Page 20 of Witch

“Are we really just walking away?” Kana bit out the second they walked through the doors and into the parking lot.

“Hah,” Meryl laughed. “I promised not to sue the school district, and I won’t, but I’ve already scheduled an Uber to take me to the Albany FBI office. They’ll be very interested in prosecuting that bastard federally for hate crimes. New York is a one-party consent state, so I recorded our conversation just now. With that, the fake behavior papers, the copies of the voicemail messages on Shannon’s phone, and Marc’s testimony, I’m literally handing them an open and shut case. He won’t see the outside of a jail cell for ten years to life.”

A car pulled up as she finished speaking. Meryl checked the license plate against the app on her phone, then nodded to them before getting in the back. The car pulled away, and Ember, Kana, and Shannon continued to where their car was parked.

The lot was almost empty. Only a few stragglers’ cars remained, parked by the back fence where the people who had likely gotten to work late were also working late. Ember’s car sat alone in the white-lined lot, and it seemed to shimmer in the light of the setting sun. Which was…odd. Kana stopped walking, and he grabbed Ember’s arm to stop him too.

“Don’t cars only give off heat waves like that in ninety degree weather in August?” he asked.

Ember squinted at the car, then sniffed the air. “I don’t sense anything.”

“Nor do I,” Shannon added, but he had stopped with them.

The necklace! Sora hissed.

Kana clapped a hand on the teardrop, which was warm from Kana’s body heat. It didn’t feel any different, but Sora wouldn’t have said that for no reason. Kana pulled it out from under his shirt and gasped. The gentle blue color of the infusion inside had turned black, and it glowed as if lit by a blue light.

“Damn,” Ember said with a snarl. He yanked out his phone and hit a button for speed dial. “Ary,” he snapped out when the call connected. “We’re still at the school and the necklace your researchers gave Kana is reacting.” He listened for a few seconds before hanging up. “The strike team is on its way. Can anyone sense where the demon magic is coming from?”

“The sun won’t fully set for another hour,” Shannon said. “My powers are severely curtailed until then. Kana?”

Kana closed his eyes and opened his magic channels wide, pulling power to him and then casting it out in a formless searching spell. The school was clean—Kana half wanted the damned principal to ping as the warlock and had to quell a touch of disappointment—and aside from Ember’s car, the parking lot was as well.

“I wouldn’t touch the car until after it gets doused in holy water,” Kana murmured, mostly focused on sending his magic out farther.

Nothing on the baseball diamond to the left, and nothing on the soccer fields to the right. Kana couldn’t find anything on the school grounds at all. He surged his magic in front of him, into the road and across the street, and immediately felt like he had dipped his fingers into a bowl of oily sludge.

Kana opened his eyes and turned to look at the area his magic had found. Heavily wooded, Kana thought the entire space over there was part of a nature preserve. The spot Kana had identified was literally straight ahead of where they were standing.

“He’s in the woods, I think,” Kana said.

Ember clenched his jaw for a moment, then relaxed as he let out a breath. “We need to keep him there until the hunters arrive. Why don’t we go say hello?”

Chapter Ten

THE WOODS WERE absolutely silent, as if the birds, squirrels, and bugs all knew something bad was in their midst and were hiding. Kana led the way with Ember tight on his heels. In the shade of the trees, Shannon removed the cloth covering his face again. Where Kana and Ember’s footsteps crunched on dried leaves and sticks, Shannon seemed to glide over it all. They were just past being visible from the road when Kana rounded a tree and found a man leaning against another tree just ahead.

“Ah, Kana. Nice to see you,” the man said with a smile. He was fair-haired and pale skinned—although not as blond or pale as Shannon—and his smile was as greasy as the feel of the magic in the air.

“Do we know each other?” Kana asked, remembering Ember’s admonition that they needed to stall until the hunters could arrive to really take care of him.

The man’s smile widened. “You don’t know me, but I certainly know you, dear Lucina. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Abe, First Warlock. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Kana doubted his name was actually Abe, and the whole “first warlock” thing was probably bullshit, but it wouldn’t hurt to play along while he set up some protections.

“Nice to meet you too, Abe,” Kana replied as he pushed his magic channels open to their widest. “How do you know me?” Kana started drawing a containment circle, carefully keeping the flare of magic hidden in the ground underneath Abe’s feet. Just one circle wouldn’t be enough; Kana thought he would need five total, layered in the air above the base. When he combined them, Kana would get a twenty-five-pointed star. The problem was the other four circles had to be visible and he wasn’t ready to play his hand just yet.

Abe let out a little sigh. “Being observant is one of the most important qualities of someone with power, Kana. You really must learn to watch your surroundings. You see I noticed you and your two wonderful familiars years ago and decided I needed to meet with you.”

Years ago? How long had Abe been living in the area? Although if he was telling the truth, Kana definitely hadn’t noticed him.

“Oh, I’m such a chatterbox. Do forgive me? I’m just so excited I get to finally meet you!”

Ember’s hand gently brushed against Kana’s back, both to provide the comfort of touch and to encourage Kana to keep Abe talking. The longer Abe talked, the more time the hunters had to get here, and the better chance they had of neutralizing him completely.

“Why did you want to meet me?” Kana asked.

Despite admitting he was chattering, Abe didn’t show any signs of stopping. “To meet your familiars, of course. I have summoned dozens of creatures from the other side, trying to build my magic. But not even one came close to the power of your familiars. I wanted to ask you to give them to me. So, I convinced the vampires it was time to return, and sent a little nudge to your TV station to get you sent there. The vampires were going to capture you for me in exchange for a few demons to snack on. Octavius became powerful enough to catch you, but then your damned werewolves had to intervene. Next, I found a witch with her pet enslaved hunter. She was desperate to find you and promised to hand over your familiars in exchange. I should have realized like follows like and including that one hunter meant more would show up. This time, I didn’t want any mistakes. No intermediaries who could mess things up. So here I am, Kana, and now you will give me your familiars.”

---