

“It’s something they’ve quietly had military intelligence assets look into, including different groups within the military and the DIA. The CIA is helping a little, but they’ve been trying to keep it more in-house with the Department of Defense. They didn’t want it leaking too much, but this Austin situation has blown that up.”

Izzie frowned. “You…” She took a deep breath. “Okay, you just said you didn’t know, so I can’t be pissed at you. But what about the DIA and the military? They should have reached out much sooner once the first beast man berserker appeared.”

Caden nodded. Now he was the one who couldn’t look her in the eyes. “I agree. I don’t have a defense. There are too many people at the top who are more concerned about watching their asses and acting like it’s forty years ago.”

He glanced at her blinds and frowned. “I swear this was the first I’ve heard about this.”

“I know.” Izzie sighed. “I trust you, so that’s why I have to ask. Do you think there’s a conspiracy with the military? The Austin PDA isn’t equipped to deal with that.”

Caden burst out laughing. “That’s what you’re worried about?”

“Hey. We met investigating a conspiracy involving a centuries-old necromancer, and the government spent so long dragging their feet on allowing magicals that it’s a miracle they weren’t taken over. It’s not impossible for a careful magical to infiltrate the government.”

“Before the gates reopened, a person casting a suspicious spell was easy to detect.”

Izzie winced. He was right. Many people acted like the modern world was just the old world with an extra elf wandering around here and there. The fundamental nature of reality changed. It wasn’t only about new races wandering the planet.

Caden patted his pocket and pulled out the sound inverter between two fingers. “If I thought the US government was involved, we’d have a different conversation. I’m not so naïve as to believe they never do anything questionable. In this case, there’s a much simpler, less sinister explanation for them not passing the information on to you or me.”

“What’s that? I’m all ears.”

Caden shook his head. “Compartmentalization. I didn’t need to know for my assignment, so nobody bothered to let me know until I started asking around with specifics. I’m the main DIA field agent assigned to this city. I’m responsible for coordinating local intelligence with the PDA, but my primary mission target is the Arcane Syndicate.”

She empathized with his problem. The government’s paranoia about magicals limited them outside places like the PDA until recent years. That meant a personnel shortage and overworked individuals doing their best to keep the country safe.

“Okay. Where did the military run into this potion before?”

“You know how US forces are deployed in that peacekeeping mission in the West Pacific Republic?”

Izzie offered a shallow nod. She was a little embarrassed that she didn’t pay much attention to what was happening outside of Austin. After years of tunnel vision on the run, she’d retained the habit of hyper-local focus.

“I’ve heard a little about it. I didn’t hear anything about it involving magicals other than incidentally. I know there was a revolution, and they toppled a dictator. The US and a couple of other countries sent peacekeeping forces because there was concern about leftovers from the dictator’s forces terrorizing the population, and a couple of factions were getting testy.”

Caden nodded. “A squad of soldiers was on patrol in a small village.” None of the normal lightness in his voice or mirth on his face was evident. “An attacker that looked and acted exactly like one of your beast men ambushed them. He almost killed three of the soldiers before they put him down. We’re talking trained soldiers with assault rifles.”

Izzie stared at him in shock. “Why wasn’t this all over the news?”

“Because the intervention in the Western Pacific Republic is already a sensitive matter. Nobody thought much about the incident before, figuring it was a local shifter loyal to the old regime.”

“But these beast men aren’t shifters.” Izzie shook her head. “They don’t turn into animal forms.”

“I think by now you wouldn’t be surprised by the level of ignorance that persists about magicals. People can’t always distinguish between myth and reality when it comes to magicals.”

Izzie folded her arms. “Perfect. I bet you there’s a military squad running around throwing water buckets on witches to see if they melt.”

Caden laughed. “There might be.” His expression hardened. “Anyway, the real problem is there were two other beast men incidents in the Republic, except those times the peacekeepers were ready, including an exoskeleton squad with heavy weapons. The reports indicate that the second beast man still took a surprising amount of punishment before he went down, more than the first. From what I could see, it was far more than you or that cop dealt the local beast men.”

“That confirms you don’t need magic or anti-magic bullets to take down a beast man,” Izzie noted. “Enough physical damage will do it. I’m guessing the military didn’t do a big magical autopsy and analysis of the beast men?”

“From my understanding, they cremated the bodies to be sure. They were worried about regeneration.”

“When did all this happen?”

“The first incident was about a month ago. The other two were last week. There have been no other incidents since then.” He sighed. “The local garrison now has standing orders to examine any other beast men bodies. Before, all they cared about was verifying they could eliminate them.”

Izzie grimaced. “Good to know, but I’d prefer to take people alive. We’re still not sure if this potion is mind-controlling them somehow or amplifying their aggression. My experiences with the first two beast men support no mind control, but yes on the second part. It’s hard to be sure.”

She shook her head. “I’m still surprised that after three incidents, this isn’t something they’re screaming about.”

Caden looked uncertain. “The peacekeeping forces believed they found and eliminated the problem’s source, so they’re not as worried going forward.”

“The source?” Izzie frowned.

Caden shook his head. “They claim this could be evidence of artificially created magical mutants.” He held up a hand. “I don’t know how they figured that out without examinations since they claim they didn’t do any medical analyses before cremation. However, there’s a brief mention of a ‘hitherto unknown potion causing mutation in otherwise baseline non-magical humans.’”

“Is there a chance they examined the bodies more than they reported and they’re hiding that information?”

Caden nodded. “It’s a little less complicated, and I’ll get to that. Suffice it to say, going forward, the military, the DIA, and the CIA have a standing ongoing investigation into the incident. My superiors have told me to help the PDA look into this and help neutralize the problem.”

He looked worried. “They’re concerned that someone was testing something overseas, and now they’re testing it here because it’s no longer available for testing in the Western Pacific Republic.”

Izzie scrubbed her hand down her face. “We went from hoping this was a one-off hidden magical to someone moving their overseas testing to Austin?” She frowned. “I don’t get why they’re so certain everything’s finished in the Republic. It hasn’t been that long since the last incident.”

Caden offered an apologetic look. “The Navy captured smugglers trying to move arms into the Republic a few days ago. They found a cache of potions hidden on the boat. The smugglers claimed they were all healing potions.

“The potions were destroyed as part of standing orders about suppressing all arms transfers into the Pacific Republic. However, the magical signatures of some potions matched recorded magical signatures from their beast men insurgents. The smugglers weren’t magicals.”

“Let me guess.” Izzie sighed. “They were small-time low-lives with criminal records and were approached by somebody in a mask or with a shifting face spell to distribute the potions.”

Caden shrugged. “Mask in this case. The Navy brought in magicals to trace the potions and residual spells. It didn’t go anywhere other than verifying the connection between the beast men and the potions I mentioned.”

“The timing is way too coincidental, especially with the original incident. The Willen we grabbed was first approached a month ago, too.” Izzie stood. “Why bother with all these nonmagical human helpers? Anyone coordinating an international illegal potion smuggling ring should be able to hire quality magical thugs to help them.”

“Sure, and that leaves more magical trails for people like us to follow.” Caden gestured between them. “You’re making the same mistake many of the early magical criminals did with your thinking.”

Izzie nodded. “You’re right. They got so used to assuming nonmagicals couldn’t track them that they left easier trails for the PDA, the Griffins, and others to hunt them down.” She scoffed. “So now they’re using nonmagicals because they think we’ll overlook them. How damned ironic.”

Caden shrugged. “They’re not wrong. Here’s where things get strange.”

“Stranger than the same potion being used in Austin and halfway across the world?”

“The DIA quietly reached out to other foreign intelligence and national law enforcement agencies along with magicals in the FBI. Nobody else has dealt with similar incidents, as far as we can tell.”

“You’re telling me that the only two places where these beast men incidents have occurred are in a post-revolutionary country currently being garrisoned by foreign troops and Austin?”

Caden nodded. “Yep.”

“That means Austin’s a conscious choice by whoever’s behind this. They could have chosen a place like LA, New York, or Seattle, but they chose Austin.”

“I also noticed that.”

Izzie headed into her kitchen to fill a glass of water. She took a long drink before returning to the living room. Her mind raced. “Giving a suicidal beast man berserker potion to terrorists in an unstable island filled with militant factions makes sense. Doing it in a well-secured city like Austin makes less sense. It comes off as a waste of resources.”

Caden nodded. “That’s what got me worried. This is about far more than local illegal potions. Somebody’s playing a far longer game.”

“I’m going to press Luisa in analysis support more.” Izzie’s heart rate kicked up at one obvious explanation. “We’ve been running around trying to get a focus on this without being sure whether Erikson was a victim or an accomplice.

“It’s time for a deeper dive into his accounts. Somehow he’s related to that dead witch, and she’s related to Mathers and the Willen. All these people are at the end of our mysterious wizard’s chain of death.”

Caden looked away. “I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but a scheme this complicated points in an obvious direction.”

“I know what you’re thinking because I’ve been thinking it, too.” Izzie took another sip of water and sat beside him. “I’ve been thinking about the Arcane Syndicate from the beginning, but I haven’t sensed the familiarity I felt from their dark magic. That’s the only thing holding me back from believing it’s them.”

“Whoever’s behind this is being more careful. You stopped them twice. What if they’re trying to avoid you? Or they might have changed their spells and techniques.”

“And here I thought you were worried about falling prey to paranoia.”

Caden offered a lopsided grin. “That was before we found out this an international conspiracy.” He placed his hand on her shoulder. “Just be careful. The military might have tied this off overseas, but I doubt you’re done here because of one arrested Willen.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Izzie’s stomach growled as the salty scent of Rafe’s French fries snuck into her nose. The contrast between his helmet, earbud radio receiver, heavy tactical vest, the rifle slung over his shoulder, and the In-N-Out fry box in his lap was absurd.

They both sat in the back of an unmarked van tucked away in a parking lot a half-block from Eastlow’s home. His tiny, rickety shack was in the center of a housing complex situated in a dirt plot holding rude lodgings for creatures of modest size and financial means. A handful of trees and bushes grew here and there. A tall wooden fence surrounded the shacks with unlocked wooden gates on opposite sides.

Izzie wondered if Eastlow minded living there. Different humans on Earth preferred different lifestyles. She knew people who wanted to live in the woods by themselves, a lifestyle that didn’t appeal to her. The gap between the average Earth native and the non-humanoid races of Oriceran was larger.

The drone feeds on their phones and a larger tablet courtesy of field support showed the entire housing complex centered around Eastlow’s shack. She had asked field support to keep the drones high and blend in with the flow of delivery drones.

Once in a while, Eastlow emerged from his shack and looked around with his whiskers and tail twitching. There were far more light poles than Izzie expected for the area, but sufficient pockets of darkness to hide a paranoid wizard remained.

They were lucky Eastlow lived aboveground in the Magical District. The background magic levels meant the spells Izzie cast over herself and Rafe, including shields, wouldn’t stand out. A six-person tactical support team was on standby in the back of another unmarked van parked down the street in the opposite direction.

Rafe looked at Izzie and held up his fries. “You said you weren’t hungry. You sure?”

“I wasn’t, and I’m not. It’s hard to get too hungry right before a fight.”

“You should have taken the chance when they offered the food. You don’t know how long we’ll have to sit here.” He smiled and gestured at her stomach with a fry. “Besides, your stomach disagrees with you.”

“I have a feeling this will get rough with the wizard.” Izzie gestured at the fries. “I’ve never liked their fries anyway.”

Rafe gasped with a look of mock horror. “Don’t say that about Whataburger fries, and you’ll be okay. Otherwise, people might run you out of Texas. For now, stay out of California with your heretical anti-In-N-Out fry opinions.”

“I like the In-N-Out burgers.” Izzie shrugged. “Just not their fries. Do you have to like the entire menu to like a place? That seems extreme.”

“When they don’t have much on their menu, maybe. You still should stick to the cautious side.” Rafe downed another French fry. “What do you think the chances of this guy showing up are? If it was the same night we grabbed Eastlow, I’d be more confident. The next day? I’m not so sure anymore.”

“The chances are higher than you’d think.” Izzie squinted at her phone, watching Eastlow step out of his shack for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes.

“Setting aside everything else, Eastlow’s a loose end for this wizard. If our wizard is more of an old-school type, he might worry that we’ll get a real-deal ritual going or coordinate with people less restricted by rules than we are. A contact is a focus for sympathetic magic.”

“Any half-decent traditionalist wizard could block that with anti-tracking spells and artifacts,” Rafe suggested. “But I get what you mean. A loose end is asking to be pulled.

“This all goes back to Kayden Erikson.” Rafe finished the last of his fries. “Mathers’ and Eastlow’s involvement in something shady made sense. Both are criminals.

“Even Rosen makes sense. She might have been taking money or ingredients on the side to help with the potions. Did they do something to Erikson to keep him quiet, or because he was asking questions?”

“It’s hard to say from our first encounter with him. Mathers seemed more in control.” Izzie frowned. “But there’s zero evidence of contamination at the plant. If she didn’t make the potions, the most logical theory is that the wizard wanted her to get Erikson to help contaminate the drinks at the plant.”

She shook her head. “Every time I think about Erikson, things fall apart. I have a hard time believing he’d accept his company distributing a contaminated product. He had to know that would come back to him, and he’d spend the rest of his life in prison if not dead.”

“Unless he didn’t know. What if he and Rosen were in on it, but she lied to him about what was involved? Or she was confused?”

“I have trouble accepting that she didn’t know or suspect something was going on with the potions. She was a specialist. But he would only have her word to take for it. It’s a big ask to conspire with a witch to contaminate a product line without knowing a hundred percent it’s safe.” Izzie folded her arms. “Was he the first victim or the first suspect betrayed by the others?”

Rafe unwrapped his burger, took a bite, and swallowed. “Then we’ll have to wait and see what field support turns up. Whatever contamination plan they were cooking up failed. Barlow’s destroying the product. It’s going to set back their plans to go national. The company’s taking a huge hit.”

“I know. It’s shocking. Sometimes people do the right thing even when money’s involved.”

Rafe laughed. “Your true power is your unflagging cynicism.”

“This smells like it’s coming back to terrorism.” Izzie shook her head. “We got lucky. This could have been a disaster. Our luck needs to hold so we can catch the supplier and uncover the real plan before it’s too late.”

Rafe finished his burger and smacked his lips. “Too many stakeouts would leave me fat.” He patted his stomach. “Oh, did you hear about the tactical support upgrades? It would be nice if they had them tonight, but they aren’t coming for a month or two.”

Izzie lifted her phone to watch a goblin in cowboy getup wander through the gate and into the housing complex. He wore a bright red ten-gallon hat, flannel shirt, cowboy boots, and a holstered revolver. He headed in a different direction from Eastlow’s shack. She stopped caring once the cowboy goblin pulled out a small key and let himself into a different shack.

She lowered her phone. “Did you see that?”

Rafe motioned to the tablet. “The cowboy goblin?” He chuckled. “That’s maximum cultural fusion.”

“I guess it’s no weirder than a chain-smoking pixie. The regular world has become stranger than half the stuff I saw in school.” Izzie shook her head. “Wait. What about the upgrades?”

“Bill’s been pushing for more anti-magical gear for a while since it’s easier to get gear than magical agents for the PDA.” Rafe balled up his burger wrapper and threw it into an In-N-Out bag on the floor. “Between the shapeshifter and necromancer incidents, he doesn’t want us to have to recruit from outside the PDA for help when we need to take someone down, and trying to bring in other agencies can take too long.”

Izzie stared at her phone, obsessed with the cowboy goblin and imagining an entire old-fashioned lifestyle he followed. “He’s not wrong about any of that. I don’t feel great about recruiting my friends to help us deal with problems.”

“He asked for funding for dedicated anti-magic deflectors, but it sounds like he’s only getting them improved for tactical support. Even then it’s only enough for one squad.”

Izzie nodded. “That makes sense. Those aren’t cheap. For that much money, they could fund a new squad. You think they’ll look into exoskeletons?”

Rafe shook his head. “The PDA’s supposed to be a symbol of magicals and nonmagicals working together, not an army.”

“There are still police teams that use them in cities, but I get what you’re saying.”

Izzie didn’t think much about anti-magic deflectors. The small, expensive crystals absorbed dangerous spells until they reached capacity and turned black. For a true magical, layering shield spells was far more efficient and cost-effective, although she could understand why they would help tactical support. Unlike the field agents, the local PDA tactical support team didn’t have any magical members.

Under normal circumstances, the local PDA staffing would be sufficient. Austin tended to attract more trouble per capita than many larger cities, even back before the return of magic to Earth. Izzie could never decide if that was destiny or coincidence.

She frowned after thinking more about the anti-magic deflectors. “Going that far means Bill expects things will continue getting hotter.”

“He’s a little annoyed we’ve had to lean on outsiders to help. He said it makes us look weak.” Rafe shrugged. “Right when Arpak jewel thieves were our worst case in months, we ended up with these beast men. It’s only making him worry more.”

