"We were coming to see whether you have time for a coffee break," she said. "But I'm guessing the answer is no."

"I'll take one anyway. I could use the air. Jaime, was your flight-"

His cell phone rang. A soft sigh and he checked the number. "Jack McNeil."

"The client," Paige explained to me. "Take it. We'll bring you back a coffee. Jaime can explain her situation then."

WE WALKED to a bakery a block up. Paige swore the neighborhood wasn't as bad as it looked. I put my trust in her hands… and her defensive spells. We were still catching up when we returned to the building, coffees in hand.

" Savannah 's working for us this year while she decides what she wants to do about college."

"Is she still leaning toward graphic design?" I asked.

"She is, but she wants our advice and we're really torn. Part of me wants to tell her she's doing the right thing, preparing for a reliable career while she pursues her art in her spare time. The other part wants to say 'forget practicality' and tell her to enroll in a fine-art program."

"Getting a job to fall back on isn't the worst idea. Jeremy worked as a translator for years before his paintings started to sell."

She led me onto the elevator. "I think that's who she's taking her cue from. But I worry that Lucas and I are both too inclined to push practicality and maybe that's what driving her decision. Anyway, she has a year to think about it."

We met Adam and Savannah in the hall.

Savannah lifted her hands. "Before you crack the whip, we're heading out for more boxes."

"Take this one instead. Brownies, plus a Coke for Adam, and a mocha cappuccino for you."

"Thanks," Adam said.

"Don't thank her," Savannah said. "It's zombie slave fuel. Sugar and caffeine to keep us going."

"You got it. And sandwiches for later, so you don't need to take off for dinner. Jaime? The meeting room is the first door on the right. Go on in while I find Lucas."

BE PREPARED

"I ASSUMED IT WAS A NECROMANCY PROBLEM, but now I'm thinking dark magic," I said after I told them what was happening.

Lucas frowned. "Dark magic? As in ritual sacrifice?"

"Eve would be your best bet for anything dark," Paige said. "But I'm guessing if you're asking us, she's out of contact again. My experience with stuff like this is practically zero. I've witnessed ritual sacrifice." Her face went pale at the memory. "Not intentionally. Some kind of high-level protection ritual."

"That's the primary use," Lucas said. "A life given for a life protected. Ritual sacrifice is very rare. If I encounter it, it's peripheral to a case I'm investigating. Whena Cabal passes a sentence of execution they may perform ritual sacrifice as the method of execution. Purely a matter of economics."

Paige nodded. "If they're already killing someone, might as well use it."

"But in all cases, the soul passes over," Lucas said. "It's even written into the Cabal legal code that if an executed victim is used for ritual sacrifice, an independent necromancer must be on hand to confirm that the soul has safely passed over."

"That's the Cabal version of the Geneva convention. They can only torture you until you're dead."

"Huh." I sipped my coffee, thinking. "What about Druidic sacrifice?"

"Rare these days," Paige said. "Even rarer than dark magic sacrifice. Remember Esus? He didn't even try to ask for a human sacrifice. We gave him his pint of blood and he was happy. But even if a Druid was performing human sacrifice, it doesn't explain damaged souls. It's the act that matters. A show of respect for the Druidic deity."

I drank more coffee. Hoped the caffeine would help my brain work faster.

"What you have are damaged souls," Lucas said. "Somehow they've been fragmented or drained, and there's no magic we know of that works that way. That doesn't mean such a thing cannot exist- simply that it defies the basic principles of sacrifice. We'll look into it further after we get through tomorrow."

"That's fine. In the meantime maybe you can steer in the right direction and I can run with it. Paige has the council records, right? I can search those, see whether I find anything similar."

"You could, but they're, uh, on a disk, which is… somewhere in this mess. I decided they'd be more secure here than at home. I'll find it for you after tomorrow, though."

"Oh. Well… is there someone I can speak to, then? A contact in dark magic?"

Lucas shook his head. "One needs to be careful with this sort of thing. Expressing excessive interest in dark magic can be extremely dangerous. You should leave this to us."

Even when I showed up on their doorstep, I couldn't get anywhere. Just give us the details, Jaime, and let us do the work. I argued for a while, but it was clear they weren't giving me anything that could get me into any trouble.

SAVANNAH CALLED me a cab, then stepped outside to wait with me. "So, you need to talk to someone about dark magic."

"Eavesdropping?"

"Beats working. I might be able to help."

"Oh? What would you-" I stopped. "Your mom, of course."

"Nah, Mom didn't teach me that sort of stuff. Nothing darker than a chaos spell-and even then, only to protect myself. She kept that part of her life separate."