“An intersection of several major ley lines,” Azriel said softly.

I swung around to face him. “What?”

“Ley lines are powerful sources of magical energy—”

“I know what ley lines are,” I interrupted testily.

Azriel gazed at me. “Then you are aware that their intersections can used be to manipulate time, reality, and fate?”

No, I wasn’t. “Are all intersections that powerful?”

He shook his head. “But this is one of the strongest in Melbourne.”

“So it makes sense,” I said softly, “that a practitioner after power would want to control the area in which such an intersection sat.”

“Wouldn’t the Brindle witches be aware of something like that happening?” Tao asked, confused. “I mean, they’d have to know that there was an intersection sitting here.”

“That’s a question for Ilianna, not me.” I rubbed my aching head wearily. “I’m guessing that Hanna Kingston’s parents own either the milliner’s or the general store. If they did refuse an offer on their property, then maybe Hanna’s death was the hammer blow to budge them.”

“Now, that is something I can check. Their names?”

“Her name is Fay, his Steven.”

“I don’t recognize either, but I’ll run a quick search.” Stane turned around, his fingers speeding over light screens and sliver-thin keyboards. After a minute or so, he said, “No Steven or Fay Kingston listed with either the Australian Business Register or the local land office, but there is a Fay Bruner listed as the owner of the milliner’s building.”

“If you check the marriage certificate, I’m betting that was her maiden name.”

He didn’t answer for a moment, then said, “Yep, you’re right.” He faced us again. “So if they’re going after relations or employees to scare owners into signing over the properties, why haven’t mine been attacked?”

“Possibly because most of them are interstate,” Tao commented. “And few people here in Melbourne actually know we’re related. They just think we’re friends from the same pack.”

“Then why kill Handberry?” I asked, confused. “He can’t sign anything over if he’s dead.”

“No, but if he has no heirs or kin, the government will take his assets and sell them off,” Tao said.

Note to self, I thought. Do a will. I glanced at Stane. “Have you actually received any purchase offers yet?”

“One,” Stane admitted. “I haven’t gotten around to reading it in detail yet, and told them as much when they called. And if they kill me off, then everything I own goes to my pack.”

“Meaning this attack was probably nothing more than a hurry-up,” Tao commented. “These people are truly twisted.”

“Totally,” I muttered.

“Is it possible to uncover the names of the people behind the land purchases?” Azriel asked. “We’ll need to interrogate them in order to ascertain the witch’s location.”

I wondered what passed as interrogation in the world of the Mijai. And whether it involved the sword that screamed.

“I’ve been trying to uncover that for a while,” Stane said heavily, “but there’s a mountain of misinformation and government tape to wade through.”

“So how long?” I asked.

He looked at me and shrugged. “The program is running. It could be minutes, it could be days.”

“Either way,” I said, “you can’t stay here. Gather some clothes and whatever bits of computer wizardry you need, because you won’t be back here until it’s over.”

“But—”

“It’s sensible,” Tao cut in, then glanced at his watch. “And you have two minutes. Any later and Ilianna is going to start throwing curses our way. I’ll go down and start the car.”

As the two men disappeared, I pushed to my feet. The room spun a little and I grabbed blindly for the chair—and got Azriel’s arm instead. He’d obviously moved without me even hearing him. But as my fingers touched his flesh, the heat of him leapt up my arm and fanned through my body—a warmth and strength that chased away much of the weakness from my limbs.

“Fuck,” I said, jagging my hand away. “What was that?”

He shrugged, like it was nothing of consequence. Yet there was a fierceness about him that belied his otherwise impassive expression. “As I’ve mentioned, I’m attuned to your Chi. A consequence of that is the ability to inhibit or enhance your life energy.”

“Meaning the link is a whole lot more than what you’re admitting.”

“No.” The denial sounded genuine, but I wasn’t believing it. He added, “You will call me when you get more information?”

“If it means breaking this link and getting you out of my life,” I muttered, “most definitely.”

“As I have said, I want this no more than you do.” He winked out of existence, but wasn’t gone, because the heat of him still swirled around me. Then he added softly, “And you do not look like something a cat has regurgitated. I’d put it more on the level of a dog’s effort.”

Then the heat of him did fade and I was left smiling—despite the confirmation that he could read my thoughts.

The reaper had a sense of humor. Fancy that.

It was a close-run thing, but we made it home in time to stop both the roast being ruined and Ilianna from throwing curses our way. Although—given the scent in the air—she’d been in the process of preparing some nasty little potions as we walked in the door.

It seemed she had been pissed off enough to risk the threefold rule.

After the food was eaten, the wine consumed, and Tao’s birthday appropriately celebrated, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the dead.

It was well after ten by the time I crawled out from underneath the blankets and staggered into the bathroom, but the shower did little to wash the fuzziness from my mind. I dragged on clothes with little thought, then headed out into the main living area.

“Well,” Stane said, amusement evident as he studied me from the dining room table, “I take it you’re planning to cause a riot in the near future.”

I frowned in confusion, then glanced down. The shirt I’d grabbed was a striped black-and-white tee. The only trouble was, the white bits were actually sheer, revealing my flesh in teasing flashes. And I hadn’t bothered putting on a bra.

I struck a pose. “I’m thinking diversionary tactics here.”

“Well, it’s diverting me. But I think it’ll only work on the witch bitch if she’s into women.”

“Don’t let Ilianna hear you call the bitch a witch,” Tao said, coming out of the kitchen. “You won’t be getting the old boy up for a year if she does.”

