The Enchanter Heir (The Heir Chronicles #4) 6

“Look, I need to make sure she doesn’t tell anyone about you,” he said. “That’s all.”

“So you’re going to kill her.”

“No. I’m not.” Turning, he struck like a snake, gripping both of Natalie’s hands. He spoke a charm, and she froze in place, staring blankly into the distance.

“Natalie!” Emma cried. Putting her fingers under the healer’s chin, she lifted her head. Natalie stared glassy-eyed at Emma. “What did you do?”

“I just immobilized her, all right?” Rowan said. “And now I’m going to wipe her memory. And then I’m going to take her back to the Anchorage.” He paused. “The only way this works is if she doesn’t remember anything. Otherwise, I can’t let her go. Do you understand, Emma?”

Emma nodded her understanding. She was not to give Natalie any take-away message. There would be no plea for rescue. Otherwise, he’d kill her.

Resting his hand on Natalie’s head, Rowan murmured words that sounded like Latin. “Ana memorare.”

A shudder ran through Natalie. And then another.

Rowan spoke another charm and stepped back. Shooting a warning look at Emma, he said, “Natalie? What’s the matter? Are you okay?”

She flinched, as if startled. She blinked at him, then rubbed both her hands over her face. “What happened? Where am I?”

“I’m Rowan DeVries, remember? You’re here to treat my cousin.”

“Your cousin?” Natalie said thickly, looking around, as if for clues.

“Here.” Rowan rested his hot hand on Emma’s shoulder.

“She’s doing much better, as you can see. We were just about to take you back to the Anchorage, when you had some sort of spell.”

It was a spell, all right, Emma thought.

Something must have shown in her expression, because Rowan’s fingers dug into her shoulder in warning. Natalie’s expression cleared. “Oh. Right. And, so . . .”

Her eyes lit on the suitcase. “And so I was just about to leave?”

“Right. I’m going to take you back to the Anchorage now.”

Natalie took a step, and faltered. “Wow, this isn’t like me.”

“I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable at home,” Rowan said, letting go of Emma and moving swiftly to take Natalie’s arm. “We’ve taken too much of your time already. I can help you to the car if you’d like.”

Natalie looked at Emma. “You’re sure you’ll be all right?”

Emma nodded. “I’m fine,” she whispered.

“You call me if you need any more medicine. Or anything at all.”

Then Natalie turned away, toward the door. “If you can . . . just get my bags,” she said to Rowan, “I’ll walk out on my own.”

Rowan picked up her bags and followed her out. He paused in the doorway and turned back toward Emma. “Don’t worry. You’ll be perfectly safe while I’m gone. I’ve instructed security not to let anyone in or out.” When they were gone, Emma sank down onto the bench in the foyer and put her head in her hands. Once again, she was on her own.

Chapter Thirty-two

Do-Over

“Jonah! Wake up!” Jake’s voice broke into Jonah’s seething thoughts.

Jonah looked down, balancing himself on the edge of the platform. Four stories below, his gymnastics coach was a tiny speck against the polished wood floor.

That’s what they called him, anyway—a gymnastics coach. He was more like a martial-arts instructor.

“You need to be over there.” Jake pointed to the far end of the gym, to the platform under the rafters. “Get there without touching down. The timer starts NOW!”

Jonah pulled the grappling hook from his pocket, clipped it to his line, and sent it flying across the room to find a home over one of the crossbeams at the peak of the roof. After yanking back a bit to anchor it, he launched himself from the edge of the platform. At first he was falling, nearly to the gym floor, and then arcing up, up, up. At the peak of the arc, he released himself from the line and grabbed on to the metal framework that supported the lighting system. Swinging back, he launched himself again, this time ropeless. But when he arrived at where the platform should have been, it was gone.

Jake was up to his old tricks again. Testing Jonah’s ability to improvise on the fly.

Just before Jonah slammed into the wall, he twisted so that he hit feetfirst, meanwhile scanning the gym for the new target. Throwing out another line, he anchored near center to give himself a little time and pushed off again.

There. Just above the floor, near the door.

Midswoop, he launched another line, at an angle so he could change direction. Folding his body so he didn’t hit the floor, he dropped lightly onto the platform, turned, and assumed his ready stance.

Jake examined the screen on his phone. “Time’s not bad. But you’ve got to keep your eye on the prize, remember.”

