Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“I got digits!” Fred put up her fist. “Might be a burner phone, but even that will have something useful. I already slipped in spyware through an unpatched security vulnerability. Now I’ll go try to crack it open like an egg.”
“And what will that tell you that grabbing the mage wouldn’t?” Aljoe asked, but Fred didn’t seem to hear him. She was already meandering out of the room. She tended to make this place her home when she was here. They all did, really.
Sebastian explained about the magical safeguards the mages had in their heads, something that would kill them if someone tried to extract information.
“Sometimes I can work around it,” he said, “but sometimes I can’t. Given this mage had an extremely powerful potion masking him or her, I worried I wouldn’t be able to pry my way in. This way, Fred can track them and maybe get something useful from their phone.”
“We know they got in,” Austin said. “Now we do a better sweep to see if we can find any other signs they’ve done this before. And we figure out what they’re after to give us a clue about Momar’s plans.”
“Speaking of.” Sebastian motioned at Nessa. “What happened?”
After everyone was seated, Nessa ran through her experience.
“They were trying to pick the lock when we interrupted,” she said. “I could hear them doing it. The invisibility potion must form a tight bubble around them.”
“But…” Sebastian shook his head, dumbfounded. “Why in the world would they assume Agnes had something they’d want?”
“Agnes?” Nessa frowned at him. “They weren’t trying to get into Agnes’s. She’s next door. They were trying to get into the tourist place.”
Everyone stared at her in confusion. Except Aljoe’s sisters, of course, who were just trying to take it all in.
“Why the tourist shop?” Niamh asked.
Nessa’s eyes sparkled. “Maps.”
“Maps?” Sebastian and Austin said together.
Nessa nodded. “Maps.”
“But…” Sebastian scratched his chin. “Google has maps. City Hall has maps.”
“And that is probably why they are up to date on the boundary lines of the territory,” Nessa said. “But City Hall doesn’t have historic maps. I know this because I looked. The tourist place has historic stuff, before the gold rush and mining stuff and zoning battles and all that. Theirs is more woo-woo stuff that doesn’t really count as maps. It’s for the people looking for spiritual vortex energy, like in Sedona, Arizona. Crystal enthusiasts and yoga retreat people—”
“They all end up in the woods, crushing our flowers,” Edgar said from the back wall, hiding behind a plant for some reason.
Aljoe’s sisters startled, having not picked up on the vampire’s presence, and now stared hard at his location. They’d think missing him was an oversight. Little did they know…
“And that stuff isn’t on the internet?” Sebastian asked.
“Not…really,” Nessa said. “I mean…some stuff is, but they are all a bit different, and they aren’t super accurate.”
Jessie sat forward, bracing her arms on her knees. “I’m lost. There’s a…woo-woo map in the tourist place that…is accurate? What is it depicting?”
Nessa took a deep breath, excitement radiating through her person. “The artist is an old hippie, passed away now. She created this really exceptional image of the ley lines around here. She identified a vortex, and she has pools and currents and little eddies of energy. It’s really very pretty. Not totally accurate, but very pretty. There’s a picture of it on their website, but it’s in the background. It’s hard to read. To someone who doesn’t have the Ivy House library as a resource, it probably seems like an accurate mapping of the magical currents running through here.”
“Ley lines,” Sebastian murmured, looking hard at Nessa.
“Yes. She was a Jane, as far as I can tell. Zero magic, but big into crystals and all that stuff. She put the vortex deep in the woods. That’s probably why Edgar has a trespasser problem. People try to go out there to see if they can feel the energy. Other people put the vortex closer to town.”
“And the vortex is actually…” Sebastian lifted his eyebrows.
“It is actually a nexus, and it is…” Nessa pointed downward. “Obviously.”
“Obviously,” Jessie said on a release of breath. “A very old, gothic house that doesn’t really belong in this modern world.”
“The nexus is not directly under the house. More under the yard. But not deep in the woods. That map is closer than all the others, though.”
“Aren’t there a million different maps of ley lines and nexuses?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes. A whole bunch. Overall, positioning of them is generally the same. It’s the minute details that are different. Like a nexus in the woods rather than downtown or directly under Ivy House. The details don’t matter for a lot of stuff. But if you are planning to draw power from it to fuel spells and potions and incantations, you’ll want to be right on top of a line or nexus for the biggest oomph.”