“The scary part is anti-magic deflectors wouldn’t help against those guys. And… Somebody likes the classics.” She narrowed her eyes at the drone feed.

A man in a dark robe headed along the fence down the sidewalk toward Eastlow’s home. Even accounting for the darkness, unnatural shadows hid his face. The swish of his robe revealed he held his wand.

Izzie sent a message to Eastlow to warn him the wizard might be on the way and to turn on his receiver. The Willen was a criminal, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t honor their agreement and protect him.

Eastlow popped his head out of his door and stepped outside with his backpack on. He rubbed his paws together.

Izzie tapped her earbud. “TacSup, ready up. We might have a winner. Everyone in position.”

“This is TacSup One. Roger, Berens.”

Izzie tucked her phone into her pocket. She refreshed the shield spells and opened the back door. She hopped out and rolled her shoulders before breaking into a jog. Rafe followed her down the street.

Eastlow’s voice came over comms next. This plan rested on the assumption that whatever criminal dark wizard hired wouldn’t ask too many questions about whatever was in his backpack pockets or employ jamming tech or spells.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Eastlow whispered. “I’m ready.”

Izzie and Rafe darted across the street. They’d lost direct line of sight with Eastlow and the wizard, but an overhead drone provided a zoomed-in feed.

She worried the drone was flying too low. The background noise of traffic down the street and wind didn’t cover up the whine of the rotors. Delivery drone traffic over the last half-hour or so was light.

The wizard left the sidewalk and strode through the gate. He headed straight toward Eastlow’s shack and didn’t stop until he stood near the Willen.

“You were caught.” The wizard’s voice was hard to hear over the receiver they had hidden on Eastlow, but his irritation was plain. “I warned you there would be consequences, you incompetent rat. How dare you make me come and deal with you.”

“No, no, no.” Eastlow lowered his head. “My good, powerful wizard. Oh, so wise! I was caught, but they let me go. They could prove nothing. I danced and mocked Izzie Berens. You should have seen her face.”

The wizard chuckled. “You danced and mocked Izzie Berens? You have good instincts for an inferior creature.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Eastlow bowed over his arm. “She told me I’d regret it. Ha! She wanted to take my treasures. I’m the Willen who tricked the Fixer’s daughter.” He sang the last sentence.

Rafe glanced at Izzie. “I don’t like this.”

“He’s just playing a role. And we have his potions.”

They approached the front gate. The TacSup operators closed in on the back gate. The wizard shouldn’t be able to see either group from his current location. He wasn’t looking around or showing any sign of suspicion.

“Where are my potions?” the wizard asked.

“I had to get rid of them,” Eastlow replied. “Izzie Berens and Rafe Martinez wanted them. They could lead them to you.”

Izzie chuckled and opened the front gate. “See, Rafe? People do know you.”

Rafe jogged through and pulled his rifle off his shoulder. “I’ll give the wizard time to learn my name.”

“You’re saying you dumped my valuables potions, you cowardly little rat?” the wizard asked. “How dare you!”

“I can make that up to you,” Eastlow wheedled. “I can give you treasure. I’ll work for free, my powerful wizard.”

“I don’t need nor want your trash, creature.” The wizard’s voice became a snarl. “Give me one good reason not to kill you where you stand for failing me.”

“The PDA will investigate. No, no, no. Killing me would be bad for you and me. We should not meet again. I protected you.”

The wizard snorted. “You only had to protect me because you got caught.”

Izzie ducked behind a shack and peeked at Eastlow and the wizard. Rafe crouched beside her and tightened his grip on his rifle.

The wizard drew his wand and shoved the tip against Eastlow’s chest. “I come from a proud and noble line of wizards. We were meant to rule, yet everything has gone wrong. I’m forced to rely on creatures like you. Disgusting.”

Eastlow backed away until his shack blocked him. He waved his paws in front of him. “I can make the great and powerful wizard whole. I can find other treasure for you, not my treasure. Magic artifacts.”

“Are you in position, TacSup?” Izzie whispered.

“We’re in position, Berens.”

The wizard sneered and raised his wand until he held it above Eastlow while pointing the tip down. “Tell me, Eastlow, what did they offer you? Did they offer you freedom if you helped them?”

“I would never betray you. You helped me earn treasure. You gave me potions.” Eastlow’s tail and whiskers twitched. “You’re a great and powerful wizard. I live to serve.”

“Shit.” Izzie gritted her teeth. “Everyone get ready to move. The wizard’s figured it out.”

The wizard pinned Eastlow against the wall with his wand. “Did you really expect me to believe Berens caught you and let you go? That you mocked her, and she let you go?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Eastlow raised his shaking paws above his head in complete surrender. “That’s what happened.”

Izzie respected the Willen’s courage. He was facing down a wizard and kept up the deception.

The wizard started a loud chant, so loud that it was almost like he wanted everyone nearby to hear. Nearby people closed their blinds.

Her skin prickled at the flow of dark magic around her. The spell lacked the familiar sensation she associated with the Arcane Syndicate enemies, not that it made her feel any better.

“We need to go!” Izzie shouted. She lifted her palm and shot around the corner to run straight at the wizard with Rafe behind. “PDA. Drop the wand and step away from the Willen!”

The ground rumbled with violent tremors. She stumbled to one knee. Thick earthen walls shot up to block Eastlow’s shack, hiding the wizard and Eastlow. They were too tall to jump or vault over, an impressive display of magical power.

Izzie jerked her head back and forth. “See if you can go around, Rafe. TacSup, you too.”

“What are you going to do?” Rafe asked.

“Chasing that Arpak gave me an idea. Up and over.”

Rafe nodded. “Be careful.” He ran off.

Izzie concentrated and cut through the air with careful movements while spitting out a rapid incantation. She pulled back her arm and flung her hand toward the sky. A spooled rope of light appeared in her hand. The end of the light rope flew and broke apart into two ends that dug into the top of the wall.

“No, no, no, you don’t have to do this,” Eastlow shouted. “I can serve you, oh great wizard!”

Rafe sprinted toward the end of the wall. Izzie jumped and shot up the wall, half-climbing, half-pulled by her shortening light rope. More dark magic pulsed behind the wall with a crackling sound. Eastlow let out a high-pitched squeal. The pungent smell of burned fur filled the air.

Izzie reached the top of the wall. Her stomach tightened. The wizard’s earth walls boxed the entire area, including several shacks. There were no openings for Rafe or tactical support.

Eastlow lay on the ground, clutching his burned chest and shaking. The wizard pointed his wand at Eastlow’s head.

“Drop the wand, or I drop you, asshole!” Izzie bellowed from the top of the wall. She pointed her palm at the wizard. “You’re under arrest for attempted murder.”

The wizard scoffed. “Removing vermin is called extermination, is it not? You would arrest me for extermination?”

“This is your last warning,” Izzie called.

The wizard kicked Eastlow in the stomach, pulling another squeal from the Willen. Izzie blasted a stun bolt at him.

He jumped behind the building and raised his wand while muttering. A dark nimbus surrounded him, his shield spell.

“I was worried you wouldn’t come, Berens,” the wizard yelled. “I’m happy you did. She’ll reward me when I kill you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“Who are you talking about?” Izzie was interested in the truth but hoped for reinforcements who could stop a fight. She was disappointed that the wizard was another link in a chain of evil.

Eastlow lay on the ground wounded, and the earth walls held other shacks. The longer she stalled, the greater the chance Rafe and tactical support figured out how to get through or over the walls. A major battle risked innocent casualties.

The only positive was that everyone else was staying inside and not coming out to see what was happening. Basic self-preservation instinct would help limit casualties as long as Izzie kept the wizard focused on her.

“Tell me,” Izzie shouted. “Who do you work for? Don’t you want me to know? Isn’t it important for you people to humiliate me before you take me down?”

“I work for someone you’ve wronged.” The wizard’s calm voice unnerved Izzie. “Someone who’d like to see you dead. Did you honestly believe you could continue doing what you’ve done in this city and not earn enemies?”

“That means you work for a criminal who uses her magic to hurt people.” Izzie shrugged. “When you say it like that, it doesn’t narrow it down.” She fired another stun bolt to keep the wizard pinned behind the wall.

“If you’re trying to convince me that working for the PDA is a mistake, that’s not going to work. Everything I’ve run into since coming to this city proves it was the best choice for me and Austin.”

“I’m only answering your question, Berens. You shouldn’t have relied on that creature to trap me.”

“Why not? It worked, didn’t it? You’re trapped in here, too.”

“His death will be on your head.”

Izzie gritted her teeth. Eastlow was a criminal, but she’d promised to protect him.

The wizard laughed. “You don’t understand something else important.”

“What is that?”

“I’ve chosen to lure you in here to kill you.” The wizard lifted his wand, but Izzie didn’t have a clean shot from where she stood. “The Berens legend stops now, but I think I’ll start by finishing off this ungrateful creature that dared betray me and my master.”

Eastlow moaned. He clutched his chest and scooted away from the wizard. Izzie needed to get down there and help him.

“Leave him alone. Unlike you, he has a tiny conscience left.” Izzie jumped off the top of the wall. She used her light rope to break her fall before hitting the ground and released the spell without lowering her aim.

“You screwed up, and we have questions about your transformation potion. You cooperate with us, and maybe you’ll get out of prison before you need life-extension magic to keep you alive.” She summoned her best feral grin. “If you think you can take me out, you need to ask yourself why I win every time I end up fighting dark wizards. Ask yourself why the Seventh Order is gone and I’m still here.”

The wizard stepped away from the shack but kept his wand aimed at Izzie. The dark shadows clung to his face, obscuring his features. “You’re nothing, an arrogant bug. Don’t think the Seventh Order cared about you or that you had a special destiny.

“You were nothing more than a girl they needed as a spell component. Magical energy. You’re not special. You’re nothing more than a pile of kindling whose only use is feeding the flame.”

She scoffed. “I’ll give you credit. This is the first time anyone’s ever called me kindling.”

“Berens women can channel the power of their line.” The wizard waved his wand. “They didn’t take your mother only because you were weaker and easier to target. You still are.

“It’s not as if you destroyed the Seventh Order by yourself. You had help. Your friends. Your family. You’re still weak, Izzie Berens. Nothing has changed because you flash a badge and claim to be an enforcer of this pathetic government.” He spat at his feet. “You should have died and served your betters.”

Izzie glared at him. “Oh, you think taunting me about the Seventh Order is going to get me to lower my guard?” She spotted Eastlow crawling around the building from the corner of her eye. “Why do you care so much about the Seventh Order? You mad that I embarrassed the precious dark families and proved they’re not all that?”

The wizard chuckled. “Your arrogance doesn’t match your achievements. That is what’s so frustrating about you. You strut around this city operating on fear. You block the plans of great wizards and witches while consorting with inferiors. You don’t deserve the power you have.”

Izzie glanced to the side, hoping to see more movement. Her stalling plan was working except for the most important part, the arrival of her reinforcements.

“You’re not the first person to tell me I piss them off. You’ll get over it. I’ll ask them to send a therapist to help you in prison.”

“I can’t find a way through,” Rafe radioed.

“It’s the same with us, Berens,” the TacSup squad leader added.

“Go get your ropes and grappling hooks,” she whispered as her stomach knotted. “Hurry.”

“Enough, Berens,” the wizard shouted. “I’ll erase you, and your legacy will be one of shame. People will speak your name with nothing but contempt for millennia!”

The wizard flourished his wand. A cloud of sharp stones materialized and shot toward her. Izzie flung a stun bolt. The stones struck her shield, stinging. Her bolt dissipated against the dark field surrounding the wizard.

She sprinted to the side and tried to circle the wizard while pounding away with stun bolts. She fought her instinct to seek cover behind a shack. The residents didn’t deserve to become shields.

The wizard pelted her with a stream of rocks until her shield failed and a rock ripped into her bulletproof vest. Blood seeped out of the shallow, throbbing wound.

A churning cloud of dirt particles ripped from the ground and cloaked the wizard. Izzie tossed stun bolts at anything dark before jumping behind a tree. She slipped her hand under her vest to heal her wound and summoned a new shield.

The wizard hit harder than she expected. He wasn’t a disposable weakling. Her earlier plan worked in one small regard. The wizard didn’t finish off the wounded Eastlow.

Heavy dust swirled in the area. Izzie had trouble differentiating the shadows of trees and bushes from the wizard.

“Show me how powerful you are, Izzie Berens!” the wizard screamed, his voice revealing his location. “Draw on all the Berens power! I’ll kill you at full power and prove you and your entire line are nothing before the dark families.”

Izzie didn’t have the time or inclination to pull off a stunt like that, nor would she dare without contacting her family first. It was too dangerous.

A stream of rocks flew past her. One rock ripped halfway through the trunk of her tree, spewing chunks of dark to join the cloud.

The wizard chanted a new spell. The strong magical flows worried Izzie. So did the lack of an immediate attack.

She squinted and ducked, murmuring the incantation for a magical visualization spell. Bright flows all around distracted her but didn’t cover up a denser concentration of magical energy nearby.

Izzie rapid-fired stun bolts in that direction. The wizard grunted and ducked behind another building. The dust stopped swirling and started to settle. She dropped her visualization spell, not wanting any drag on her magic.

“You’re going to be embarrassed when you lose to me,” Izzie called. “After all that talk about me being weak.” She laughed, but bitterness tinged the sound. “You know me. What’s your name? Don’t you want me to know the name of the man who’s going to kill me?”

“You expect me to tell you anything?” He snorted. “You can go to your grave knowing that a dark wizard defeated you. I only regret that I lack the skill in soul magic to shred yours and erase you from our reality.”

Izzie ducked low, twisted around the corner, and flung a small fireball at the wizard. Circular earthen shields tore from the ground and zoomed a couple of feet out and around him. Her fireball blew apart one of the shields.

She launched a second fireball. It struck and destroyed another shield.

The wizard’s sweeping wand motion, new chant, and a powerful burst of magical energy near Izzie warned her before the next attack. She threw herself backward before a sharp rock spire shot out of the ground and missed impaling her by half a foot.

“Die, Berens,” the wizard yelled. “Die!”

Izzie hurled a light bolt at the wizard and threw up her other palm to fling a second spell. She alternated hands and shoved magic into a stream of piercing bolts. Her spell stream thinned the wizard's net defense despite more shields forming to replace the destroyed ones. The constant impacts tossed dirt and rocks into the air, yet none of her attacks reached him.

He jerked low while flicking his wand. Giant earthen hands grew from the ground and shoved his feet. The push sent him higher and toward the roof of a shack. Izzie ceased fire, worried about hurting somebody inside.

Rocks and dirt flowed from the ground and formed a short, thick, curved wall. The wizard landed with a grunt and rolled behind the wall.

Izzie blew out a chunk of it with a fireball. The wizard pointed his wand toward the sky and shouted another spell. She ignored him and tore away his wall with fireballs and light bolts.

Dirt and rock swirled and formed a jagged, spinning spire that pointed straight up. The spire rotated in place until it pointed outward and flew away from the wizard and Izzie. She didn’t understand what the wizard was doing until she realized the spire was heading toward the crawling Eastlow.

Izzie ran toward Eastlow’s shack, surprised when the wizard didn’t take the chance to whittle away at her shield while she was exposed. She charged toward Eastlow and pushed her magic into getting a shield around him despite her distance.

The spire dropped and struck the shield, exploding in a shower of tiny, sharp pebbles that blew through the spell with a flash and tore into Eastlow. Blood splattered everywhere. Eastlow’s eyes closed, and his head lolled to the side. The wizard scoffed and ran, fading from sight.

Izzie dropped to her knees by Eastlow and glanced back toward the wizard, who had disappeared behind another shack. She hesitated. The wizard could lead her to whoever was behind the whole potion scheme. People’s lives were at stake.

No. She wouldn’t become a woman who used people as disposable pawns. She wasn’t a member of the dark families. Even scumbags like Eastlow deserved dignity.

She sighed. “I need to heal Eastlow. Field support, do you have eyes on the wizard?”

“He’s using an invisibility spell and moving away from your position in a northerly direction,” the field support drone pilot replied.

“Rafe, TacSup?”

“We have the rope and grappling hooks,” the squad leader replied. “We’re almost back to the walls and getting ready to reinforce you.”

Izzie put her hand on Eastlow’s chest and whispered a healing spell. The glow spread from her hand to the wound. The rock shards pushed out of his body. The holes closed, and the flesh knitted itself back together. He moaned and twitched his whispers.

A boom echoed in the night. Smoke and dust billowed close to one of the walls, but Izzie couldn’t make out the source.

“Suspect has breached the wall on the north side,” the drone pilot reported. “Suspect is maintaining invisibility. No evidence of magical suppression. We’ve got him.”

“Keep on him!” Izzie pulled her hand away and shook Eastlow’s shoulders. “You okay?”

