“She found us.”
“Elaborate,” Lucas commands.
“Maria and I have been friends for a long time. We’re both fascinated with the paranormal and tried doing magic before. We were at a new-age store in Paradise Valley, and she came up to us, offered to teach us real magic.”
“And you just took the candy and got into the windowless white van,” I mumble. “She lied to you, I’m sorry, and she used you.”
Carly shakes her head. “She promised us magic, the way it used to be in the old days.”
“You mean Satanism? That’s not real magic,” I say bluntly. “You’re being lent power that isn’t yours, and it always comes with a price. Always.” I look at Lucas. “I think we got all the info we need.”
“You’re going to go back to sleep,” Lucas tells Carly. “You won’t remember any of this. We were never here. We never talked to you.”
“None of this happened,” Carly echoes, staring at Lucas, unblinking.
“Now lie down and close your eyes.”
“Okay.” Carly slowly lowers herself onto the mattress and closes her eyes. We wait a beat and then turn to leave. I break the soundproof circle, and we get to the elevator without anyone questioning us.
“Her roommate, Maria, was asleep the whole time, right?” I ask as the elevator doors shut.
“Yes. I could hear her heart beating. It would have sped up if she awoke and listened to us, pretending to be asleep,” Lucas assures me. We ride down the three stories in silence and get scolded by a security guard for staying past visiting hours on our way out.
“You know what’s almost funny?” I grab Lucas’s hand. “Ruth knows my powers exceed a normal witch’s. And she’s right. They do far exceed normal witches. And she thinks I’m on team Lucifer, and I kind of am, just not in the sense she thinks.”
“Will he grant powers like Carly said?” Lucas asks.
“Yes, but it’s temporary and always comes at a high price. That’s his thing. There’s no give without take, which is why Satanism was outlawed by the Grand Coven. It’s too dangerous, as one of the things he likes to barter with is your soul.”
“Your soul in exchange for the power of magic.” Lucas opens the car door for me. “I can see how tempting that could be.”
“Me, too,” I admit. “And he comes to those in their weakest moments.” I close my eyes and shake my head, letting out a snort of laughter. “That’s what he does, and I’m so stupid for thinking—”
I stop short, regretting my words.
“For thinking what?”
“For thinking us being family meant something to him. But I can’t forget who he is. He’s Lucifer. The devil. The Dark Lord or whatever other grim name you want to call him. He doesn’t hand out favors out of the kindness of his heart.”
I get in the car and pull the seatbelt over my chest. Maybe this was the reminder I needed, because even now I’m wishing I could talk to Lucifer and work something out. He’s all about punishing those who did wrong and seems rather interested in punishing those who did me wrong…with me right there along with him.
I plug the cabin’s address in the GPS. It’s twenty minutes away and is near where the Ley line reaches the lake. I mess with the radio on the way there, trying to find a song that suits my mood. We park down the road in front of another house and slip into the woods. Lucas moves without a sound, and I’m pretty darn impressed with my own sneaking.
“This is it,” Lucas whispers. “Stay back while I check it out.”
“No,” I counter. “I’m coming with.”
“You’re safer here.”
“Hanging back?” My eyebrows go up. “I’m the one with the magic, remember?”
“Fine,” Lucas grumbles. We stop at the clearing, coming up to the cabin from the back. There are no lights on, and everything is perfectly quiet.
We carefully move onto the back patio and wait a beat. Lucas doesn’t hear anything inside the cabin, so I use magic to unlock the door. The cabin is small and is something that would be rented out for a weekend trip. Lucas goes in first and inhales.
“Her scent is weak,” he tells me.
“What does that mean?”
“It means she was here but isn’t anymore.”
“Are you sure?”
“She could be masking her scent somehow.”
I hold out my hand. “There’s one way to find out.” I conjure a bright white ball of energy. “Hey, dipshit, I’m here! Come get me!”
“Subtle.”
“It’s my specialty.” I toss the energy ball up, illuminating the cabin. Nothing moves. Nothing scurries, and Lucas can’t hear anyone’s heart beating besides mine.
“How long ago do you think she was here?” I slowly walk through the kitchen, looking at the clean dishes set on the counter to dry.
“A day or so. If she was paranoid and moved around a lot, then she would have left this place once the return-to-sender spell hit.”