Discord Jones: Black Magic Shadows Part 20

We backed away and walked to the next door. My partner continued the conversation. "I mean, if you can make air molecules do what you want, why shouldn't you be able to make other molecules do what you want?"

The next cell was also empty. "Give me a for instance."

"Well, what about changing your shape?"

I pulled him to a halt. "What?"

"Why couldn't you learn how to do that?" Dane shrugged. "You've been in a different shape before."

"Because of a cursing potion."

"Well, yeah, but seriously. You can do stuff."

I c.o.c.ked my head, studying his expression. "Do you know something I don't about my abilities?"

"Maybe? I started poking around, after we returned from the Unseelie realm. The Unseelie and Kethyrdryll said you were a natural mage. We should probably keep moving."

"Yeah." I let him pull me along. "Why would their label make you poke around?"

"This one's empty, too. Because Kethyrdryll said you were descended from all the great families, and that they started because the G.o.ds were having affairs with humans."

"Empty," I said, checking the fourth cell. "And?"

"G.o.ds can transform themselves and others into anything, Cordi."

"But I'm not a G.o.d."

"No, but legends say their half-human children-natural mages-could transform themselves or others, too. Empty. We have one door left before a turn to the right."

"So you think I should be able to change shape."

"Makes sense."

We paused to look into the last cell. "Holy c.r.a.p. It's the mirror."

The mirror's darkened surface glowed green and a misshapen face appeared. "Who's there?"

"Uh-oh." We ducked, looking at each other. I whispered, "Now what?"

"You're the vision expert."

"I can hear you," the mirror said. "And one of you is a woman. Hopefully naked. I requested a TV with the X-rated channels, but the real thing's far better."

"Ugh." Tanisha was correct: The mirror was a pervert. I straightened to look into the cell. "h.e.l.lo. You can see us?"

"You're right outside my door. Of course I can see you." A leer transformed the mirror's pale green face. "Love to see more. Why don't you come in and..." his leer disappeared. "Oh. I see. You're not really here. Tease."

"Excuse me?"

"Shame. Dark-haired beauties are my favorites."

I frowned. "How do you know we're not really here?"

"I see, hear, and know all," the mirror intoned, his voice deeper than before. "You're a natural mage, peeking into the past. Naughty girl. I like naughty girls."

Rolling my eyes, I said, "We're private investigators, hired to recover you."

"By whom?"

"Celadine." Dane tried the door with his free hand. "Wait, we can't actually do anything in a vision, right?"

"Leglin carried a pebble out of one for me."

"Okay, then maybe if we can open the door, I can carry the mirror out?"

"Ooh, escape from this dreary cell? I like it." The mirror brightened.

"Let me try to pick the lock."

Dane looked away. "Uh, I hear someone coming. If he can see us..."

"They might be able to, too, if they're demons." c.r.a.p. So close, even considering our plan might not work.

"So we'd better, hey." Dane scowled as our surroundings changed. We were in my kitchen. "d.a.m.n it."

I heaved a sigh, releasing his hand. "It's okay. Now we know exactly where the mirror is."

"What are we going to do?"

"Duh. We're going to steal it back."

EIGHTEEN.

"This will totally work. Leglin can take us in and out. All we have to do is grab hold of the mirror. Easy peasy."

Dane scrunched his face. "It could be b.o.o.by-trapped. Warded."

"Then we'll take Ronnie with us." She was the coven's warding expert. "Do reconnaissance first and let her check it out."

My goal was to do it as quickly and safely as possible. Especially if we were going to involve Ronnie, since she had kids. I knew she'd go, because she'd been part of the cavalry the first time demons had caused trouble. That fight had been a close call, and I did not want to be the reason Ronnie didn't make it home to her hubby and children.

"Maybe we should call the client first," Dane said.

"Yeah, because a clue why demons want the mirror would be nice." I pulled out my cell phone. After connecting, I had to wait for Lady Celadine to come to the phone, because her secretary answered.

Celadine's greeting was a frosty "I do hope you've progress to report, Miss Jones."

