Read Deadly Sin (Cassandra Farbanks) for Free Online

leave it lying around. I think I can end the enchantment.”
    “Be my guest,” he said, extending his arm to indicate the table was all mine. Spells that replicated like this need a charm, an object imbued with magic to sustain the spell. Something on the table acted like a power source or an epicenter. I scanned the objects on the table looking for something that stuck out. A red shimmer caught the corner of my eye and I was drawn to the table’s center piece. I focused using my power, like sending out sonar, to see what it would bounce off of, what created an echo of magic. I reached out my hand and slowly plucked the ruby red apple from the pig’s mouth. All the food, plates, and candle sticks turned to dust. It tumbled into the air, forcing both of us away from the table coughing.
    “Detective Hamilton, you might want to see this,” called Ro from the other side of the swirling vortex. We walked carefully around the end of the table towards the sound of her voice, batting at the cloud and pushing it away. She was examining something on the dead guy’s forehead. I tried keeping the dress from touching him as I squatted down next to his head. There was a symbol glowing from within his flesh with a strange, orange light. I slowly reached out to trace it with my finger, but touching it was a mistake. I felt a blow to the gut by a giant fist, and I swear a familiar, wicked grin danced behind my eyelids. A hand on my shoulder shook me. I opened my eyes to look at Hamilton.
    “Are you alright? How do you feel?” It took the longest time for me to think about that. How did I feel? I felt, hungry. I looked at the apple in my lap. Its surface gleamed with a red light. I knew, I don’t know how, that if I put the apple back on the table, all the food would reappear. Then I could eat my fill. I shook my head pushing the feeling away. Food had never been a problem for me, and it wouldn’t be now just because some sly voice whispered in the back of my head.
    “Cassandra? Speak to me.”
    “Temptation,” I said. It took me twice to say it, my tongue feeling very heavy in my mouth. I held up the apple. “The original temptation.” Hamilton looked at me blankly. He didn’t get it. “I guess it’s not something widely known if you’re not a Christian,” I continued with a sigh and pulling myself into a more dignified sitting position. “The apple is the symbol of the fruit that the snake talked Eve into eating from the tree of knowledge. I have no idea how the snake could talk as I’ve never read it, and I doubt that Eve was a parcel tongue.”
    “That’s Harry Potter, so we know that’s not real,” he said laughing. I looked at his face, and for the first time, I didn’t believe him. After all that he’s seen around me and I’ve told him, it was unfathomable that he didn’t think there could be people who talked to snakes. Paris Hamilton was playing dumb. I stared at him for the longest time. I think that made him uneasy because he pulled back, stood and offer me help back to my feet, rather than meet my accusatory gaze. There was a strange moment when I took his hand and his eyes read “leave it alone”. I ignored it for now, but the elephant had walked into the room and was prepared to take up residency. The mark faded from the dead man’s head.
    “Do you know what that mark is?” Hamilton asked in his official police voice. That voice, an erected shield around him. No one challenged him when he acted as the enforcer of law.
    “No but I can research, get back to you on it.” I held the apple out towards Ro. “Baggy, please.”
    She pulled up a bag and I dropped the offending morsel into it.
    “I don’t know how safe that is,” I warned her. “Don’t leave it naked on a table and do not eat it.”
    “It’s evidence,” said Ro, sealing the bag and looking slightly offended.
    “I know that, but its magic, evil magic, and I want you to be extra careful.” She nodded and taped the bag shut,