"I thought the priests were the masters?"
"And the Razan were once priests. Lucian, as your father's chrání, is very likely to be magically strong. Your father would not have taken him otherwise."
Meaning Lucian had never had to enlist Lauren's help to spell me—he could have done it all himself. I frowned. "So why did he get Lauren to make that cube? Why wouldn't he have made it himself?"
"Because he would have wanted to belay any suspicions. His magic would feel very different from that of his mistress."
"But I've never felt any of his magic."
"And perhaps never would. As I said, he would be extremely strong and—I suspect—very adept at hiding it after all those years on this plane."
I blew out a breath. "I really was fooled by him, wasn't I?"
"But not for as long as he might have desired."
"Thankfully," I muttered, then jumped as my phone rang. The tone told me it was Hunter, and I groaned. "Like I need to speak to her right now."
"Talking on the phone is preferable to talking in person, is it not?"
"There is that." I hit the ANSWER button and said, "I had nothing to report, which is why I didn't report."
Her voice was cool and disbelieving. "So the woman wasn't there?"
"No, she was there, but she did a runner on us. We chased her to her dressing room, but she escaped and left lots of little friends behind to play with us."
And the memory of it had my skin crawling all over again.
Amusement briefly touched Hunter's lips. "Spiders, I'm guessing?"