Eastlow’s eyes fluttered open. “You saved me, Izzie Berens.”

“The PDA doesn’t let dark wizards kill witnesses, even witnesses who’ve committed crimes.” She frowned and shook her head. “I don’t let dark wizards do that.” She jumped to her feet. Her heart pounded. “Don’t try to run. Remember, we have trackers and tracking spells on you.”

“No, no, no.” Eastlow dropped his hand to the ground. “I will rest.”

“You do that while I go get that bastard.” Izzie raced toward the north side and the new jagged, gaping hole in the wall. She pushed out an incantation between pants to reactivate her visualization spell.

New colors and light assaulted her eyes. It was far worse than among the shacks. Power and spells bathed the Magical District, and she couldn’t filter that out like a drone. She squinted and concentrated on the man-shaped magical mass fleeing toward the fence.

“Rafe, with me to the north,” Izzie radioed. “TacSup, leave a couple of people to guard the Willen. Everyone else, sweep the area to ensure it’s secure, then back us up. This guy isn’t getting away.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Izzie’s lungs burned in protest. She put her hand on her neck and wheezed out an incantation. The fire in her chest eased.

That was a dangerous spiral. Using magic to overcome her physical limitations would lead to more stress on her body.

She needed to up her cardio time at the gym. Being fitter was more efficient than using magic to run longer. Refreshed, she pushed harder, trying to close the distance between her and the fleeing wizard. Defeating him wasn’t a victory. She needed to arrest him.

After half a block, the wizard gave up on his invisibility and darted into an alley. There was no reason to doubt he couldn’t perform a similar spell on his lungs and keep up his pace.

She had backup. He didn’t. He wouldn’t have been able to keep himself from bragging about it if he did.

Izzie rushed into the back of the alley around the same time the wizard arrived at the front. The alley exited into a narrow side street. She risked two light bolts through the darkness before a car zoomed by and reminded her that wild spells were too dangerous.

The wizard pushed out the alley and ran down the street.

Izzie emerged from the alley. She frowned and looked back and forth. “Help me out here, field support. I lost him.”

Seeing the magical flows meant nothing if he wasn’t in her line of sight. The high levels of background magic weren’t helping.

“Cross the street, take a right, then a left,” the field support pilot replied. “He’s running down a street filled with closed shops. There aren’t many civilians there. The few that are present are clearing the area.”

She would take her wins where she could find them. She darted across the street, grateful for the lack of traffic, and followed the directions to a new, darkened street.

A chunk of concrete tore from the sidewalk and flew her way. She dropped and rolled underneath it, ripping her pants. The wizard ran toward a truck parked on the street. She flung a stun bolt his direction, hoping to get him clear of the vehicle before she returned to unleashing destructive spells.

He ducked behind the truck. More concrete ripped from the sidewalk and road. Izzie ran forward, bobbing and weaving to dodge the magical projectiles.

There weren’t many streetlights in this part of the Magical District. She didn’t care. Despite the distracting background magical flows of this part of the district, the spells wrapped around the dark wizard shone like a bright beacon in the abyss.

Izzie grunted when a piece of concrete struck her leg and bounced off her shield. Other smaller pieces clipped her. She ducked behind a tree.

The wizard’s concrete whittled away at her cover. She pushed more power into her shield spell and layered a second shield over the first. The bombardment stopped.

Izzie spun around the trunk and launched another stun bolt, not yet willing to blow up an innocent person’s truck. The wizard broke away, ran across the street, and through the front door of an empty, dark convenience store. He threw the door closed.

Layers of magic covered parts of the store’s walls, roof, and doors. Izzie squinted. Everything from the barred windows, cracked roof, and fading sign cried out that the store was abandoned.

Izzie ran across the street to the front door. She spun at the sound of footsteps behind her. Rafe was closing in on her, not panting despite the lack of spells. She would have to ask him about his cardio routine later.

She waited for him to get closer, then waved her arms. “Go around the back in case he runs out there.” She trusted her radio and didn’t yell.

“Do you want to wait for TacSup?”

“We don’t have time. I’m going through the front.”

Rafe changed direction but didn’t slow down. Izzie kicked the door. Her foot bounced off a ward. She hissed.

“You wanted to see power? I’ll give you power.”

Izzie backed up, lifted both hands, and pushed magical power into a growing bright red-orange fireball. Carefully unraveling wards was the least destructive yet most time-intensive way to defeat them. Anti-magic emitters and grenades could weaken the spells, but she didn’t have any with her. That pushed her back to her main advantage, her raw magical strength.

She finished fueling the spell and launched the spell. The fireball roared away from her hands and exploded against the door. The blast overwhelmed the ward and shot smoking, charred wood all over.

Soot, ash, and small bits of wood coated Izzie. Smoke poured from the smoldering door remnants. She coughed and waved smoke out of her face and pulled a couple of larger pieces of food out of her hair.

“You okay, Izzie?” Rafe radioed. “I heard an explosion.”

“Yes. That was me.”

“I figured, but wanted to check.”

“This is TacSup 1,” the squad leader radioed. “We’re almost to your position.”

There was no time to wait or come up with clever plans. An extra minute was too much time to give a dangerous and skilled wizard. The building could be filled with hazardous spells.

“Rafe, don’t go inside if the back door’s open,” Izzie radioed. “He might have surprises waiting. Everyone else, surround the building but do not enter. I’ll flush him out.”

“I can use my glasses,” Rafe replied.

“Just make sure he doesn’t slip past you. Use your glasses. Stay outside, though. It’s too dangerous.”

“Roger that. You be careful, too. You’re not immortal, just stubborn.”

Izzie conjured a small, floating ball of light. She narrowed her eyes and stepped into the darkened front of the building, sweeping her palm back and forth, ready to blast any dark wizards or dark wizard lackeys present.

There were no dark wizards. There were no lackeys. There wasn’t much of anything.

Rusty wire baskets hung from the walls, all empty. Thick dust coated the floor and the front counter. Someone had long since stripped the lighting fixtures. The door to the staff area lay in three pieces on the floor with deep gouges and bullet holes all over it. A layer of dust on the pieces showed the damage was old.

She crept forward, her visualization spell making her all too aware of the carved sigils and patches of concentrated magic on the floor and walls. The dark wizard didn’t have time to set that many spells up in the brief window she’d been outside. This must have been his hideout. There was no reason to test their true functions.

Something thumped in the staff area. Izzie jogged that way, hopscotching over the uneven wards and unknown spells on the floor.

The hideout gave Izzie one small comfort. The use of traps, wards, and an abandoned building suggested a lack of assistants. Combined with the reliance on Eastlow, she hoped the dark wizard didn’t have a small army of thugs, undead, or anyone else helping him. She could handle him one-on-one.

She stopped near the staff room door and grimaced. Patchy spellwork gave way to half of the staff room floor being covered with spells.

Izzie couldn’t enter the back without trouble. Wards layered with other spells covered the floor outside.

Magical power pulsed in an accelerating rhythm inside the room, but Izzie couldn’t see the source from where she stood. It didn’t feel like it was coming from the floor.

“He’s up to something,” she radioed. “Everyone maintain your distance and cover the exits.”

“Roger, Berens,” the TacSup squad leader replied.

“Roger, Izzie,” Rafe added.

Secure in the knowledge that any screw-ups would only cost her life and not that of her comrades, Izzie backed up and shook out her hands. Waiting around for a desperate dark wizard was insane. There was no time.

She took a deep breath and poured more magic into additional shield layers over her body. She charged toward the door and jumped to clear the first line of wards. A bright green beam shot up from the floor, burned off half her shield, and flung her across the room.

Izzie slammed against a wall. She dropped with electricity crackling across her. Her shield flashed.

The damage only singed her suit thanks to her spell, but the attack and stacking shields strained her magic. Her heart raced.

“This guy likes his traps.” She stood and reinforced her shield spell.

She looked around for the source of the building magic she felt. Magical flows leaked out from behind a metal storage room door.

“I’m close now,” she reported.

She shook out her hands and raised her arm, ready to retaliate. A hallway led to the back door. On the opposite side of the staff room, a metal storage room door hid the source of the increasing magic.

Rafe grunted over the line.

Izzie frowned and tapped her earbud. “You okay, Rafe?”

“I’m still near the back. I can’t get in. I think the door’s warded.”

“I told you to stay away from the building.”

“I was just checking.”

Izzie doubted that, but she wasn’t his boss. Rafe worked for the PDA. He knew the risks. Something about the situation unsettled her.

“Just keep an eye on that door. All you have to do is slow him down for the drones to keep following him if he comes out.”

“Be careful in there, Izzie.”

Izzie took a deep breath. “He’s prepping something in here. I can’t give him time to finish what he started.”

Stacked and overlapping wards protected the storage room door. Given the number and complexity, dispelling them would take hours, maybe days. Izzie didn’t understand why he would protect the storage room more than the front door. Once somebody entered a sanctuary, the battle was half lost.

She stepped around another floor ward and looked over the wall. Blowing through the reinforced door would take too long, but the wizard concentrated his defenses too much, leaving the wall wards far weaker.

Izzie released all her magic but her shield and concentrated her power into a shimmering ball of pure light magic. The growing power inside the storage room shifted into a strong and stable magical force. Whatever spell the wizard was casting was reaching its climax. She was out of time.

She launched her destructive orb at the wall with a loud shout. The orb struck the wall and the energy burst out in a bright blast that tore into the storage room and knocked her over.

Izzie hit the floor and rolled into another trap ward. A purple explosion flung her into the ceiling before she plummeted to the floor and smacked her back. Pain shot from her spine through the rest of her body. She groaned as smoke billowed from her new tunnel, her reinforced shield spell failing at some point in her pinball blast routine.

The dark wizard stood on the other side in front of a large bronze ring hanging on the wall. Engraved arcane symbols lay on the edge of the ring. A blue portal swirled inside it.

“He’s set up a portal here,” Izzie radioed. She forced herself onto her elbows, groaned, and lifted her arm. “You’re under arrest. Give it up.”

The dark wizard scoffed. He ducked into the ring and vanished. The portal shimmered and winked out of existence, leaving a concrete wall behind.

“No!” Izzie managed to stand despite her throbbing back and a twisted ankle. “We’re going to need… Something’s wrong. Worse than before.”

Her eyes widened. Strong magic swirled in the area, ebbing and flowing, but the concentration increased. “The portal’s down, but the magical energy is still increasing.” She gasped. “Everyone get the hell away from this building!”

Purple light suffused the ring engravings. Izzie waved her hand and conjured a quick, thin shield layer. A searing blue energy wave blew the ring apart and vaporized the nearby wall. The wave struck her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Izzie awakened to bright lights and a white ceiling with a slight curve. She stared at the ceiling, realizing it was too close and too small. Itchy fabric brushed against her skin. A chill hung in the air. The light glinted off silver covering her body.

She shook her head and looked around, spotting an IV and medical kits. The last thing she recalled was the exploding portal. Unless the universe was far more ironic than she realized, she survived and now lay in the back of an ambulance on a wheeled stretcher underneath a thermal blanket.

The back ambulance doors stood open. Police, fire, and PDA bustled outside the ambulance, all their red and blue vehicle lights hypnotic. A crowd of locals, humans and nonhumans alike, stood behind the line made by police cars and officers. A reporter stood before a hovering camera drone, gesticulating toward the destroyed convenience store.

Izzie sighed. Sometimes power and knowing a trap was coming wasn’t enough. She survived, but the wizard got away. That wasn’t a win.

Firefighters dug through the convenience store’s charred remnants. The building’s framework remained, but not much else. Seeing all the damage, Izzie let out a silent prayer of thanks to her trustworthy shield spell. She was surprised she’d survived.

She peeked under the blanket, annoyed more than surprised that there wasn’t much left of her clothes other than burned scraps. She hissed in surprise when Rafe popped his head from the side of the ambulance and jerked up her palm in reflex.

“Don’t do that.” Izzie glared at him. “I thought you were the dark wizard coming back for revenge.”

Rafe gave her a sheepish look. “Sorry. In my defense, I don’t think anybody will come back and mess with you after you managed to survive all that. I wouldn’t mess with you. I would have died.”

She ran her hand down her face. “I’m tired, but I don’t hurt.” She lifted and turned her hands. “Was there a magical EMT?”

Rafe shook his head. “Your shield protected you more than I would have expected from an explosion that big. I used healing potions to do the rest.”

He averted his eyes. “I’m kind of understating things. You got messed up by that explosion. Without your spell, it might have killed you instantly, and without the potions, I don’t think you would have survived long enough for EMTs. I didn’t want to take any chances while waiting for the ambulance.”

“I’ll never complain about my partner saving my life.” Izzie let her head rest. “If anti-magic deflectors didn’t mess with my magic, I’d pester Bill about getting one for myself. Not sure which are cheaper for them to stock, deflectors or healing potions.”

“It’s more paperwork to fill out either way.” Rafe shrugged. “I’m sure somebody in DC will complain about how we’ve gone through our allotment of healing potions too quickly.”

“It’d help if people tried to stop killing us when we arrest them.” Izzie grimaced. “Crap, and there’s huge dirt and rock walls around all those shacks. That cowboy goblin doesn’t deserve to live in the dark because of a jerk dark wizard. This didn’t go the way I planned.”

“I mentioned the walls to Bill. He said not to worry. The city has somebody who can handle that, a magical contractor company.”

“Really?” Izzie smiled. “That’s a solid job to have. Good for them.” She sat up and wrapped the blanket around her body. “I’ll never complain about jewel thieves ever again. Elion’s a saint compared to that wizard.”

She rubbed her temples. Surviving the explosion didn’t mean the threat was gone. Every step in the investigation introduced a more dangerous threat. The time and effort invested in that hideout suggested a long-term plan.

“The portal.” Izzie gasped. “He got away. It wasn’t a suicide attack.”

“I know there was a portal.” Rafe nodded. “I heard that on the radio right before the explosion. You’re sure he got through? That last part wasn’t clear, and we were more focused on making sure you were alive.” He gestured at a group of police officers standing near a cruiser and talking to one another. “Because of that last warning, the rest of us only got a little singed. TacSup is grateful.”

“I saw the wizard step through and the portal close.” Izzie curled her hand into a fist. “The portal self-destructed afterward, but he was gone, somewhere else. I’d bet my life he’s still alive.”

“Forensics and field support might be able to use the residual magic signatures to find him,” Rafe suggested. “Although it’ll be difficult with all the interference from the self-destruction spell.”

Izzie shook her head. “It’s worth a shot, but even if they pull it off, I doubt it would lead to him. Any magical with the skill and power to create an artifact like that could open portals themselves without the artifact. He and whoever he’s working for will have anti-tracking measures. With all the traps and wards, this guy’s been in town for a while with time to prepare.”

She sighed. “Damn it. I had him right there. I should have taken him down.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Izzie. You weren’t slacking out there. You scaled his walls, took him on, and chased him until he had no choice but to run.”

“I could have stopped there. I took that moment to help Eastlow.”

Rafe offered a polite nod to a passing firefighter. “I think you made the right call.

“You sure? I thought I did. Now I’m not so sure.”

“We’re not the bad guys here. It’s not victory or nothing. Eastlow might be a thief and a criminal, but he put his life on the line to help us catch someone far worse.”

Rafe smiled. “I would have been disappointed if you let him die. If you want to be ruthless and practical, it also means the next time a similar situation arises, an informant will be more willing to work with us knowing the PDA prioritizes their life.”

More reporters made their way through the crowd. Police and PDA agents held them back, but now there were three reporters and six low-flying drones hovering near them in addition to huge police and PDA drones flashing lights overhead.

“Hey, get in here and close the door,” Izzie requested. “I don’t want my face all over the news, especially when I’m naked.”

Rafe laughed. “Nobody can see anything through the blanket.”

“It’s more the thought that’s bothering me.” She looked around. “Where are the EMTs?”

Rafe climbed into the ambulance and closed the doors. “The EMTs are checking out the TacSup guys.”

“I thought you said everyone got clear.”

“No, I specifically said we only got a little singed. There are a couple of burns and lacerations here and there. It’s not enough to justify using their healing potions. The EMTs put you in here because they didn’t want you to have to sit out in the cold with only a blanket, and I imagine, for your privacy.”

She sighed. They had come far too close to losing good people that night.

“Eastlow is okay?” she asked. “From what I can remember, it looked like my healing spell worked, but you know how things are. Everything’s always a little hazy after getting blown up. It doesn’t do any good to prioritize people’s lives if you can’t save them when you try.”

“He’s fine, thanks to you.” Rafe smiled. “I expected him to be more pissed at us about almost dying. He’s pissed all right, but more at the dark wizard. He even offered to lie about the dark wizard’s crimes if it would get the wizard in more trouble.

