Page 42 of Alpha's Magic

“I see. Leo, one more thing—can you show me what you did that day on the road to Thalia? When you saved me. Look for the spiders now and see if any are left.”

He nodded, put his hands on my chest and shut his eyes. He concentrated for a while, and I could feel the dark magic inside him as he did. It was really different from my own or from Lex’s, and though it wasn’t evil, it had what I can only describe as the flavor of evil. A darkness around the edges. I saw what Harrison had seen too. His fingers did seem to sink beneath my flesh as they gently probed. It didn’t hurt at all. It was more like a scratching, but those fingers did seem to go inside me and my chest tingled.

A witch or warlock’s power comes from their core and his was almost vibrating with energy. As I said, it was different from mine, not as warm or as vibrant, but I could tell it was strong, nonetheless. I remembered feeling Rory’s magic once as Lex and I tried to bind his powers, and it felt similar to this. Before it could blow up on us like Rory’s did, I shook Leo’s arm.

“Enough, Leo. I don’t think there’s any poison left inside.”

“I don’t see any, no. That’s good though.”

“Yes, it is. I want you to listen to me carefully now and please don’t argue with me. I shouldn’t have stopped you from leaving just now. Your instincts were right, but this time I’m going with you. I want to leave here tonight.”

“What?” he asked, his eyes big and round in his face. “Why?”

“I have a strong feeling that we should. And I learned a long time ago to trust my feelings. I fear that Harrison may still somehow be under Rozamond’s influence. Or maybe he just lived with her too many years.”

“Will he try to hurt me?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think he would knowingly do it. But if it were possible for someone to reach beyond the grave, she’s the one who could do it. Perhaps with a necromancer’s help.”

His eyes got even rounder and bigger, if possible. “Like in my book? But who?”

“I have no idea, but I’d like to go try to find out.”

“You want us to leave tonight?”

“Yes. We’ll take Captain Dellon’s horse. The poor man has no further need of it and I’m sure it’s in the stables, waiting for Lex to take it back home to Igella. I’ll compel the stable hands not to notice us leaving with the horse. Pack up a few things, and I’ll go talk to Lex and let him know my plans and what we’re doing. We won’t leave until the palace settles down for the night and that’s still a few hours away. We can get some rest until then.”

“But where are we going?”

“We’re heading north to the village where your family used to live, so wear your warmest clothes, but nothing flashy. We don’t want to attract any undue attention, in case Harrison tries to look for us. I want to go to the house your family once lived in.”

“For witnesses? Proof? But what if we can’t find any?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Start getting ready and I’ll go speak to Lex.” I gave him a brief, hard kiss and left him getting ready to leave as I headed out to let Lex know my plan.

Chapter Fifteen

Leo

By the time Asher returned an hour or so had passed, and I’d packed up my belongings and was sitting by the window, watching the sun fall slowly behind the horizon. I was impatient to be on the way, though I dreaded it at the same time. Not only because the temperature outside was falling as the sun went down and I hated the cold. I knew Asher would keep me warm.

What I dreaded was seeing my old home—the place where my parents had been so cruelly murdered and where I’d thought my life had effectively ended too on that horrible night the witch came calling. It would be hard to see that again.

But I knew Asher was right. We had to get proof of what I said both for his sake and for mine. I knew he hated the estrangement with Harrison, and he wanted desperately to prove to him that he was wrong about me. I’m not sure I was fully convinced that Asher was as absolutely sure about me as he’d claimed to be either. Well, how could he be? We’d only known each other a short time, and though the urges caused by our pheromones made that fact a bit irrelevant, it was nevertheless true that he couldn’t really know.

I thought there probably was a fair chance we’d find some of the servants who had worked for my father in the old days. The people in the villages didn’t move around a great deal, and almost undoubtedly, some of them would still be alive with their memories of that night intact. We simply had to find them, and perhaps show them the color of our money to make them open up to us.

The door opened and Asher came in and straight over to me by the window.

“You should be lying down. We won’t get much rest later tonight.”

“I was waiting for you.”

“I thought you might still be angry.”

I shook my head. I had allowed my temper to flare, and that needed to stop. I had few allies left to me now and if I lost Asher…the thought was suddenly so devastating I couldn’t finish it.

“You won’t lose me,” he said, reading my mind like he seemed to do sometimes, or maybe my dejection was just that obvious.

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