Page 104 of Sigils & Spells

I considered the question. Full shield wards were ridiculously expensive. Even a small spell to cover a backpack would be pricey. Maybe the amplification witch could create shields?

“I suppose it’s possible. Dad said there was something odd about the charm Harding brought him. I think he called it shadowy or misty, something like that. As good as he is I don’t know if he could tease out the presence of shield magic. I’ll have to ask him.” My list of things to ask him kept growing. I should write them down before I forgot.

“You found the bag and—” Scarlett stretched ‘and’ out like it was taffy.

“It bugged me that it was left there and I worried if the PED missed the backpack, maybe they missed something else. I kept thinking about Jonah’s parents and how worried they had to be.”

She made a rolling “go on” hand gesture.

“So I went back to the building where the backpack was hidden… it was a newly constructed apartment building.” I took a deep breath. “And I broke into the building to hunt around.”

“You didn’t.” Boots hitting the floor, Scarlett jolted out of her relaxed position.

I winced.

“You did! What did you find?”

The front door opened again. Two more customers walked in.

The phone rang.

Scarlett groaned.

I answered the phone and experienceddéjà vu.

“Marin, I’m sorry but I’m won’t be able to keep our appointment Monday.”

I mentally cursed. Reggie Smith wanted an estimate on warding his hardware store and had set up the appointment over a week ago.

“Would you like to reschedule?”

There was a long beat of silence before Reggie answered. “I’ll get back to you on that.”

I tried to reassure myself the cancellation had nothing to do with my spells concealing Raven’s body.

We had a steady stream of customers over the next half hour. Several people shared their versions of Raven’s discovery with us. One story, from a rat shifter, practically gave me a heart attack. He mentioned Hex magic had been used to hide Raven. Wrong magic, but it wouldn’t be long before the identity of the actual spells came to light.

In the lulls between helping customers, I brought Scarlet up to date with everything I’d done and the few things I’d learned, which wasn’t much.

The store cleared out once more allowing me to finish up with my Detective Kelley encounter.

Scarlett paced between the counter and the bookshelves; the heels of her boots tapping against the oak floor. “Okay. What do we know about the building?”

Of all the possible things I’d imagined she’d say, that hadn’t been one of them.

“Nothing. Why?”

“You don’t know who the owner is, right? You didn’t actually talk to them?”

“No.”

“Okay. Suitcase guy had a code to get in there. Why did he have access? Does he work there? Does he own the place?”

“The police don’t seem to think he’s all that important.”

“Good, then we won’t be stepping on their toes if we ask around about the property.”

“Wait. Wait. Wait.” I held up my hands and made a slowdown gesture. “Wearen’t asking about anything. I was lucky the owner declined to press charges. I don’t want to stir up a hornet's nest.”

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