Page 32 of Devil Bound
“I’m going to…” He pointed toward the exit and left, very nearly at a run.I could relate.
But the talisman.I had a feeling itbelonged,and I wanted to know to whom.I grabbed a bunch of the gloves and tried another victim.Nothing again.
I felt the tech’s watchful eye on my back and made a show of changing my gloves before moving on to the next corpse.I’d barely made contact when everything fell into place.
The ownership made itself known with something akin to a noise just evening out.The closest description I’d ever come up with to explain it to a non-magic user was the tuning of a string instrument and that moment when you just hit the right note.
“This is hers.”
The woman—the magic user—was one of the heads we’d found later, the one that had been able to give me her name, Joanne Frazer.The knowledge that she’d owned a talisman sort of put this crime into perspective for me.
Joanne had been a magic user, just like me.She must not have been strong enough to wield anything offensive—plenty of people weren’t, but still—or maybe she’d been surprised and overpowered before she could call on her magic.
I felt an immediate kinship with her.“I was being punished, but I did nothing,” Joanne had told me when I raised her.
Punished.It was an odd choice of word.I didn’t think she’d be saying that about herself, so possibly the murderer had told her, just before—
I closed my eyes and shook my head.I didn’t want to imagine what had been done to her, didn’t want to think about how she’d gone from being whole and alive to dead and dismembered.
“That was impressive.”
I jumped, then spun.
Mitch was there, smiling his sunshine smile.
“Huh?”
“I came to check on you.The officer looking a little green in the face told me he’d found something.May I see?”
I nodded and handed him the evidence bag, my gloved fingers brushing his ungloved ones.“Just a talisman.For focus.”
He nodded and looked from the coin to me.“Can you tell me anything else about this?Where she might have gotten it from?”
I pulled the gloves off.Hopefully, I was done needing them for the day.
“It’s possible she made it herself.You can get the basic coin pretty much anywhere, magic shops or online, but there are also smiths, magic users themselves, who will set them up to order.Some also come pre-carved with a basic layout, but most people I know would prefer putting their own design on it since it’s an item used to help them focus their power.”
Mitch nodded.“It needs to fit the magic user is what you’re saying.Like a ring.”
“That’s right.”
Mitch looked up from the coin.“What’s yours?Your talisman, I mean.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets, because the crime scene tech was still eyeing me critically, and I knew they were far happier if all non-scientifically trained staff kept their hands in their pockets around a scene.
“I don’t use them.Drawing and focusing my power comes pretty easily to me.”
If Mitch had been a magic user himself, he’d have been concerned about whether I was competent or not.A lot of people who didn’t go in for talismans were just too lazy to bother setting one up, or they thought their power was greater than it actually was.
I didn’t normally make a big deal out of it.I’d tried using a focus point once, a coin just like this.It had been when I’d first gone to the Collegium, too young and too unhappy about my crushed dreams of adoption, or at least a nice foster family.
One teacher had said it might help me learn control.What it actually taught me was how to get the coin so hot it would burn through a one-inch-thick desk, and the teacher had concluded I’d be best trained alongside the mages from then on out.
Mages were those who really didn’t need focal points in any of their spells.They were pretty few and far between, and if I hadn’t been a necromancer, I’d have been one of them and able to do pretty much whatever I wanted with my power.I could still do some spellwork, some force spells, sure, but my real strength was death and what came after it.
“I really don’t know a lot about this kind of stuff, about magic.”Mitch shrugged.“Do you think we could grab a bite to eat sometime?So I can pick your brain.”
This time around, he’d definitely see my jaw drop and my color rise.I wasn’t sure this was a date, but it was food and Detective Sexy Mitch, which was miles better than just plain food, and maybe it could turn into a date.At a minimum, I’d get more of that smile and those sparkly eyes, and I’d definitely get to see what he looked like without rubber boots and the windbreaker on.
