Page 38 of Siege of Shadows

She opened one of the drawers at her bench and pulled out a small briefcase. As she unlocked it and lifted the lid, the glint of a silver steel band caught my eye. Using a screwdriver, she pried open a small section on the inside and began fitting in the chip she’d been soldering.

“What is that?” Lake asked.

“Maia, you’ve been having issues with scrying, haven’t you?”

Rhys looked at me.

“Dr. Rachadi at the Marrakesh facility sent over the results of your earlier exam. Because of your encounter with Saul in New York leading to your premature summoning of your weapon,” she said as she tinkered with the chip, “your mind is vulnerable to the consciousness of the other Effigies in your line. More than it should be. Case in point.” Dot set down the bracelet. “You’ve seen Natalya a lot lately, haven’t you?”

The intensity in her gaze froze me to the spot. I nodded before I could stop myself.

Rhys’s back straightened a little. “You’ve seen her?” he asked.

“Well, I told you a long time ago I’d been dreaming of her,” I said. “It’s getting more frequent.”

“Has she said anything?” A short silence followed after Rhys spoke. “Or done anything?”

“Why?”

The nonchalant shrug of his shoulders calmed me for the few seconds I believed it before the doubt began crawling back up my insides. Rhys wasn’t stupid. If he’d really killed Natalya, he would have known that I would find out eventually through Natalya’s memories. Was he really innocent? Or was he just quietly waiting for the other shoe to drop?

Maybe we were both just trying to deny reality.

“I’m just worried about you.” Looking suitably concerned, he folded his arms across his chest. “It’s dangerous enough having past Effigies milling about in your head. You know that, Maia.”

Why not turn him in?

Why not?

If he killed Natalya, he deserved to be punished.

My lips trembled as I thought of him rotting away in a Sect prison for the rest of his life. Or executed. Is that... is that what I wanted?

He looked convincing, natural. And why wouldn’t he ask more about my scrying? It was the obvious question to ask considering everything that had happened to me. Right?

What do I do?I thought desperately, turning from him.

“Yes, it is dangerous,” said Dot, picking up on Rhys’s warning. “Hence the necklace.”

Dot was finally finished. Standing, she carried the device in front of her as she approached. “Remember, Sibyl still wants you to scry to find this ‘Marian.’ That’s who Saul is really after, right? But we don’t want to hurt you in the process. This will help regulate your brain chemicals while using your powers to scry so you won’t get any more surprise visits from previous Effigies. Let’s see if this fits: Sweep back your hair for a bit?”

I did. “Ah!” My breath caught in my throat from the stinging cold of the steel. The effect was nearly imperceptible, slight enough for me to ignore it, but if I closed my eyes and concentrated, I could feel the cold vibrating softly through muscle.

“We can also inject her with a primer to help stabilize her cylithium levels,” Mellie said.

“Oh, right, good idea,” Dot answered. “You can handle that, Mellie.”

“Won’t that make it harder for her to scry?” Lake looked a bit worried. She knew how important my communication with Natalya was. But Dot was right. It was a dangerous game. I didn’t want to lose myself playing it.

“Well, you won’t be able to communicate as readily. It’s like setting up a makeshift wall in your brain. The windows are still there—you’ll just have to pull a bit harder to open them, but hey, it’s better than the storm blowing in, you know?”

The neck-band was a bit clunky, but I could pass it off as a fashion statement if I needed to. It was better than being body-snatched by Natalya.

“I still don’t understand how Natalya’s mind is in me in the first place.” I shook my head once Dot took the neck-band off again. “All this stuff about frequency and vibrations and chemicals and whatever, but at the end of the day, someone’s mind isinmy mind. I don’t understand it.”

“Welcome to our world.” Dot gave me a pat on the shoulder. “Controlling the elements. Effigies passing on their consciousness, but only after they die. Magic. What you do is magic. Magic that shouldn’t exist, but does. And the only thing we mere mortals can do is try to understand magic through science.” With her bony hands, she propped herself against her assistants’ table. “Because really, what elsecanwe do? How can the ability to perform magic be created from inside the human body? Why can we also find it in phantoms?”

There was a wildness to her curiosity, smoldering as she pulled up her safety glasses and faced me. “How is the mind connected to the body? How is the mind connected to magic?” She tapped my forehead twice with her index finger. “How did Natalya’s mind and magic travel into your physical body after she died? Mind, magic, body. One hundred years and we have more questions than answers. But we are trying our best. There’s just so much we don’t know yet.”

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