“I explained to him that we don’t support perjury, but if he has any other details he can offer us that are true to the best of his memory, we’ll be more than happy for them. He did a little ‘thanks, Izzie Berens’ dance. It was cute, if I’m being honest.”

“He did his part,” Izzie agreed. “We’ll have to let the DOJ know. A deal’s a deal.”

“He’s still going to prison. It’s not like he’s getting out of trouble.”

“Hey, US prisons are way nicer than the average prison on Oriceran.” Izzie groaned and scrubbed her hand down her face. “Speaking of expensive lost equipment, is my phone toast?”

“You’ll need a new phone and badge, among other things.” Rafe laughed. “I have what’s left of the phone in an evidence bag.” He gestured toward the burned ruins of the store. “To be fair, you can still tell it was a phone. You maintain a cloud backup, right?”

“Yes.” Izzie grimaced. “The first time I lost a phone in an explosion years ago without a backup was a good lesson.” She rolled her shoulders. “Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure, anything.”

“Find me some clothes. I should start carrying shorts and a T-shirt in the trunk. This is annoying.”

Rafe laughed. “You don’t get your clothes blown off every day.”

“Hey, a little preparation goes a long way to avoiding annoying situations.” Izzie shivered.

“Okay, but don’t tell Caden I gave his naked girlfriend clothes.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Healing spells and potions were miracles. Izzie didn’t always appreciate that despite having lived half her life under the threat of death and dismemberment. Magicals grew up taking their everyday power for granted in many ways.

Both types of healing magic couldn’t revive a dead person, but they could do the next best thing. They could bring a person back from the edge of death. Defensive spells like shields were their own miracles. The combination of healing and defensive magic saved Izzie’s and Eastlow’s lives the night before.

The trade-off was that all things in the universe, even magic, took their toll. There was no true way to get something for nothing.

Injury, healing, and exertion combined to exhaust Izzie. Even her fingers felt heavy the next morning as she typed her incident report at her desk. She wouldn’t be able to run down another dark wizard that day.

Everything from the walled-in duel with the dark wizard to the explosion felt like a distant memory from another life, although it had happened the day before. Izzie couldn’t be sure why that was. Perhaps the lack of finality fed the sensation. Most of the time when someone pushed her that far, the encounter ended with them dead or captured.

Izzie gnawed at her lip as annoyance flared and pushed away her fatigue. The dark wizard was out there. He’d escaped. He could be sitting in a room doing an Eastlow-style dance, mocking her.

She snickered at the absurd image in her mind. She’d pay to see the wizard dancing.

“Everything okay?” Rafe asked from his desk.

“I’m fine. I was thinking about something silly.”

Rafe eyed her. “I don’t know if I should be scared.” His phone rang. “One second.” He picked it up. “Martinez.”

Izzie chuckled and returned to her typing. The case was getting to her. After time to think, she had decided the fight was a draw, not a loss. They hadn’t captured the wizard, but she stopped him from killing Eastlow. Neither side got what they wanted.

Rafe spoke into his phone. “I understand. We will. Yes. Thanks. Goodbye.” He ended the call and put his phone on the desk.

“What’s up?” Izzie asked.

“No sign of our missing wizard yet, but field support is more confident they might be able to track the magic than I expected. They’re not offering any guarantees, but they’re adjusting the sensors.”

“That’s good to hear, but I’m not going to get my hopes up.” Izzie turned her chair to nod at Rafe. “I want this guy, but it might not be so bad if he ran all the way to Algeria.”

Rafe arched a brow. “Algeria? Did you hear something else from the DIA?”

“No. It could be anywhere. That’s the first country that came to mind. Maybe because it starts with A. It doesn’t matter.”

Izzie gestured at her monitor. “He failed to kill me, and he failed to kill Eastlow. We have enough potions and remnants of his portal that he’s in legit trouble now. I’m sure a crazed dark wizard distributing dangerous potions is enough for other countries to extradite him. I was starting to work myself up, but there’s a solid chance he’s done in Austin.”

“You don’t think he’s run to a secret base on Oriceran?”

“That’s getting harder and harder these days.” Izzie shook her head. “Anyone setting up schemes with Willens and street thugs isn’t an ancient power who can hop between the worlds that easily.” She frowned. “There’s only one thing that’s bothering me.”

“What’s that?” Rafe asked.

“Did you hear what he said right before I started fighting him the first time?” Izzie had been so focused on the dark wizard that she hadn’t thought much about it until this morning.

Rafe shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

“‘She’ll reward me when I kill you.’” Izzie tapped the side of her head. “He said that clear as day.”

“That explains why you asked what you did. That part I remember.” Rafe frowned. “You understand the implications?”

“I wish I didn’t.” Izzie rolled her eyes. “Yes. He’s another damned errand boy. He’s a Mathers with a wand or an Eastlow with no tail. He’s not the real brains behind the operation. There’s another puppet, and we need to follow his strings.”

“Which means there’s a good chance that whatever the overall plan is, it’s not over.” Rafe folded his arms. “We also have to consider whoever’s at the top might have killed him already like he was going to kill Eastlow.”

“If we can trace the portal’s magical signature, it might lead us to our mystery woman. Then we can have all this fun again.”

Rafe smirked. “How do you know it’s a mystery woman? Maybe it’s a lady dragon.”

Izzie grimaced. “I’d prefer not to fight a dragon. By the way, is there a proper term for a female dragon?”

“The ancient Greeks called them drakaina.”

Izzie scoffed. “There better not be any dragons or drakaina involved. I try to steer clear of anything that big. But whoever our mystery woman is, she seems to have it out for me.” She smirked. “But maybe if you’d cornered him, he would have given the same rant about you.”

“This is one time I’ll be satisfied with not being called out.” Rafe nodded at his computer. “We could try to cross-reference all living female suspects on cases you’ve worked.”

“That’s a waste of time.” Izzie shook her head. “It could be somebody from before my time at the PDA, or it could be somebody who just wants to kill a Berens woman or the daughter of the Fixer. The list goes on and on. There’s no way to figure out who she might be without more evidence.”

“Understood. It’s enough that we know the dark wizard might not come back, but we still have work to do.”

Izzie turned and started typing. “I’m willing to let field support and analysis support push for a day or so. I need at least twenty-four hours between explosions.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

To Izzie’s surprise, Luisa popped her head into the office the next morning. The small, dark-haired woman from analysis support stared at Izzie with her mouth agape.

“Can I help you?” Izzie checked her jacket to ensure there were no stains. She brushed her face with her fingers. “Is there something on my face?”

“Oh. Sorry, Agent Berens. I didn’t mean to stare.” Luisa blushed. “It’s just… I don’t know how to say it.”

“Just tell me. I promise not to get mad.”

“I heard you got blown up. I didn’t think you’d be in for a while. I’m surprised. If I got blown up, I’d take at least a week off.”

Rafe laughed. “Most people would. Not Izzie. She’d crawl into work, covered in burns, and say, ‘Just give me the damned healing potion. I can work.’”

Izzie folded her arms and scoffed. “There’s nothing wrong with doing my job when I’m not that hurt. If I was conscious, I could have used my healing magic. That’s just the nature of having magical healing around.”

She looked at Luisa. “To be clear, I got more blown around than blown up.” She shrugged. “I got better, and we have a dark wizard to catch. Any chance you have something on him that would help? Field support got our hopes up, but they haven’t been able to find our dark wizard.”

“I don’t know about all that, but I’m here about the case.” Luisa stepped into the office, holding a manila folder. “We’ve been pushing deeper into Kayden Erikson and Georgina Rosen.”

“You don’t need to be so formal. Did you find something new? Anything you can give us at this point is welcome.” Izzie thought it over for a second before adding. “Please give us the highlights. I trust you specialists. I’m less interested in the methods unless they’re relevant to the case or the related threats.”

Luisa nodded. “Okay. We located messages from an account we can trace to computers and other devices used by Kayden Erikson, but that didn’t have his name associated with the account or account metadata. Most of the messages came from an encrypted application on his work computer, which was surprising. You’d think if he was smart enough to use an encrypted application, he wouldn’t have used a work computer, and… Well, you said you didn’t care much about the methods.”

Izzie frowned. Kayden Erikson was the beginning of the road on this complex case. His actions at their first encounter convinced her he wasn’t a victim, but that wasn’t proof. This sounded like real proof that he was involved in a dangerous criminal enterprise.

“What if somebody else was using his devices to send these messages? Can you verify that it was him each time? Biometrics? A spell?” Izzie chuckled. “It turns out I care more about the method than I thought.”

“His work device didn’t have a biometric security system,” Luisa answered. “But he accessed that account with his personal phone. Although when we examined it, there were no apps on the phone linked to those accounts.

“Oh! We also ran a style analysis on the messages. All that together makes us confident it was him. We have access to spells that might be able to correlate the activity with him, but none of them are admissible for evidence.”

Izzie nodded. “Knowing it’s him is good enough.”

Luisa handed Izzie the folder. “I’ll send you the electronic copy of the report after I’m done talking to you. Most of the messages appear to be him setting up times and places to meet with another person, but they used a personal code to hide the places.”

“What type of code?”

“They just called them weird things. Like, in one message, Erikson says he wants to meet at ‘The first place I met you.’ In another, he talks about ‘The energetic mermaid.’”

Rafe snickered. “I bet the second one is a Starbucks.”

“You know how many Starbucks there are in Austin?” Izzie asked. “So, he was having an affair? We’re back to a love triangle.”

Luisa shook her head. “There’s nothing that suggests that in these messages. Only that they’d been meeting for the past month. The other party only identified themselves as ‘His friend.’ Stylistic analysis suggests that more likely than not this friend is a woman, but the algorithms are far from perfect.”

“A month ago, huh? More suspicious coincidences.” Izzie opened the folder with a frown. “The wizard who tried to blow me up mentioned a woman. What if his boss wanted to take things into her own hands?” She glanced at Rafe. “I assume she’s a woman and not a drakaina.”

Luisa looked confused. “You think an ancient Greek female dragon is involved? All the writing was in modern English.”

Izzie stared at her, surprised she knew what a drakaina was. “Uh, no. It was a joke.”

“Oh. You never know at the PDA.” Luisa laughed. “You just arrested a rat man, and your dad’s an elf.”

“All true.”

“Can you trace the woman’s account?” Rafe asked.

“It dead-ends overseas.” Luisa shook her head. “There’s evidence of heavy-duty technomagical proxy server manipulation spells. It’ll take a while to be sure, but it’s not likely we’ll be able to find out much more on that end. It would be different if we had more direct access to the relevant servers and knew where to look, but somebody put time and effort into covering their tracks.”

Izzie flipped through the printouts with the text of the recovered messages in the folder. These printouts represented specialization, the PDA’s real power. She led the investigation but didn’t need to figure out everything herself.

“What’s the big highlight of the messages?” Izzie set the folder on her desk. “Beyond them hitting up Starbucks.”

“About a week ago, the friend said the following…” Luisa frowned. She approached Izzie’s desk, picked up the folder, and flipped through the papers.

“Oh, here it is. ‘Magical power isn’t beyond your reach. Those in power won’t understand what we intend. They would fight us if we tried. It’s happened before on Oriceran and Earth.

“‘Together, we can close the distance between magicals and nonmagicals. We will change so many people, the government will have to accept them. You need to help me convince the witch to aid us. She’s wavering.’”

Rafe’s brow lifted. “It doesn’t sound like he was having an affair.”

Izzie grimaced. “It sounds like they planned to contaminate the drinks at the plant. That matches with everything else we’ve learned about Rosen.”

“We found hidden accounts linked to Rosen,” Luisa explained. “She came into money from overseas accounts associated with people who don’t exist and one person who died last year, but a different dead person than the in the phone case.”

“Rosen was in on it,” Rafe noted.

Izzie thought things over. “What if the mastermind took advantage of her bitterness over losing her EPA job?”

Rafe nodded. “You’re saying she was going to help with a contamination incident to prove a point? That’s pretty messed up.”

“We’ve seen worse from people with far lesser reasons. She hadn’t done anything yet. If she was already wavering, she might have cracked when we talked to her.”

“It sounds like Erikson was a victim. They lied to him about what the potions did.”

“Is he truly a victim?” Izzie scoffed. “There’s being trusting, and there’s being an idiot. How could he trust someone enough to let them tamper with the energy drinks without making sure it was safe? What if he was just looking the other way?”

Luisa flipped through more of the papers. “They went back and forth on this. The friend told Erikson that it was too dangerous to ‘change him’ by himself, that he needed to do it as part of ‘the overall plan.’ He was reluctant without proof. Like you were complaining about, Agent Berens.

“The friend told him he would get a sample, but once he took it, he needed to stay away from anyone for a few hours until it wore off. The friend recommended that Erikson rent a hotel room and sleep it off.”

Rafe cupped his chin. “That means he could have survived. It’s what we’ve been wondering.”

“Maybe,” Izzie replied. “It also means this friend understood how dangerous this potion was. The friend must be our dark wizard’s boss. The only part I don’t get is if this potion transformation was the only tool used to convince him to play along.” She looked at Luisa. “Did you find anything else in the deep dive of his financials?”

Luisa’s eyes widened. “I forgot that folder. Yes. We did. There are several unexplained recent deposits and withdrawals into secondary accounts he controlled, including two different crypto accounts we could only trace to him because he accessed them from his phone. His main accounts shared with his wife showed no unusual activity. It’s clear that he was trying to hide this activity.”

Rafe shook his head. “This guy needed a lesson In how to hide his criminal behavior. It’s all half-assed covering his tracks.”

“It covered his ass enough it took a dedicated federal team several days to uncover it,” Izzie noted. “That means he passed surface-level checks without trouble. Besides, hiding everything gets tiring.” She snickered.

“Our jobs would be way worse if criminals all knew what they were doing. I feel a little sorry for this guy, but not that much. He was taking money and potion bribes to contaminate his product, all without a clear understanding of what it did. Someone throwing around clever promises should have been a tip-off.” She looked at Rafe. “You’d never fall for something like that.”

“I hope not.” Rafe smiled at Luisa. “Thanks for all the great work.”

Luisa nodded. “No problem. Oh! In the last month, he also started giving money from his secondary hidden accounts to a smaller, newer local charity, the Travis County Magical and Mundane Mutual Aid Society. None of his donations came out of any of his main accounts.”

“That’s a lot of M’s,” Rafe commented.

“The donations might not mean anything,” Izzie cautioned. “His wife came off prejudiced about magicals in our interview. He might have wanted to donate to a magical cause without pissing her off. But the timing bothers me. Everything keeps pointing back to a month ago—Eastlow, the messages, the overseas incident, and now these donations. Is the charity a month old?”

Rafe turned to his keyboard and monitor. He brought up a browser and typed up a search. “Huh. The Travis County Magical and Mundane Mutual Aid Society didn’t exist until last summer. Judging by these headlines, they’ve been growing in donations and influence since then.”

“We haven’t been able to find much other than their registration information,” Luisa explained. “We just started pushing harder into checking them out. The listed operating officers don’t live in Austin, and all the contact information is for generic accounts.”

“Not a month old.” Izzie frowned. “That’s good. I’ve never heard of them, but it’s not like I pay a huge amount of attention to charities.” She frowned. “Wait a second. The summer? When in the summer?”

Rafe typed more and nodded. “The charity opened their doors a couple of weeks after we caught Xelius.”

“I don’t like the timing on that.”

“There are only twelve months in the year. That means a one in twelve chance of a given business or charity being founded the same month as anything else happening that month.” Rafe thought before adding, “You ever hear of the birthday paradox?”

Izzie shook her head. “Should I have?”

“It’s a problem in probability theory. The basic question is, ‘How many people do you need in a room before there’s a greater than fifty percent chance of two people sharing the same birthday?’”

Izzie shrugged. “Around a hundred eighty? You know, around half of three hundred sixty-five.”

“It’s twenty-three.” Luisa blushed and looked away. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay.” Izzie shrugged. “I never claimed to be a math whiz. But only twenty-three? That doesn’t seem right.”

Rafe nodded. “The point is you can get weird, unexpected answers when you start playing around with probabilities. So I don’t know if it means anything that the charity appeared around a similar time.”

Luisa cleared her throat and waited for them to look at her. “We have geolocation from Rosen’s phone establishing that she stopped by the charity’s office a week before the first beast man incident, but we can’t find anything else indicating she ever called them or wrote them.”

“Face-to-face meetings leave less of a trail,” Rafe noted.

“That’s evidence we wouldn’t have noticed without the bigger picture,” Izzie observed. “Eastlow’s given us what he knows. Everybody else is dead or gone, and we have Rosen and Erikson linked to this charity.” She nodded at Luisa. “This is a good lead.”

Luisa nodded. She beamed at Rafe and hurried out of the room.

Izzie chuckled. “Did you get a faerie to bless you or something?”

“What?” Rafe blinked at her.

“Pearl and now Luisa.” Izzie shook her head. “It’s like you’re giving off pheromones.”

