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“This isn’t the sort of spell a person forgets. Father taught me how to identify the spell and ward against it—indirectly, but the effect was the same. Where did you get this?”

“Desmond Mace is using them on his wife. She was leaving him, and I guess ol’ Dezzy couldn’t deal with that, so he used the remaining dregs of their marital connection to…” I gestured toward the mess on the velvet.

“Thatprick.” Margaux spat the word.

I was less surprised by her choice of epithet and more surprised that she’d taken me at my word. Either she’d had suspicions about the man or she trusted me to tell her the truth.

Either was disturbing.

“I’d suspected Desmond was up to something,” she said, dispelling any doubt about her reasoning. “But this is egregious. How did you find out—Bronwyn.” She sat up primly and nodded. “Yes, that makes the mostsense.”

“Maya came to me,” I said and then gave her the whole contrived story.

Margaux appeared bemused. “Inventive, but a lie. Bronwyn and Maya Reeves are close. You and Bronwyn are also close. The logical explanation is that Bronwyn asked you to help her friend, and because you were taught by Lila, you have a strict privacy policy.”

“That’s totally not the case.” I didn’t try all that hard to sell it. I’d known going in that Margaux would figure it out. “But if it were, would it bother you that one of your witches didn’t trust the La Paloma coven to police its own?”

She set her baleful russet gaze on me. “Not at all. It means she’s paying attention.”

Chapter

Six

If I wanted an explanation for that remark, I’d have to ask Bronwyn, because Margaux sure as heck wasn’t going to share.

“We have to get Maya out of there as soon as possible.” Margaux tapped a blood-red nail against her lower lip.

“How far away do I have to take her for the effects to wear off?”

“Take her?” Her brow dipped. “What are you planning to do, throw her into a potato sack, sling her into your trunk, and drive to San Diego?”

“Yuma, actually. I thought I might hit the casino for a couple hours. Maybe play a little blackjack.” I shrugged. “Give the spell time to wear off and bring home a jackpot or two.”

“Magic won’t work on casino grounds.” She gave me a cool smile. “Our coven handles the security spells for both the Quechan and Cocopah tribes.”

“I wasn’t going to cheat,” I grumbled. “There’s a chance I might win on my own, you know.”

“The odds are against it.” She let out an impatient hiss of breath, stirring the herbs on the hex bag. “I’d need an urgent reason to call an emergency coven meeting. It would be smarter to continue asplanned, seeing as our next meeting is tomorrow night. It begins at nine p.m. Desmond is always late.”

“Huh. It sounds like you’re suggesting I kidnap Maya while her dickhead husband is at the meeting.”

Margaux gave me a serpent smile. “Why would you need to kidnap her? I thought you said she hired you.”

I hate it when a lie bites me in the backside. “Fine. Any suggestions on what to do with her once I have her? I’m thinking alucidusspell and asleepcharm to help her recover.”

“You’re an earth witch, same as Desmond. You would know better than anyone how to reverse the spell.” She did a game show hostess flourish over the hex bag. “What ingredients did you detect?”

“Three different soil types, around twelve common garden herbs, two uncommon, and one rare, but obtainable with a lot of effort. And blood to seal it, of course. I’m assuming he used Maya’s.”

“What rare herb?”

“Demon-grown saffron.”

“Someone made a deal.” She cursed under her breath. “And the blood. Goddess help us. Dark magic.”

I wasn’t into covens or any sort of witchy hierarchy, to be honest. Still, there was a certain sort of sacredness in the oath a witch took to become a member of a white magic coven. To betray it using dark magic was like walking into a church and pissing on the altar.

It was sacrilege.