I was not used to being romanced, and Ben Donovan seemed bound and determined to win my heart. I hadn't spent so much time blushing in years, and found I didn't mind a bit.

That afternoon was delightful. First, we went to the National Gallery and roamed its halls for two hours…a fraction of the amount of time needed to see everything that was on display there. The whole time we were there, Ben made a point of remaining in contact with me: holding my hand, wrapping an arm around my shoulders or around my waist, or linking arms with me. We paused to kiss whenever nobody but Artemis and Athena was around to see, and came close to getting caught a couple of times. There was a charming innocence to the way he did it that was so much more appealing to me than anything I had experienced during my time with the Tantric mages.

He bought me a beautiful silver Celtic knot pendant before we left the Gallery and hung it around my neck himself, taking a moment to caress the back of my neck as he did so. Athena and Artemis were highly amused.

Then we went to a lovely little restaurant in the West End, not far from the theater we'd be going to. He had reserved a table in a quiet corner, and the whole place was lit only by candles and gas lamps. We ordered more food than we could sanely eat and fed one another bites from our dishes, accompanied by giggling and more than a few happy sighs and a lot of purring from Athena and Artemis as they responded to my emotional state.

Basically, we acted like a couple of lovesick teenagers. I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

There was only one thing I wished I could have changed. All the time we were having fun, I felt a prickling sensation on the back of my neck, like we were being watched. Of course, we were...by Ben's backup, and by whoever (or whatever) was keeping tabs on me for Brenna. I knew my familiars were keeping a sharp eye out - it wasn't unusual for familiars to behave sort of like bodyguards, so they were able to watch our surroundings closely without looking suspicious.

Between them, they decided that they had spotted five Scotland Yard detectives in casual, civilian clothes. By the time we left the restaurant, Athena was positive she recognized four of them and wasn't certain about the fifth. Artemis was certain about the fifth, and made a few typically teasing remarks about how being Elevated had blunted her sister's senses. As we sat down in the balcony booth that Ben had reserved for us, they agreed that they hadn't seen anyone else watching us.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be relieved, or disappointed. On one hand, we wanted to lure Brenna into retaking control of the ghost to send it after Ben. On the other hand, I wasn't keen to find out if she was having me watched. The thought that she might have been was amazingly creepy.

Likewise, I tried not to think about the fact that we might be completely off-target with the whole plan. We had no way of being certain Brenna was actually involved. So far, her involvement in the string of murders perpetrated by the ghost of the Thames Slasher was completely hypothetical. Part of me wanted it to stay that way.

Part of me wanted to learn more about her. Was she really my cousin? Was she as crazy as she appeared to be, or could she be talked down and made to see reason?

For my entire childhood, the word 'family' meant my mother. Her parents - old school and extremely traditional druids - had disowned her when I was born. It had been acceptable - barely - for her to be a single mother...but the single mother of a Sidhe half-blood was completely intolerable. And that was all I knew about them. Mom never spoke of them, and they'd never turned up on the doorstep to meet their granddaughter.

When I was a teenager, Jonathan Tremane had come into my life and unintentionally filled the role of father figure for me. I had been absolutely thrilled when he and my mother had become engaged to marry recently, and was looking forward to their planned summer wedding.

And, of course, there were my beloved Athena and Artemis. The sisters I'd never had growing up, and would now never be without ever again.

Hollis Ellister and his familiar Elsie were quickly starting to fill the 'favored uncle and aunt' roles, and now Ben Donovan was courting me. I was building my own family, and they meant the world to me.

But...if Brenna really was a blood relative...maybe she could help me find my father. And maybe I'd be abducted by aliens. Anything is possible. However, it was most likely a pipe dream, and I knew it. Better to give my love and affection to the people who cared about me and weren't psychotic.

Fortunately, Cats provided me with a more than adequate distraction from my maudlin mental meanderings (oooh, alliterative). Athena and Artemis found the antics of the human actors playing anthropomorphized cats highly amusing, especially the bit where they appeared out in the audience and up in the balconies, then made their way down to the stage. The music was wonderful, the story woven through the poetry was a lovely tale of forgiveness, redemption and rebirth, and the production was simply amazing. If you've never seen it, I highly recommend it - it's tremendous fun.

