A Caress Of Twilight   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

"Okay, what did you both see thatI didn't see?"

Rhys kept staring at the road. There was silence from the backseat.

"Someone talk to me," I said.

"You seem to be feeling better," Frost said.

"I am. There's nothing like getting a little angry to get you through things. Now what did you two see there that I missed?"

"You were shielding too hard to see anything mystical," Rhys said.

"You bet I was. Do you know how much metaphysical crap there is in a place where you've had a recent murder, let alone a mass execution? There are a lot of spirits that are attracted to sites like that. They flock like vultures to feed on the remaining living, feeding off their horror, their sorrow. You can go clean into a place like that and come out covered in riders."

"We know what the spirits that fly the air can do," Frost said.

" Probably better than I do," I said, "but you're sidhe and you don't get riders."

"We don't get small ones," Frost said, "but I have seen others of our kind nearly possessed by incorporeal beings. It does happen, especially if someone works with dark magic."

"Well, I'm human enough that I'll pick up things casually. I don't have to do a thing to attract them except not shield well enough."

"You tried to sense as little as possible while you were there," Rhys said.

"I am a private detective, not a professional psychic. I'm not even a professional magician or witch. I had no business being there today. I couldn't help."

"You could have helped if you'd let your shields down just a little," Rhys said.

"Fine, I'll try to be braver next time. Now what did you see?"

Frost sighed loudly enough for me to hear him. "I could feel the remnants of a powerful spell, very powerful. It clung in stinging echoes to the place."

"Could you sense it as soon as we got inside?"

"No, I did not wish to touch the dead, so I searched with other senses besides touch and vision. I, as you say, dropped my shields. It was then that I sensed the spell."

"Do you know what spell it was?" I asked. I'd turned in my seat enough to see him shake his head.

"I do." Rhys's voice turned me back around to him.

"What did you say?"

"Anyone who concentrated could have sensed the remains of magic. Merry could have seen it, if she'd wanted to."

"It would have told her nothing, as it told me nothing," Frost said, "but it would have made it harder for her to endure what she saw."

"I'm not arguing that," Rhys said. "What I mean is that I got down and looked at the bodies.