Conspiracy of Magic 001: The Raven Spell by Luanne G. Smith

Author:Luanne G. Smith [Smith, Luanne G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Crime & Mystery, Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9781542034043
Google: 0zxvzgEACAAJ
Amazon: B093SHTLLB
Barnesnoble: B093SHTLLB
Goodreads: 58456216
Publisher: #PrB.rating#4.15
Published: 2022-02-01T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Think!

Ian had found evidence leading to George Elvanfoot once before; he could do so again. He must. Lives depended on it.

Standing in the alley outside the stage door, Ian dug in his breast pocket for the photo Lizzie had given him of George Fey, the actor. A slightly different pose, she’d pointed out, than the one she’d provided before. This one showed George in costume for the play he was starring in, and this picture she wanted returned in one piece, along with her fiancé. Her demands were made clear, as was her denial he knew any “floozy” by the name of Mary Blackwood.

Unfortunately, the first photo must have been confiscated along with his other belongings from the hotel room. The thought of all that investigative work already done and of absolutely no use to him any longer made him want to cast a spell to plunge the city into fog permanently.

And maybe that’s just what the moment called for, Ian thought, getting an idea.

He couldn’t go to the Metropolitan Police to make inquiries about one of the city’s missing citizens. They’d arrest him on the spot, thanks to the hotel clerk and his nosy maid. They likely didn’t give a toss about a missing actor anyway. But there was another place he could go for information. This was witch business, after all. The only problem was the whereabouts of the headquarters. The location was always changing.

“Hob, you there?”

The hearth elf popped his head out of the broken pane of the nearest streetlight. “Sir?”

“We need to get into a little mischief.” Before the elf got too excited, he cautioned, “Just enough to attract attention. I dinna have time to spend the night behind bars.”

Hob’s grin fell slightly, but he still rubbed his hairy hands together before shimmying down the lamppost. “We could snuff all the city lights out,” he suggested, eyeing the place he’d jumped from.

“Won’t be dark enough to cause a scene for a few more hours,” Ian said, conferring with the stars. “Afraid we haven’t got time to wait.”

Hob drummed his fingers against his chin, thinking. As he did, a rat wandered down the alley, twitching his nose as he sniffed a suspicious trail of black goo that oozed toward the street. Ian and Hob watched the rat waddle in front of them, then exchanged a mischievous glance.

“Aye, that’ll do.” Ian checked the stairwell quickly to see if the homeless man was still there sleeping, but he’d already stumbled off somewhere. “Give me a little space,” he said to Hob, who backed away from the rat. “Let’s hope he has a few friends nearby.”

Ian shook out his arms to warm up while he waited for a couple to pass by the opening to the alley. You couldn’t walk thirty seconds in the city without bumping into someone, but for the moment the alley was clear. Ian concentrated on the rat, who shuffled along unaware, or unimpressed, by the two other creatures he shared the space with. All the better.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.