An Ill Wind

Chapter 1-2

“Thanks,” Cassandra replied. “That would probably help. I guess I wasn’t expecting Albuquerque to be so chilly.”

If she thought this was chilly, she was going to be in for a shock when they got to Santa Fe. Tony figured it was probably better not to comment, especially since she wasn’t going to be spending enough time in his hometown for her to get too frozen. He pushed the button to set the heater at a low but comfortable level, then asked, “Better?”

“Yes, thank you.”

She turned her head then, apparently intent on taking in the scenery outside the car window. There wasn’t really much to look at, just the freeway on-ramp they were approaching, but Tony took it as a sign that she didn’t want to talk.

All right, she was gorgeous, but she sure as hell wasn’t very friendly. Or maybe what he’d interpreted as frostiness was simply discomfort at having to be here at all. No matter how you looked at it, her clan had screwed up pretty spectacularly, first by allowing books as dangerous as the ones Simon Escobar had stolen to be taken at all, and then by acting as though nothing was wrong once the thefts had been discovered. Sure, it had to be embarrassing as hell to admit that you’d been robbed by a dark warlock, but the de la Pazes should have at least reached out to the other Arizona clans to let them know what was going on. At least that way his prima Miranda’s parents — who were the prima and primus of the McAllister and Wilcox clans, respectively — could have let their daughter know that Simon Escobar was even more dangerous than everyone had first thought.

But that was none of his business. The books would soon be gone, and since they were still safely hidden at his mother’s house, Tony supposed he could say things might have been a lot worse. However, even though it was pretty obvious that Cassandra really didn’t want to talk, he couldn’t help asking the one question that wouldn’t leave him alone.

“So…why did your clan send you?”

Now she turned toward him just the slightest bit, a tight smile touching her lush mouth. “You mean, instead of someone older and more experienced?”

Oh, hell. He could tell he’d already put his foot in it, but he decided to plow ahead. “Well, yeah.”

“It’s because of my talent,” she said. One hand played with the strap of her oversized purse, which currently rested in her lap.

Asking about a witch’s talent was considered rude, but Tony figured she’d already halfway volunteered the information. “Which is…?”

A small hitch of her shoulders before she replied, “It’s…I can cast a shield, but not around myself. Instead, I can make the shield appear around anything I want — other people, buildings, cars, and so on. I guess it’s kind of the inverse of a talent one of my cousins has. He can cast a shield that will protect him and anyone else inside it. That shield keeps him safe from anything — magical attacks, falling rocks, raindrops, whatever. It’s impervious. What I do…well, it’s basically the same, except that it protects objects.”

“Including magical books,” Tony suggested, and now the glance she gave him was almost impressed.

Or maybe he was just fooling himself.

“Right. If I cast the shield around the books, they’re protected. No one can touch them, which means they’re safe from theft or damage. I have a couple of small carry-on bags folded up inside my purse, and I’ll put the grimoires in the bags, cast the spell, and stick them in the overhead compartment for the trip home. Easy.”

She made it sound easy, and Tony hoped it would be. He had to admit that an airplane would probably be safer than taking the books back overland in a car, where there would be far more opportunities for someone to interfere and try to steal them, magical shield or no. This way, she’d have them nearby for the short flight, and then he guessed a large contingent of de la Paz witches and warlocks would be waiting for her at the airport to make sure the grimoires made it safely the rest of the way to the home of their clan’s prima, who apparently had built a library addition onto her home in order to make sure nothing like this ever happened again. Even the most dedicated book thief would think twice about trespassing on a prima’s property.

“That’s an interesting talent,” he said, making sure his tone sounded casual. It wasn’t his business to second-guess the de la Pazes’ plans. All he had to do was ferry Cassandra to his mother’s house and back to the airport, and then they’d be done with all this. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it before.”

“I guess it is pretty rare,” she admitted. “My cousin’s is rare, too. I’m just glad I didn’t get his wife’s talent. She’s a seer.”

Yes, being a seer could be pretty rough. A witch with that talent — seers were almost always witches, not warlocks, although no one had ever been able to explain why — owed her gifts to the clan even more than the rank and file. A seer often consulted with the prima, and had a position of importance in a clan. But that wasn’t usually enough of a trade-off to compensate for having your life interrupted every time a vision of the future decided to take up space in your brain.

He nodded, not sure how to respond.

“Besides, it would have been too much of a joke for me to be a seer, considering my name,” Cassandra remarked.

“Because of the Trojan princess.” Thank God that bit of Greek mythology had managed to stick to his gray matter. He’d already made enough of an ass of himself by asking about her luggage; compounding it with another spectacular display of stupidity would have only been the cherry on the cake of his day.

