CHAPTER EIGHT: EXPLOSIVE FINDINGS

~ Marie ~

“Why is it like that?” Adrian stopped without her having to tell him. His magic sight kept him from running right into the barrier.

"They tried to conceal it with magic." In the end, there was nothing she could have done to keep him from following her. Trying to lose him would have only cost her the time needed to find the source of the signal. "Don't touch it." She stepped closer to examine the barrier without touching it herself. It was solid but there should be a weakness somewhere. Every barrier had one. With it, she could break the barrier using less magic. Nothing on this side. "I'm going to look around." The barrier looked to be about fifty feet in diameter. A distance he could easily cross in seconds if he wanted to. She turned and found him still following her. "Why are you following me?"

"I'm only looking around."

"This is Guardian business." One time was more than enough. Adrian only looked at her but didn't move. She didn't want to have to explain anything to him but maybe using logic would get him to leave this alone. "They are using plants in their spells along with talismans to enhance their natural qualities. Your stronger sense of smell makes you vulnerable to this form of magic."

"And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You almost fell earlier. Was that due to the spell?"

"I'm fine." Now that she had an understanding of what was going on she could better protect herself.

"That's not what it looked like."

"I can protect myself."

"Then you can protect me as well." He crossed his arms as he smiled smugly. Tsk. Now what? Marie crossed her arms. Why was he interested in this investigation? This had nothing to do with him or his clan. Marie felt like sighing but forced it down as she focused on the barrier in front of her. She had no idea what was on the other side. Should she take him with her? She exhaled in frustration as she walked up to him and put her hand on his chest. Adrian tensed but didn't move as she placed a spell over his heart. She also put a standard barrier on him as well. It was better to just get this over with. If the person who cast the magic was gone, then she wanted to look before they came back. She would just have to be careful to keep the rest of her investigation during the day, that way he wouldn’t be able to keep interfering.

“This will protect you from some scent based spells but it will limit your ability to smell.” It didn’t affect her as much since her sense of smell was normal but for him, it might be a major difference.

“I understand.” She put the same protections on herself. Marie continued circling the barrier until she found what she was looking for. She glanced at him.

"Ready?" He nodded and she turned her attention back to the barrier. They would need to be quick. Once this came down, the magic user was likely to retaliate. Marie put her arms out in front of her as she gathered magic in the palms of her hands. Once she gathered enough, she placed her hands on the barrier. Lightning came off the barrier where her hands touched it. It arced up her arms and over her body. There was a slight tingle along her body but it didn’t hurt. Marie forced more magic into her hands as she pushed against the barrier. Slowly, the barrier started to give. It felt like she was squishing a balloon filled with air but the resistance was starting to lessen. She pushed a little more. With a pop, the barrier broke.

A house now stood where the barrier had been. The small house was built more for function. The unpainted walls looked rough and the nails could be clearly seen. It looked like something that had been recently built. Yet the rest of the area looked like a rainbow. Flowers in every shape, color, and size filled the small space until it overflowed. Marie frowned at a nearby flower. She only knew a few of the flowers planted here but what she did know, wasn't good.

She knelt beside a talisman wrapped around a white flower. This must be datura. It was supposed to be good for concealment. This is what they tried to use to obscure the barrier. It would have worked if they had changed one of the script from area to the specific item they wished to conceal. Since the wording only specified the area, the talisman only obscured what was in a specific range and only concealed parts of the barrier and not the whole thing. After she finished reading the talisman, she burned what was left.

“What was that?”

“This was supposed to hide the barrier.”

“Why did the barrier give off lightning? Was that because of the spell?”

“It was part of the barrier itself. It was meant to keep people from touching it.” Made it harder to deactivate the barrier but there were still ways to deactivate without touching it. She could have done it but it cost more magic that way.

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“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He nodded before he started towards the house. She stood up and followed him. None of the plants out here had any magic on them. Only the house had a spell on it. As she neared the house, she spotted other plants she recognized like lilacs and hydrangeas. The purple petals she’d found before had come from the lilacs. She knelt down beside one and pulled it close. This was the smell that had been on the piece of cloth she found. If her memory was correct, lilacs were used for spying. That meant someone had been watching the room, the barn, and the area near Leon’s house. But was this really the work of someone competing in the Rite of Accord? This was a lot of secrecy for something that would only affect one pack.

Marie brushed the dirt and leaves from her pants as she stood up and continued walking. Adrian stood in front of the door and turned to look at her when she stopped next to him.

“Be careful of what you touch.” This person had been careful so far. It was likely they had placed traps. Adrian nodded.

“I’m ready when you are.” She turned towards the door and wrote out a simple spell to unlock it. The door clicked then swung open softly to reveal a dark interior. He went in first leaving her behind. Marie frowned and followed after him.