Stane laughed, but Tao was actually serious. Ilianna could do something like that if she wished. I walked across to the table and studied the light screen. “Anything?”

He shook his head. “The company buying the land is the first in a long series of business fronts. As I’ve already said, backtracking through all the paperwork is taking time. But I think we’re close.”

I glanced at Tao. “Has Ilianna had a chance to create stronger wards?”

“She did it this morning, and they’re active as we speak.” He hesitated, then added, “I talked to her about the whole ley line thing, too. She said she’d mention it to her mother.”

And hopefully, her mother would mention it to the powers-that-be at the Brindle and they’d start investigating. They might even be able to track down and stop the Charna from raising any more soul stealers—although I doubted Azriel would be happy with such an outcome. He seemed to think the Charna’s fate was his responsibility.

I moved on into the kitchen and toasted some crumpets. Once I’d added Vegemite and cheese, I grabbed a Coke, then headed back out.

“I’m lunching with Mom and Riley, so I’ll ask if Rhoan’s found anything.” I very much suspected Riley would be under orders not to tell if he had, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask. You never knew just what my aunt might or might not decide to do.

Tao nodded. “It might also be worth getting the Kingstons’ contact details. Asking them if they’d received any prior threats might save time.”

I frowned. “But I talked to them at the hospital, and they made no mention of threats. And Stane’s letter didn’t threaten him”—I paused and glanced at him—“did it?”

“No, but maybe the threats came after Hanna’s death. You know the type—this is what we can do. If you don’t want your husband to die as well, sign the papers.”

Maybe. I glanced at Stane. “Anything else?”

He shook his head. “The Directorate is handling Handberry’s case, but I can’t find much information on it.”

Stane probably couldn’t find anything because Uncle Rhoan was the guardian in charge, and he only ever wrote reports when he had something to report. “What about Handberry’s true identity?”

“Ah, now that is interesting.” He scrolled the screen over. “A month after his appearance in his current—and last—identity, Handberry was involved in an altercation and was arrested. He was never charged, but they did take print and iris scans.”

“And you found a matching print in the system?”

“Not in the police system, and not in Australia.”

“Really,” I said. “Then where?”

“In England, in the cached files at the Criminal Records Bureau.”

“Meaning it’s an extremely old record? As in, several hundred years?” Tao asked.

Stane nodded. “There’s no iris scan, and they’ve been around for a very long time now. The matching print belonged to Gordon March.”

“Who is obviously more than just a criminal if your sudden smugness is anything to go by.”

Amusement crinkled the corners of his honey-colored eyes. “I did a background check on him, and discovered his father wasn’t listed on the birth certificate. Which wasn’t an unusual thing for unwed mothers at the time. So I checked his mom’s background, and discovered she was placed in a sanitarium by her parents not long after Gordon’s conception.”

Sanitarium being a polite term for “loony bin” back then. “Did the records say why?”

The little crinkles at the corners of his eyes grew. “Now, this is where it gets really interesting. It seems our unwed mother claimed to have been visited by an angel, and that Gordon was the result.”

I blinked as the information hit me. Gordon March—the man we knew as Handberry—was a half-Aedh.

One I hadn’t sensed, even though I’d been close enough to touch him.

It was a fact that might be unrelated to anything else that was going on, but I had a strangely bad feeling that things had suddenly gotten ten times worse.

Chapter Eleven

“THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE,” I SAID, EVEN THOUGH I HAD no doubt it was very possible. After all, I only knew one half-Aedh, and Uncle Quinn had an energy force as fierce as any full blood. But that didn’t mean all of us half-breeds did.

And Lucian had thought I was a full blood, which in itself implied that half-breeds didn’t always get the Aedh powers.

“They’ve recorded her statements,” Stane said. “You can read them if you want, but it’s the same type of story I’ve found recounted hundreds and hundreds of times.”

Meaning he’d been doing some research on the Aedh. Interesting. “So why the hell would a half-Aedh disguise his identity, come to Australia, then buy a dump like the Phoenix?”

“If we find the answer to that, we might just have our first real clue as to what the hell is going on,” Stane commented.

I knew what was going on—if Azriel and Madeline Hunter were to be believed, that is. And right now, I wasn’t exactly trusting either of them. There was more running under this than what they were saying, and until I discovered just what that was, the only people I was going to trust were the people I’d trusted all my life.

But by the same token, I couldn’t tell them too much or ask any more than I already had. It was just too dangerous.

“I’ll ask Lucian if all half-Aedh inherited the Aedh gifts, or whether it was just a few.” Which wouldn’t tell us much more than whether Handberry had been disguising his powers or not, but at least it was a start. I hesitated, then added, “I don’t suppose Tao asked you to run a search on an investment adviser named Lucian, did he?”

Stane snorted and glanced up at his cousin. “I told you she’d ask. You owe me a fiver.”

Tao glanced at me, expression sorrowful but eyes amused. “And here I thought you knew me better than to think I’d do something like that.”

“If something happened to me, Ilianna would insist on taking over the accounts, and we both know what a disaster that would be. So, naturally, you’re protecting your investment by looking after me.”

“Something like that.” He half shrugged, and I knew without asking he was thinking about Jak Talbott, the reporter who’d hurt me so badly.

“There’s a Lucian Dupont registered with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission,” Stane said, “and his address has recently been changed from Brisbane to Melbourne. Everything I can find about him seems to indicate he is who he says he is.”