across Adele’s face. “Yup. Evan seemed fairly amused.” She sobered again, a touch of uncertainty sliding back into her voice. “He said the girl-child was for Marcus, and no other. A matter of life and death.”
“That makes no sense.” On all kinds of levels—Sophie knew firsthand exactly how much Marcus disliked babies.
Humor chased across the medium’s face. “Messages from the dead rarely do, girlfriend. He also said Marcus would find the missing soldier under the back steps of the church.”
And then she was gone, the alarms of Realm wailing in belated alert.
~ ~ ~
Jamie parachuted into Realm, wondering just how his life had descended into total chaos before lunch. And hoped his sister wasn’t in a mood to shoot the messenger.
Pulling open the door of the Witches Lounge didn’t deliver any reassurance on that front. Nell pounced the second he set foot inside. “What happened—how’d she get in?”
He winced. “We don’t know.”
Yeah. That answer landed like a load of bricks. Nell just glared.
Dammit. Kenna had been pulling her middle-of-the-night fireworks tricks again, and three hours was just not enough sleep. Jamie tried to kick his brain into gear before Nell melted him with another Supergirl stare. “There are no traces of hacking. Not even a whisper. The first time our system detected her is when she popped into the room.”
Nell’s scowl would have scared a lesser man. “Hijacked transport spell?”
“Nothing activated, no raid on the spell library.” That part he’d personally checked.
“Fine. We’ll check deeper.” His sister pulled out her computer, a wondrous machine covered in pink stickers and fire-engine art. “Do a trace-back on the logs. No one leaves zero fingerprints.”
Jamie risked his life and stepped in the way of the Mack truck named Nell. “We checked. Top to bottom.”
“My girls are good.” Nell’s fingers were a drumbeat of war on her keys. “But there are a few tricks they don’t know yet.”
Jamie sighed and tapped a button on his phone. Time to call in reinforcements. “It wasn’t the girls running the traces—or at least, not most of them.”
Nell’s eyes flew up in surprise as her husband materialized in the room. “Aren’t you supposed to be in New York?”
Daniel grinned. “Boring meeting. They won’t miss me much.”
Jamie was pretty sure showing a Fortune 500 company how you’d hacked their servers and made Donald Duck acting CEO wasn’t all that boring. “Thanks for the help.”
Daniel chuckled. “I remember what new-baby brain goo feels like.” He looked over at his wife. “ I ran the traces. There’s nothing to find. I don’t know how your quack got in, but it wasn’t via code.”
Nell’s scowl was laced with confusion now, but it was still pretty fierce. “Someone invaded our turf, and the best hacker in the world can’t figure out how she did it?”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I can tell you how.” Daniel stepped over and started rubbing his wife’s shoulders. “There are only two ways into Realm. If she didn’t code, then it must have been some hocus-pocus.”
Jamie snorted. Someone had been spending too much time with Lauren, their resident witch skeptic.
“Adele isn’t a Net witch.” Nell’s grin wasn’t meant to be comforting. “I scanned her when she started pushing fire globes around. She’s a weak fire witch—no Net power.”
“Does your scan read spirit channeling?” Moira, silent until now, spoke quietly from the couch.
It was an unusual sight for Jamie to see his sister squirm. “No. But she charges people by the minute. Probably uses the fire globes for cheap parlor tricks to keep them paying.”
“She wouldn’t be the first witch to use smoke and mirrors to hide her true magic.” Moira stroked Adam’s head. “And she got in here. That tells us something, even if
“That makes no sense.” On all kinds of levels—Sophie knew firsthand exactly how much Marcus disliked babies.
Humor chased across the medium’s face. “Messages from the dead rarely do, girlfriend. He also said Marcus would find the missing soldier under the back steps of the church.”
And then she was gone, the alarms of Realm wailing in belated alert.
~ ~ ~
Jamie parachuted into Realm, wondering just how his life had descended into total chaos before lunch. And hoped his sister wasn’t in a mood to shoot the messenger.
Pulling open the door of the Witches Lounge didn’t deliver any reassurance on that front. Nell pounced the second he set foot inside. “What happened—how’d she get in?”
He winced. “We don’t know.”
Yeah. That answer landed like a load of bricks. Nell just glared.
Dammit. Kenna had been pulling her middle-of-the-night fireworks tricks again, and three hours was just not enough sleep. Jamie tried to kick his brain into gear before Nell melted him with another Supergirl stare. “There are no traces of hacking. Not even a whisper. The first time our system detected her is when she popped into the room.”
Nell’s scowl would have scared a lesser man. “Hijacked transport spell?”
“Nothing activated, no raid on the spell library.” That part he’d personally checked.
“Fine. We’ll check deeper.” His sister pulled out her computer, a wondrous machine covered in pink stickers and fire-engine art. “Do a trace-back on the logs. No one leaves zero fingerprints.”
Jamie risked his life and stepped in the way of the Mack truck named Nell. “We checked. Top to bottom.”
“My girls are good.” Nell’s fingers were a drumbeat of war on her keys. “But there are a few tricks they don’t know yet.”
Jamie sighed and tapped a button on his phone. Time to call in reinforcements. “It wasn’t the girls running the traces—or at least, not most of them.”
Nell’s eyes flew up in surprise as her husband materialized in the room. “Aren’t you supposed to be in New York?”
Daniel grinned. “Boring meeting. They won’t miss me much.”
Jamie was pretty sure showing a Fortune 500 company how you’d hacked their servers and made Donald Duck acting CEO wasn’t all that boring. “Thanks for the help.”
Daniel chuckled. “I remember what new-baby brain goo feels like.” He looked over at his wife. “ I ran the traces. There’s nothing to find. I don’t know how your quack got in, but it wasn’t via code.”
Nell’s scowl was laced with confusion now, but it was still pretty fierce. “Someone invaded our turf, and the best hacker in the world can’t figure out how she did it?”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I can tell you how.” Daniel stepped over and started rubbing his wife’s shoulders. “There are only two ways into Realm. If she didn’t code, then it must have been some hocus-pocus.”
Jamie snorted. Someone had been spending too much time with Lauren, their resident witch skeptic.
“Adele isn’t a Net witch.” Nell’s grin wasn’t meant to be comforting. “I scanned her when she started pushing fire globes around. She’s a weak fire witch—no Net power.”
“Does your scan read spirit channeling?” Moira, silent until now, spoke quietly from the couch.
It was an unusual sight for Jamie to see his sister squirm. “No. But she charges people by the minute. Probably uses the fire globes for cheap parlor tricks to keep them paying.”
“She wouldn’t be the first witch to use smoke and mirrors to hide her true magic.” Moira stroked Adam’s head. “And she got in here. That tells us something, even if
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