Whisper of Shadows (The Diamond City Magic Novels) Read Free

wriggle into my head. I had to wonder if that had anything to do with him. Had he taught me that? Or had his tampering made me extra sensitive?
    Didn’t matter, and now was no time to consider. Dear old Dad hadn’t attempted to come after any of us yet, as far as I could tell, but just in case . . . I slid my hand down to touch Price’s belt. Inside the leather were a dozen silver disks, each one a null. I activated one.
    A magical dead zone surrounded Price. No spell—good or bad—could affect him until the null was deactivated or its power was drained.
    “I don’t trust you,” I said to my dad. “Everybody, activate your nulls.”
    I’d made each of my family powerful nulls in various shapes and forms. Sometimes jewelry, other times zippers on clothing—though nulls didn’t hold up well to multiple washings. I felt each of theirs activate almost before I finished speaking. I took a little comfort in knowing I wasn’t the only one so caught off guard I’d not thought about protecting myself.
    Mel was the only one who hadn’t triggered a null. I understood why. She wanted to be able to read Dad’s emotions. She couldn’t if her powers were nulled. Neither Dad nor Dalton had active nulls either, probably for the same reason.
    I stiffened with another realization. Everybody leaves behind trace. It’s a ribbon of light that only tracers can see. Some can only see it for a few minutes, others for an hour or two. I can see it always, even after a person dies. The only time I can’t is when someone nulls out their trace, which means for as long as that null is active, their ribbon vanishes. Those were the rules. Except that when my father disappeared, his trace vanished with him. One day it’s looped all around our house and my life, the next it’s gone like he’d never existed. Every last scrap of it gone. Just like Dad. It should have been impossible.
    For years, I’d tried to puzzle it out and just recently I thought I’d figured out the trick. He hadn’t erased his trace, but rather he’d simply made it impossible for me to see it. He’d gone into my head and blinded me to him. Now I had the chance to test my theory. I dropped into trace sight. Nothing.
    I don’t know why it bothered me so much. I mean, he’d tried to kill me. By comparison, this was nothing. And yet—it went to the core of who I was. He’d made me doubt myself, made me feel like a failure when I couldn’t find him. I bit my lips so that I wouldn’t swear. My eyes burned with tears I refused to let fall. One of these days I was going to figure out how not to care. Thanks to my family, thanks to Price and my friends, I’d moved on. I’d broken through Dad’s prison shackles. He didn’t matter anymore.
    I told myself that and tried to believe it.
    Dad nodded to Mel. “That’s why I came. I am here to explain what I can. Riley, I am glad to see you well after your recent interactions with Mr. Caldwell.”
    I glared. “Dalton told you about all that, did he? Did Dalton also tell you that he tried to kidnap me, too?”
    “He merely wished to get you to safety.”
    Dad smiled. I sucked in a breath, my heart aching. I had so many memories of that smile. Good memories. Or they had been. Now they seemed fake, as if he’d been wearing a mask. Hell, for all I knew, they were fake and he’d planted them in my head.
    “I doubt my safety was uppermost in Dalton’s mind,” I said, my lip curling.
    Dad turned to glance at Mister Tall, Dark, and Broody, and then back at me. “You can trust him. He’s a friend.” He focused on Price. “Clayton Price, I presume?” He actually held out a hand like he expected a shake.
    Price eyed it and then looked back up at my dad. “I am.”
    Dad let his arm fall, seemingly unfazed. “Your brother is Greggory Touray?”
    “Aren’t you the one who’s supposed to be answering questions?” I demanded. “You aren’t welcome here. So do us a favor, get to the point of this little visit and