Page 33 of Wicked Love
“I have a friend who cannot cast at all.”
“A friend?” Talia asked, smiling. Her eyes crinkled as she smiled, turning her face to me.
“Yes, a friend. That’s all she is. She might be more.”
“I’ll leave you be,” she patted my hand again. “But she’s sure she can’t cast?”
“She’s been trying ever since the ball.”
“And nothing?”
“Nope. Not a thing.”
“What’s your deepest fear?” Talia asked.
“You heard about that?”
“I hear everything, my dear boy.”
“I don’t know,” I stood up, feeling restless. “What do you think?”
“I can’t answer that,” Talia said. “If I do, it will be my idea of your deepest fear. Not yours. No, only you can answer that.”
“What does that mean, face it?” I asked, referring to the curse.
“I suppose it means you have to do the thing that scares you the most. But that’s not the thing that brought you here,” she said, her sightless eyes searching my face.
I felt like she could see me. I sat down, and pulled out my messenger bag. “You’re right as always, Talia. I have some questions about a file.”
“What are they? Who is the file about?”
“Sariah Cormier,” I said.
“That woman,” Talia muttered. “Is she back? I heard that there were graves disturbed. Have you spoken to her daughter?”
“How did you hear that?” I asked, leaning back in my chair. “Lavinia and I kept it quiet. There were graves disturbed, but the bodies were returned, and no harm was done.”
“That’s what you know,” Talia said, her mouth twisting in a sneer. “It just takes one of those creatures to wreak havoc on a coven.”
“Wait,” I said. “What did you mean?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You asked me if she was back,” I said slowly. “That was your handwriting in the notes.”
A strange expression crossed Talia’s face. Then her features settled into the calm, determined look I’d seen on it a thousand times. “I haven’t made any notes about Sariah Cormier.”
“There are notes in this file,” I opened it up to the last two pages. “Notes that give an address, that say, Confined, and then there are two further notes that state the person submitting them is sure they saw her. There was a request to go and see, to see if was her. To see what it was that caused people concern. And those notes, Talia,” I leaned forward, “at the end of each report from a member of our coven, are marked, Dismissed.” I leaned back.
She didn’t speak.
“Also in your handwriting.”
“You don’t know that,” she said. Her voice was steady as she took a sip of her tea.
“Talia, I worked with you for eight years. I know your handwriting as well as I know my own.”
“What is it you think you see, Jasper?”
