Chapter 43 - Plan D

I don’t know what I thought our kidnapper-slash-thieves would look like, but I know I didn’t picture someone like him.

He was big. Not Conrad-big, but big enough. Six foot, five inches, I’d guess around two hundred and fifty pounds. He had muscle under what looked like a healthy padding of baby fat, and I could see it all, because the poor guy was completely naked. His dark hair stood off his head as if it was growing out from a shorter cut. His patchy beard had that same unkempt look, like he usually went clean shaven, but hadn’t seen a razor in months.

He can’t shave, I realized. He can’t see himself.

Sure. A big, naked, wild guy was standing outside ARC Hall on a cold February night. That’s not what surprised me about him.

What surprised me was his expression. It managed to look soft and scared at the same time. He reminded me of a child.

When he realized I could see him, his confusion had dissolved into nothing—a blankness—then that nothing changed into a frown that reached into the heart of the deepest brown eyes I’d ever seen.

“Emerra, what’s he doing?” Darius asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “He’s waiting.”

“Describe him.”

I did, minus the naked part and the bit about how he reminded me of a child.

When Darius heard the description, he took out his phone and opened up a photo. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” I said.

I had one job—keep an eye on our thief—so Darius only held the screen in front of my face for a second. It was all I needed. The photo showed the exact same big brown eyes.

“Is that the man you see in front of you?” the count asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Good.” Darius put his phone away. “Leslie Sams, you’re under arrest for your participation in tonight’s burglary and in connection with a series of burglaries that have occurred over the past four months—”

“Darius,” I said.

The vampire glanced at me.

“Can you get him a coat or something? I mean, it’s freezing out here.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Please?”

Darius moved his phone to his pants pocket and took off his coat. I knew Leslie Sams wasn’t going to fight him, but I kept an eye on him anyway. When Jack Noctis and Darius Vasil tell you that you have only one job, you make extra sure to do it right.

As Darius moved in closer, he didn’t need me to tell him where Mr. Sams was. He could follow the sound of the man’s heartbeat. Darius held his coat out with one hand, and held out his other hand to take the book. It took Sams a second to break out of his statue routine. He gave Darius the grimoire and took the coat. It didn’t fit him, but he threw it around his shoulders after a shy glance my direction.

It was so sad, it was almost funny. The man was staring down a half circle of Torr enforcement personnel and Officer Ansel; modesty should’ve been the least of his concerns.

As the coat settled over his shoulders, there was a subtle shift in where the guns were aimed. Now they had something concrete to focus on, rather than in the vague direction I was pointing.

Darius stepped back and started explaining what rights Mr. Sams had. It sounded normal up until he recited the part about expecting them to use deadly force because he was using magic during the commission of a crime and how all unexpected movement would be interpreted as a threat.

I had no intention of interrupting Darius again, but I could’ve told him he was wasting his breath. Sams wasn’t going to move. He wasn’t going to say anything either. He pressed his thick lips together, and I knew that all the Oliversens combined wouldn’t have the power to pry them apart. His right to remain silent had been invoked.

I wondered what Sams would do when Darius asked him if he understood his rights, but before we got that far, the count suddenly stopped talking and held up his hand, warning us all to be silent.

He turned around to wait.

I had a decent idea how good Count Vasil’s hearing was, so I wasn’t surprised by how long it took for me to hear what he’d been hearing.

Someone was coming along the back wall of ARC Hall. We could hear him occasionally whispering, “Sammy!”

When he passed through the ward, ripples of indigo light cascaded away from him until they faded to nothing. He staggered to a halt and stared at the scene around him.

I let out a heavy sigh, but I could still feel a weight resting high in my chest. This was another one of those not-surprised-still-surprised moments. I wasn’t surprised by who it was. I was surprised by my disappointment.

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“Good evening, Dr. Misserly,” I said. “I wondered if you’d be joining us.”

His eyes riveted on me.

Darius said, “Emerra, would you care to introduce us?”

I slid off the wall I’d been sitting on. “Certainly. Darius, this is Dr. Cameron Misserly. He’s an alchemist. Dr. Misserly, this is Agent Darius Vasil from the FBI.”

Misserly tried to step back. A bright blue light flared behind him.

“Yeah, it’s not just an illusion,” I said. “There’s a reverse ward built into it. You couldn’t see in, and you can’t get out. ”

Darius motioned to his coat and asked Misserly, “Do you know this gentleman?”

Misserly didn’t answer. His eyes were wide, and he kept licking his lips.

“We heard you calling his name,” Vasil said.

I felt my shoulders tighten and I had to focus to keep from squeezing my fingers with my other hand. This whole trap had been a risk from start to finish, but we’d made it through every bad moment until we were here—the last wager.

Jacky had warned us that he hadn’t seen who brought in the tool used to pop the ward. That meant that, at the moment, we had no direct evidence linking Misserly to the crime. It didn’t take much to get from Sams to Sammy, but Darius was still stretching to get there.

I wished I could look as relaxed as him when I was bluffing.

I glanced back at Sams—or, Sammy. Sammy seemed to fit him better.

He stood there, motionless, his lips pressed shut. The expression on his face was still sad, but his eyes were alive while they watched Misserly. It looked like he was hoping for something. I couldn’t imagine what.