Rafe looked at the door. “You think she likes me?”

“I don’t know. I’m not a great person to ask about relationships. My boyfriend needed my partner as a wingman to convince me to go on a date.” She pointed at the door. “But she’s not smiling at me the way she’s smiling at you. That much I know.”

“Oh.” Rafe’s expression turned thoughtful. “Interesting. But what do you want to do about the case?”

“I want to defy probability.” Izzie nodded at his computer. “We’re not going to wait around for analysis support to dig through more records or field support to tell us they’re screwed. It’s time to visit the Mutual Aid Society for a chat. They might not be dirty, but they might have seen Erikson and Rosen with someone who is.”

“We don’t have enough for a warrant.”

Izzie shook her head. “No reason to turn the place upside down yet. All I want to do is ask a few questions about a nice, local charity. They should love helping the PDA.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The small, one-story office building hosting the charity didn’t look special from the outside. A modest sign in the window read Travis County Magical and Mundane Mutual Aid Society. The building was tucked away in a dense office park in central Austin, with many other buildings nearby being doctors’ officers.

Despite the grandeur of many of her enemies, Izzie learned long before that not every villain liked to sit in a mansion or villa pretending to be a king. The most dangerous opponents kept a low profile.

“Make sure you have your anti-magic cuffs,” Izzie reminded Rafe before opening her door. “As normal as that place looks, I sense strong magic from the building.”

Rafe double-checked his jacket pocket for his cuffs and nodded. “Remember, we’re only here to chat, and it’s a known charity working with magicals. It’s not against the law to enchant a building.”

“Something like that, but I doubt they’re using magic to set up conference calls in there, and the last time we went to chat with somebody, we ended up in a fight.”

Rafe laughed. “Because of our great luck. But understood. I have your back.”

Izzie waited for Rafe to exit the car and strolled toward the front door. Frosted glass concealed everything but the rough shapes of the office. She reached for the door and hesitated before tugging it open, half-expecting an undead ambush on the other side.

A young blonde woman in a cute blue top and matching skirt sat behind a computer at a front desk, backed by framed pictures. Her nametag read Freya, complete with drawn hearts on both sides of her name. This was a far cry from an undead ambush.

Comfortable-looking chairs sat along the wall. A large TV hanging in the corner displayed statistics about local outreach programs funded by the charity. A closed door leading out of the room was marked, No admittance without staff. All deliveries around back.

Izzie looked at Rafe. He smiled. The vibe was more of a doctor’s office than a secret evil base, other than the heavy sensation of magic suffusing the area. That made Izzie more suspicious.

“Welcome to the Travis County Magical and Mundane Mutual Aid Society, Agents Berens and Martinez,” Freya greeted with a huge smile. “It’s our honor to have you visit our organization. If you had called ahead, I would have made sure one of my bosses was here to meet you.”

Izzie frowned. “How do you know who we are?”

“Hey, she welcomed both of us.” Rafe chuckled.

Freya laughed. “You’re kind of famous, you know. You stopped how many major crimes in the last couple of years? You prevented two huge city-threatening incidents.” She put her hand to her mouth and giggled. “You’ve done TV interviews.”

Izzie’s cheeks burned. Freya was right. They didn’t keep a low profile.

“If you know who we are, that speeds things along.” Rafe smiled. “Are you a magical, Freya?”

He looked her up and down with careful attention. Izzie assumed he sought evidence of a wand or technomagical equivalent, given her otherwise human appearance. They could anticipate a threat with a better understanding of its nature.

Freya shook her head. “I’m as mundane as they come.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little offensive to call nonmagicals mundane?” Izzie asked.

“I don’t find it personally offensive. I think they picked that because the alliteration sounds cooler. Marketing is the real magic!” Freya giggled. “Besides, the truth is people without magic lack something magicals do. Our organization is all about helping bridge that gap, to help show people the wonders and usefulness of magic.”

“So we’ve read.” Izzie glanced at the closed door leading out of the lobby.

“Now that magic’s returning to Earth, shouldn’t everyone have magic?” Freya asked. “We’re on the beginning of the road to that path. The first step is making sure everyone understands why that’s desirable.”

Izzie frowned. “That’s never been true, even thousands of years ago during the period of high magic. Technically, despite the tendency to refer to all Oricerans as magicals, not every Oriceran species is capable of active magic. But assuming it’s meant to… You know what? Never mind. We didn’t come here for that.”

Freya smiled. “Sure thing. What can I do for you?”

“Answer a few questions. How long have you worked here?”

“Since last summer. I was one of the first people hired. It’s a small office, and we’re like a family.” She rubbed her hands together, her eyes alight with excitement. “I never thought we’d get the PDA to come and work with us.”

Rafe shook his head. “We’re not here to work with your organization. We have restrictions on our ability to work with or endorse outside organizations.”

“Then why are you here?” Freya asked with a disappointed frown.

“We need to talk to someone in charge,” Izzie explained. “We have questions about a case we’re working. They might be able to shed light on them.”

Freya clapped. “Oh. You’re in luck. My boss will be coming back from lunch soon. She’s the big boss, not that we have tons of people.”

“You’re a family,” Izzie recalled.

Freya smiled. “Exactly! She’s not always in town, so you’re lucky.” She gestured at the chairs. “Feel free to wait as long as you need.”

Izzie and Rafe exchanged glances before sitting. The website and analysis support’s research only highlighted a handful of local nonmagical employees. Despite all the boilerplate text on the website about the future of the Earth with all magic, there wasn’t a clear mention of any magical staff.

“Are you talking about your director, Lenore Teller?” Izzie remembered the name from Luisa’s report.

Freya shook her head. “Her boss, so it’s my boss’ boss. Oh, can I get you something to drink?”

“I’m good,” Izzie answered.

Rafe shook his head. “I had a cup of coffee before we came.”

Izzie leaned forward with a forced smile. “We read your website, but we wondered if you could tell us, from your perspective, what exactly you do here. Earlier, you made it sound like the goal of this organization is to give everyone magic?”

“Oh, sure.” Freya blushed. “I believe so much in this place, I can overstate things. My boss told me how everyone being magical is something that’s, like, way, way off in the future.”

“That circles back to what you do here with the Mutual Aid Society.”

“We coordinate outreach between the wizards and witches who run the society and try to promote education about the positive effects of magic on the world.” Freya gestured at the pictures of smiling people wearing seven-colored ribbons behind her, but the dark color palette was random from Izzie’s perspective and some distance from the rainbow. “Our watchwords are outreach and understanding. The first step to making a better world between magicals and mundanes is bringing a better understanding.”

“What do those colors mean?”

Freya frowned, put her hand in front of her mouth, and gasped. “You know what? I don’t know. I never asked, and all my boss said was that they represent the past and serve as a reminder for the future.”

“You must do events,” Rafe noted. “Right? That’s what you mean by outreach?”

“My boss says it’s better to do everything person-to-person. We’re building up true social connections that way.” Freya’s smile grew. “Too many people don’t know magicals of any type, and they’re even more suspicious of different species. By promoting outreach events, everything from cookouts to magicals using their powers to help people repair their homes, we help local people understand what a true blessing magic is.”

The website mentioned activities. It was a good question to verify any inconsistencies. All of Freya’s answers matched what they’d read.

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Rafe noted.

Izzie nodded. “Yes. Almost too good…” She shot out of her chair as a familiar magical sensation passed over her. Her heart thundered.

“What’s wrong?” Rafe stood and looked around.

“There’s magic I recognize.” She glared at the door. “I’ve felt this sensation before.” She backed away from the door and whispered her shield spell incantation. “Dark magic I recognize.”

Rafe reached into his jacket. “Understood.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Abeautiful young woman entered the lobby. Izzie’s stomach tightened. White streaks ran through the woman’s black hair. She carried a wand of twisted dark wood on her belt, just like at the auction house. The design of her black dress was different, but the vibe was familiar.

Everything about the woman matched the mysterious witch at the auction house in the fall except the lack of a veil and the presence of a small black purse slung over her shoulder.

Her appearance combined with the familiar dark magic screamed Arcane Syndicate. Izzie’s hands shook with anticipation.

The witch smiled. “You seem tense, Agent Berens. Is there anything I can help you with?”

Freya offered a nervous smile to the witch. “They said they needed to talk to someone in charge.” She swallowed. “Ma’am, they mentioned something about dark magic.”

The witch raised an eyebrow. “Agent Berens is an expert in dealing with dark magic. She’d know.”

Izzie gritted her teeth. That was all the confirmation she needed. The witch’s voice matched, too. The dark magic flowing off her wasn’t that subtle.

“You’re the big boss?” Izzie asked. “Freya’s boss’ boss?”

“You could say that. This is my charity, but I try to keep my name out of it.” The woman curtsied. “I’m Hazel Byers. I’m surprised to meet the famous Izzie Berens in such an unexpected place.” Her dark gaze slid to Rafe. “You’re making a name for yourself as well, Agent Martinez. Might I ask what this concerns?”

Izzie spared a glance at Freya. Nothing indicated the woman was a magical or knew anything about the Arcane Syndicate. Freya didn’t deserve to get hurt or killed any more than Eastlow.

“It might be better to talk in an office.” Izzie motioned toward the door. “It’s sensitive subject matter. We wouldn’t want any awkwardness.”

Hazel smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m happy to be accommodating. Thank you for being understanding.”

Hazel waved her hand. The door unlocked and opened itself.

“Freya, please take an extended lunch and lock the door behind you on your way out.” Hazel’s tone brooked no debate. “There’s a private matter I need to discuss with these agents.”

“Are you sure?” Freya cast suspicious glances at Izzie and Rafe. “You don’t want me to call anyone?”

“No, I’ll handle this. Please finish up and leave in the next five minutes.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Freya scowled at Izzie and Rafe.

Izzie couldn’t believe they were being treated like criminals when she stood across from a witch linked to the Arcane Syndicate. Hazel helped run an auction for a dark artifact that had almost led to disaster.

“We’ll talk later, Freya.” Hazel walked past Izzie and Rafe, her smile never wavering.

Izzie followed, but she didn’t drop her shield spell. Rafe kept his hand in his jacket without drawing his gun. The building might not be trapped like the dark wizard’s abandoned store, but Izzie didn’t forget she’d walked into a building that Hazel had months to enchant.

A short, carpeted hallway was behind the door. Magical paintings lined the walls. Some displayed moving pictures, but most weren’t special other than a wilderness scene focused on an obvious magical casting a flashy spell. The office lay at the far end, one of the obvious sources of the intense magic Izzie felt, but only Hazel radiated dark magic.

Hazel entered the office, which was empty except for a single desk and a stool. Magic power flowed off the wooden desk that didn’t look expensive or sturdy. Runic symbols covered the front and sides of the desk.

Izzie kept her attention on Hazel, unsure of the witch’s plan. She’d sent Freya away. That could have meant everything from planning a fight to not wanting the embarrassment of being arrested in front of her fangirl.

Hazel stood behind the desk, folded her hands in front of her, and smiled. She hadn’t moved her hands near her wand since entering the building. Either she understood she was outmatched, or she’d cast enough spells over herself that she wasn’t worried about Izzie and Rafe getting off the first shot.

Izzie didn’t see any obvious flicker, light, or a dark miasma that might mark a shield spell. That didn’t guarantee Hazel used a different style of defensive magic.

“It might be better to talk down at the PDA office,” Izzie explained. “Freya’s right. You should call somebody. I’d recommend a good lawyer.”

Hazel shook her head. She spoke in a calm voice. “No, I don’t see a reason to do any of that, Agent Berens. Please explain your reasoning to me.”

“We have reason to believe you’re involved with a dangerous organization known as the Arcane Syndicate.” Izzie’s fingers twitched. She kept her arm down. “We also have evidence linking you to the recent beast men incidents, in particular with Kayden Erikson. We also have reason to believe you had dealings with Georgina Rosen.”

That was all true. Izzie saw no reason to highlight how her evidence was a combination of direct and circumstantial. She couldn’t believe the arrogance of Hazel running Arcane Syndicate operations out of a charity.

Hazel laughed, the sound light and airy. “You don’t have a warrant to arrest me. All you have are unsigned messages.”

“We didn’t mention the evidence.” Izzie stared at her. “How do you know what we have?”

“A guess. It’s not that hard to see through people like you.”

“That’s enough for probable cause. Keep in mind, there’s more flexibility in magical investigations concerning inevitable discovery doctrine.”

Hazel wagged a finger. “Do you have enough, Agent Berens? I’m doubtful, and I’m surprised the PDA would threaten to arrest someone for running a charity. That’s rather authoritarian, wouldn’t you say? Isn’t this supposed to be a country dedicated to freedom?”

Rafe noted, “It’s interesting that your name isn’t attached to this charity anywhere obvious, yet you’d be sloppy enough to deal with Kayden Erickson directly.”

“I don’t like standing out.” Her smile faltered. “My dear, departed mother always taught me that true elegance and nobility come from doing the righteous action without expecting praise. She also taught me that it’s important to ensure your wishes are carried out. The best way to do that is to handle things personally. I can assure you we followed all appropriate local and federal laws in establishing this charity.”

Izzie scoffed. “We both know this isn’t about charities. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

“What am I alleged to have done? Be specific on that, Agent Berens. I didn’t know anything about Kayden Erikson until his name was in the news.” Hazel’s smile returned.

“You’re a member of the PDA. You have rules you have to follow. This isn’t like when you were running around murdering whoever you felt like with the excuse they belonged to a dark family.” She glared at Izzie. “It’s not illegal in this country to belong to a dark family.”

Izzie glared back. “The dark families were hunting me. I defended myself. That’s self-defense, not murder.”

“But you killed many people along the way, didn’t you?” Hazel sighed. “You’re the type of magical that makes everyone distrust us. Trouble follows you around, and you blame everyone else.”

“Don’t feed me that crap. You were at the auction, and you were part of the staff running it, which links you to a previous serious and dangerous incident. We know you were in communication with Erikson. I’m sure if we looked hard enough, we’d find a link between you and Xelius.”

“What auction? Who is Xelius?” Hazel tilted her head. “We have run one charity auction since I started this organization. I don’t recall any magical items being auctioned.”

Rafe cleared his throat and lowered his arm. “You’re claiming you don’t know anything about Kayden Erikson?”

“That’s the gentleman Agent Berens killed after he turned into a monster, isn’t it?” Hazel smiled at her. “You just can’t stop hurting people, can you? More self-defense, hmm? Convenient.”

“We were both involved in the incident, along with a police officer,” Rafe interjected before Izzie could open her mouth to reply. “It’s more complicated than that. He wouldn’t have died if he hadn’t used a dangerous potion and tried to attack people.”

Hazel clucked her tongue. “Ah, that unfortunate man. I hope you find whoever’s responsible for giving him the potion. I’m sure Agent Berens can kill him.”

“You trafficked in stolen magical goods and are linked to a necromantic plot,” Izzie added.

“Have I?” Hazel rested her cheek on her palm. “I don’t tend to run in criminal circles, but I heard rumors that you arrested a Willen for your case and let him go because of lack of evidence. That was right before you blew up a building in the Magical District.”

She chuckled. “What was that about, Agent Berens? Murder doesn’t excite you enough anymore? You needed to move on to mass destruction? What’s next? Are you going to run around causing famines?”

“I didn’t blow up the building,” Izzie spat through gritted teeth. “A dark wizard did. But you know that, don’t you? He was your subordinate.”

“It’s almost like you can’t help yourself if you believe someone’s a dark wizard. I’m a criminal mastermind who’s running a charity. Whyever would I do that?” Hazel chuckled. “I think you’ve mistaken me for somebody else, Agent Berens.”

Hazel was right. Izzie was missing something, but she didn’t understand what that was. Not all investigations unfolded in a straightforward way, but operating through a dark wizard who hid behind a Willen proved the center of the operation was careful. Would she really have left messages like that?

Or was her explanation true? Hazel’s personal arrogance might have led her to expose herself while operating through the dark wizard and Eastlow for the riskier street-based scheme.

Izzie curled her hands into fists at her side. She nodded at Rafe to tell him to continue doing the talking. Hazel was more interested in insulting her than him.

“You’re saying you don’t know anything about Kayden Erikson other than what you’ve seen on the news?” Rafe asked with a practiced smile.

“That’s what I’m saying, yes.”

“You know what I believe?” Rafe asked. “You thought you had more control of the situation and over him. Of course, a beautiful young woman like yourself would be able to bat her eyelashes at a stressed-out middle-aged man. He would never cheat on his wife, but he’d listen to you.

“Except he didn’t. He took the potion and got himself into a fight. He ruined everything, but in a sense, you did because you couldn’t help following your mother’s advice. Bad advice if you ask me.”

Hazel frowned. “I’ll ask you not to insult my mother, Agent Martinez.”