I'm pretty sure the performer playing Mr. Mistoffelees was actually an Elevated familiar...but I had no way to prove it. Still, there was something significantly more cat-like about him than any of the other performers. Maybe he was just that good.

At any rate, we left the theater in high good spirits. After a brief discussion, we decided that we all wanted to stretch our legs a bit and started down the street towards a café we'd seen on our way in, which listed in its window menu some absolutely sinful-sounding chocolate desserts.

Woe betide he who comes between a Kinnear woman and her chocolate.

Halfway there, Athena - walking beside me, with Ben on my other side and Artemis in front of us - suddenly nudged my arm to draw my attention away from Ben. <>

I had to stop myself from glancing around. If we were being watched, the only thing I'd accomplish by looking around like a hunted animal would be to tip off someone - or something - tough enough to remove five Scotland Yard detectives from the equation without alerting the whole neighborhood.

So instead, I squeezed Ben's hand twice. He broke off from the very funny story he'd been telling me about a missing persons case he'd worked right after starting with the London Metropolitan Police - which had turned out to be a missing pet cat - and focused on my eyes. He must have seen my disquiet, because he smiled reassuringly and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Don't worry, we've got backup."

"According to Athena," I whispered back, "They're not there anymore."

His eyes widened a little and his hand tightened around mine a bit. "Oh." I saw him resist the urge to look around, the same way I had. It showed in the sudden tensing of muscles in his neck. "Well, we're almost to the café, I'm sure - "

With a grunt, he was yanked off his feet and into the alley we were passing, his hand torn painfully away from mine. I saw him crash to the ground several feet away, then something I couldn't see was dragging him further into the alley.

Athena, Artemis and I moved as one. They ran past me and into the alley on either side, and I followed only a step or two behind them, suddenly wishing I had my entire magical arsenal with me. What was the quickest way to make the ghost manifest itself visibly? Fire would hurt it on a metaphysical level - fire, in addition to the obvious effects, is an element of cleansing and purification, which is really good against negative entities. Unfortunately, any amount of fire sufficient to hurt it would cause all sorts of problems in the relatively narrow alleyway.

And there was that whole thing about the use of fire magic being frowned on in London. The people of Albion were very slow to forget the Great London Fire of 1666. So yeah, fire magic was to be avoided.

That made lightning the magic of choice for offensive spellcasting in metropolitan areas (not only in London...the London magistrates were just a bit quicker to throw the entire book at you if you used fire). But in a narrow alley, there would be complications to take into account. There were metal pipes everywhere. I saw at least two metal fire escapes, and several metal trash cans.

Lightning was very accurate, to be sure...but it still liked to go to metal more than anything else, and I'd have to take that into account when casting. Was there anything simpler and quicker? I could try a spell to reveal invisible things, but that wasn't guaranteed to work on spiritual entities. Water magic might have worked if it was a physical entity. Force? Air magic?

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Force. Maybe I couldn't attack it directly with ease, but I could get Ben away from it.

All of this went through my head in the time it took me to run two or three steps. Then I was gathering my Anima, reaching out with my right hand and crying out in Gaelic, "Béarfaidh mé!" I was being literal and imperative: 'I will catch!'

I can speak flawless Gaelic, honest. But for spellcasting, simpler was better most of the time, and intent was more important than perfect grammar.

So I poured Anima into the spell, shaped by my intent and the verbal focus, and cast it. A hand of invisible force wrapped around Ben's legs and pulled.

It should have worked. Maybe I was being too gentle, afraid of hurting Ben if the ghost's grip on him was too strong. As it was, the results were...less than ideal. Ben came to a halt with a cry of surprise and pain, stretched between two invisible forces - my spell, and the ghost.

I released the spell immediately, afraid of doing more harm than good. The ghost, probably infuriated by being interrupted, yanked Ben into the air, swung him around and slammed him into a wall. I heard something pop as he swung through the air and heard him cry out in pain just before he hit.

