Page 96 of A Winding Wave of Magic
Again, that icy shiver slid down my back, despite the cloying greenhouse effect of the large windows on hot days like this. I took up one of the bundles of juniper and the bowl of water at the fireplace for my ritual. It was too hot for a fire. This would have to do.
“Penny’s precautions have held up nicely,” Jonathan remarked once we had both finished. “No one knows you’re here.”
“She set precautions?” I asked, earning a roll of the eyes from Jonathan at my ignorance.
Of course, she set precautions to hide me. I now knew that was what Penny did.
I sat down on the couch and pulled one of the ratty throw pillows into my lap. “So, what’s going on? Why are you here?”Also, why am I so happy to see you?
Thankfully, he wasn’t touching me when the thought crossed my mind.
He turned from his place at the window to face me. “When do you leave for Portland? Two weeks?”
I shifted uneasily on the couch. I hadn’t even told Reina yet. “I actually turned down that position.”
Jonathan balked. “Did you really?”
His reaction was similar to the faces of my committee members when I had given them the same news. Professor James was unable to comprehend why I would commit career sabotage.
“I’m not sure it’s what I want to do anymore,” was all I said. “Gran’s endowment has given me some freedom. I plan to do some traveling. Maybe to London…and Ireland.”
Both of his brows lifted. “Do you now?”
I looked up. “Surprised?”
He set his glass on the coffee table. “I admit, I arrived here thinking I had to talk you into going. But you’ve done my job for me.”
“What do you mean, you were going to talk me into it?”
He removed his hat and placed it next to his glass. “Some things have happened since Manzanita. Two more people onthe Council were murdered last month. Both of them strangled, their memories erased.”
The word murder made the hairs on my arm stand straight up. I couldn’tnotthink of Penny’s terrible death, of my own close call. I wished I had one of her afghans to pull around my shoulders, but they were already safely stowed in one of the moving boxes.
“Your father?”
Dread lay heavy over his shoulders. It couldn’t have been anyone else.
Jonathan sighed and sat up, running a hand through his hair. “Yes. It’s a coup, plain and simple. He’s killing original members in pursuit of the Secret and obviously planning to seize power. You and I both know he is responsible, but no one else has been able to figure it out. Nor is there any proof beyond what we know. But I don’t believe that now is the time to reveal that Penny had a daughter. Or a granddaughter. Not until we know who we can trust on the Council.”
“You haven’t gone to them at all?” I was appalled. I didn’t know what he had been doing in the last few months, but I would have thought that reporting a crime to the fae authorities available would be at the top of the list.
He exhaled heavily. “Cassandra, first of all, I’m not an agent of the Council. I’m acting on behalf of Penny and her interests because she…well, let’s just say I owe her a great debt, and I care deeply about avenging her murder. I should hope it goes without saying how appalled I am that my family is responsible for it. Second, while I don’t think—yet—that the Council has anything directly to do with the murders, I also don’t believe they’ll take an accusation against one of their own seriously without investigating the accuser. It would be like telling Scotland Yard the commissioner is corrupt. You’re not prepared for that kind of scrutiny.”
I cupped my tea in my hands, thankful for the condensation building on the outside of the glass. It wasn’t a cup of water, but it was something to balance the turmoil inside me as he spoke. Through the window, I watched a woman across the street hang her laundry from her fire escape, taking periodic moments to tilt her face up to the sun, eyes closed in pleasure. She looked so happy, despite the menial chore.
“So what now?” I asked. “Clearly, our timeline has been moved up. What am I supposed to do with this information?”
I didn’t move my gaze from my neighbor. Though I knew she probably couldn’t see us due to Jonathan’s spell work, the woman smiled in my direction as she clipped a blouse to the line. I thought I could hear the gentle tones of Ella Fitzgerald crooning through the glass.
“He’s been asking questions too. I’ve heard rumors of a raven searching the cities. Looking for traces of a lost seer. He knew, from her memories, of course, bits about you and Sybil, but she was careful. She didn’t remember your name, where you were, or hardly anything about you. And he hasn’t been able to find her anyway.”
I balked. “She did have a terrible memory at times, but it’s not that bad.”
Jonathan’s mouth quirked. “Don’t you think that was by design?”
Now that he said it, it was obvious. If Gran was keeping a secret, and she knew someone was coming for her, of course, she would wipe her mind clear. She was ruthless. Her death had taught me that, if anything.
Still, the man had gotten some memories out of her. That I had Seen for myself.
