I can do this, I told myself. Back in my bounty hunter days, I did things like this all the time.

Except I’d never broken into a high-security house of witches who might be in league with demons. The Legion hadn’t sanctioned this mission either, and Nero would be pissed off if he found out. He’d be less angry if my mission produced results, so that’s what I was going to focus on right now. This investigation was going nowhere. It was high time someone changed that.

I met Bella outside of Building 2. It was nearly midnight and everyone was tucked inside the dormitory building for the night—or was out partying at the clubs. No one was working in the labs on a Friday night, Bella assured me, and she was right. As we walked down the dark corridor and up the spiral staircase to the second floor, we didn’t see a single soul.

A glowing curtain of magic barred passage to the hallway of labs. I pulled out a spiffy little piece of Magitech I’d gotten from Nerissa. As long as I held it, I and anyone I touched could pass through any ward a witch could make. At least according to Nerissa. Well, we were about to learn if she was right. I held my breath when Bella and I passed through the green curtain, but even though I felt the spell nipping at the shield around us, it didn’t touch us.

“Ok,” I said, exhaling in relief once we were past the barrier. “Let’s check out Morgana’s Chemistry lab for the poisons we found at the Brick Palace.”

Bella pulled a small box out of her pocket. She waved her hand over it, and the cube’s smooth white sides began to glow yellow.

“That’s a neat trick,” I told her as we entered the lab. A quick look around told me all of the cameras were off. Odd.

“Light in a Box,” she said with a smile. “I can teach it to you if you want.”

“I’m not a witch.”

“But you do have the powers of a witch. You gained the gods’ second gift, the gift of witchcraft, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but I haven’t been able to spell so much as a matchstick yet.”

She chuckled softly.

“What is it?” I asked her.

“That little piece of Magitech you used to get us past the barrier can only be activated by a witch.”

“Oh.”

I could do magic. That was kind of awesome—and fortunate. Nerissa hadn’t said anything about me needing to use magic to activate that device. What if I hadn’t been able to do it? What if I’d passed through that barrier thinking I was protected, and it had burnt me alive? The good doctor and I would be having a little chat when I got back to the Legion.

“Oh, this is amazing. I’ve been wanting to share magic with you forever, and now I can,” Bella told me, glowing with excitement. “I’m going to give you a list of my favorite spells.”

I nodded, secretly wondering how long it would take me to get through the fifty million other books Nero had put on my reading list.

“Do you know where they keep the inventory records up here?” I asked her.

“They make us write out all of our records by hand, but I believe the professors’ own records are kept here.” She tapped the computer sitting on the desk in the corner.

“Can you get me a copy of all records mentioning Sunset Pollen or Snapdragon Venom?”

“Magitech isn’t my specialty, but I’ll see what I can do,” she said, sitting at the desk. Her fingers flew over the keys. For someone who claimed not to be good at tech, my sister certainly was a typing fiend. “Leda?”

I glanced up from the cabinet I was looking through. “Yeah?”

“Do you really think the witches here are behind poisoning all those people?”

“Morgana is the head of the Chemistry department at the only place in the world that makes the two poisons. And it looks like she used the venom from Constantine’s animals to make them.” The two of them were looking really guilty at the moment.

“Morgana I could believe. She is…intense,” Bella decided. “Brilliant and powerful, but also a little crazy. But I don’t think Constantine would help her kill so many people. He values all life, whether human or supernatural or animal. Before we dissect an animal, he speaks a quick prayer for their soul.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s not in on this. It’s the good ones you have to watch out for the most. When they fall, they fall hard.”

Bella glanced back at me. “When did you become so cynical?”

“I’ve always been cynical, or at least a part of me has been. That’s the part that was a huge asset when I was a bounty hunter. It helped me think like the people we were chasing, which in turn helped me catch them. I try to only let that part of me out when I’m working. Miss Cynic can be a real party pooper.”

“I’ll bet.” Bella’s gaze returned to the computer screen. “Weren’t the victims in the Brick Palace all vampires?”

“Yes, they were. I didn’t even know you could poison vampires.”

“You can with those two poisons,” she said. “Morgana’s team designed them to work against supernaturals.”

“Which supernaturals?”

“All of them.”

“But not soldiers of the Legion.”

“Ok, not all. But you’re different. You’ve already been poisoned by something more potent than anything we can make on Earth.”

“You’re talking about Nectar,” I said.