"And this is part of a larger book?"

  "It was. A long time ago. But now it's grown on its own and coveted by Magicians the world over."

  I ran my hand along Grey's flank. "And you've seen this book."

  "Yeah. I have. It's still around. But Sam…even if you had it, you couldn't use it. The spell that would save Robin's sister would inevitably do harm to you, and I can't let that happen."

  "Then why tell me about the book?"

  "Because you've always been about knowledge. How can you fight something, or avoid its pitfalls, if you don't know about it? And I know you would eventually come up with the answer on your own. I just wanted to save you the time and the expense, and the danger, of looking for it." He reached out to grasp my other hand. "Look, it's Rose's time. There's nothing you can do to save her. What you have to concentrate on is figuring out who Medbh was talking about and discovering where Ivan is."

  I pulled my hand from his. I heard him. I did. But I couldn't move beyond a certain point. "It's…it's not Rose I want to save."

  I didn't think I needed to go any further and explain about Robin's wound. And I was right. Crwys gave a low, ragged sigh. "Damn," was all he said as he slumped back in his chair and pushed his still-warm coffee away. "I'm sorry, baby. I really am. But…I just can't—"

  "You help me find that book, or so help me I will banish your ass back to where you came from."

  "You already tried. You can't."

  I bored my gaze into his. "I can. All I have to do is find out what you are, and then I can send you back. And you know eventually I'll have your secret."

  "Threatening me won't save Robin."

  "Tell me, or I'll banish Levi."

  Now I'd hit him where it hurt. Levi was more than just a partner. They'd been friends for centuries and would do anything for the other. "You fucking touch him, Witch, and I swear I'll destroy you."

  I wasn't afraid of him. Not at that moment. Not when I needed that cure to save Robin's life. Not when I had to face a crazy Witch Queen and the disembodied head of a Faerie. I stood slowly and leaned forward, bracing my fingers on the table. "You are here by my permission, Crwys Holliard. You exist in this space because I allow it. The God Mother granted me the Gift that will destroy you and no being from any of the worlds can stop me, or any Elemental Witch. You tell me the name of this book and where I can find it."

  He stood as well and faced me as he leaned in until we were nose to nose. Sexual tension is a lot like anger sometimes. The two seem to engage each other, and my magic loved his. Needed it. Whatever it was.

  His eyes burned red, and I could feel heat radiating from him. Beads of perspiration instantly formed on my face, rolled down my cheek. He was challenging me. Daring me.

  "Don't test me, Crwys. I will banish Levi. Now tell me."

  Grey had been strangely silent until that moment. She began a low growl as she moved under the table and faced Crwys's crotch. I knew what she was doing. I'd taught her the move. He attacks me, and this body, whether it's really his or not, goes through the remainder of its life nut-less.

  Crwys made the first move by straightening up. He backed away from the table and then slid his chair under it. "If you go this route, Sam, I can't help you."

  "I don't want your help. I never have."

  "Fine." He scooped up his cup and poured the coffee in the sink. Then, "You know this book because of its name. It's been the bane of Witches since the stupidity of the Witch Trials. Back in the day, Magicians blamed Witches for their failures. So they wrote a book that served as a blueprint to find Witches, torture them, and kill them."

  I felt as if I'd been struck as I leaned against the table. "That can't be right. I have a copy of that book."

  "Not the original. This particular volume is the single sticking point between Witches and Magicians. The Witches stole it about two hundred and eighty years ago, and since that time, the Magicians have insisted they return it. The Witches deny it. So the book moves from Elder to Elder, High Witch to High Witch." Crwys rinsed out the cup and set it in the sink. "And now our relationship is over, Miss Hawthorne."

  I stood in the break room long after Crwys left the shop. Eventually, I went into my office and took down a copy of the book in question and opened it.

  So there was an original copy of this monster, and High Witches possessed it—

  No.

  Was it possible? Was this the reason Higgins had been killed and not by a fluke? I yanked my phone out of my pants pocket and dialed Ina's number. "Hey…I need to talk to you."