Dane grinned when I rolled my eyes. "We've found your mirror, but retrieving it will take a bit longer. Any idea why demons would want it?"

She sucked in a breath. "You will retrieve it immediately. This instant, do you understand?"

"Whoa there, Nelly. We have to plan, because..."

"Now!" She ended the call with that shrieked word. Dane and I winced in reaction.

"Well, it appears it's super important we recover the mirror," he said. "This instant, even."

"That was the impression I got too. Let me call Ronnie."

She answered after a single ring. "Hi, Cordi."

"Hey. Are you busy? We kind of need your expertise on a case."

Ronnie hissed. "Oops, sorry. That was cold. Uh, I'm kind of in the middle of a doctor appointment."

"Are you okay?"

She laughed, and I heard a weird sound from her end. "I'm great. We're looking at our next baby right now."

"Oh, wow. Congratulations."

"Thank you. Number four." She paused when someone spoke too low for me to hear. "I'll be done here in about twenty or thirty minutes. Where do you want to meet?"

Dane began shaking his head, mirroring my feelings, so I said, "Well, here's the thing. We've been hired to retrieve a stolen mirror, and found it, in the demon realm. So maybe you can suggest someone else?"

"Oh, yeah. I don't want to go there right now. Um, let's see," she was silent for a moment. "If you can pry him out of the shop, David would be best. If not him, Jo would be my next choice. They're both pretty good with wards, but they'll need a little more time than I do."

"All right, thanks. Congratulations again." We traded "Byes" and I ended the call. "I'll try David first."

"Let's just go over there. It'll cut down on time."

I eyed him. "Do you have a date?"

"At seven."

"Ooh, are things getting serious?" I pushed away from my desk to stand up.

"My answer depends on whether you're going to tease me."

Grabbing my purse and jacket, I laughed. "You mean the way you tease me about Logan?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to tease the holy c.r.a.p out of you."

Dane laughed. "Meanie. Okay, yeah, maybe serious. Not 'settle down forever' serious, but possibly 'this could lead to long-term dating' serious."

I didn't give him a hard time. "That's great."

"I think so too." He took the hand I held out, and I teleported us to the Blue Orb.

Jo waved to us from her spot behind the tall counter. "Hey, guys."

"Hey. Is David around?"

"He's with a customer. What's up?" She folded her arms and leaned on the counter. I explained why we were there, leaving out the call to Ronnie, and Jo wrinkled her nose. "Why haven't you called Ronnie?"

"We did, but she just found out she's pregnant," Dane said. Jo squealed, but I shot him a dirty look. "What?"

"You don't tell people that kind of thing without permission. It's Ronnie's news to share."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know that was a rule."

"Don't tell anyone else."

He pretended to zip his lips. "I won't, promise."

"Argh." Jo mock-scowled. "Now I have to sit on the news too."

I pointed at Dane, swinging my finger to Jo. "See the turmoil you've caused? Do you?"

He dropped to both knees, holding up his clasped hands. "Please, oh please, forgive me for this terrible social faux paus."

We were laughing when Tonya came out of the back room. "What's funny?"

"Dane. He's being a dork." I looked at Jo while my partner climbed to his feet. "So what are the chances of taking David away from all of this for a little while?"

"Higher than usual, thanks to a gaggle of sorority girl wannabe witches." She and Tonya rolled their eyes in perfect unison. "They were shopping for love potion ingredients."

"Do those work?" Not that I'd ever use one. Just curious.

The two witches snorted in tandem, and I fought a smile. Jo answered. "No, love potions don't work. Especially not the one they were talking about. But there are potions and spells that can give the magic user control over his or her victim's emotions. Those usually take someone with major talent. Spells are all about intent. The form and ingredients are just tools to focus that intent."

I squinted at her. "Thorandryll took an awful long time mixing up that potion to change me back."

Jo shrugged. "He was having to guess what Dalsarin's true intent was for cursing you, and counteract it. Magic's actually sort of complicated most of the time."

"Anyway, it's a good thing love spells don't work," Tonya said. "What does work can be messy enough. Like, violently messy."

"Why would anyone want something that wasn't real?" Dane leaned on the counter.