“Enough of this,” Izzie snapped. “You need to come with us. I bet we can match your magical signature to the evidence we uncovered. Finding someone in an entire city by using a secondary magical signature is one thing. It’s far easier when you have both an item and the person to compare.”

“I thought we already went over this,” Hazel replied. “You don’t have enough to charge me, let alone hold me. I won’t go anywhere with you.”

They couldn’t let her leave. They would never see her again.

Izzie shook her head and raised her palm. “I’ll willing to take the risk. The Arcane Syndicate is up to something, so screw it. There’s enough circumstantial evidence to place you at an illegal auction. We can hold you with that alone. Everything else will fall into place.”

Hazel sighed and rolled her eyes. “You’re as intransigent and stubborn as a wolf shifter, Agent Berens.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It wasn’t meant as one, I can assure you.” Hazel smiled again. “Although you do like those mongrels, don’t you? Weren’t you sweet on one when you went to school? Disgusting. Those creatures are⁠—”

“Shut your damned mouth,” Izzie spat. “Or I’ll shut it for you, you dark witch. You come to my city and threaten innocent people. How dare you.”

“A savage through and through.” Hazel wrinkled her nose. “Your father must be ashamed of what you’ve become, and your mother should have stayed out of our world.” She sneered. “This is the problem when people lack a proper blood lineage.”

“You don’t know the first thing about my parents, bitch.”

Rafe put his hand on Izzie’s arm. “Don’t let her bait you.”

Hazel chuckled. “As amusing as taunting you is, Agent Berens, we both have better things to do. I understand you’re burning with righteous indignation to bring me in over the alleged crimes you’ve hallucinated to justify your brutality. I’m not going with you. I am, however, willing to negotiate with you. Unlike you, I’m a civilized woman.”

Izzie didn’t lower her arm. She nodded at Rafe. Holding back her desire to blast Hazel took all her self-control.

The Arcane Syndicate’s schemes had taken innocent lives. The only reason hundreds if not thousands of people didn’t die was because of the PDA and their allies. This flippant woman was helping the Syndicate.

The problem was she was right. Her familiar dark magical aura wasn’t enough for a conviction. Izzie wasn’t sure if they could hold her long enough to confirm everything else.

“How do you intend to negotiate?” Rafe asked.

Hazel bowed her head at him. “A reasonable man. Wonderful. First of all, you’re going to allow me to leave. That’s nonnegotiable.”

“You high on one of those potions you made for Eastlow?” Izzie asked.

“You’re powerful, Agent Berens.” Hazel shook her head. “No one can deny that, but you also must sense all the magical power invested in this place. If you attempt to take me by force, I guarantee you that, at minimum, this building will be destroyed. Innocent people will die.”

“You told Freya to leave,” Rafe noted.

“She’s been a good and loyal worker. She understands the innate inferiority of her kind and respects her superiors well. That should be rewarded.”

Hazel’s smile turned manic. “All those other buildings nearby. How many people do you think are inside them right now? Many are doctors’ offices with sick and recovering patients. Do you think they can survive a large explosion? It would be amusing to test.”

Izzie snorted. “You won’t survive an explosion that big.”

“It doesn’t matter as long as you, your partner, and innocent people die with me, Agent Berens.” Hazel lifted her hand and snapped her fingers. A dark nimbus surrounded her. “I guarantee that neither of you can down me with one attack. So what’s it going to be?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Rafe drew his gun. “Hands on your head. This gun is loaded with anti-magic bullets.”

Hazel rolled her eyes. “You think I’ve taken no measures to deal with such barbaric weapons? Go ahead. Shoot me. It’ll give me an excuse to kill all of us.”

Izzie kept her palm pointed at Hazel’s chest. “After that opening, I didn’t think you’d admit to being an evil bitch so easily. You spent all that time and energy playing these games, and now you’re just going to admit to being the monster you are?”

Hazel’s wand flew into her hand. “I’m not evil, Izzie Berens, not like you. I come from a proud, noble line that understands the natural order of things has been upended.”

“Because dark families don’t rule?” Izzie shook her head. “You know? You’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

Hazel scowled at Izzie. “Spare me your pointless drivel. I’m pragmatic, and the fact you made it this far means there’s no more use for this identity. Call it a mistake if you want. I overestimated certain people. I already had to get more involved in this than I intended because of the incompetence of my inferiors. I suppose it was inevitable this plan would fail.”

Izzie grinned. “That’s what we call a confession at the PDA, and I already gave you your Miranda warning. Thanks for doing that. You’re making this easier than I thought it would be.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Hazel tapped the tip of her wand in her palm. “There’s no spell you can cast fast enough to bring me down before I activate the spells on this building.”

“Rafe, go outside and call for backup.” Izzie didn’t take her attention off Hazel. “I’ll cover her.”

He frowned at her. “You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“No.” Hazel glared at him. “You leave this room, then we all die together. I’m sure neither of you want unpleasantness.”

Izzie scoffed. “You’re bluffing.”

“Am I now?” Hazel’s smile widened. “How many lives are you willing to bet on that, Izzie Berens? Yours? His? Dozens? If I’m captured here, the best I could hope for is a life in prison, being held by a backward land run by nonmagicals obsessed with their shallow history.”

Her lips quivered. “I can think of no greater humiliation. But I am a civilized woman, unlike you, Izzie Berens. I don’t need to hurt anyone unnecessarily, even nonmagicals, if it doesn’t advance my goals. You wouldn’t understand that restraint, would you? You’re incapable of understanding.”

Izzie didn’t lower her arm. Every part of her burned to fire a spell.

“Considering you’re linked to several deaths, including a magical, I don’t know where you get off talking down to me about hurting people.” Izzie’s jaw tightened. “I know you’re connected to the Arcane Syndicate. I’ve felt the stain of your special brand of dark magic before.”

Hazel’s breath caught. She let out a joyous laugh. “It worked better than I could have ever hoped.”

“What worked?”

“A powerful ritual, one that would require sacrifice on my part but would give me more ability and power to deal with you when I found you. I wanted you to know that. It’s my way of balancing out the advantages of the Berens line.”

“Is that what I’ve been feeling?”

“I didn’t realize that would be a side effect. It’s almost poetic.”

Rafe’s brow lifted. “That implies whatever she’s done extends to other members of the Arcane Syndicate.”

“Not good enough, Hazel.” Izzie scoffed. “You’re chatty today, aren’t you? While you’re at it, why not admit to being a member of the Arcane Syndicate? I thought you people were all about secrets.”

Hazel shook her head. “I’ve admitted nothing of importance, and even if I had, you shouldn’t trust everything Xelius told you. Haven’t you realized that man was a tool, nothing more? In the natural hierarchy of superiority, he was better than that inferior you’re working with, Berens, but not much. The real Arcane Syndicate is much more powerful than that fool understood. I wouldn’t oppose such a dangerous organization if I were you.”

“You’re a real gem.” Rafe crept away from Izzie toward the corner of the office with his gun aimed at Hazel. The room was too small for him to get outside her peripheral vision, but Izzie understood what he was trying.

Hazel followed Rafe with her eyes. “As much as I enjoy seeing the irritation and frustration on your face, Izzie Berens, it’s obvious that we’re at a stalemate. Since you’ve disrupted certain plans of mine, I’ll give you a choice. You can let me go without a fight, and I’ll give you information on where to find Narses.”

Rafe’s brow lifted. “The Byzantine general?”

“Is that who he’s named after?” Hazel looked annoyed. “Narses is the dark wizard you’ve already battled. He’s involved in executing a scheme that I imagine the PDA wants to stop. Unless you care more about catching me than stopping hundreds if not thousands of people from suffering.”

Izzie shook her head. “There’s no way you can expect me to believe you.”

“Oh, you would rather that Narses spread the transformation potion to half the city?” Hazel tapped her wand on the desk. “That might be amusing. Even in its diluted state, I’m sure the effects will be interesting and unpleasant for the nonmagicals.”

“I don’t believe you. You wouldn’t give up your plan.”

“Then use a truth spell on me.” Hazel spread out her arms. “I’ll prove it.”

“How do I know you don’t have a counter?”

“If you’re half as clever as you think you are, you can test me.” Hazel nodded to the side. “Your inferior partner is covering me. If it’s mutual annihilation you desire, he can begin the process. You can take a moment to cast the spell.”

Rafe nodded. “Go ahead, Izzie. I’ll empty the whole magazine if I need to.”

Izzie turned and lifted her other hand. She made a series of intricate hand motions combined with a quiet chant. A white orb appeared in front of the desk.

Hazel stared at the orb with a smug smirk. “My name is Izzie Berens.”

The orb darkened.

“I like and respect Izzie Berens,” Hazel added.

The orb stayed dark.

Izzie narrowed her eyes. “You better answer the following question, or I won’t buy into anything you say. Are you a member of the Arcane Syndicate?”

Hazel’s mouth twitched. She didn’t respond.

“Answer the question,” Izzie shouted.

“Yes.”

The orb brightened.

“I can’t believe it.” Izzie shook her head. “I thought you had a plan.”

“Don’t you understand that I want you to know who I am?” Hazel replied. “I want you to remember this encounter for the rest of your short, miserable life. I want you to see me in your mind every night before you sleep until the day I come and finish you.”

She waved her left hand. “I’ll do this, standing above your body as the lifeblood drains from it in those final minutes when that horrifying revelation sets in and you understand I’ve beaten you.” She laughed. “My disgust for you has tempered my judgment. I’ll admit that much. Whether it’s led to permanent mistakes, who can say?”

“Why do you hate me so much? Other than the auction, we never met, and we were both disguised.”

“You’re wasting time.” Hazel sneered. “Narses will kill innocent people if you don’t stop him. They haven’t found him yet, which means their precious PDA tracking and technomagic isn’t good enough to deal with my people.”

Rafe frowned. “This has to be more about saving your ass. Do you honestly believe Narses’ plan will hurt people?”

“Yes,” Hazel answered with a confident smile.

The orb didn’t darken. Izzie’s pulse pounded in her ears.

“I’ll give you what you need to find him in a short time if you let me go,” Hazel continued. The orb remained bright.

“Then why not let him go through with the plan?” Izzie asked.

“Because I knew it would come to this if you found me. I suspected you’d find me soon because of Kayden’s mistake. I knew I’d need leverage.” Her smile twitched into a deep scowl. “I never approved of this plan anyway. I knew this would happen once everything fell apart because of that fool Kayden. But I couldn’t pass up the chance to talk to you face-to-face and to become the nightmare that haunts you.”

Izzie didn’t know what to think. This woman was dangerous. Letting her go would cause problems in the future, but Narses was an immediate problem.

Hazel’s hands shook. She tightened her fingers around her wand. “Oh, how I’ve dreamed of what I’d say when I met you face-to-face, but no matter. You’ve forced my hand in this. Perhaps you could find him yourself in time, but I’m doubtful. We return to my original offer, Izzie Berens. Will you let me leave, or will you sacrifice the lives of the precious people of this city you claim to care about?”

“Why don’t I just take you down here and now?” Izzie shouted.

Hazel laughed. “Then you’ll die. Agent Martinez will die, and other innocent people will die today. Narses is on the move. More people will die before you find him.” She narrowed her eyes. “It’s your choice. You get to decide who dies today.” She gestured at the orb. “Nothing I’ve told you has been a lie.”

“Rafe, what do you think?” Izzie asked.

“We’ll have this entire building to hand over to field support. She’s obsessed with you. She’ll be back. This is a case where a bird in the hand isn’t worth as much as two in the bush.”

Hazel snickered. “Then do we have a deal?”

Izzie backed toward the door, the truth orb floating with her. “We’ll keep you covered until we’re out of the building. Then you’ll tell us where Narses is.”

“I don’t know that.”

Izzie glanced at the white truth orb. “If you’re telling the truth, why the hell should we cut this deal?”

“Because I can give you a charm that will lead you to him. I always carry it on me. I needed it in case he was captured.”

Izzie sighed. “Damn it. This isn’t over, Hazel, if that’s your real name.”

“Hazel is, but my last name isn’t Byers.” She moved. The dark field around her obscured her movements but stayed clear around her face. She kept her wand pointed at Izzie.

The PDA agents backed down the hallway, both watching Hazel. She sashayed out of the office with a smug, confident smile, her wand never dipping. When they arrived at the lobby, Freya was gone.

Izzie backed toward the front door and opened it with her left hand without turning around. “I will find you. I will bring you in. This isn’t over.” She opened the door and backed up more.

Rafe cleared the lobby. Hazel didn’t emerge until Izzie and Rafe were in the parking lot.

Hazel didn’t lower her wand. She reached into her purse and pulled out a stiff rectangular strip of paper covered with glowing glyphs. She whispered an incantation and tossed the strip to the ground. A blood-red spiral appeared. The tip of the spiral flared up. The fire crept along the spiral, pushing out red smoke that disappeared after floating a few inches away from the charm.

“When it burns to the finish, it’ll tell you what you need to know.” Hazel pointed her wand at the truth orb. “I’ve honored my end of the bargain, but since I know you’re an ill-tempered barbarian despite your father, Izzie Berens, keep in mind attacking me guarantees half this block is destroyed.” She smiled. “Besides, you have a job to do. You need to stop a dark wizard from hurting a number of nonmagicals.”

Hazel stepped backward. “I’ll admit I’m a little disappointed that you’ve tapered down your savagery, but I want you to know this, Izzie Berens, since your stubborn nature has made this harder than it needs to be. My real name is Hazel Nelson. Consider this whole matter me giving you regards from my dear departed mother.”

“I don’t know a Hazel Nelson,” Izzie replied.

Hazel flicked her wand and vanished. Izzie started to chant a magical flow visualization spell. Burning circles of various colors winked into existence with loud pops. She cast a shield spell and threw herself in front of Rafe.

The circles spun with a loud hum. Izzie strengthened her shield with more layers and power, ready for the attack. The circles whizzed into the sky with a high-pitched whine before bursting apart in a colorful display of sparks and smoke.

Izzie blinked. “What is she doing?”

“Distracting us and covering her escape.” Rafe holstered his gun and pointed at the burning charm. “We have a more immediate problem.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

Izzie picked up the charm. It was warm. Judging by the burn progress, five to seven minutes remained before it revealed Narses’ location.

“She didn’t say he would pull off the plan when the spiral reached the end,” Izzie noted. “She said it would tell us what we need to know. Damn it. I should have asked how long we had overall.”

“We can’t take time chasing her down when Narses is planning something.” Rafe jogged toward their car. “Unless she figured out a way to fool your truth spell only part of the time, our missing dark wizard is about to pull off a mass casualty event. He’s the obvious priority.”

Izzie kept bouncing the name Hazel Nelson around in her mind. Much like the familiarity she experienced around Hazel’s dark magic, the name prodded the back of her mind as if it was important. Yet, she couldn’t recall meeting any Hazel Nelson.

“Call Bill and brief him,” Izzie instructed. “I’ll call field support and forensics. Even if we can’t chase Hazel, that doesn’t mean we have to let her get away scot-free.”

“Understood.” Izzie spoke into her phone, finishing her call. “Thanks. We’ll stop him, no matter what.”

She ended the call and walked to Rafe, who leaned against the side of the car with his arms folded. He had finished his call.

“Bill’s getting tactical support spun up and field agents for us to go after Narses,” he explained. “He’ll get the Austin PD ready for a cordon and will contact the DIA to see if they want to send anybody over since we have to assume Hazel might warn her friend. We didn’t think to ask her about that.”

“I don’t think she is.” Izzie shook her head. “I get the feeling we’re cleaning up for her. Narses is a tool she no longer finds useful.”

“But Narses could give up information on the Arcane Syndicate,” Rafe suggested.

“No. She wouldn’t have pointed us at him unless she was sure it wouldn’t come back to her or the organization. I bet we could force everything out of him and not find out anything other than the fact the charity’s a front.”

Izzie looked over her shoulder at the office. “Whatever plan she had going, it’s over for now. She’ll lie low until this is long over.” She walked around to the passenger’s side. “Forensics and field support can handle everything else here. We need to be ready to head after Narses.”

Rafe followed Izzie into the car. After she set the charm in a cupholder, he started the engine. “It should be any second now.”

“The way she acted goes beyond the standard dark wizards and witches disliking me thing,” Izzie noted. “It’s like she expected me to know who she is.”

“I noticed. It came off like an intense and personal hatred.” Rafe eyed the charm. “You’re sure you don’t know who she is? You have no inkling?”

Izzie shrugged. “It’s like everything since this garbage started. There’s something familiar about her magic, but I can’t place it. Nelson? That’s not exactly a rare name. How many…” She gasped. “No, it couldn’t be.”

Rafe looked her way. “You remembered something?”

“When I went after the Seventh Order and finished them off, I didn’t pay that much attention to the dark families after that. The others seemed to have learned their lesson.” Izzie’s heart pounded. “As far as I knew, the Seventh Order and the four families who ran it were done. It’s not like the type of magicals who run a deadly magical conspiracy go around advertising about them.”