  "Sure. I'm finishing up here. What's this about?"

  I looked at the book on my desk. "It's about the truth of the Malleus Maleficarum."

  The Witch’s Hammer.

  THIRTEEN

  Kyle and I made sure the windows were boarded up, again, and the place was secure even through the police tape outside. Again, what I loved about this town was that Cowens wouldn't notice the shop now, because I didn't want them to. The NOPD would know what happened there because they were a part of it.

  The way the magic worked in New Orleans was a little like having two cities. The one the Cowens saw, and the one we saw. As I drove us to Ina's, my shop wasn't in the Cowen World at the moment. It would return when I wanted it to. Passersby would see an empty building for sale.

  Taking something out of the Cowen World wasn't always the smartest thing to do. With the place now residing in the one reality also meant I was more visible to the unsavory types, like the Magicians and Sorcerers and whatever nefarious magic benders moved along the streets of New Orleans.

  At any other time, I might not have chosen to take my shop off the market, so to speak. But Ina had agreed to talk to me, and I felt like time was important. Especially when it came to saving Robin and finding Ivan.

  And bringing charges against Arden.

  After I told Ina what happened on the phone, she told me to curtail my usual overreaction—which I firmly denied—and to bring myself and something of Ivan's to her.

  The sky kept its grayish look as we parked and went inside. Grey took up her usual perch by the fireplace in the family room. Ina kept a huge dog mattress there just for her.

  Wait…wolf mattress. I could tell she hated the term dog.

  Books lay strewn across Ina's long, formal dining room table. Her table wasn't as rustic as mine. Kyle picked up the first one, did a double take, and held it out to her. "What language is this?"

  "Sanskrit. Don't worry. What I want to show you isn't in those books."

  "Show us?" I clasped my hands behind my back as I took in the plethora of the printed word. "I dragged Kyle here because you said you would tell me about the Hammer."

  "Yeah," Kyle spoke up after he returned the illegible book to the table. "Because that's some serious hooey if what Sam told me is true. I mean, I always thought that book was a joke?"

  Ina looked up from the book she was reading, her glasses perched low on her nose. "The one you've seen is a joke, of a sort. We view it in this century that way because we know better. But then? Magicians were convinced that Witches were their bane and needed to be put down."

  "I thought the book was created by some German priest named Heinrich Krammer?" I said.

  "Oh, it was. And Krammer was a Ceremonial Magician. Why do you think he really got expelled from Innsbruck?" Ina took her glasses off her face. "Gather round kiddies, ‘cause mama's gonna take you to task."

  I chuckled as I pulled out a chair, and Kyle took the one opposite me at the table.

  "Krammer wasn't any kind of big wig or important person in either circle, church or Magician. But what he did hate was Witches. When he brought the idea of writing down what his group had learned about Arcane Magic, knowing it had adverse effects on Witches and Magicians who used it, the Head Master of his order, as well as the bishop of Innsbrook, booted him. Now, Krammer had followers. You know the kind…they want to blame anything they don't understand for their troubles on others. These followers were made up of both Ceremonial and Ecclesiastical scholars. Choice members of over a dozen Ceremonial groups in the world, especially in Europe, copied—in other words, stole—spells from their leader's Grimoires and gave them to Krammer in the hope of creating a master plan to rid the world of Witches."

  I glanced at Kyle, whose mouth hung open. I reached across the table and tapped his chin. "Flies, dude."

  He glared at me before he put his hands on the table. "You're saying all that stuff in the Hammer is real?"

  "Yes, but not the one you've read. Krammer was smart when he wrote the book, using an old code once used by a Ceremonial group known as The Hidden Order. Yeah. I know. Original, right?" Ina smiled as she started picking through books and pulled out a large, thin one. I guessed it was around twenty inches by twelve, about the size of a standard children's picture book. She put her glasses back on and opened the book, spinning it around for us to see. "This book, which is a reprint of one of the Order's books, has this same code worked into the words."

  "Code?" I stared at the non-paragraphed type, in a language I didn't know, until my eyes crossed.