Athena dropped into a roll as she passed him before he fell back to the ground, coming to her feet again several paces beyond. Then she turned and pointed to the ground.

I have no idea when she'd retrieved it from her belt, but the ruby she'd shown me before we left home was lying on the street directly beneath where the ghost had to be. She's such a clever girl, and obviously quicker on the uptake than I am. Or maybe my judgment was muddled by my fear for Ben.

She had given me an idea though. I reached into a pouch on my belt and drew out four of my rune blocks.

While I was taking my Mage qualification exams, I had joked with the examiner about my rune blocks being more useful than a circle because they could be deployed more quickly and efficiently, and in a moment of crisis could be laid out in a matter of seconds. The elderly examiner had replied with a ten minute tirade about sloppy spellcasting and how the younger generation didn't care about the artistry and elegance of properly cast ritual spells, as long as they were effective and efficient.

He wasn’t exactly wrong. My spellcasting definitely wasn’t sloppy (usually), but I really didn’t care about the artistry and elegance of a ritual when I was under pressure. Most Wizards have a rather unconventional view of the world.

He'd been forced to give me a passing grade anyway when I used the rune blocks to trap him in a forcefield. It had taken him a half-hour just to determine he wasn't going to be able to break it down easily. The rune blocks made for powerfully stable magical anchors.

Now, I hoped he'd been wrong about the sloppy part. Because I was in a hurry and was going to have to try a random combination. I had talked it over with Jonathan during my apprenticeship, and he'd agreed that most combinations of the runes I'd prepared should provide beneficial effects. Granted, there was a very, very slim chance that the combination of runes that came up could prove...unfortunate. I'm not talking about world-ending bad, but there was a chance that they might do something destructive, or do nothing at all. But considering the runes I'd chosen to work with, Jonathan and I decided that those were extremely unlikely outcomes. Time to find out if we'd been correct.

I bent and threw the rune blocks across the pavement. They tumbled to a halt in a (very) rough circle around the ruby, but it was too dark for me to see which runes were facing the sky. Never mind, I had no time. I envisioned a cage forming around the ghost, and sent all the Anima I could quickly gather into the rune blocks.

The runes flared brightly - too brightly for me to see what they were still - and I had to shade my eyes with my hand for a moment. When I lowered my hand, I saw a shimmering column of energy rising up in a circle around the ruby as the translucent and roughly humanoid figure caught inside slammed into its new cage again and again.

I blew out a relieved breath and hurried to Ben's side. Athena knelt down beside me a moment later, and together we examined him while Artemis watched our backs.

He had hit the ground on his back, and looked up at us with a dazed expression. His pupils were both the same size - a good sign, or so I believed - and there was only a little bit of blood seeping from his nose. Considering the angle of said nose, I feared it was probably broken. His left arm lay at an odd angle as well. I guessed that his shoulder had dislocated when the ghost swung him into the wall - that would explain the pop I'd heard.

"Hey," he wheezed, his voice a bit more nasal and congested-sounding than usual. "I think the ghost is here."

I smiled and realized that there were tears on my cheeks. I wiped them away quickly. "That's very observant, detective. It's no wonder the Yard wanted you."

"I think my shoulder is dislocated," he said a moment later. "It hurts like hell." He frowned a little and winced. "Nose too, huh?"

I nodded, deeply relieved by how lucid he sounded. "Afraid so. The wall packs a mean right hook."

"I'll see if I can get an ambulance," Athena said quietly as she rose.

Ben's right hand caught her ankle before she could go. "No...help Alys trap the ghost first."

She looked down at me questioningly. I grimaced. I wanted to get help for Ben, to get his injuries seen to and his pain alleviated. But he was right. "I don't think he's in any immediate danger, Athena...and my trap won't hold the ghost for long. I'm not sure how stable it actually is."

Athena, bless her heart, looked as torn as I felt. "Yes, sister."

Artemis came forward then, settling down beside Ben on his right side. <>

At any other time, I'm positive I would have blushed furiously and reprimanded her. But his good hand came to rest on her back and he smiled up at me in spite of his obvious pain. "See? I'm in good paws. Hurry. Don't let that thing escape."