Rafe’s eyes widened. “You think Hazel Nelson is a member of the Seventh Order?”

Izzie shook her head. “The Seventh Order is destroyed. I’m confident in that, but a witch named Tabitha Nelson was one of its main members. I don’t think it’s an accident that the charity’s ribbon featured seven dark colors. Hazel was all but screaming to the world that they’re carrying on the work of the Seventh Order.”

“Are you sure you’re not tricking yourself with another birthday-style paradox?”

“There must be a link. It would also explain her weird spell, which could explain why I feel familiarity around her dark magic. It is about me.” She stared at the burning spiral, mesmerized by the smoke and her past catching up with her. “Hazel Nelson must be the daughter of Tabitha Nelson, and she wants revenge on me.”

Rafe squinted out the window at an approaching police drone. “That means Hazel Nelson is at the center of all the major Arcane Syndicate moves since the shapeshifter.”

“She could be.” Izzie sighed. “I’ve been making an Oriceran-style mistake. I saw her and assumed she must be older than she looked, but what if she’s not? It hasn’t been that many years since I took down the Order. She could be an angry teenager stewing in obsession with me, one willing to use a dangerous spell linked to revenge.”

“You’re not the only one who attacked the Seventh Order. Why not go after any of the others in your family who helped or the Brownstones and your other friends?”

“Because I was their target, and I’m the reason for their downfall. It all came down to my Berens blood in the end and me in particular. I’m the symbol of the destruction of four dark families and the end of a plan they’d been carrying out for years.”

Izzie placed her hand over her chest and took a deep breath. “I lost years with my parents, my childhood, and my memories because those people wanted to use me in their ritual. When we took them out, I thought it was over. Damn it. I should have known.”

“Does that mean the Arcane Syndicate is a continuation of the Seventh Order? That doesn’t line up with everything else we’ve learned about them.”

“No. The Arcane Syndicate must have picked up the remnants of the dark families and their people who survived the aftermath of that incident. I never heard of anything like the Arcane Syndicate when I investigated the Seventh Order. I’m betting Hazel joined the Arcane Syndicate after I destroyed the Seventh Order.”

She looked at Rafe. “I’ve been wondering why they were so obsessed with Austin. We have our reputation, but it felt off. What if I brought them here because Hazel Nelson wanted to destroy me?”

Rafe scoffed. “That’s messed-up logic, Izzie. It’s not your fault. It’s Hazel and the Syndicate causing trouble. We don’t know for sure why they’ve chosen Austin.”

“I have her take her down.”

“Nobody disagrees with that, but first, we have to take down Narses. Whatever Hazel’s reasons for targeting Austin, in the end, we stop the plans, we protect people.” Rafe pointed at the charm. “It’s almost done.”

The flame reached the end of the spiral. The entire charm shimmered, and a glowing arrow appeared.

“We’ll stop the Arcane Syndicate the way we always do.” Rafe backed the car out of their parking spot. “One suspect at a time.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Izzie assumed her standard catastrophizing would always prepare her for whatever they encountered. She’d learned someone related to the Seventh Order was working for the Arcane Syndicate to hurt her and her city and not above killing innocent people. That was hard to accept.

She and Rafe zoomed along the road, their course following the dictates of the shifting arrow. Izzie studied the map on her phone, trying to figure out where they were heading. She set down her phone, grabbed the charm, and closed her eyes. With a deep breath, she called on the magical power of her line and chanted. Warmth suffused her body.

“What are you doing?” Rafe asked.

His voice sounded distant. Her attention shifted from her body and immediate surroundings. Her consciousness pulled back and zoomed over the city until she floated above a fenced-off complex filled with massive open water tanks and machinery. A water treatment plant.

The facility spread out below her. She dropped to eye-level and spotted Narses lowering his wand. Two other hard-faced men with wands stood behind him.

A security guard lay slumped in the window of the guard shack. Narses no longer hid his face with a mask of shadow. He was handsome in his own way despite his scowl.

Izzie’s consciousness snapped back to her body in the car. She panted. “It’s been a while since anyone let their guard down enough for me to do that, and having the tracker helped. Although I don’t think Narses plans to survive if he didn’t bother to throw up anti-scrying spells.”

“Put the charm down.” Rafe frowned. “I’m not sure where we’re going.”

“He’s at the Handcox Water Treatment Plant. Which is consistent with what Hazel implied earlier about his plan. He’s already killed a guard.”

Rafe grimaced. “I hope the plant has a better QA person than Austin Bottled Lightning.”

Rafe screeched to halt outside the plant’s front gate. Izzie threw open the door and rushed to the slumped guard. She turned him over and found a deep burn in his chest. She checked his pulse and shook her head.

“He’s dead.” Izzie tilted her head and slowed her breathing. “I can sense distant magic, dark magic, and non-dark magic. Narses is still here, which means we still have a chance to stop him.”

Rafe ran to the trunk and opened it. He pulled out his tactical vest. “Hazel and Narses, or just Narses?”

“Narses and whoever else I saw earlier. Arm up. We need to move.”

“What about our support?”

“We don’t have time to wait. Depending on the plan, they could send tainted water into the city.” Izzie coated herself with the faint glow of a shield spell and followed up with a shield over Rafe. “They’ve already penetrated the plant. I have no idea how quickly any of this will get into the water supply. We can’t take the risk.”

Rafe finished putting on the vest and pulled out a rifle. “You saw multiple suspects, and Narses already fought you to a draw. From what Hazel said, her spell might be enhancing his power.”

He frowned. “I know you’re taking this all personally because of what Hazel said, but us running in there without backup when we know we’re going after more than one guy could get us killed. Don’t give Hazel what she wanted.”

Izzie took a deep breath and tapped on her earbud. “This is Berens. I’m on-site. ETA for backup?”

“This is Taliesin. We’re ten minutes out, Berens.”

Izzie grimaced. “We need to get a helicopter for you guys.”

“Not disagreeing, Berens. Suspects on-site?”

“Yes. Multiple.”

“We’ll get there as soon as we can.”

“Okay, we’ll wait five minutes, then move out. The rest of you will have to play catch-up.”

Two large PDA drones arrived first. Another unmarked drone appeared not long after. They circled the area. Next, two dark sedans with federal plates screamed down the road and screeched to a halt.

Caden stepped out of one car. He wore a tactical vest and helmet. He carried his enchanted pistol in his holster belt. The blue glow in his eyes marked his technomagic contacts.

Other men and women in vests and carrying rifles hurried out of the cars. The rest wore the same model of technomagic glasses the PDA issued to its field agents.

Magic pulsed deeper within the facility. Izzie jerked her head toward one of the massive hexagonal aboveground media filter tanks. Izzie didn’t know enough about plant operations to judge the risk. She didn’t want to let Narses run the experiment.

“Thanks for the assist, Caden. We’re running out of time. We can’t wait for PDA TacSup.” She pointed at the tank. “You, Rafe, and I will go after Narses and his men. Your people should check on the staff in the main buildings.”

Caden slapped his belt buckle, and a faint shield surrounded him. He pointed at the tank. “Our drone marked only one guy wearing a robe. That your friend?”

“Narses, powerful dark wizard. He might be enhanced by a ritual spell.”

“Our drone tagged four guys with him and four others heading toward the admin building.” Caden circled his finger in the air. “You all heard Agent Berens. The PDA and Austin PD should be here soon to provide support. We don’t have time to wait to take these terrorists down. Time to move.”

Izzie ran through the open gate. “I’ll make Hazel regret ever targeting my city.”

Izzie, Rafe, and Caden sprinted across the facility toward the filter tank. Adrenaline and concern fueled impressive runs to its fortress-like twenty-foot-tall concrete walls. Narses and four large men marched toward a metal switchback staircase leading from the ground up to the tank.

Other than Narses, the men only wore shorts and boots. It was an odd choice even for the tolerable Austin winter temperatures. Once Izzie ran a little closer, she understood their reasons.

Intricate tattoos covered Narses’ men. Even at a distance, Izzie could pick up sigils and glyphs. Their dark wizard master wasn’t the only threat.

Narses wore a backpack, unlike in the Magical District. Izzie’s gaze cut between the backpack and the filter tank.

Narses raised his wand. Izzie tried to cut him off with a different strategy from her standard stun bolt opener.

“Hazel Nelson sold you out!” she bellowed. “She sent me right to you. She doesn’t care if you succeed. She doesn’t care if you die. All you are to her is a tool she’s using to save her life.”

Narses hesitated, giving Rafe, Izzie and Caden more time to close the gap. They slowed and faced off against Narses and his tattooed goons. The latter spread out on both sides of him, smacked their palms with their fists, and glared at the approaching agents.

A cloud of concrete chunks tore from the sidewalk and orbited Narses. He waved his wand and surrounded his body with a shadowy field, a dark magic shield from the feel of the magic.

Izzie came close enough to talk in a normal voice. “Think about it. I’m here now. How would I know?”

Narses glared at her. “Lady Nelson warned me you’d be coming. She also told me all would be forgiven once I completed my mission. This is a test to prove myself and my loyalty. You embarrassed me over that rat. She’ll be delighted when I offer her your head.”

“She’s been using you like toilet paper since the beginning. Don’t you get it? You’re disposable. You’re just like Xelius, a tool she’ll throw away. There’s no point in dying for a woman who doesn’t care about your life.”

“I serve the Arcane Syndicate, Berens.” Narses sneered. “Don’t mistake mere fortune for brilliance. Lady Nelson is where she is because she deserves her spot. She’s earned it through her skill and power.”

Izzie rolled her eyes. “Oh great, an asshole who believes in evil meritocracy.”

Rafe scoffed. “The timing’s too perfect, Izzie. He wasn’t going to do this right away. She must have sent him a message. She’s the one who pulled the trigger on all this. She played us as much as she played him.”

Narses smiled. “Now do you realize her greatness, you lapdogs?”

“Don’t you hate taking orders from an inexperienced, arrogant witch who thinks she’s better than you?” Izzie asked. “I bet she’s younger than I am, and she’s calling the shots for the Arcane Syndicate around here, isn’t she? You just called her Lady Nelson.”

“Enough, Berens. You will die here, and we’ll make this city suffer,” Narses shouted. The concrete shield cloud around him spun faster.

“Why? It doesn’t make sense. What do you hope to accomplish by doing this?”

Narses laughed. “You think you understand so much, but the Arcane Syndicate has grand plans for this city. Sacrificing a few hundred or a few thousand nonmagical humans is a small price to pay for those plans.”

Izzie lifted her palm and glared at him. “This is your only chance to surrender. I won’t pull my punches when you people are trying to poison the water supply.”

Caden and Rafe flanked her. Both men lined up shots at the tattooed goons surrounding Narses.

Narses offered a cold smile. “I have the concentrated transformation potion with me, Berens. My men will kill you while I go up and pour it into the tank. Seeing how long people can last without getting angry or hurt and overwhelming themselves will be enjoyable. It’ll be a useful experiment if nothing else.”

The crack of distant gunshots echoed. The other agents must have engaged Narses’ other men. Defeating them would allow the plant’s staff to shut everything down.

Izzie glanced at the stairs. She didn’t know anything about water treatment plants, but she didn’t assume contaminating the water in the filter tank didn’t threaten the city.

Caden grinned. “I just got the radio call, Narses. Your other men are down. Your plan’s done. Even if you could contaminate the water, it’s not going anywhere. We win.”

Narses ignored Caden. The makeshift concrete shields swirled in a blur, and he kept his wand pointed at Izzie as he backed toward the stairs. “I’ll make this offer only once, Berens. You can serve me. If you choose that, Lady Nelson might spare your life.”

Izzie laughed harshly. “Excuse me?”

The shrill sound of sirens echoed among the buildings. Tires screeched near the entrance gate.

“Sounds like our reinforcements are here,” Izzie remarked. “You’re out of time.”

“Your heritage is muddled, but no one can deny your power,” Narses replied with no fear in his voice. “Serve under me, and use your power for something useful. This city’s fall is inevitable. When it happens, you and the PDA will be blamed. The nonmagicals will turn on you.”

“Drop the wand, Narses.” Izzie glared at him. “I’m not letting you hurt anyone else. You’ve lost. We have police and PDA here. There’s no way you can win.”

Narses ran for the stairs and whipped his wand behind him. “Then you can die with the rest, Berens!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Izzie opened with a searing light bolt. Narses’ concrete shield cloud blocked the spell. A small chunk blew into rough particles.

His goons’ tattoos glowed, and they all leapt high into the air. The height of their jump misled Izzie. For a few seconds, she thought they were flying.

Rafe fired his rifle at a falling, grinning goon and backed up. His bullet struck the man in the chest. The goon screamed in pain and smacked into the ground. A second goon landed in a crouch before Rafe could get off a second shot and nailed him in the vest with a crunching punch. He hit the ground and rolled.

“Rafe!” Izzie shouted.

She flung a light bolt at the second tattooed goon and a fireball at Narses. Her bolt struck the goon’s thigh. His knees buckled. Her fireball blew away a concrete fragment without reaching Narses.

Rafe rolled onto his stomach and raised his rifle. A goon growled and ran toward him. Rafe’s burst of anti-magic bullets tore through the goon’s chest, but not much blood came out. The wounded goon smashed his shoulder into Rafe. Another loud crunch sounded as the blow sent Rafe flying away. His face locked in a grimace, Rafe squeezed off two shots before hitting the ground.

The goon stumbled toward the prone Rafe, bleeding from his chest and neck. He made it another yard before collapsing.

Caden’s first enchanted bullet burst into a fiery blast that scorched his closest enemy. The goon landed on one knee and took another explosive round to the chest, leaving minor burns given the power of the blast.

The goon’s nearby partner charged Izzie. She spun to face him. Caden whipped his arm to the side and blinded the goon with an explosive bullet. The goon growled and shook his head. His face was scorched.

Caden flipped a switch on the grip, aimed at the goon’s head, and fired. The next bullet burst in a shower of sparks. The goon fell to the ground twitching.

His shifting attention allowed the original scorched goon to tackle Caden to the ground. The goon pulled Caden’s wrist back with an audible pop. Caden screamed in pain.

Izzie fired a light bolt into the goon’s back. He jerked and growled.

“Forget about me!” Caden shouted. “Stop Narses!”

Narses ran up the stairs. Izzie tried to cut him off with a stream of fireballs. Her spells exploded and shattered the smaller pieces of concrete but only slowed his jog up the stairs.

Caden whipped a glyph-covered knife out that Izzie hadn’t seen before. He stabbed the goon through the throat and pushed him off his body with a groan before pulling out a small black vial and downing the contents.

Rafe groaned and propped himself up on one elbow. He switched magazines and fired bursts at Narses.

A steady line of fireballs from Izzie and anti-magic bullets from Rafe tore away at Narses’ concrete cloud. Rafe’s magazine went dry, and he winced and reached for a new one in a vest pouch. Narses fell to one knee and lifted his wand. His dark shield absorbed the spells that made it past his dwindling concrete cloud shield.

He finished a muffled incantation before screaming as one of Izzie’s fireballs passed through the thinned concrete cloud and blasted his weakened dark field to strike his stomach. He groaned and finished waving his wand before falling and rolling down the stairs.

His backpack tore open as he hit the ground. A large glass jar filled with a blue liquid rolled out. The remaining concrete chunks formed a rough platform and slid underneath the jar. The makeshift platform shot into the air, heading for the top of the tank’s wall.

Izzie flung a light bolt at the jar and missed. Her second shot was too low. Her third attempt blew apart the flying platform. The jar plummeted to the ground and shattered.

Caden chuckled. He took a deep breath and stuck the empty vial in his pocket. He swapped magazines and walked toward Narses with his gun aimed at the dark wizard’s chest. “It’s just not your month for schemes, isn’t it?”

“No!” Narses shouted, rolling onto his side. “What have you done?”

“We stopped you.” Izzie walked toward the stairs before halting. She frowned and looked at Caden. “Do you feel that?”

He nodded. “There was building magical power. Now it’s stable.”

“The last time I felt something like it, I almost got blown up.” Izzie fired a light bolt at the ground in front of Narses’ face. “What are you doing? What was that?”

“I’ve lost, Berens. I know that now.” Narses clutched his stomach. His face contorted in pain. “It was a foolish waste of time at first. They wanted to repeat past mistakes, when the ancestral families created the accursed shifters. What a pointless endeavor. Lady Nelson was right to disdain the scheme.”

Izzie wrinkled her nose. “You wanted more foot soldiers?”

“One transformed with the potion would be more susceptible to certain types of control magic.” Narses moaned and clutched his stomach. “But it was a waste. Too unstable. The inferior nonmagical human bodies couldn’t handle the transformation and any stress. There’s not enough background magic on this planet yet.”

Rafe sat up and pulled a healing potion from a pocket. He downed it with a wince.