  "It's not a code like say…Enigma…but more of a magical code. Now…" She set the book down, opened to the page, and bent over to retrieve a rectangular black box. When she opened it, I saw my mother's athame. Ina held a finger up to silence the building protests on my lips. "No talking. You're going to have to watch."

  I narrowed my eyes and was sort of aware of Kyle looking at me. I hadn't shared what I’d learned about my mom's athame with him yet, but honestly, I hadn't had a real moment alone when I wasn't worrying myself with something else.

  Ina picked up the athame by the hilt with her left hand, held the book up for Kyle and me to see, then starting from the top, moved the blade over the left-hand page.

  At first nothing happened.

  And then…

  "Lord and Lady!" Kyle yelled. "The words are moving."

  He was right. But I wouldn't have said they were moving, they were more like exchanging space. The words we knew moved from the surface of the page by sinking in, and new words took their place. But because it wasn't English, I didn't know if they said something different. "The spell is an Arcane spell. And it's not something Magicians use anymore, because well…we all know what happens when we use that type of magic." She put the athame back in the box and held the book up for us to see. "Now you see the real writing in the book. The original Hammer works the same way. An object infused with an Arcane translation spell has to be passed over it."

  Kyle sat back, obviously impressed.

  I pointed at the box. "So you're saying…my mom's athame was infused. The fact that thing is tainted with Arcane isn't an accident."

  "No, Sam. It's not. Your mother did that so she could use an Arcane spell to banish something a long…long time ago." Ina closed the book and then opened it. The spell was broken and the words were normal again.

  "Did it work?"

  "Did what work?"

  "Mom's spell to banish? You're telling me my mother actually used Arcane."

  "Yes, she did."

  "So what happened?"

  Ina stared at me. "She died."

  I felt as if cold water had been poured over my shoulders from that two-word sentence. What I knew was she died in the line of duty. I visited her grave the entire time I lived with Dad in Picayune. I respected the badge and the danger she put herself into protecting and serving.

  Now, Inamorata was telling me Arcane Magic caused my mom’s death?

  "Sam, I see the questions brewing and they're just going to have to wait for now. You hear me?"

  I did hear her, but I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of a response. Irritation and I just didn't get along.

  "Good. Now"—she looked between the two of us—"I'm sure you both know by now that the book was reportedly stolen by the Magicians and has been kept in hiding ever since?"

  I nodded. I knew this because Crwys told me. Kyle…

  "Kyle, ever wondered what the contention was between Magicians and Witches?"

  "I thought it was as benign as the difference between Baptist and Methodist. One sprinkled and one dunked." He smiled. "Witches invite, Magicians command."

  "Well yeah, that's one difference between the two. In fact, it's one of the major differences. But what I'm talking about is the true root of the feud. And it all began with the Malleus Maleficarum. Sometime after the hangings in Salem, the Witch Finder's original copy—the one specifically written by Krammer—was stolen. The Magicians blamed the Witches, and the Witches blamed the Magicians."

  "How did the Witches blame them?" Kyle asked.

  "They said the Magicians were making it all up to justify their attacks on Witches. But eventually the arguments died down and the original book became a thing of legend in a way. Detective Holliard shared a little Elder knowledge with Sam earlier this evening."

  Kyle looked from Ina to me. "Crwys had Elder knowledge? What the hell is he?"

  "He's not a Witch," I said in a firm tone.

  "No. He's not. He's far older than that." A smile played on Ina's lips. "Kyle, this original is in the hands of the Witches and has remained so for nearly three hundred years. To keep it hidden, it's been held in safety by every High Witch in the world. They take turns protecting it."

  "You mean they pass it around like a hot potato?"

  "That's the general idea. Yes."

  I watched Kyle's face as he put everything together, just as I had in front of Crwys.

  "Sam…did Higgins have the book?"

  "We're on the same page, Kyle. Only another High Witch would know that for sure. But it does make more sense if Higgins was an actual target with the Changelings rather than just a random victim."

