The Red Scrolls of Magic (The Eldest Curses #1)(74)

Alec scoffed silently at the idea of Magnus having romantic entanglements with vampires, especially criminal ones. He had seemed to regard Lily and Elliott and the others as amusing children.

Although it was true he knew very little about Magnus’s love life. Magnus had opened up a great deal about his past on this trip, but not that part.

He pushed the thought away. “Raphael and Lily didn’t murder anyone at that party.”

“Who are they?” Helen demanded. “Are they vampires?”

“Raphael Santiago is definitely a vampire,” said Aline, when Alec hesitated.

“Close with them too, are you?”

“No,” said Alec.

Helen and Aline were surveying him with identical expressions of worry. Alec did not need them to tell him how bad this all looked. It looked bad.

Magnus was still nowhere in sight. The forest was a maze, and the light was dying. He swept his gaze across the trees. It wouldn’t be long before they were veiled in darkness. Night was when demons came out, and when Shadowhunters did their work. Alec would not have minded the dark, except that he wanted Magnus to find them.

Something else nagged at him, a worry under an ocean of worries. It was like taking a blow across the face and feeling, under the wash of pain, the consciousness of a loose tooth.

“Helen,” said Alec. “What did you say the last commandment in the Red Scrolls of Magic was?”

“To look after the children,” Helen answered, sounding puzzled.

“Excuse me,” said Alec.

He retrieved his phone and walked across the pentagram to the other side of the clearing. He had already tried calling Magnus, multiple times. He intended to try someone else.

The phone rang twice and was picked up.

“Hello?” Alec said. “Raphael?”

“They’re not close,” Helen muttered. “Except he calls him to chat.”

“I know,” said Aline. “Alec seems so guilty. I swear he’s not, but everything he’s doing looks really bad.”

“Lose this number,” Raphael’s voice snapped on the other end of the line.

Alec looked around the shadowy clearing at Helen and Aline, who were both shaking their heads sadly in his direction. He was apparently not impressing anybody tonight.

“I know you’re not crazy about Shadowhunters,” Alec said. “But you did say I could call.”

There was a pause.

“That’s just how I answer all phone calls,” Raphael claimed. “What do you want?”

“I thought this was about what you wanted. I thought you wanted to help,” said Alec. “You said you’d look into the Crimson Hand. I wondered if you’d learned anything. Specifically about Mori Shu.”

The remains of both fires near the pentagram were still warm, and the candles had last been used only a few hours ago. He knelt next to one of the lines of the pentagram and sniffed the residue: blackened earth with charcoal and salt, but no blood.

“No,” said Raphael.

“Right,” said Alec. “Thanks anyway.”

“Wait!” Raphael snapped. “Hang on a minute.”

There was another pause. It went on for a very long time. Alec heard the sound of footsteps on stone, and from far away, the silvery but somehow unpleasant sound of a woman’s voice.

“Raphael?” said Alec. “Some of us are not immortal. So we can’t stay on the phone forever.”

Raphael growled in frustration, which was a significantly more alarming sound coming from a vampire. Alec held the phone slightly away from his ear and drew it back when he heard Raphael forming actual words.

“There is one thing,” said Raphael, and hesitated again.

“Yes?”

The silence between Raphael’s words was so empty. Raphael was not breathing in them. Vampires didn’t have to.

“You’re not going to believe me. This is pointless.”

“Try me,” said Alec.

“Mori Shu wasn’t killed by a vampire.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Who was I going to tell?” Raphael snarled. “Just trot up to a Nephilim and say, oh please, sir, the vampires were framed. Yes, a body was found, and yes, it was missing blood, but not anything like enough blood, and yes, there were marks on the neck, but they were marks made by the point of a sword and not fangs, and oh no, Mr. Nephilim, please put the seraph blade away? No Nephilim would believe me.”

“I believe you,” Alec said. “Were they made with a three-sided sword? Like a samgakdo?”

There was a pause. “Yes,” Raphael said. “They were.”

Alec’s stomach tightened. “Thanks, Raphael, you’ve been a lot of help.”

“Have I?” Raphael’s voice was suddenly even more wary. “How?”

“I’ll tell Magnus.”

“Don’t you dare,” said Raphael. “Don’t call me anymore. I have no interest in helping you ever again. Don’t tell anyone about me helping you this time.”

“Gotta go.”

“Stop,” Raphael commanded. “Do not hang up.”

Alec hung up.

Raphael immediately tried to call him back. Alec turned his phone off.

“What’s happening?” Aline asked. “Why do you look like that?”