The Enchanter Heir (The Heir Chronicles #4) 6

“We’re running short, too,” Alison said to Charlie. “Better make ’em count, Dugard.”

“Alison.” Gabriel raised his hand to quell her. “We’re making them as fast as we can,” he said.

Shivs were slender silver blades encrusted with runes—the weapons slayers used to dispatch free shades. All shadeslayers, except for Jonah. The runes were layered on, so they took months to make in the Anchorage metal shop.

Gabriel rubbed at his stubble of beard and turned to Jonah. “Now,” he said. “Tell us about Jeanette.”

Jonah kept the report short and matter-of-fact.

“But, I still don’t get it,” Rudy said, when Jonah had finished. “Why would they kidnap Jeanette? She’s retired. She lives—lived—on that farm in Massachusetts.”

“They were interrogating her about weapon development at Thorn Hill,” Jonah said.

“Thorn Hill!” Gabriel’s head snapped up. “What about Thorn Hill?”

“You know the wizard line—that Thorn Hill was a terrorist camp, and the massacre was some kind of an accident,” Jonah said. “Now they’re looking for some of that terrorist expertise. To fight back against Madison Moss, they claim.”

“Who’s Madison Moss?” Thérèse asked.

Jonah stared down at his hands, biting his lip to keep from speaking his mind. We should know this stuff, he thought. We’re Gabriel’s key operatives. We have to navigate this world whether we like it or not.

“She’s the young lady who holds the Dragonheart,” Gabriel said. “The source of power for Weir magic. It gives her the ability to cut off the spigot of power. It’s completely changed the relationships among the mainline guilds.”

“In other words, it’s reduced the power of wizards,” Jonah said. “And they don’t like that. Amazing she’s survived Sthis long.”

“The good news is, I don’t think Ms. Moss wants to control anybody,” Gabriel said. “She is, shall we say, a reluctant despot. On the other hand, Rowan DeVries is on the Interguild Council.”

“So the person who murdered Jeanette is on the council?” Mike snorted. “These are the good guys?”

Try and find a good wizard, Jonah thought. Betcha can’t.

Jonah finished relaying what he’d seen and heard in the mansion on the Thames. “Even in private, Longbranch, DeVries, and the others kept to the script, claiming that the massacre was something we did to ourselves.”

“I’m sure some wizards actually believe that,” Gabriel murmured.

“But if the Black Rose engineered it, and Rowan’s father, Andrew DeVries, was in charge—” Jonah began.

“Rowan DeVries was just a little older than you when Thorn Hill happened,” Gabriel said. “Frankly, it’s unlikely that the wizards who kidnapped Jeanette were involved in the Thorn Hill disaster.”

Here we go again, Jonah thought. Gabriel will diffuse blame and keep us from going after the real villains.

“They mentioned the Anchorage,” Jonah said. “But they didn’t seem to think we were much of a threat, and didn’t want to tangle with you.”

“Good,” Gabriel muttered. “At least they’re not blaming us.”

“Well, not yet,” Jonah said. “But that could change. Now they’re finding clues with the mainliner dead: nightshade flowers, scattered over the bodies.”

“Nightshade!” Gabriel levered out of his chair and stalked to the window as six slayers reflexively grabbed for their amulets. “My God.”

“So someone is trying to blame it on us,” Mike said.

“Who would do that?”

“I don’t know,” Gabriel said, staring out through the glass. “Did the wizards connect that to us? Or mention any other clues around the bodies?”

“No,” Jonah said. Nightshade was hiding in plain sight, just an hour away from mainliner headquarters at Trinity.

Most mainliners had heard of the Anchorage, of course, but they didn’t know anything about the existence of Nightshade and its targets.

I wish we didn’t know, Jonah thought, fingering his sefa.

I wish we could just throw away these amulets and pretend that shades don’t exist.

“How did they find Jeanette?” Gabriel asked, in a low, tight voice. “Do you know?”

All of a sudden Gabriel cares, Jonah thought. When it seems like the Anchorage might be a target. “If they talked about it, it was before I arrived. But it couldn’t have been too hard. It’s not like she was hiding.”

“Did you leave any witnesses? Anyone who could identify you?”

“No. Longbranch and Wylie are dead. DeVries left before I came out of cover.” Jonah paused, then plunged on. “I should have riffed him, too.”

Gabriel spun away from the window, visibly agitated.

