Broken Bonds (Lizzie Grace 3)

“Right,” I said and held out my hand.

He came down the hill and carefully handed me the inch-and-a-half-long piece of thread. What little magic remained was leaching away rapidly—something that often happened when small magical items were broken.

I frowned and wondered why instinct seemed to think the charm had been pulled off rather than simply unlatched. The indentations on the wolf’s wrist certainly didn’t indicate the former, given such an action would have forced the charm’s threads to dig deeper into the skin on one side of his wrist than the other.

I glanced up at Aiden. “I’m going to have to touch this with my bare hand if I’m to have any hope of dragging information from it. Will that piss Ciara off?”

“I doubt it, as it’s not like we’ll be able to pull prints from it. It’s more about matching that thread to whatever cloth or material it might have come from. Can I film you doing the reading?”

“Once I’ve fired the circle up, yes.”

I sat down and then began to spell, carefully laying the threads of protection across the stones, weaving one upon the other, until the circle was as strong as I could make it under the circumstances.

I told Aiden to start filming then pulled off one glove with my teeth and switched the thread to my bare hand. Even though there was only a tiny amount of blood on the thread, it oddly seemed to burn against my skin, and held within it echoes of the agony the wolf had suffered. My stomach flip-flopped but I narrowed my gaze and tried to concentrate on the remnants of magic rather than the emotions. Whoever had created the bracelet or charm this thread belonged to hadn’t, in any way, flirted with the darker side of the art. The spell felt cool and light, free of evil or taint.

I closed my eyes and unleashed my psychometry skills. For several seconds, nothing happened—no real surprise given how tiny the thread was. But just as I was about to give up, images stirred. But they were faint. So faint. I frowned and tried to pin them down, but I might as well have tried ensnaring a fairy.

“You need to tell me what you’re seeing and experiencing,” Aiden said quietly.

“I’m seeing a teapot.” I tried to adjust the mental dial and sharpen the images but it didn’t work. “A black one. The air is sharp with incense—a protective mix of violet and angelica. The room is small and dark. There’s a woman; she’s got dark brown hair shot with gray and silvery eyes....” The image faded and I s

wore softly. “I’m sorry. That’s all I could get.”

“Do you think it was a memory of where—or who—he’d gotten the charm from?”

“Possibly.” I hesitated and glanced at the body. “I might be able to get more if I tried to read his mind direct, but there’s only a six-minute window of brain survival after the heart stops before memory deterioration begins.” Even then, some levels of memory could be affected, particularly short-term. “And given the way he died, I really doubt I’d get anything more than his agony.”

Not to mention the whole issue of having to touch his skinned body to even make the attempt. My stomach was unstable enough as it was.

“I’m not about to put you through that, Liz.”

“Thanks.” I carefully wrapped the thread in the rubber glove, then made the circle safe and collected my stones. I rose and handed Aiden the glove. “Sorry I couldn’t have been of more help.”

He caught my hand and tugged me close. He didn’t kiss me; he just wrapped his arms around me and held me silently for several seconds. It was nice.

More than nice.

“Jaz, Tala, and Ciara are on the way,” he said eventually. “I’ve asked Jaz to drive you home.”

“I’ll head back to the road, then.” I somewhat reluctantly stepped back. “I’m gathering it could be a long night?”

He grimaced. “More than likely. But if you’d prefer to spend the night on a more comfortable mattress that has certainly seen far less traffic than that hotel bed, you’re more than welcome to go back to my place.”

Amusement twitched my lips. “Given the lack of sleep last night, I might well be snoring by the time you arrive back.”

“Do you snore?” he asked, somewhat curiously.

My grin broke loose. “I guess you’ll discover that one way or another tonight. Is the spare key still in the same spot?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll see you sometime tonight.”

He nodded and walked back up the hill. I shouldered my backpack and left, making my way back to the road and his truck. Jaz and Tala arrived at the same time. After pointing Tala in the right direction, I climbed into Jaz’s SUV and was whisked quickly home.

Belle was sitting at one of the tables, her feet up on a chair and a red leather book sitting on her lap. There was also a rather large, partially eaten slice of banana cake sitting on the table beside her.

She glanced up as I entered. “Whiskey or wine?”