chest and gave me an expectant look.
It took me a second, but I got it . . . and I felt like a complete idiot for not having seen through him sooner. The big consultant fee, the willingness to swear on my safety, all the money and fuss to bring me here. Anger rushed up in me.
“Mr. Calhoun,” I said when I was sure of my voice, “did you bring me to Atlanta to hunt a rogue boundary witch?”
Calhoun’s eyes gleamed as he took in my question. “Have you heard the expression, ‘send a monster to catch a monster’?”
Chapter 10
Slow down, cautioned Sam’s voice in my head. It startled me for a second before I remembered that I’d removed the obsidian. Take a breath. Unclench your fists.
I hated that she was right, but I forced myself to do as she’d said. This kind of crap was exactly why you shouldn’t send a boundary witch on diplomatic missions.
Oh, it wasn’t the “monster” thing. That was rude, but . . . well, not entirely unwarranted. Everyone in the Old World hated boundary witches. Vampires didn’t like that we could press them. Other witches resented what boundary practitioners had done during the Inquisition—raising the dead and sending them after the Inquisitors.
And everyone was pretty repulsed by how boundary magic was activated. Any culture would find killing your kids to turn them into witches horrifying, but for the Old World, where reproducing was always difficult and offspring of any species were valued, it was particularly repugnant.
But though I understood Beau’s attitude, I really didn’t like being misled.
“Why didn’t you just tell me all this before I came here?” I asked. I was kind of proud that my voice was steady.
“If I had,” he said, arms still crossed over his chest, “would you have come?”
“I don’t know. But summoning me here on false, or at least vague, pretenses was not a great way to start a working relationship.”
“I couldn’t risk you saying no,” he said, matter-of-fact now. “Because of Odessa.”
“What about her?”
“My theory is that a boundary witch—a rogue, as you say—is angry about the Calhouns because we never activate our witchblood. She’s laying the Unsettled to distract and upset me, but there’s no reason for her to stop there,” he said. “Odessa is the last female of the Calhoun line. It’s too late to make her a witch, of course, but if she were taken, if she were forced to have a child . . .”
My stomach churned. This was sounding familiar. It was exactly what had happened to my birth mother, thanks to a group of psychotic men with boundary witchblood and a fear of dying out.
“Are you talking about milites mortis?” I gave Beau an icy smile. “Because I can assure you, they are no longer operating.”
I had personally made sure of it.
Beau leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’m aware of your activities in that respect. In fact, that’s exactly why I sought you out. You’re a boundary witch, but you weren’t born of murder, and you seek vengeance against those who wish to perpetuate boundary magic. Hell, you killed Lysander, your own biological father. You are the monster who fights monsters.”
Sam’s annoyed voice rang out in my head. I take it back, Lex. Punch him.
I didn’t, but it was hard to keep the revulsion off my face. Beau had the facts more or less right—I had killed most of the milites mortis, including Lysander and even my half brother, Emil. That group had spent generations raping and imprisoning young women like my birth mother, all to promote boundary magic bloodlines.
But Beau’s characterization still irked me. “That’s not who I am,” I told Beau, trying to look calm. “I’m not some kind of magical bounty hunter. I didn’t declare war on boundary magic itself.”
He lifted a hand impatiently, as though he could just wave away my words. “I don’t particularly care how you see yourself. I want you to find out who’s doing this and stop them before they lay any more of the Unsettled. And before they get to Odessa.”
I noticed that he mentioned the ghosts before his living niece. Real classy. “How do you expect me to do that?” I countered. “I’m not a detective.”
Beau looked as frustrated as I felt. “You’ll attend Promenade tomorrow night and meet my Horsemen.”
“Why?”
“Because,” he said impatiently, “the witch who did this knew precisely when I would be at Promenade. She knew when I would be away from the other locations