“That’s the last thing we need right now,” he snapped.

“What are you afraid of, Gabriel?” Jonah demanded.

“First, wizards tried to murder us. Now they pretend that it was our fault. The other mainliners treat us like—like—we Sshould be going after them.”

Natalie rested her hand on Jonah’s shoulder. “I know you’re upset at what happened to Jeanette,” she murmured.

“We all are.”

“I’m more than upset,” Jonah hissed. “Upset is what happens when you lose your cell phone. You’re upset when you break a string on your favorite guitar.”

Gabriel stood over Jonah, glowering down at him. “You agreed to the mission when you came here, remember?”

“That was ten years ago!” Jonah retorted. “I was seven years old. Maybe we should think about changing the mission.”

“You always have the option to leave,” Gabriel said. “I never said I wanted to leave.” Jonah tried to get his anger under control. “Anyway, I wouldn’t want to leave Kenzie behind.”

“Then you need to follow the rules that protect us all,”

Gabriel said flatly, returning to his seat. Pulling a bottle out of his desk drawer, he popped two pills into his mouth and swallowed them dry.

“Gabriel,” Mike began hesitatingly, “why Jeanette? If they want to find out how the poisoning was done, shouldn’t they be talking to wizards?”

“Wizards aren’t that good with material magic,” Gabriel said. He flipped the shiv, catching it by the hilt again. “But . . .” Alison looked lost. “You always said—”

“Though wizards would have planned the operation, it would have been sorcerers who developed and compounded the poison,” Gabriel said.

They all stared at him.

“Why haven’t you told us that before?” Jonah said finally.

“I thought it was obvious.” Gabriel shrugged. “That’s the role of sorcerers—compounding medicinals and the like.”

“Why would sorcerers collaborate with wizards?” Alison said, grimacing like she had a bad taste in her mouth.

“They may have been forced to do it. Perhaps they didn’t know what the intended use was.” Gabriel ran the edge of the dagger along his thumb, and blood welled up. He watched it drip onto the desk, as dispassionate as if it were someone else’s. Given the drug regimen he was on, he probably didn’t even feel the wound.

“Shouldn’t we find the survivors ourselves, then?” Jonah said. “Before they do? Or confront the Black Rose, head-on?”

“We can’t afford to draw attention to ourselves. Not right now.”

“If not now, when?” Jonah exploded, his frustration and exhaustion getting the better of him again. “What the hell

kind of evidence do you need? Wizards kidnapped Jeanette, they tortured her, and then they murdered her. Now they’re trying to track down survivors from the Thorn Hill Massacre so they can figure out how to do it again!”

“Was the word ‘massacre’ mentioned?” Gabriel said quietly. “I think you’re jumping to conclusions.”

“What do you need, a signed confession?”

“Jonah,” Gabriel said. “If mainliners are dying, if the clues left with the bodies point directly at us, that means that someone knows enough about us to frame us. How long do you think it will take others to make that connection? Or for the framer to lead them to it?”

“They’re not blaming it on us! They seem to be blaming it on this Madison Moss.”

“They’re not blaming it on us yet,” Gabriel said. “If we Sconfront them, they will. You don’t remember what it was like, but I do. When I established the Anchorage, mainliners viewed the survivors of Thorn Hill like . . . like mad dogs. Like dangerous mutants who should be slaughtered before they hurt someone.”

Gabriel’s words eerily echoed what Longbranch had said about the “labrats,” as she called them. It would have been cleaner to have dealt with them at the time.

“So we don’t go after the Black Rose directly,” Jonah persisted. “If there are sorcerers out there who created those poisons, we find them. They could help us figure out how to treat the effects. Maybe they’d be eager to help.”

“That’s a waste of time,” Gabriel said. “Do you really think that the Black Rose would leave their collaborators alive to tell tales?”

“Looks like Longbranch, DeVries, and the others don’t think it’s a waste of time,” Jonah persisted. “Maybe they know something we don’t.”

Gabriel just kept shaking his head.

Jonah jackknifed to his feet. “They murdered Jeanette.

Now we’re just going to sit here and do nothing until they come after us?”

“Jonah,” Gabriel commanded, “Sit down. You’re out of control.”

Jonah didn’t sit.

“Anyway, we’re not doing nothing,” Gabriel said, an edge in his voice. “We’re going to upgrade our security and extend our eyes and ears.”