Ritual Magic Read Free

bothered her, but she didn’t know why, when she’d barely been able to discern that anything was present at all. Maybe her unease had nothing to do with her Gift and everything to do with whose hand she held. “I don’t know what. It’s very faint. Would you mind if I touched your face?”
    “My face? I—I guess not.”
    Julia Yu was five inches taller than her second daughter. Lily reached up and laid her palm flat on her mother’s cheek.
    The skin was soft there, too. Pampered. Had she touched her mother’s face at all since she was little? She couldn’t remember. Julia was staring at her with such hope, as if Lily could fix things with her touch. Lily’s eyes stung, so she closed them. Her hand. She had to focus on her hand.
    Not as faint here. Still a barely there sensation, but a bit more present, just as she’d hoped. A spell that tampered with identity or memory should be more concentrated on the head. Only she still didn’t know what she was touching. Magic always had a feel to it—slick or rough, intricate or smooth, oily or dry or whatever. This wasn’t tactile. More like being in a dark room where you couldn’t see a thing, but you knew someone was there. You didn’t hear anyone or smell anything. Maybe you sensed the air move or the heat of their body, but you weren’t aware of that. You just knew someone was there.
    Lily opened her eyes and drew her hand back. Her right hand. Not the one with Rule’s diamond. The one with the ring she’d had made to hold the
toltoi
, the charm the clan had given her when she’d become officially Nokolai. The Lady’s token, they called it. “I think . . .” God, she could not cry. Not now. She had to be a cop, not a daughter, right now. She made her voice firm. That was what people needed from a cop—firmness, authority, even when said cop was clueless and wanted badly to curl up in a ball. “I did find something.”
    “Can you take the spell off? Make it go away?”
    “No, I’m not a practitioner. We’ll get someone who is, though. Someone who knows a lot more than me.” Lily tried to smile reassuringly. She was sure it was a sad and sick failure. “Rule—”
    “I’ll call Cullen.” He tried easing one arm away from Julia. She clutched at him. “I’m right here,” he said soothingly. “I’ve got you. I need to call a friend of mine. He’s very good with magic.”
    Cullen Seaborne was one of a kind, the only Gifted lupus in the world. His Gift was one of the rarest, too. He was a sorcerer, able to see magic much as Lily was able to touch it. He’d have some idea what to do.
    Lily sure didn’t. She drew a shaky breath. What now? If this had been anyone else, a stranger, what would she be doing right now?
    “Lily,” Grandmother said. “You will now tell us what you found.”
    All right. Yes, that was one thing she could do. But first . . . “In just a moment. Rule, I need to give your people some directions.”
    He had his phone to his ear. He nodded.
    “Scott, I need the restaurant exits shut down. No one is to leave. Julia, you’d probably like to sit down. You’ve had a shock. Grandmother, maybe you could take her to—”
    “What did you find? What’s wrong with Julia?” That was her father, who had waited all he could. Scott had moved away as soon as Lily gave him his instructions, leaving defense of the hall to Mark, who also didn’t budge when Edward Yu shoved him. Her father’s hands clenched into fists. “Move.”
    “Father, I don’t know exactly what’s wrong, but I know this is a Unit matter. I need to talk to Uncle Chen. Will you bring him here?”
    His mouth tightened. He cast his wife one long look, then nodded and turned, pushing his way through the crowd gathering at the hall’s entrance. It wasn’t just relatives now—several customers had decided they needed to see what was going on.
    “Everyone else—you will go back to your tables. Now.” She whipped the last word out. Several people did back