Charmfall (The Dark Elite 3)

I peeked into the sanctuary—the hallway was empty. I stepped inside and edged toward the wall, then crept in the direction of the door to the main room.

There were doors on both sides of the hall. On our last visit, those rooms had been empty except for some rusting equipment. Expecting to see the same thing, I peeked into one. But instead, the room held lab equipment, the kind of stuff we’d seen in the sanctuary Scout had imploded. And in the middle of the room were two ladies in white lab coats. They stood together, soda cans in hand, chatting happily—as if they weren’t part of a team that sucked the wispy souls out of teenagers to survive. Sometimes, I just didn’t understand adults.

I’d been so busy being angry that they were just standing there chatting that I forgot where I was and what I was doing. Both of them suddenly turned toward the door. I immediately ducked down, heart pounding, and squeezed my eyes closed. Had they seen me? Were they calling security?

But after a couple of seconds, no one burst into the hallway. It was still quiet and empty, and I took that as my cue to get on with my job and get back into the tunnels.

I ran to the end of the hall and peeked into the final door to confirm it was the room where Scout had been held. It was. The banner still hung at one end of the room, and the table where Scout had been buckled sat empty in front of it, waiting for a soul to steal. The Reapers had added more decorations now, so the room looked more like a throne room. Scary thought.

I pulled the beetle from my pocket and stuck it to the wall about five feet from the ground and a foot or so from the door. Standing back, it looked just like an ordinary bug. We might not get much use out of it before a Reaper decided to do a little pest control, but hopefully it would work for a little while. I pushed the button beneath the wings, and when the light popped on, I took off again, not even worrying about the sound of my footsteps in the hallway.

I hit the metal door at a sprint, pushed through it, bounded down the stairs, and popped back into the tunnel. Everybody wrapped me in a hug.

And for a moment, until the claustrophobia kicked in, it was pretty awesome.

“Okay,” Detroit said, when they finally let me go. “Let’s see what you’ve got.” She lifted her wrist to show her giant black watch. She pressed a couple of buttons on the side, and the screen blinked to life.

It showed a grainy black-and-white picture of the banner room. I closed my eyes in relief; the camera worked. Detroit adjusted the sound until it was just loud enough to hear, and we crowded around to watch.

The banner room was mostly empty, but Jeremiah’s tall, white-haired form was unmistakable. He wore a black suit, and his hands were behind his back. He stood in a circle with a few other men who were yelling at him.

“No,” one of them was saying, “we don’t trust your leadership. Why should we?”

“We have no magic,” said another. “And we’ve heard Adepts have no magic, either. We want to know who’s to blame for that.”

Jeremiah tipped his aristocratic nose in the air. “You believe I am to blame?”

“We believe we have questions,” said the first guy, “and we aren’t getting any answers. We’d like some now. Namely, how do we know you aren’t the one to blame?”

Jeremiah bared his teeth, and with lightning-quick moves, grabbed the man by the collar of his suit and pushed him until his back hit the wall. And then Jeremiah lifted him up until the guy’s feet dangled a foot in the air. The man scrambled to free himself, grasping at Jeremiah’s fingers.

For an old guy, Jeremiah was strong.

“Should we do something?” I wondered.

“It’s not our fight,” Jason whispered. “Besides—what could we do?”

“Do you have issues with my leadership?” Jeremiah asked him.

“I—I—I have issues with not having mag-mag-magic.”

“I have not caused this outbreak, but I will fix it, just as I have fixed every other problem we have encountered over the years. Now, Hamilton, do you have any doubts about me?”

“N-n-no, sir.”

Jeremiah dropped his hands and stepped back. The man fell to the ground and put a hand to his neck, rubbing his throat.

“What if Adepts are doing this?” he choked out. “What if this is part of their rebellion against us?”

Jeremiah dusted off his hands and walked a few feet away. “The vast majority of Adepts don’t have the power to pull this off. And it certainly isn’t their style to take power away from everyone.”

“The vast majority?” asked a trim man who stood beside Jeremiah—one who had watched him manhandle Hamilton without blinking or intervening.

Jeremiah glanced back at him. “The spellbinder has the strength to do this, although I doubt she has the will. In either event, the Grimoire is more important now than ever. We will obtain it. We will find the magic that reverses whatever is being done here, and we will correct it.” He looked at the man to his right. “All plans are in place?”

“Of course,” he said.

“In that case, we’re done here. I sincerely hope we don’t need to have this discussion again.” He gave everyone a harsh look, and when they murmured their good-byes, walked away.

Detroit turned off the camera, and for a second, we all stood there quietly.

I looked at Scout. Sebastian had been right again. “He thinks you turned off the power, and they’re coming for the Grimoire. They already have a plan.”

“I could do it,” she said confidently. “But I didn’t. And they aren’t getting my Grimoire.”

“But why do they think you did it?” Michael asked.

“Because she’s a spellbinder,” Detroit said, “not just a spellcaster. She can make spells and cast them, and the Grimoire is all that magical information together in one place. They think she has the key to fixing the blackout.”

“Which clearly she doesn’t,” I said. “Scout didn’t write the spell for it, and she didn’t cast the spell for it. But if the Adepts didn’t cause it, and Jeremiah’s crew didn’t cause it, who did, and why?” I said. “If they’ve turned off the Reapers’ magic and ours, what’s the reason?”

“Maybe they think magic is all bad,” Detroit said. “Maybe they want to eradicate it completely.”

“Maybe it’s worse,” I said, looking at the Adepts. “Maybe whoever did this wants to be able to pick and choose who gets to use magic and when they get to use it.”