Lupi 08 - Death Magic

suddenly of his wolf in a deep cavern, advancing cautiously into that cold mist. Sniffing. And snorting, unimpressed. It’s only fear.
    Slowly the knots inside him eased. It was only fear. Nothing strange about fear. For several moments he didn’t move as the world returned to him . . . the blare of the stereo, the scent of Lily, of Mark, of the car itself. The warmth along his side and his shoulder from Lily’s body. The barely there bump of her heartbeat.
    Lily was with him and she was physically healed and whole again. The other problems weren’t going away, but in this moment, things were good. She was here, and she was okay. She kept telling him that. Maybe he should believe her. “This was supposed to be my chance to comfort you.”
    “It’s not an either-or deal. Comfort goes both ways.”
    He found himself smiling. Yes, it did.

THIRTY
     

     
    CULLEN was in the kitchen when they got home—or as close to home as they could manage on this coast. He sat at the kitchen table scowling at a bunch of complicated glowing lines that hung in the air in front of him. On the table in front of him was a battered leather journal—probably the one he’d rescued from Fagin’s library.
    “The rest of your resources aren’t here yet, it seems,” Rule said. “Coffee?”
    “Sure. I’ll start with Cullen.” She took out her spiral and sat beside him. “Hey. Have you noticed you aren’t alone in the room?”
    “It is noisier here than it was a moment ago.” He still didn’t look at her. He reached up and used two fingers to drag one glowing glyph slightly to the left. “I’m busy.”
    “Rule says you’re one of my resources, so stop doodling and pay attention.”
    “This is important.”
    “Whoever firebombed Fagin’s library wasn’t going after him or his books. They wanted to kill you.”
    Now she had his attention. Bright blue eyes narrowed at her. “You sound pretty sure of that.”
    “We’ve got two minds behind what’s happened lately. One’s subtle and devious and likes things convoluted. The other’s direct. Guess which one’s likely to opt for a bomb?”
    “I’ll buy that, but why does it tell you what the target was?”
    “Fagin’s been in D.C. for months. Him and his library. A lot of people knew about that grimoire he’s been translating—the Harvard press, for one. Some of his colleagues.” She had names. They should probably be checked, just to be sure. But that was a job for someone who could call the local cops and ask for a favor. “The one new element here is you. You show up in D.C. and a day later you nearly get crispy-fried.”
    He shook his head. “Why would anyone who knows anything about me use fire to take me out?”
    “Friar knows you’re good with fire. I’m betting he’s the convoluted thinker in this deal. I think the direct guy is working with him, not for him. An ally.” She glanced at Rule. “Like the dragons are our allies. God knows they don’t tell us everything. I doubt Friar tells his allies much.”
    “I’m not sure Sam would care for the parallel, but you’re right.” Rule set the filled kettle on the stovetop. “What Friar does tell his hypothetical allies is probably a mix of lies and misdirection with just enough truth to get what he wants from them.”
    “So let’s assume Direct Guy knows Cullen’s a sorcerer. He finds out that Cullen’s here. He could be having the place watched, or he may have been keeping track of flights to D.C. If he—”
    “Wait a minute,” Cullen said. “You think one of our villains could get the airlines to watch for flights booked in my name?”
    “The Bureau can do that sort of thing, and there’s a traitor in the Bureau. So yeah, I do.”
    Rule moved up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Drummond?”
    “He’s top of my list, but it could be Mullins. Or Sjorensen, though she’s unlikely. At her level, she shouldn’t be able to add someone to the watch list.” She paused, then got it said. “The one who could do it the easiest is Croft.”
    Silence.
    She kept going. “He knows Cullen’s a sorcerer. That’s something people might figure out from reading some of my reports, so it’s only suggestive, not conclusive. But we need to keep it in mind.” She twisted her head to look up at Rule. “I need to know if Croft is part of the Shadow Unit. One of the ghosts.”
    Rule shook his head. His lips were tight. “Ruben had a feeling Croft shouldn’t be told anything. He