Page 63 of No Charm Done

“Well, something did. Like I said, he was chasing immortality spells all over the world.” Elias looked at the photo of his old nemesis: still distinguished, still upright, still wearing clothes that were already out of fashion when the Titanic went down. The man looked maybe sixty, tops. Whatever the spell had done, it had done it thoroughly.

Luna looked at Elias with new understanding. “You and Burke have history.”

“Ah well.” Elias shrugged dismissively. “Technically speaking I’m about the same age as Jerusha over there. We got history with all kinds of folks, right, Jerusha?”

The old witch raised her glass by way of answer.

But when he made eye contact with Luna, he could feel instantly that she was seeing right through every deflection, every carefully constructed wall.

“Your infamous con,” Kelly said slowly, working it through. “You convinced Burke he was buying prime beachfront property⁠—”

“Thousands of acres of it, yes ma’am. I convinced him to pay top dollar for useless swampland. He lost a fortune. Should have lost everything.” His tone was light, but Luna could see how carefully he held himself, as if one wrong move might crack open something he needed to contain.

“But he didn’t,” Luna said softly.

His eyes flicked away from hers, and she knew she’d hit on something real. “No. He had enough money left to rebuild. Enough connections to weather the scandal. And apparently—” Elias gestured at the photo “—enough time to do it in.”

“So you tried to destroy him and failed,” Delilah said. Not cruelly, just stating a fact. “And that’s what got you sent to the Void.”

“The council convicted me of ‘undermining the integrity of magical commerce.’ Really, they were just defending one of their boys. Burke had friends in high places.”

The table went quiet. Meanwhile, all around them, the pub continued its gentle evening rhythm. Conversations, laughter, the clink of glasses. Normal people having normal nights.

Kelly took a long breath and straightened her shoulders. “All right. This is complicated. But it doesn’t change what we need to do.”

“Doesn’t it?” Scarlett glanced at Elias and then back at her mother. “I mean, this guy killed his brother. Might affect his judgment.”

“My judgment is fine,” Elias said, more sharply than he’d intended.

“Is it though?” Delilah asked gently. “Because if this is personal for you⁠—”

“It’s not.”

“Elias—”

“It’s not.” He could hear his voice rising and forced it back down. “Look, I was surprised to see his face, all right? Thought the bastard would be dead by now. But we have a plan, and it’s a solid plan, and I’m not going to let ancient history derail it.”

Luna was still watching him with those knowing eyes. But much as he wanted to look away, he couldn’t.

“We don’t have time to debate—we need to get to work.” Kelly surveyed the table, distributing assignments like a professional blackjack dealer. “Luna, Elias: you portal to New York tonight. Find that coven, convince them to help us. If there are ethical concerns, work them out somehow. Meanwhile, I’ll handle Louise, set up a meeting with her mysterious investor friend.” She turned to Scarlett. “You start working your tech world contacts. Carefully. We want to generate interest in CastR without tipping our hand.”

“I can be subtle,” Scarlett said.

“Since when?” Delilah asked.

“Since right now, apparently.”

Kelly continued. “Delilah, you and Jasper put those historian heads together. We need to figure out this Salem situation. How we make amends. We’ll need magician help against Vex, which means we need to address the past.” She paused. “See if you can find any of them who might be sympathetic to our cause.”

The group began breaking up—chairs scraping, people standing, plans being set in motion. Scarlett and Delilah flanked Luna like protective bookends.

“You need help with the portal?” Scarlett asked.

Luna gave her a look. “I’ve been portaling since I was eleven. I think I can manage.”

“You didn’t have CastR glitches to deal with, though.”

“I can handle it, Scar.”