one left the building. However, there is a circle below us, covered by snow, possibly the circle powering the transformation of the Son of Shadows into whatever he hopes to become, though I must say, it isn’t a strong circle. Not a powerful one.”
Gee leaped off and beat his wings, one powerful down stroke, to make an arc over the part of the grounds where the deer had stood, and once again, my stomach did a somersault. Not from hunger, but from the weird magics there. I wondered if the cancer had just appeared in my Anzu form, then shoved that thought deep inside. There was nothing I could do either way.
Soaring, I studied the patch of ground, trying to see with Beast thoughts and Anzu eyes and brain. There was a faint ring of magics in a circle on the ground, not nearly strong enough to be witches buried in the dirt, powering a time circle with their life energies. However, human-shaped and sized lumps were in the circle, and the stink of dead vamp and human was strong here. I counted twelve bodies, so the clock concept that we had seen in Natchez was present here. It could be a time circle of some sort.
I swooped lower, into the miasma of death stench and rot, and my bird nose separated out a familiar scent. Legolas. The blond vamp. His blood was here in the circle. A tree had partially fallen near the edge of the circle, and I back-winged over it, catching it in my claws. The tree gave, bounced, and held, roots still in the earth. I folded my wings and sat. Studying. Taking the opportunity to fluff ice off me and to breathe. I needed the rest. Gee settled in a tree above me. I said, “I want to see who and what is powering the circle. If I disturb the circle what will happen?”
“Do not. Your Anzu magics should allow you to see life and death through the snow.”
I strained, trying to access Anzu magics the way I did Beast’s, but all I saw was the snow mounded in human shapes. “Not sure how to do that, Enforcer. Why don’t you tell me. Are the bodies skinned? Are these the handiwork of the Flayer of Mithrans?”
Quietly, Gee said, “Perhaps it is best you not see this, my queen. Yes. They are. Six humans who show signs of torture. Six Mithrans who have been flayed and beheaded. Much power was expended within this circle and little is left. Its working has been completed.”
I remembered what Moll had said about the kind of location a time circle might need. “It should have been set up underground, out of the elements, where the power that built wouldn’t disintegrate quickly. This is a bad circle, not one made by a mature, capable witch.” When Gee didn’t respond I said, “We saw the senza onore in the illusions. She would be a very powerful witch, and I had assumed she was with the Flayer. But no way an experienced witch created this circle.
“Alex. Contact all the Asheville witches. Make sure no witches have gone missing.”
“None are missing. I just got in a call with them. All the witches in Asheville are safe and accounted for.”
“The energies are not proper for a witch circle,” Gee said. “I do not know what it is. Unless . . .” He stopped speaking and we sat as sleet peppered us hard and an icy wind cut through my feathers.
Worry and fear were just as cold, freezing my heart. The elation of finding EJ alive was gone. Where was he? Where had that thing taken him? Visions of EJ dead in horrible ways made my gorge rise, sick and hot. I shivered. “Don’t keep me in suspense just for kicks. I’m freezing my butt off here.” Shimon still had not appeared and the dinging was still piercing to my Anzu ears.
“What if it is a time circle, but not a witch time circle,” Gee said, his tone pensive. “For two thousand years, Shimon killed all the witches he came across, perhaps thinking to rise above other magics out of jealousy and anger, to kill all rivals for power.” He gave a human-type shrug with his shoulders and wings, uncertain. Gee continued, his words slow, hesitant, like a deer in open land. “Perhaps his knowledge is finite, knowing only that a time circle is possible. Perhaps he even learned this from spies in Natchez, but no