One of Jake’s cardinal rules.

“Eyes on the prize,” Jonah repeated dutifully.

“Before you shower, spend an hour with the weights,” Jake advised. “Work on the abdominals. Are you keeping up with your running?”

“Well,” Jonah said, “I have this calculus test—”

“Calculus!” Jake shook his head. “When you going to use that? Prioritize, man! What I teach you will keep you alive.”

So Jake hadn’t gotten the memo. The one that said that Jonah was out of Nightshade. “Weights. Running. Got it,” Jonah said, eager to end the conversation. Because he’d spotted Natalie standing in the doorway to the gym, seething with tension, giving him a look that said, We need to talk. Natalie had been working off-site for nearly a week, and all of his phone calls and texts had gone unanswered. She probably wants to schedule a practice for the band, Jonah thought. Something he wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready for.

He crossed the polished gym floor to where she stood.

“Glad you’re back. Gabriel said that you were completing an off-campus assignment. Were you back in Trinity again?” She shook her head. “Something’s come up. I need your help.”

“Sure,” Jonah said, thinking, Natalie never needs help with anything. “You know all you have to do is ask.” She looked around, then leaned in close. “Let’s go someplace we can’t be overheard.”

“Suits me,” Jonah said, glancing over to where Jake was giving him the evil eye. “Let’s walk down to the river.” Leaving the gym, they crossed to St. Clair. They descended into the Flats and turned left on River Road, toward Settlers Landing. The park would be nearly deserted on a weekday, this early in the morning. And it was, nearly—just a few joggers who lived downtown.

They sat on the wall around the Ohio fountain, looking downriver, their view framed by the rusted and brilliantly painted steel of multiple bridges. The only traffic on the river was the crew team from St. Ignatius, rowing valiantly against the current. It was still early, the rising sun splintered by the buildings of downtown.

“So,” Jonah said. “What’s up? Where have you been? I was getting worried.”

“Jonah,” Natalie said abruptly. “I need help with a rescue.” Jonah stared at her, mystified. There was almost nothing Natalie could have said that would have surprised him more. Generally she preferred to remain at arms’ length from field operations.

“Go on,” he said.

“Gabriel sent me to help some wizards with a patient who was dying from a mysterious ailment.”

“Gabriel sent you to help wizards?” Jonah rolled his eyes. “That’s taking ‘Kumbaya’ a little too far. Did you at least poison a few while you were there?”

“Their patient wasn’t a wizard,” Natalie said, ignoring that last comment. “She’s a savant.”

“Someone from the Anchorage?” Jonah asked, mentally sorting through all the shadehunters he knew were out in the field.

Natalie shook her head. “Someone who’s new to all this.” She leaned closer. “They’re holding her captive because she is the only witness to a murder. They think she may be the break they’ve been looking for . . . that she holds the key to all the recent wizard murders.”

“You’re sure she’s a savant?” Jonah asked.

“She was at Thorn Hill, and has a savant stone.” Natalie frowned. “But I don’t really know what her gift is. And she doesn’t have the tattoo.”

Something kindled in the back of Jonah’s mind. It might have been hope. “Does she? Know something about the wizard murders, I mean?”

“Hard to say. It seems she was on the scene when a number of wizards were killed, along with her father.” Natalie’s eyes narrowed as she focused in on Jonah’s face. “Hello? Are you feeling all right? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Jonah’s heart thudded painfully in his chest, and he could scarcely catch his breath. Sweat pebbled his skin, chilling him as the wind off the river hit him.

“I . . . Gabriel’s changed my dose again,” Jonah lied. “It always takes a while to get used to it.”

“Huh.” Natalie didn’t believe him, of course. “Here. Put your head between your knees.” She put her hand between his shoulder blades and pushed.

“No . . . just—just . . . back to this girl. What’s her name?”

“Emma Greenwood. Why?”

Jonah gripped the top of the wall on either side so hard the stone crumbled under his fingers. A torrent of emotions raced through his mind. Emma Greenwood was alive? How was that possible? And if it was possible, how had she fallen into the hands of wizards?

Reinforcements. Reinforcements had been arriving as Jonah was leaving the house. Yet Jonah had stolen her guitar and left Emma there for them to find.

“Jonah, what the hell is the matter?” Natalie put her hands on his shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes.