Chapter 79

“What should we do?” Kat shook the salt shaker and walked around them as Teegan and Ann sat on the floor. Ann looked at the salt on the carpet and wondered if it would still work, a sprinkle here and there probably didn’t count as a barrier circle.

“Let’s do what we did last night,” Teegan suggested. “Ann talks, we follow her.”

Kat nodded.

Ann blew out a breath. “I just have to figure out what to say.” She opened the blueprint and set the candle on the one end of it. Teegan used her knee to hold the other end down. “I usually use sage, but I don’t carry it, and burning it here might set off alarms.” Picking up the salt shaker, she sprinkled someone the paper.

“No smoke in the building, please.” Kat cringed. “Real or fake.” She held her hand out toward the candle, and the wick caught fire.

Ann opened the oil. “Rosemary oil is cleansing.” Dabbing some on her hand, she set it down and rubbed her hands together. “It’s the best I have right now.”

“I’m sure it will be fine.” Teegan nodded.

Ann took a deep breath and hoped this did something close to what they wanted to accomplish. “Let’s focus on any in the building with magic.”

“Okay.” Kat nodded. “Should we hold hands?”

Ann looked at hers.

“Can’t hurt, right?” Teegan held hers out.

Ann nodded. “Worth a try.”

As soon as they joined hands, a ripple of power moved through Ann’s entire body.

“Whoa. Did you guys feel that?” Kat’s eyes were huge.

“I’m taking it as a good thing.” Teegan sat straighter. “Let’s get this done.”

“Yeah.” Kat looked at her and then Ann. “So I can go yell at Mitch or throw that chick off the roof. I haven’t decided yet.”

Ann knew she shouldn’t smile, but she did. “Clear your mind. Thinking things like that might manifest bad things.”

“Right.” Kat closed her eyes and blew out a few breaths.

Ann looked at the paper on the floor. “We ask to be shown all those who hold magic inside of them that are on the foundation of this building. Show us the location of those blessed.”

Kat and Teegan both squeezed her hand, but she wasn’t taking her eyes off the blueprints to look at them. “Reveal them to us.” She leaned closer when the salt started to move. Halfway across the paper, it divided into two. When half of it settled on the area that would be her office, she focused on the path the other took—dividing again until there were four separate piles, all in the boardroom.

“Seven,” Kat whispered.

Ann clenched her teeth together for a second and then forced herself to relax. “Thank you.” She leaned down, blew out the candle, and released their hands.

“Now what?” Kat reached and vigorously swiped the salt off the blueprint and then smelled her hand.

Teegan started to roll it up. “I think we need to protect our space from her.”

“Just the warehouse?” Ann picked up the candle and got up.

“Do you think they’ll tell her things about us?” Kat grabbed the salt shaker and stood up.

Ann put the candle and oil on her desk and then pulled out a few tissues to wipe off her hands. “Wes dismissed Teegan while Leland was standing there.”

“Yeah.” Kat brushed the curls back from her face. “What about Mitch’s place? He has a lot of notes and things there that we’ve been researching.”

“Lee does as well.” Teegan sighed.

Ann looked from one to the other. “We can’t stop them from going into their own places.”

“Why not?” Kat growled. “How could they be so dumb to let themselves be spelled or whatever?”

Teegan went over and unlocked the door. “We’ll have to figure that out later.” She opened the door, and Wes stood there.

He looked at her and then at the blueprint she was holding. “Is that the new layout?”

Teegan shook her head. “No. We were going over a few things about meeting later at the warehouse.”

“That’s—uh, why I came to find you. We’re going to have to reschedule that. We’re taking Aiysha to that new Cajun restaurant tonight to catch up.”

“Catch up?” Kat tucked the salt shaker in her pocket.

“Yes.” Wes smiled. “We all went to school together.” He looked at Kat and then Teegan. “Well, back to work.” He turned on his heel and went down the hall.

“Aiysha,” Kat whispered.

Teegan glanced at her. “He didn’t even look at Ann.”

Ann leaned on her desk and stared at the door. “That is some kind of spell.”

“We’ll deal with that tonight.” Teegan pulled out her phone and looked at it. “Get those layouts for that issue roughed out, and we’ll leave early.” She waited for Ann to nod and then looked at Kat. “You get to the warehouse and do whatever symbol you need to do so they can’t go inside.”

Kat bit her lip and scowled at the floor for a second. “I think I have one for that.” She nodded. “I’ll be back as quickly as I can be.” She turned toward the door and then stopped. “Shoot. I don’t have my car here.”

Ann jolted and unclipped her keys from her bag. “Take mine, and don’t break it.”

Kat grinned. “I won’t break it—promise.” She took the keys and hurried out of the room.

Teegan went over and picked up her cup. “When he’s not bespelled, we’re going to have a very serious conversation.”

Ann nodded. “First, we have to figure out how to break the spell.”

Teegan pursed her lips together for a moment. “We’ll figure it out. It's not the fancy words that matter.” She gave her a brief, cold smile. “It’s the intent.”

“Mmm.” Ann put the oil away and picked up the candle. “The intent in this instance is going to be hard to wrangle.”

Teegan snorted and walked out of the room.

Ann sat down and looked at the candle. She hated cheaters. Sending someone here to distract the man and intern them was cheating. As soon as they dealt with the idiot men, she was going to find a way to contact Celia and company so they could put an end to all of the ridiculous games.