Heroic Hearts by Jim Butcher & Kerrie Hughes

Heroic Hearts by Jim Butcher & Kerrie Hughes

Author:Jim Butcher & Kerrie Hughes [Butcher, Jim & Hughes, Kerrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Anthologies (Multiple Authors), Fantasy, Collections & Anthologies, Paranormal
ISBN: 9780593099186
Google: DO5nEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2022-09-15T04:00:00+00:00


* * *

We found Theo in McKinley Park proper. He stood beneath a tree, flashlight aimed on the ground—and a pile of clothes tossed there.

He nodded in greeting when we reached him. “You get coffee?”

“Not enough,” I said.

Connor kneeled, looked over the pile of clothes. The shift between man and animal—whatever form that took—was magical and physiological; it didn’t affect clothing. So a shifter either sacrificed their clothes, which would be shredded in the transition, or took them off before shifting and dressed again afterward.

“These are from Bryce,” Connor confirmed. “They have the same scent as the wolf.”

“Can you smell anyone else?” I asked. “Anything else?”

“No.” He lifted his gaze to Theo. “How’d you find them?”

“Anonymous tip.”

“Interesting.”

“I thought so.”

“You go through them?”

“Not yet,” Theo said. He took a plastic bag and a set of gloves from his pocket, then pulled on the gloves. We moved aside while Theo crouched and searched the T-shirt, jeans, and boxers, looking for anything that might have been tucked inside.

“Gwen?” I asked.

“Working with the lab,” Theo said, frowning as he inspected the jeans’ front pocket. He pulled out a rounded square of thick paper.

“Bar coaster,” he said, flipping it over. “For The Raucous Wolf.” He slipped it into the evidence bag and, when it was protected, offered it to me.

The bar’s wolfish logo was, in a bit of gruesome irony, tucked inside a circle on the front. The reverse side advertised a beer company with a curvy pinup. But there was something else—what looked like a tiny bit of writing on the bottom corner. A phone number? I wondered.

“Flashlight,” I said, and held out my hand, expecting one of them would fulfill the request. Connor got there first, putting a penlight into my hand. I flicked it on and shined it on the spot, illuminating a simple mark of lines and dashes inked so heavily into the coaster they’d left a groove in the paper: two lines crossing in the shape of an X, and a series of shorter marks that crossed them both or individually at intervals.

“It’s a stave,” I said.

“A what?” Theo asked, moving closer.

“A symbol that makes up a spell. Nordic in origin. I studied staves in college—supernatural sociology,” I reminded him. “I don’t know what this particular stave symbolizes, but each mark has meaning, and when you put them together, they have a magical effect. Combine that with a little blood, a little salt, and a little paper, and you’ve made magic.” I looked up. “I think Ariel has one of these tattooed on her arm. I saw it when she moved her tray.”

“Ariel?” Theo asked, and we told him what we’d found at the bar.

“The lines,” Connor agreed with a nod. “I saw that, too.”

“We need to talk to her again.”

“We do,” Theo agreed. “And good catch. Petra couldn’t do much with the salt circle, it was too general. But added to this, we might have something.” He pulled out his screen and sent her a message.

I rose at the scritch of shoes on pavement behind us.



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