Lost Talismans and a Tequila (The Guild Codex: Spellbound Book 7) by Annette Marie

Author:Annette Marie [Marie, Annette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781988153483
Publisher: Dark Owl Fantasy Inc.
Published: 2020-07-09T18:30:00+00:00

By the time we arrived at the Praetor’s house, his garage—the vehicle one, not the demonic-worshipping one—was empty. He’d already left and would hopefully stay gone for the day.

Aaron and Blake had the job of breaking in and systematically searching the entire four-thousand-square-foot house. Me, on the other hand—my ass was parked in the SUV, and the SUV was parked in a sheltered copse of trees just off the road. Through the windshield, I could barely see the street and one corner of the Praetor’s distant driveway.

Aaron’s laptop was open on my knees, and on my phone was Justin’s video recording of last night’s cult meeting. I clicked around in the spreadsheet I’d made, prepping it for my self-assigned task.

My brother, sitting in the driver’s seat, leaned over the center console to peer at the laptop. “What are you doing?”

“Making a chart with our best guesses at the age, height, weight, hair color, and eye color of all the cultists. Then Aaron or someone else in the Crow and Hammer can use the information to search the MPD’s mythic database for them.”

“Is it a database of criminals, or …?”

“Every mythic is supposed to be registered by eighteen. If all the cultists are rogues, then we’re SOL, but if even one of them is registered, we can find them.”

“Hmm. Would the assassin be in the database too?”

“Probably not. Assassins don’t usually play by the MPD’s rules. Besides, we don’t know anything about them, so we can’t look them up.”

As I spoke, I racked my brain again for some inkling of who’d messed with my head, but I had nothing to go on. Anyone from the barista to a random passerby could’ve poisoned my mind.

“So,” I declared determinedly, “let’s see what we can figure out about the cultists.”

I listed each cult member in the first column of my spreadsheet, labeling them from one to twelve based on their position in the circle. I added the Praetor too, since we didn’t know his name yet.

Justin picked up my phone, started the video—sound muted—and watched it play for a moment. “Let’s see … the first cultist is female, medium brown hair, between five-foot-three and five-foot-six, and between a hundred and thirty pounds and a hundred and fifty. I can’t tell her eye color.”

I blinked repeatedly, then typed the details into my spreadsheet at top speed. Why was I surprised? My brother might know next to nothing about mythics, but he knew how to profile suspects.

“Okay,” I said brightly. “That’s it for Cultist Number One. How about Number Two?”

He skipped forward through the video, searching for a better view of the second cultist. “Tori … did you overhear Aaron and I talking earlier?”

My gut twisted. “Yeah.”

His finger paused on the phone screen. “I’m sorry for—”

“Forget about it.”

“But—”

“You’re worried that I can’t keep up with Aaron, Kai, and Ezra. They’re powerful, combat-trained mages and I’m a … Yeah, it’s a legit concern. But I’m not like I used to be, you know. I don’t just impulsively charge headfirst into danger.

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