“Then why bother with any of this?” Izzie gestured at the tank.

Narses laughed. His immediate groan proved he regretted it.

“Who said it was the same plan, Berens?” Narses smiled at the tank despite his charred stomach. “It was brilliant in its way, a plan to create magical sacrifices without having to get them all.”

Izzie stared at him. Her disgust showed on her face. “You people are insane. What does the Arcane Syndicate even hope to accomplish in Austin? Taking over one random Texas city doesn’t make sense.”

“Don’t worry about it, Izzie.” Rafe sat up. “He confessed in the middle of committing the crime. We’ll get everything else we need from him.”

“Did you believe I was confessing?” Narses asked.

“That’s what it sounded like to me,” Izzie replied.

Narses smiled. “I was explaining why you people will lose, and stalling. You wanted to know what I was doing. Here!”

He yanked something out of his robe and threw it toward Izzie. It was a small clay figurine. He twisted and lifted his wand.

Caden jumped in front of Izzie and shot Narses in the head before the figurine struck him. A crackling wave of energy poured from the figurine and broke through his shield with a flash. The blast knocked Izzie on her back and Rafe over. Caden’s charred, smoking body fell to the ground.

Izzie’s ears rang. Her vision was blurry. She shook her head, trying to ignore the burning pain, and crawled toward Caden. The explosion burned the entire front of his body. He wasn’t breathing.

She placed her hands on his body. Her words slurred and disrupted her healing spell. She ignored the heavy footsteps closing in on her and took a deep breath. After letting it out, she concentrated on enunciating the chant and pouring her magical energy into Caden.

“Come on, Caden, breathe!” Izzie shouted. Her hands glowed brighter as she poured more and more magic into the healing spell. “You can’t give me all those speeches about being there for me and leave now, not because of a bottom-feeder like Narses.”

His burns faded, and new skin covered his wounds. His eyes flickered open, and he gasped for air. Izzie sighed in relief and maintained the healing spell, not caring if she drained every drop of her magic.

Tactical support operators in full gear rushed onto the scene. They spread out and pointed their rifles at the fallen wizard and his men.

Commander Taliesin circled his hand in the air and pointed at the downed agents. “We need a medic.”

Rafe sat up and grimaced. Minor burns covered the side of his face. “That was terrible.”

Caden let out a long groan and sat up.

Izzie squeezed his hand. “Are you okay?” Her voice shook. “You didn’t need to do that. I still had my shield spell up.”

“No offense, I had a shield spell up too, and the explosion still kicked my ass.” Caden waved off a tactical support medic who jogged over and offered him a healing potion. “I’m good. She stabilized me.” He pointed at her. “Give her the potion.”

Izzie smiled and pulled him in for a hug, not caring that it hurt. “I can’t bring you back if you’re dead.”

Caden patted her back. “I’m not dead yet.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Two days later as Izzie settled into a chair in front of Bill’s desk, she didn’t know how to feel with her boss scowling more than usual. She looked at Rafe, who hid his feelings behind a mask of complete calm.

“This won’t take long,” Bill explained. “I just got off the phone with the FBI. They’ll be taking over tracing the charity’s financial flows. Based on what analysis support already found, Hazel Nelson was using it for good old-fashioned money laundering. Too bad the poor employees didn’t know what they were involved with.”

Rafe nodded. “That tracks with what we got from the surviving muscle. They were all hired toughs from out of town.”

Izzie folded her arms. “Forensics analysis of the potion Narses was trying to add to the tank confirms it was a concentrated version of the transformation potion.”

“What sick bastards,” Bill snarled. “They tried to sell a dream to Erikson and petty revenge to Rosen.”

“This entire time, we’ve been looking at two different plans,” Izzie noted. “With the Arcane Syndicate behind them both.”

“And Hazel Nelson?” Bill asked.

Izzie looked away. “Off the grid. I spent most of yesterday trying every tracking spell I could think of. Field support’s been trying to find any sign of her magical signature. Nothing. We have her flagged across the country, but I doubt she’ll stroll downtown anytime soon.”

Rafe sighed. “It’s sad. From what we can tell of Erikson’s messages, he’d been half-convinced that he would become a magical. Rosen was half-greed, half-desire to prove that her previous work was important. It’s all messed up, and I’m not defending them, but Hazel Nelson manipulated them.”

“They were all pawns in the end, even Narses.” Izzie shook her head. “It’s obvious now that the Arcane Syndicate didn’t choose Austin so much as Hazel Nelson chose me, and I happened to be here. We need to face up to that.”

Bill arched a brow. “What are you getting at, Berens?”

“I have to ask myself, am I making the city safer?”

Bill snorted. “If you were dead, do you believe this woman would be living a helpful, altruistic life? Don’t be so naïve, Berens. Criminals always make excuses for their bullshit. Nobody forced that woman to do what she’s doing, and nobody forced her parents to launch a psychotic scheme that got them killed before they could kill thousands of people.”

“It’s not over. Not with the way that woman is obsessed with me. She’ll be back.”

“She might be obsessed with you, but her plans aren’t about you. She’s still part of the Arcane Syndicate.”

He pointed at her. “You’re the best weapon the PDA has. Now we know the identity of a major player in the local Arcane Syndicate. We’re better prepared to fight back. She’s the one on the run and on her back foot. Not us. Don’t be so hard on yourself, Berens.”

Rafe smiled. “He’s right, Izzie. We stopped them from contaminating the water and collapsed their potion dealing and money laundering schemes. We’ve weakened the Arcane Syndicate. We won another battle. They’re zero for three against us.”

Izzie’s frown twitched into a smile. “You’re right. We keep winning battles, and we’ll win the war.”

“Do you need anything?” Izzie asked Caden from in front of his couch. “Anything at all?”

He lazed on the couch in nothing but sweatpants. His head rested in his hand. His chiseled body didn’t contain a single sign that he’d been near death only a couple of days prior.

“That’s the fifth time you asked tonight.” Caden grinned. “If I didn’t need anything the last four times, do you think I’ll suddenly need something this time?” He patted the couch. “Stop pacing and sit.”

“I’m not pacing.” Izzie looked around. “Okay, maybe I was.” She sighed and sat on the couch. “intellectually, I know you’re fine because I was able to heal you on-site, but I don’t like how close you came.”

Caden laughed. “It wasn’t fun for me.”

“You almost died for me.” Izzie shook her head. “Hazel wants revenge on me, so she’s using the Arcane Syndicate’s plans as an excuse to hurt my city. Narses went after me to impress her.”

“So what?” Caden shrugged. “Would you feel better if I almost got killed by somebody who was doing it for the thrill or because he hated me instead of you?”

“I… Well…” Izzie sighed. “Of course not.”

“I’m not going to sit here and lie and pretend like I would have reacted so quickly for anybody else.” Caden shrugged. “But risk comes with my job, and you happen to be involved in that job, so I got to mix a little business with my pleasure. This time it hurts. I guess I’m not into that kind of thing.” He winked.

“How can you take this so lightly? Another person I cared about almost died for me. I can’t brush that off.”

“People die all the time, Izzie.” Caden’s expression turned serious. “For the most unfair and random reasons. Disease. Accidents. Because they pushed a little old lady out of the way of a car and got hit for their bravery.”

He shook his head. “You can’t keep your heart closed because you’re afraid someone you care about will get hurt. That standard means you’ll never be able to open up to someone.”

“I don’t want people getting hurt for me.” Izzie’s shoulders slumped. “It shouldn’t hurt to care for me.”

Caden ambushed her with a deep kiss. Izzie blinked and didn’t move until he pulled back, his roughish grin returning.

“Life hurts, Izzie. You’re going to have to learn to deal with it because a brush with death isn’t enough to scare me away from the woman I’ve fallen in love with.”

Izzie stared at him. “What?”

“You heard me. Don’t worry. I know it will take you a while before you can drop more of the walls. It’s fine. I’m a patient man. And a guy who’s willing to take an explosion for you.”

Izzie sighed and rested her head on his chest. “Has anyone ever told you there’s something wrong with you?”

Caden laughed. “Coming from you, that’s a compliment.” He stroked her head. “Tonight, you can relax. You’re in a warded apartment monitored by DIA drones, and I have a closet filled with technomagic weapons, ammo, and grenades. Anyone who shows up to mess with us will have to deal with the full might of the DIA and the PDA.”

“Ooh. You know all the smooth lines.”

Izzie closed her eyes. Bill, Rafe, and Caden were all right. The war against darkness would never end, but as long as good men and women stood firm, darkness would never win the war. She’d fought hard. She deserved a relaxing night off.

THE STORY CONTINUES

The story continues with book four, THE MAGICAL HEIST, coming soon to Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

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AUTHOR NOTES: MARTHA CARR

The Brunch Chronicles: Austin Edition

There’s something about brunch that feels inherently luxurious. It’s not breakfast, rushed and bleary-eyed, or lunch, with its workday practicality. Brunch is a declaration: I’m taking my time today. It’s also a perfectly acceptable excuse to pair breakfast tacos with a mimosa, which might be why it’s become something of an art form here in Austin.

For me, brunch is about navigating a world of gluten-filled, meat-heavy menus with the optimism of someone who firmly believes in the power of avocado toast and smoked salmon. For Mike, brunch is a chance to explore the other end of the culinary spectrum—thick-cut bacon, eggs smothered in sausage gravy, or a tower of French toast dripping with syrup and butter. It’s a delicate dance, balancing my pescatarian, gluten-free preferences with Mike’s love of indulgent comfort food, but somehow, we make it work.

Austin, of course, is a brunch lover’s paradise. There’s no shortage of quirky cafes, rooftop bistros, and food trucks serving everything from Tex-Mex breakfast tacos to upscale benedicts. Picking a spot is half the adventure, especially when you’re trying to find one that caters to both a pescatarian and a carnivore who believes no meal is complete without aged beef.

Our go-to place lately is this charming little café tucked away on a tree-lined street, the kind of place where the coffee is strong, and the waitstaff knows how to pronounce “quinoa.” The menu is eclectic enough to keep both of us happy—Mike can order a steak and eggs plate that would make a cowboy proud, while I can indulge in a gluten-free smoked salmon bagel with all the fixings.

The first time we went, I worried it might be tricky to find something I could eat. I’m used to the look servers give when I ask about gluten-free options—a mix of confusion and mild panic, as if I’d just requested a unicorn steak. But this café? They didn’t bat an eye. “We’ve got plenty of gluten-free options,” the waitress said with a reassuring smile, pointing out half the menu. It was like finding buried treasure, only better, because there was hollandaise sauce involved.

Mike, meanwhile, was practically giddy when his plate arrived, a mountain of perfectly cooked steak nestled next to fluffy scrambled eggs and crispy potatoes. “This,” he said, pointing at his plate like it was a work of art, “is how you do brunch.”

I couldn’t argue. My smoked salmon was delicate and flavorful, paired with a gluten-free bagel so good I momentarily questioned whether it was actually gluten-free. And the side of roasted veggies? Perfection.

But brunch in Austin isn’t just about the food—it’s about the atmosphere. There’s a laid-back energy here, a sense that no one’s in a hurry, mixed with a few dogs sitting quietly by their tables. On any given weekend, you’ll see families, couples, and groups of friends lingering over their meals, sipping coffee or cocktails as they soak in the sunshine.

One of my favorite spots is a rooftop café with a killer view of the city skyline. The menu is seafood-heavy, which makes it my personal heaven, and the vibe is quintessentially Austin—casual, eclectic, and a little artsy. Mike humors me when I suggest we go there, though I suspect it’s mostly because they serve a flight of pancakes with different toppings that’s more like a dessert.

“What’s the point of brunch if it’s not at least a little over-the-top?” he said the first time he ordered it, his fork hovering over the plate like he was about to conduct a symphony.

And honestly? He’s not wrong.

At our usual spots, brunch has become more than a meal. It’s a chance to connect, to press pause on the busy-ness of life and simply enjoy each other’s company. We’ve developed little rituals, like splitting a side of roasted potatoes or debating whether the coffee is “life-changing” or just really good.

And then there’s the people-watching. Austin’s brunch scene attracts everyone from hipsters in oversized sunglasses to joggers fresh off the trail, their faces glowing with the kind of post-exercise smugness I love, especially early in the morning leaving the gym. It’s a kaleidoscope of humanity, all united by a shared love of eggs and avocado.

For me, brunch is also a way to explore new flavors and textures, to try things I might not make at home. Mike, on the other hand, is a creature of habit. “Why mess with perfection?” he’ll say, cutting into yet another plate of steak and eggs.

But every now and then, he surprises me. Like the time he tried my smoked salmon bagel and admitted that it wasn’t half bad. Or the morning he ordered a seafood omelet just to see what all the fuss was about. “I still prefer steak,” he said afterward, but I caught the satisfied smile on his face.

In the end, brunch isn’t about the food—or at least, not just about the food. It’s about the shared experience, the laughter, and the little moments that make life delicious. And here in Austin, where brunch is practically a religion, it’s easy to find joy in every bite.

Whether I’m diving into a gluten-free creation or Mike is savoring his latest beefy masterpiece, we’ll keep brunching our way through the city, one sunny weekend at a time. Because life, like brunch, is better when it’s savored—and always worth coming back for seconds. More adventures to follow.

AUTHOR NOTES: MICHAEL ANDERLE

FEBRUARY 3, 2025

Somewhere Between Midnight and an Auto-Parts Store near Las Vegas, Nv

Thank you, sincerely, for reading this story—and for coming all the way to the end to check out my ramblings. If you’re a regular visitor back here, you deserve a medal of some kind. Perhaps something that doesn’t beep at two in the morning.

Statistically Significant Reality

So, let’s talk about the bane of modern living: fire alarms and their devious batteries. It’s like they hold clandestine meetings, comparing notes on how best to ruin your sleep schedule. I mean, think about it. How many times have you woken up to that shrill, singular beep at, oh, let’s say 3 a.m.?

Mike Bray (a close friend with his own publishing company) got woken up last night by that solitary beep. You know, the one that’s just ominous enough to jar you out of a really good dream but not loud enough to be an actual emergency. Naturally, it starts going off in the dead of night instead of the middle of the day. I’m willing to bet the battery had been running low for hours, but it waited for that perfect, inconvenient moment to let everyone know it’s about to die.

Logically, you’d guess that with only around eight hours of sleep (if we’re lucky) in a 24-hour day, it should go off during the day more often, right?

But no, the battery conspiracy says otherwise.

So now, half-awake, we’re fumbling around for a ladder tall enough to reach the alarm that’s inevitably perched on the highest point of the house. You stand there, one eye closed, the other barely open, pleading with whichever deity might be on shift that it’s reachable and not about to cost you a hospital visit.

It really does feel like a universal law: the most annoying, inconvenient things always happen at the worst possible time. It's like a cosmic punchline we’re all forced to live through. It interrupts your precious rest, leaves you disoriented, and practically dares you to keep a level head about it. (Spoiler alert: I usually fail that part.)

Anyway, this rant might not rank as the best or most philosophical author note I’ve come up with, but sometimes, you’ve got to vent about life’s little irritations and not everything I think about is cosmic battles and kick-assery. I do hope you’re enjoying whatever daylight hours you get, fully devoid of rogue beeps.

And you know what? Thank you for supporting me, for supporting other creators, and for being a reader.

It means a lot.

Here’s to sleeping through the night and to chat with you again in the next book’s notes. Where hopefully we’ll discuss something less shrill.

Ad Aeternitatem,

Michael Anderle

P.S. I’d love to hear any crazy 3 a.m. beep stories if you’ve got ’em. No? Lucky you. In any case, here’s to quieter nights.

P.S.S. Don’t forget to sign up for the MORE STORIES with Michael newsletter here: https://michael.beehiiv.com/ —I promise I won’t send any alarm beeps your way!

BOOKS BY MARTHA CARR

THE LEIRA CHRONICLES

CASE FILES OF AN URBAN WITCH

THE EVERMORES CHRONICLES

CHRONICLES OF WINLAND UNDERWOOD

SOUL STONE MAGE

THE KACY CHRONICLES

MIDWEST MAGIC CHRONICLES

THE FAIRHAVEN CHRONICLES

DIARY OF A DARK MONSTER

I FEAR NO EVIL

THE DANIEL CODEX SERIES

SCHOOL OF NECESSARY MAGIC

SCHOOL OF NECESSARY MAGIC: RAINE CAMPBELL

ALISON BROWNSTONE

FEDERAL AGENTS OF MAGIC

SCIONS OF MAGIC

THE UNBELIEVABLE MR. BROWNSTONE

DWARF BOUNTY HUNTER

ACADEMY OF NECESSARY MAGIC

MAGIC CITY CHRONICLES

ROGUE AGENTS OF MAGIC

WITCH WARRIOR

THE AGENT OPERATIVE

BIG EASY BOUNTY HUNTER

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