A single light hung from the ceiling, illuminating the room in a dim yellow glow. Three of the walls were taken up by shelves filled with glass bottles. The last wall had a table in front of it. On the table, there were several beakers and tubes filled with different colored liquids. A few of the bottles were empty. Marie moved towards the closest shelf and examined the bottles. None of the bottles were labeled. It didn’t matter if they were filled or empty. There were no identifying marks on any of them. She felt magic coming from several of the bottles but without a label there was no way to tell what was in them.

“Could you tell if any of these are the Eximius potion?” That was a word she hadn’t heard in a long time. She looked at Adrian. Why would he bring that up? He was standing stiffly with his arms crossed. His voice was calm but his jaw was clenched and his eyes were intense. Marie looked back at the shelf. The Eximius potion used blood and sometimes hair from magical beings in order to boost magic.

Magical beings were anything besides normal humans. That included vampires and werewolves whose magic was an integral part of their body and was the source of their regeneration. With werewolves, they also used it to transform their bodies into wolves. Since the magic was a part of their very cells, it couldn’t be used to cast magic. They would need to have an excess amount of magic beyond what was needed for their regeneration in order to be able to use it to cast spells but that was incredibly rare.

“I only know that it’s supposed to radiate magic.”

“I see.” There were several bottles that fit the bill but none of them looked the same. Some were a different color and were opaque while several of them were almost clear. Did he think that was their goal? But that didn’t make sense. If their goal had been the potion then just one of the werewolves would have been needed to make it. One werewolf could help them make five potions easily without putting the life of the werewolf in danger. The other ingredients that made up the potion were easy to get. No, if their goal had been the potion then Leon would have been a better target. A dragon would give a much bigger boost to magic than a werewolf would. Marie glanced at Adrian. He was glaring at the bottles and wasn’t paying any attention to her. She moved to the next room and hoped he wouldn’t follow her.

This room was the same size as the first room and almost identical in regards to the furniture. The difference here was that there were herbs hung up to dry and the bottles were filled with dry herbs. Marie went over to the table beneath the hanging herbs. There were some opened bottles out on the table. She scanned them for magic but she didn’t detect anything. Marie brought one of the bottles up to her face and fanned some of the scent her way. She felt like she knew what this was but she couldn’t remember. Marie put it back down. She picked up the second bottle and looked it over. She knew what this was. This bottle was put into her jacket pocket. It might come in handy later. She scanned the shelves but nothing caught her eye. It would take too long to search through each and every bottle and her knowledge of herbs was limited. Marie glanced around. A door at the back caught her eye.

The door was partially covered by a curtain. Marie moved it to the side so she could get a closer look at the door. There was no magic on it but she did feel a faint signal behind it. She opened the door slowly, ready for anything. It was the smallest room of the three. The room was probably half the size of the previous ones. In here, there were also shelves but these contained books. The table next to her had a notebook and medal. That’s where the magic was coming from. Everything else felt clean.

Marie scanned the shelves quickly. Any books that she considered helpful were teleported back to the room where she could look through them later. Since she wasn’t as versed in scent based magic, the books here might prove useful in figuring out what this person was planning as well as help her identify any plants she came across. After she’d gone through each of the shelves, she went back to the table and stared at the items for a moment. Marie carefully slid the medal off the notebook and opened it up to a random page. She flipped through a few more pages before she came to something she could read. Marie closed the notebook and teleported it to the room. She was finally getting somewhere.

The medal was going to be a problem. Given its nature, it was better not to teleport it over. She glanced around but there was nothing for her to use in here. There might be something in the other rooms but she didn’t want Adrian to find out about this. Marie took her jacket off and slid the medal into her empty pocket. Carefully, she put her jacket back on. Now she just needed to get this back to the room so she could examine it further. Marie jumped. It sounded like several bottles had broken. She made sure the medal wasn’t visible before heading back through the house.

She found the source of the noise back in the first room. Several of the bottles were shattered on the ground. Marie’s nose wrinkled at the heavy scent that filled the air. Adrian’s back was turned towards her.

“What happened?”

“This happened.” He turned and showed her the snake he held in his hand. Adrian let it go. The snake dropped to the floor and remained motionless. She went over and knelt down beside it. Marie was surprised to see that whoever owned this place used an actual snake to guard rather than a spell. She flipped it over with one finger. “Be careful. I’m assuming it was poisonous.” She glanced at him.

“Did it bite you?”

“No. I caught it before it could.” Marie nodded. She stood up and froze at the sudden sensation of magic. There was a spell underneath the building. Not good. Marie touched Adrian and teleported them both out, about fifty feet away from the house.

“What’s going on?” The question was barely out of his mouth when the house exploded.