A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(53)
Lukas glared at me. “There was no other reason for having you retrieve—”
“Sure there was. He was told he couldn’t help us, but maybe he was. He must have known Samuel had something to do with Lorna and that our only path would lead us to her.”
“And you were supposed to put the two together?” He obviously wasn’t buying it.
“Well, yeah. This is Val we’re talking about. Roundabout and random.” I shook my head, convinced now. “No. I really believe he was trying to help.”
“So Samuel’s soul is in the Shadow Realm,” Kendra said. “And you’re afraid to tell Lorna?”
“Technically, it’s in the box I gave to Valefar, but that’s not all.” Acid churned. This was the sucky part. “She said something else… Something about Belfair magic.”
Kendra downed the rest of her latte and frowned. The place was empty. There was only one other person, but he was at a table on the other end of the room. We were safe to talk. Still, she looked around and lowered her voice. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“Lorna says the only thing that will trap the demon is real Belfair magic, and that it doesn’t exist anymore.”
At least she looked just as confused as I felt. Her head tilted to the left, mouth falling open slightly. “Doesn’t exist? What does that mean? The coven—”
“She implied that what the coven does is a shadow of what they used to be capable of,” Lukas said softly. He might hate magic, but he knew how sensitive Kendra was when it came to hers. What it meant for her to live up to the Belfair name.
Kendra laughed. She waved her empty cup at me, grinning. “That’s insane. Mom does magic all the time.”
I hated to push this, but we needed to know for sure. “When was the last time you saw her do a complicated spell though?”
“I—well, she—” She shook her head. Eyebrows furrowing, she stared down at the table, thinking. “I really can’t remember. Mom has always been kinda private about her casting, and I wasn’t a coven member until a few days ago. I can keep my eyes open going forward, but I still don’t believe it. I would have known…”
She looked confident, but her voice was anything but. She wondered, and more than that, worried, and I hated to be the cause of that. Unfortunately, we couldn’t wait for her to dig around. “You have to ask her, Ken. Lukas and I are running out of time to take care of this before it’s lights out à la Lucifer.”
“And that’s not even taking you know who’s timeline into consideration,” Lukas added.
“If we don’t stop him now, it’s going to be too late for all of us. The coven included,” I interjected.
She slid the small piece of glass from Lorna’s mirror across the table. “Here. Hold on to this in case we need to summon Lorna again.”
I didn’t pick it up. It was so small. So innocent looking. Yet it was technically a powerful piece of the Belfair past. “You sure?”
“Yeah. I’ll only lose it, and if what she said is true about the Belfair magic, then why take a chance? That stupid piece of mirror might be the only thing that made it possible for us to talk to her in the first place.”
I nodded and pocketed the glass. “Do you want to do this alone?”
Kendra paled. “No way. You have to come with me, Jessie. In fact, call your mom. Have her meet us at my house. Maybe bringing in a supernatural army wouldn’t hurt, either.”
“You sure that’s a good idea, given how adamant Cassidy is about us not hanging together anymore? And our moms kind of hate each other…”
“I’m sure.” Kendra stood, and for the first time, I could see a little bit of Cassidy in her. The determined set of her jaw and defiant chin. The way she stood, shoulders square and back ridged like nothing or no one could knock her down. For the first time ever, I was able to see the possibility of her stepping up to claim her birthright as the leader of the Belfair coven.
If there was a coven left after this was all settled.
…
Fifteen minutes after we arrived at Kendra’s house, Mom slid from the car, followed by Dad. “Is everything all right?”
“Not sure yet. We’re about to confront Cassidy. Thought you should be here.”
Her eyes went wide. She looked from me to Kendra. “Confront her about what, exactly?”
“Lorna Belfair said—”
Mom threw up her hands and glared from Lukas to me. “Whoa. Lorna Belfair? Lorna Belfair who, unless I’m mistaken, is dead? Paulson is out of town, not to mention he knows better than to summon spirits for you. How did you talk her?”
“I did it,” Kendra said softly, stepping up beside me. “This was all my idea, Mrs. Darker. The threat this demon represents to both our families is too great to let my mother’s issues get in the way.”
“And it’s not just that,” I said. “When we spoke to Lorna, she said the only way to take this thing down was with true Belfair magic. Magic that doesn’t exist anymore.”
Mom’s brow furrowed. “Doesn’t exist? I don’t understand.”
“She insinuated that something had happened to diminish my family’s magic.” Kendra glanced over her shoulder at the house and swallowed. Squaring her shoulders, she turned back to Mom. “If it’s true, along with what Lorna said about the demon, then we’ll have a problem dealing with him. We need to know where we stand.”