All Misserly had to do was lie through his teeth, deny everything, and walk away. That would give him plenty of time to deal with any evidence left at his hideout while Vasil tried to find a Torr judge willing to give him a warrant for probable cause. My stomach knotted at the thought. Kirby was part of that evidence. Nothing in the world could save Sammy.

But still he watched his partner, hoping.

I looked at Misserly. Behind his eyes, I could see the lines of thought snaking out before him like sizzling golden threads. They raced through a maze, branching off, taking turn after turn. He was testing them all, abandoning one after another when it didn't lead where he wanted to go. Then he found one who's end was lost in the darkness beyond the maze walls. He gripped it and pulled. It pulled back. The temptation of it dragged on every cell in his body. His jaw tightened in the real world at the same time I saw his grip tighten around the line.

And I saw the invisible presence, standing behind him. It never touched him. It never spoke. But it was there.

The golden line dissolved the moment he let it go.

His lips twitched back in a lopsided smile, and his breath came out as a silent laugh.

He raised his eyes and looked right at Darius Vasil. “I want it understood, Sammy’s innocent.”

Sammy’s body jerked. He went to take a step forward—I almost yelled to warn him, but Misserly beat me to it.

“Stop it, Sammy! Everything’s gone to hell. What do you do?”

Sammy immediately went back to being a statue.

Misserly said to Darius, “Sammy acted under threat. I told him that I was the only one who could turn him visible again, and I told him I would do it only if he agreed to help me. He’s done nothing wrong.”

“Are you admitting that you’re complicit in the burglary that took place tonight?” Darius asked.

“I’m telling you that I planned, arranged, and executed the entire thing using Leslie Sams as a victim and a hostage.”

I looked at the victim and hostage, Leslie Sams. All the hope was gone from his face, leaving nothing but sorrow. His lips were no longer pressed together; the bottom one was quivering.

Geez. I was having my heart broken by a naked thief.

“Are you willing to make a statement?” Darius asked.

“On the condition that Sammy isn’t arrested.”

“I can’t agree to that, Dr. Misserly. I’ve already put Leslie Sams under arrest.”

“Then he wants a lawyer. Sammy, listen to me! You want a lawyer. Don’t say anything until you have a lawyer.”

Sammy nodded. I was the only one who saw it.

Darius said, “Dr. Misserly, Officer Ansel and I will take you into the police station to get your statement in a minute, but first, do you know where Nolan Kirby is?”

Misserly took a deep breath. His shoulders sagged as he let it out. “He’s back at the house I rented. It’s outside of town. I have the address in my phone.”

Darius nodded to one of the Torr boys. He moved over to Misserly. The alchemist handed him his phone and briefly talked him through how to unlock it. As the enforcement officer worked, Cameron raised his head and looked up at what, to him, must have looked like an empty coat.

Darius Vasil passed the grimoire off to someone else, took out a set of handcuffs, and walked toward Sammy. “Emerra.”

I pulled my eyes away from Misserly and followed him.

Getting Sammy cuffed with his arms behind his back didn’t take long. I was there to give a shout if he did something like raise his other hand while Darius was cuffing the first one, but when the count was done, I didn’t move away.

Darius put his coat back around Sammy’s shoulders while saying to me, “Are you willing to stay with him until we can get things settled?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “Just make sure someone gets Kirby, okay?”

Vasil nodded and stepped over to talk to Ansel.

I stood shoulder to shoulder with Leslie Sams and together we watched everyone move around us. One guard had been left to make sure that Sammy didn’t go anywhere. Considering I was there and Darius was only three yards away, we didn’t really need him. I told him he could put his gun away.

Ellis Oliversen was the first witch to arrive. She dismantled the ward we’d used as a cover and confirmed the grimoire belonged to the coven. Nylah and Olivia showed up a minute after that. Olivia dropped to her knees when Darius told her that two enforcement officers were already on their way to pick up Kirby. With shaking hands she pulled out her phone. I was too far away to hear her talking, but I knew that she was calling Autumn to give her the good news.

Overhead, there was a whistle, then a firework burst into a rain of green sparks.

“The fireworks have started,” I said.

That was prime-idiot talk, and I knew it. I couldn’t help myself. In a world where everyday things happen every day, there must be someone who observes it, or else everything would fall into chaos. In the summer, I say it’s hot. In the winter, I mention when it’s snowing. God help me, if I ever walked into a cave, I would be compelled to point out that it was dark, and I’d probably do it even if I was alone. Some people are called by fate to forever state the obvious.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sammy turn his head to look at me.

I looked up at him. “I’m Emerra. You’re Sammy, right?”

He nodded.

I turned my attention back to the sky. There was a blue burst, followed by a white one that sizzled as it drifted down.

“Do you like fireworks?” I asked.

I was only trying to show him that I was friendly. I didn’t expect him to answer, but he did. Kind of.

“Can you see them?” he asked.

I glanced at him. He was completely serious. “You mean the fireworks?”

He nodded.

“Yeah.” A smile crept onto my face. “Does that surprise you?”

“I thought you might be blind,” he mumbled.

My heart lurched. Me and Kirby. Those were the two people who’d seen him, even when he was invisible.

“Not more than most,” I told him. “And a little less than some.”