“Right.” Cassandra’s lips pursed, but Tony couldn’t tell whether she was impressed or just glad he wasn’t quite as stupid as she’d first thought. “Anyway, my gift seemed the natural one to use in this particular situation. My cousin Zoe — our prima — decided it was better to send only me rather than a large delegation. Having so many witches and warlocks leave our territory at the same time might attract outside attention, but a single witch should be able to fly under the radar, so to speak.”

“Who do you think would be watching for that kind of thing?” Tony asked, genuinely curious.

“I don’t know for sure, but considering that a dark warlock in New Orleans knew about the books and tried to go after them, it seems pretty obvious that there are more watching eyes in the world than we thought.”

He couldn’t really refute that remark because it was only the truth. How Nicholas Toulouse had found out about the stolen grimoires, no one really knew, but somehow he’d discovered they’d been taken from the de la Paz clan…and that Simon Escobar had brought them to Santa Fe. And if Toulouse could dig up that information, then conceivably someone else could as well. These days, you couldn’t be too careful.

“Makes sense,” he responded, and left it at that.

By that point, they were out of the center of Albuquerque and headed toward the open highway, so Tony figured it was safe to disengage the self-driving mechanism and take control of the vehicle. While he understood why it was better to have the car’s AI handle things in-town, he’d bought the Spider so he could enjoy the act of driving, and he might as well enjoy the sensation of freedom while he could.

The sidelong glance Cassandra sent toward him as he activated the manual controls told him she’d noticed what he’d done, but at least she didn’t say anything, only looked back out the window. “How far is it to Santa Fe?” she asked. “I looked on a map, but….”

“It’s about forty-five minutes from where we are now to my mother’s house,” he said. The change of subject had been fairly abrupt, but he knew better than to comment on it. “The drive back should take about the same, or maybe even less, since in the afternoon there are more people heading home to Santa Fe — or to Bernalillo or Rio Rancho, which are on the way — from Albuquerque than vice versa.”

“Got it.”

Her expression seemed to indicate she wasn’t overly ecstatic about being stuck in a car with him for that long. Well, there wasn’t much he could do about that, except speed, which wasn’t an option. Cassandra already seemed disapproving enough; he’d hate to see her expression if he managed to get pulled over by the police.

However, Tony chose not to engage the cruise control, deciding that handling their speed manually would help to keep him occupied. Further conversation didn’t seem like a very good idea, and he had to wonder what it was that made Cassandra so prickly. He didn’t think he’d said anything that could possibly have offended her. Then again, she probably wasn’t thrilled about being sent on this expedition, and probably even less thrilled that her presence was due entirely to sloppiness on her clan members’ part. He had to wonder whether she’d ever made a mistake in her life.

Eventually, though, they reached Santa Fe’s city limits. He held back a sigh of relief as he got off at Old Pecos Highway, then headed into town along that old, old road. They cut north, skirting the edges of downtown and its throngs of tourists, before he turned onto the street that took them toward the ski area.

Cassandra must have noticed the signs for the ski resort, because she shifted in her seat and asked, “Your mother lives up on the mountain?”

“Partway,” Tony replied, wondering if she’d asked the question because she was worried about it being even colder at that elevation. “There are some neighborhoods up in the hills here. That’s where her house is located.”

“But not your house.”

Did she really think he was that much of a loser? Like he would have been caught dead still living in his parents’ house. He was twenty-five years old, for God’s sake.

Or had she been probing because she was wondering why a warlock his age wasn’t married yet? Witch-kind tended to marry young, so it wasn’t so strange a question to cross someone’s mind.

Not that he would flatter himself that Cassandra Sandoval gave a damn about his marital status.

“No, I live down the hill, on the edge of downtown. My parents bought this house when I was in high school.”

“Oh.”

She settled back in her seat, watching as the road rose and the land on either side grew thick with pine trees as well as the ubiquitous junipers. Tony turned off into his parents’ development, pausing to wave a casual hand at the heavy steel gate that guarded the entrance to the upscale neighborhood. It opened at once, thanks to the witchy power that allowed all of his kind to view door locks and electric gates as temporary delays rather than barriers.

A few more twists and turns, and then they were at the big two-story house at the end of the cul-de-sac that had been his parents’ home for the past fifteen years. It had never felt exactly like home to him, since he’d only lived here for a few years before heading off to college and then a house of his own, but at least it was familiar enough.

He pulled into the driveway and parked. Since it wasn’t quite four-thirty, Tony doubted his father would be home yet, which was just as well. With only his mother there — his sister Ava was down in Albuquerque working on her own degree at the university — this should be a quick trip, a fast in-and-out. He knew his mother had planned to offer Cassandra some snacks before the two of them turned around and headed right back down to the airport, but even that shouldn’t delay things by too much.