Athena and I returned to my impromptu magical cage as I tried to figure out how best to proceed. I needed to trap the ghost permanently, and the ruby would make an excellent vessel for it.

I simply had to decant the ghost's energy and essence into it and seal it in.

Simple.

Sure.

I scratched behind my right ear.

"Alys?" Athena asked softly. I did so prefer hearing her use my name - I wished I'd realized earlier how wrong letting her call me 'mistress' had felt.

<> I told her silently, not wanting to risk Ben hearing what I was about to admit, <>

<> Athena replied sympathetically. Then she gave me a warm smile, and her confidence in me flowed between us and filled me. <>

I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and let it out. "All right, then," I said, opening another pouch on my belt and pulling out a quart jar. I passed the jar, filled with fine white sand, to Athena. "Spread that…"

"In a circle around the outside of the cage," she finished for me. <>

<> I was warmed by the way she flashed me a quick, beaming smile when I called her sister.

I produced four white candles from another pouch on my belt and followed her as she poured the sand, placing the candles as close to the cardinal points as I could get them without a compass. <> I said to Athena.

<> she replied.

In moments, we had surrounded the ghost with white sand and candles, implements of purification, to help me focus. Hollis or Jonathan probably could have done without them, but I was still honing my skills.

It took only a small amount of Anima to cast the simple spell that lit the candles. I gathered quite a lot more Anima as I began chanting under my breath in Gaelic, kneeling down and touching the line of sand with the first two fingers of my right hand. I chanted about how important it was to bind the ghost properly, and how many people would be made safe by doing so. Basically, I was giving myself a pep talk as I gathered energy and started to build the spell in my mind.

The spell would take the shape of a literal funnel of wind, swirling around and around the ghost and down into the ruby. It wasn't the wind itself that would do the work, but it created the framework for the work I needed to shape the spell. Namely, the additional energy I was going to pour into the spell, which would also be swirling around the ghost, slowly forcing it down into the faceted ruby. I envisioned the energy then forming a strong layer on each facet of the gem and using the gem's own shape and stability to seal the ghost within.

It took me five minutes to gather all of the energy I felt I needed, and a few minutes more to construct the spell in my mind clearly enough to make it work. During that time, I had to set aside my concern for Ben my fear that I was going to screw this up and let the ghost escape. I blocked out the ghost's howling and the smells and sounds of the city. I couldn't afford any distractions, emotional or intellectual.

That's why spellcasters like to have a familiar. You always have someone to watch your back.

Finally, I released the energy and cast the spell. The wind swirled and quickly drowned out the ghost. Its form began to shrink and compress, distorting even the strangely void-like jagged scar on its head, which had probably marked the end of the killer's life. The gem gave a bright red flash as the ghost's energy filled it, and I quickly wrapped the gem in the metaphorical equivalent of dozens of layers of plastic wrap, then hardened the magical shell until it was nearly as strong as the gem itself.

I almost collapsed when I was finished. It had been months since I'd gathered up and expended that much Anima at once, and it left me light-headed and breathless. I really needed to work on my stamina.

"Did it work?" Ben's voice asked weakly from behind me.

I crawled forward, breaking the circle of sand and noting with some dismay that my energy trap had collapsed with me. I really, really needed to work on my stamina. But as far as I could tell, it had worked...the gem felt warm to the touch and seemed to glow softly with its own internal light, a sign of the energy it contained. I'd ask Hollis to check it as soon as possible and make sure the ghost was really well and truly trapped.

"I think it worked," I replied.

"Cool," he said. "I think I might pass out now."

"Not yet you don't!" I exclaimed, suddenly afraid that he might have a concussion. I tucked the gem into a pocket and crawled over to him. "Stay awake, focus on me."

His eyes roamed around aimlessly for a moment, then met mine and seemed to come into focus. "For as long as you want, pretty lady," he said with a smile. I couldn't tell if he was teasing me, or really that loopy.

Without a word, Athena ran for the end of the alley to go and call for an ambulance. Artemis stayed close by my side, a silently warm and reassuring presence, certain that everything would be okay because her sisters would make it so.

How had I ever gotten through the day without them?