Page 78 of Once a Rogue
“A barracks of some kind. Used to house factory workers, I’d guess.” Arthur reached toward the open doorway, and then his hand stopped, like he was a mime. “No doors, but my room’s got a magic barrier of some kind. Might as well be another concrete wall.”
Wesley stood on shaky legs, trying to shake the last of the chloroform. He approached the doorway, but he could see the glittery air in front of him. He reached for it himself, and just past the doorframe, his fingers hit something invisible yet solid. He tapped around, but Arthur was right: there was a barrier, impassable as concrete.
He looked across the hall at Arthur, barely three feet away and completely unreachable. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” Arthur said, with a shake of his head. “I’ve had a bed and blankets, plenty of food and water, books to read. Been treated well, all things considered. There’s an English army major here—”
“Major Langford, yes. He headed my company.”
“Oh good,” said Arthur, “so you already know he’s an asshole.”
“Quite familiar with that, yes,” Wesley said. “Although now he’s apparently mad as a March hare, with some lunatic plan to destroy magic.”
“It might take me a second to adjust to you knowing about all this paranormal business,” Arthur said. “Jade said they’d told you.”
“Youcould have told me,” Wesley snapped. “We fucked for six months. Just slipped your mind to mention magic is real?”
“Wouldyouhave told you? Would you even have listened? Jade said the only reason you finally believed in magic was because you were literallyon fireand Sebastian had to put you out.”
Wesley pursed his lips. “Yes. Well. Anyway. Apparently I’m lucky your urchin didn’t use the fucking wind to blow me straight through a window.”
“That’s fair enough,” Arthur said weakly. “But Wes—I don’t know where Rory is.” He looked wrecked as he said it.
“Shit,” Wesley muttered. “We’ve been looking for you lot since we docked in New York. What happened?”
“We have the de Leons’ siphon clock that created and can destroy relics. Except it won’t work on the pomander.”
“Won’t work?”
“The pomander is made from what Zhang calls violation magic. With the other relics, we were able to make the clock work with paranormal blood, but that didn’t seem to be enough. So Rory did more scrying, and our best guess is that we needcursedblood, which of course is even harder to find.”
“Except you knew Sebastian and Mateo de Leon were on their way to New York and they both carry their ancestor’s curse.”
Arthur nodded. “We were waiting for you all to arrive when Jade got a cryptic message from another bootlegger, based in Tarrytown, implying he knew she was paranormal.”
“And you came racing up here to find the threat,” Wesley guessed, “instead of waiting a handful of days for two de Leons and an ex-British army captain to join your team.”
Arthur winced. “We did arrange for Jade’s family to get out of town with the Ivanovs before we left, and we were going to come back to meet you in Manhattan. But of course it was all a trap and we were ambushed at the Hudson Haberdashers speakeasy.”
“It was Major Langford?”
“Along with your baronet friend, Sir Ellery, and a paranormal, Alasdair, did you meet—never mind, I can see from the look on your face that you’ve had the delight of meeting the Mad Hatter. I drank something at the speakeasy that knocked me out, and when I woke up, I was here, separated from the others.”
“But why?”
“Alasdair heard Rory’s magic in my aura and Langford thinks I’m enchanted,” Arthur said grimly. “The major knows my name, my father and my war record, and he’s convinced I’ll shake the enchantment and come around to his plan to destroy magic. Says he need more soldiers.”
“Langford’s lost his fucking mind,” said Wesley. “He’s still working with Alasdair after he murdered Sir Ellery.” He quickly filled Arthur in on everything that had happened with Alasdair, Langford, Sir Ellery and the brooch relic.
Arthur looked paler when he finished. “So the brooch is Alasdair’s now?”
“But what good is it going to do him?” Wesley said. “He said he hears magic—doesn’t that mean his magic already works on other magic?”
“You said Sebastian was bound to the brooch the past few weeks,” Arthur said. “What did it do to him?”
“He was able to bind his brother’s magic, and destroy the Earl of Blanshard’s magic,” Wesley said. “Otherwise it mostly seemed to run him ragged. And speaking of relics.” He pulled the ring box out of his pocket and held it up.
Arthur’s eyes widened. “Is that—”
