Broken Bonds (Lizzie Grace 3)
Besides, if there had been more to my powers, it surely would have been picked up sometime over the sixteen years I’d been in Canberra. It hadn’t, simply because there was nothing more to me. Nothing other than a merging between my powers and Belle’s—and that seemed to have happened after we’d run.
“Did the magic give you any idea what we’re going to find at Luna?”
“No. Just that we need to get there quickly.”
He grunted. “Luna’s a reservation border town—I wonder if that’s got anything to do with it?”
“I don’t know.” I hesitated. “But the body of the skinned wolf we found was right on another border, so it’s possible.”
He glanced at me again. “How did you find that wolf? Aiden wasn’t exactly forthcoming with details.”
I snorted. “And this surprises you why?”
He grunted, a sound that weirdly held an edge of amusement. “Our head ranger is a closed-mouth bastard at the best of times, but given he wanted us to examine a thread he’d found on the body, I would have expected a little more cooperation.”
If he’d thought that, he still hadn’t gotten the measure of Aiden and his rangers. “And were you able to sense any residual spell remnants on that thread?”
“No.” He glanced at me. “Did you?”
I shrugged. “If felt like a simple tracker.”
“But you don’t think it was?”
“That wolf stripped down naked and left all his possessions in his car. That’s not normal behavior.”
“No,” Ashworth agreed. “It’s the behavior of someone likely spelled.”
I studied the road ahead, trying to match the images I’d received from Katie with the brightening landscape. “Turn right at the next road, and then a sharp left. It’s a back road to Luna.”
He obeyed. As the truck slewed sideways and dust flew high, he said, “How did you find that wolf, then? Psychometry works with possessions that hold a person’s resonance, but his were all neatly stacked in the car—all of which were found after his body—so you couldn’t have used them track him.”
I hesitated. While I had no intention of telling him about Gabe’s wellspring or the spell that had infused Katie’s spirit into the wild magic and made her the guardian of this place, there was little point in lying about how that watch had come to be in my possession. “The wild magic gave me the watch.”
His head snapped around so fast it was a wonder he didn’t break something. “Wild magic can’t physically interact with anything in this world. Not without the direct interaction or command from a witch.”
“Until I came to this place, I certainly believed that.”
“I’d be calling anyone else a liar, but having witnessed your interaction with the wild magic…” His voice trailed off and he shook his head. “I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this happening before. And if you think you’ll be able to keep it a secret for very long, lassie, you’re seriously mistaken.”
“Have you mentioned it to your superiors?”
“Yes and no.” He grimaced. “I mentioned in my report on the soul stealer murders that there appeared to an odd level of awareness in the unguarded magic of this place.”
“It’s not unguarded now.”
“Yeah, but while the mix of my magic and yours will protect it for now—”
“I seriously doubt my magic will stop anyone for longer than a second or two,” I cut in, amused.
“Perhaps not, but don’t put all your hopes in mine holding out too long against a blueblood witch in the full bloom of his or her magical strength.”
My pulse rate leapt into a higher gear. “And a dark witch?”
His expression was grim. “Even less likely.”
“Meaning it’s just as well our dark witch is dead.”
“If he is dead.”