by the sudden assault to do more than gape. For seconds that might as well have been hours, none of them moved to intervene.
Sephira was the first to act.
“Gordon!” she shouted, the name echoing in the small room.
No response. The brute kicked Will a second time, then wrapped one fist in the pup’s bloodstained collar and hoisted him to his feet, his other fist drawn back to strike again.
By this time, though, Afton, Nap, and Ethan had emerged from their stupor and were converging on the man. Afton grabbed Gordon’s arm. Nap and Ethan wrested Will from the tough’s grasp and set him back in his chair, which Sephira had set upright. The pup’s head lolled to the side. He was unconscious; Ethan feared he might be dead.
Gordon struggled to free himself from Afton, the room quaking as the two behemoths wrestled each other.
Sephira planted herself in front of them. “Gordon, stop it!”
But still he fought, as if in a blind rage.
Another conjuring thrummed, this one coming from within the room. Gordon staggered, slumped in Afton’s arms. Afton eased him to the floor, where he lay still, his chest rising and falling gently.
“Is he alive?” Sephira asked, turning back to Will.
Nap knelt beside the pup and put a hand to Will’s neck, feeling for a pulse. “Barely,” he said after a few seconds.
“What did you do?”
They all turned to Mariz, who alone among them had not moved, though the blood had vanished from his arm, expended in the sleep spell that subdued Gordon.
He glared at Ethan, his knife poised over his arm, ready to cut himself and conjure again.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Ethan said, knowing that he sounded slow-witted.
“What did you do to him?” Mariz repeated, his accent thickening as his anger flared.
Sephira snapped her fingers. Immediately, Nap stood once more and raised his pistol.
“You’re saying that Kaille used his witchery on Gordon? That’s why—?”
“I did not!”
“I sensed a conjuring, Kaille,” Mariz said. “And for just an instant I thought I saw your spectral guide appear.”
Ethan shook his head, even as he considered the magick he had sensed and the flash of light he thought he saw before Gordon struck his first blow at Will. He pointed to his forearm, which was still red with blood. “Look,” he said, holding it out for Mariz and Sephira to see. “The blood’s still there. Had I conjured, it wouldn’t be.”
Mariz blinked once, his brow creasing.
“Mariz?” Sephira said. Ethan sensed that she was seconds away from ordering Nap to pull the trigger.
“There are other ways for him to conjure. But the blood on his arm would have been easiest.”
Sephira appeared unconvinced. “Unless he wanted to hide what he was doing, isn’t that right?”
Mariz shook his head. “Even then I would see his guide, and feel his spell.”
“But you say that you did—you saw the ghost and felt a conjuring. That’s what you said.”
“I thought his guide had appeared. It was there, and then it was gone. I might have imagined it.”
Sephira frowned. Since the previous summer, when Ethan and Mariz had worked together to defeat a conjurer named Nate Ramsey, she had been distrustful of their friendship. Mariz’s uncertainty was only making matters worse.
“Why would I make Gordon beat the lad?” Ethan asked her. “I’m the sentimental one, remember? That’s what you always say. I was prepared to plead for Will’s life. It’s you who usually argues on behalf of vengeance for the client.”
She didn’t answer, but instead turned to Mariz once more. “How long will he sleep?” she asked, dipping her chin toward Gordon.
“Not long. But if we wake him, I can offer no assurance that he will not resume his attack.”
“I want him to tell us what happened.”
“He can,” Ethan said. “And we don’t have to wake him.” He and Mariz shared a look. “A revela potestatem spell would show the color of the conjuring that hit him.”
“It will show my sleep spell,” Mariz said.
“Aye, but if you word it correctly it will also show the previous conjuring.”
“What are you two talking about?” Sephira asked, the words clipped.
“You’ve seen the spell before; more than once. We can use a conjuring to show what spells have been used against him. You’ll see that I had nothing to do with what happened.”
She made a sharp, impatient gesture that might or might not have been meant to indicate her acquiescence. Ethan didn’t ask her to clarify.
“Omnias magias,” he said to Mariz. “All magicks. That’s the wording.”