  "And it explains why my aunt's involving herself like this." Kyle pushed his chair back, scraping it along the hardwood floor. "Medbh's insisting there's a woman after her. Someone the old Faerie's afraid of. This woman has used, and is using, Faerie Magic, Arcane Magic, to kill a dozen people just to get Medbh's attention, almost as if to heighten the terror for the old gal. Honestly Sam, if that crazy head is afraid of something, then I know I'm going to be terrified of it."

  "Well," I began. "It's useless trying to figure out which of Medbh's countless enemies it could be, and she's not talking. So let's assume she's taunting Medbh for something, probably revenge if she wants the old Queen dead. And I'm assuming this book has Arcane Magic in it that could easily destroy Medbh."

  Ina sat back down. "Oh, I'm sure it does. And it wouldn't be an easy death. This book wasn't created to make joy. It was created for fear."

  Grey appeared at my side and rested her head in my lap. I stroked her neck and rubbed on the top of her head between her ears. "You talk about this book like it's alive."

  "Sam, anytime you combine so many of something with similar energy together, things with similar focus, a gestalt forms, just like when we cut the Circle. That book has been in that form and shape for over three hundred years. Trust me…it has a personality of its own, and it's not a nice one. Even when the High Witches keep it, they never touch it. It's kept wrapped inside a delicate weave of dragon's wings to protect those around it so it can't influence their thoughts."

  I stared at her. "Dragon's wings?"

  Kyle spoke up. "You make it sound like this book is an accessory to the Ring of Power. Sweet Lady…do we need to find it and throw it into Mount Doom?"

  I almost chuckled at that, but the reference to Ivan's favorite movies sobered me considerably as I sat forward. Grey rested beside my chair with a thud. "This isn't finding Ivan. My assumption was that Arden broke in and kidnapped him."

  "Which is just stupid," Kyle said.

  "And he's right, Sam. That's not Arden Vervain's style. You've got to let go of the idea that she's your enemy. Move to the next possibility."

  "Based on this new information and a clearer head…" I tapped my nail on the cover of a book. "I think the one Medbh's afraid of broke in with the intent of taking Medbh. But when they couldn't get to her, they took Ivan." Aw…damn. If I thought about it that way, then the only reason they'd have taken him was to use him as a bargaining piece.

  I pulled my phone from my back pocket. No messages. No calls. Ivan had been gone two hours.

  "Samantha," Ina leaned forward and put her hand on the book in front of me. "Go back and talk to Medbh. Talk to her. Don't threaten. And—" She held up a finger before she stood and left the room.

  Kyle put his hands on his thighs and stood. "I'll go crank the Jeep."

  "Yeah. Take Grey with you."

  Ina returned after he and Grey went outside. She handed me a flat wooden box. It was six by six. "The wood is rowan wood, which should immediately calm her. But I think she'll be more easily swayed if you give this to her."

  Inside was a silver herringbone chain, maybe a half inch in width. The lights caught the silver and spilled radiance on the lid's interior. But what caught my eye was the sparkling blue topaz jewel set in the center of the herringbone chain. "Where…"

  "It belonged to my great aunt. I've had it for over thirty years. She willed it to me."

  "Oh…no. Ina I can't take this and offer it to Medbh. Mostly because I think Faeries react to silver the same way they react to iron, right?"

  "No. That's just iron. Silver is sometimes deadly to a particular type of Vampire, and it's definitely not comfortable for a Lycan."

  I shook my head. "Still…Medbh isn't worth giving up something so nice for."

  "Maybe not, but Ivan is." She knelt beside me and put her hand on my shoulder. This close, she smelled of jasmine and sage. "What makes us different than the Faeries, than any of the creatures of Alfheim, is our value of life. It's something they don't have. They can't understand. This little bauble has sat in my chest for as long as I've had it. I never wear it, and I never will. Take it. Use it. You can't move forward until you know what it is you're moving against. You're shooting in the dark here, Sammie."

  I closed the box and stood. She stood with me. When I hugged her, I squeezed as tight as I dared. "I love you, Ina."

 

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