Keeper(66)

“Like some kind of supernatural bounty hunter?” Maggie asked.

“Exactly. They can sense magic,” Gareth said. “They track it like a bloodhound on the hunt.”

“And they’re coming here?” I asked.

“Yes.” Serena nodded. “In my vision, I saw you through their eyes. I could smell the magic emanating off of you, could feel how it fueled their urge to hunt—”

“But it makes no sense,” Gareth said, waving his hand to cut her off. “They can’t be sensing her, so what trail are they following?” He raked a hand through his hair and started to pace.

Oh. My stomach did a somersault. Of course. I cleared my throat. “You’re wrong.”

“The storm,” Ty said, reading my thoughts. “And today in the cafeteria.”

Maggie was just as quick. She leaned forward and snapped her fingers. “The rosebush! And the dryad! At the cemetery.”

“The clock,” I said, nodding my head. “And the streetlights—that was all me.”

Gareth and Serena were quiet, staring at us like we’d failed to deliver the punch line of a joke.

“It is me. The trail they’re following is mine,” I explained, quickly pouring out the details of all the strange occurrences . . . what I now knew were pulses.

Serena sank down on the edge of the couch. “We knew our cloaking spells were failing, but—”

“But we underestimated one very important thing,” Gareth finished. He looked at me. “You’re a DuCarmont. And more powerful than even we realized.” Emotion flashed in his eyes, but he blinked it away. “Power like that . . . of course they’d be drawn to it.” He sank down next to Serena. “How long?” He looked at her with a face that had seemed to age at least ten years.

She jumped up, unsteady on her feet, and darted over to the table where her stack of cards lay. She waved her hands over the deck, her whispered words unintelligible, and then expertly cut the deck in half.

She placed the first card faceup on the table. The tower card. The terrifying, yet familiar sight of the burning structure stared at me from across the room. A wave of nausea rolled in my stomach. Then Serena placed another card on the table.

It depicted a young woman kneeling at the edge of a small stream with two containers of water. She was pouring one of the containers back into the stream and the other she was pouring onto dry land. Behind her, there were several stars shining brightly. It was a sharp contrast to the bleak tower card lying next to it.

Serena looked up at me, relief etched on her face. “The star card,” she said, pointing.

“Please tell me that one doesn’t also predict my impending doom.”

“Oh, no.” Serena held up the star card and smiled. “This means there’s hope.”

“So what do we do now?” Gareth asked, moving toward the table. “Do we run? Go into hiding?”

Serena shook her head. “Well, now that we know what’s drawing them in, it’s possible that the vision will change. The future is subjective, after all, much like my visions. Nothing is set in stone until it happens.”

“Okay,” I said. “So, just so we’re clear—the Scavengers are tracking my magic. If I stop using magic, then they won’t be able to track me, right?”

Gareth nodded, his eyes lighting up. “Yes, that’s it. We just have to change the vision.”

“There’s only one small problem,” I said. “Changing the vision is contingent on me not using my magic. So far I haven’t consciously attempted to use it—it just happened. How am I supposed to stop doing something I apparently have no control over?”

Gareth and Serena shared a look.

“You’ll need training for your magic,” Serena said. “But there’s no time . . .”

I rolled my eyes again. “Okay, so we need something to draw the Scavengers’ attention away. Something to distract them.”

Gareth looked to Serena. “Would that work? If the Scavengers began to sense magic somewhere else, somewhere close enough to be connected, but far enough away that they wouldn’t be able to track it back to Lainey?”

“A diversion?” Serena’s eyes were wide, but she nodded. “Yes, I think it’s possible.”

“A diversion?” Maggie echoed. “How will that help?”

“We need to get the Scavengers off my trail,” I answered. “If my magic is drawing them into Lothbrook, then we need someone to draw them back out. Someone whose magic is more noticeable than mine.”

“But you’re a DuCarmont.” Maggie turned to Gareth and Serena. “Didn’t you just say that she was really powerful? Will you even be able to find someone with more power?”

“Probably not,” Gareth admitted. “But we won’t necessarily need to find someone with more power. We just need to find someone with more frequency. Someone who is using large quantities of magic on a daily basis. Any small spell that Lainey might accidentally cast would barely be a blip on their radar by comparison.”

“But it’s a crazy idea,” I argued. “How in the world can I ask a perfect stranger to go out there, perform magic, and potentially be captured by Scavengers?”

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? It wouldn’t be a perfect stranger. It has to be me.”