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circles, but fortunately my driving didn’t. I found the interstate without trouble and wondered if a subconscious part of my brain recognized my surroundings. After all, this had been my home. I wished it were more familiar.
    “You look sad,” James said.
    I glanced over and found him watching me. “I’m lamenting how little I learned from this expedition.”
    “Like that it wasn’t an explosion in the lab that blew up the Alchemica?”
    True. The labs were intact. “What if the Elements did it? The Flame Lord was there.”
    “Why would the Flame Lord destroy the Alchemica?”
    “I don’t know. Professional envy?” I gripped the wheel and glared at the road through the windshield. Why else would the Flame Lord have been there? A new thought occurred. “I could ask him.”
    “You can’t be serious.”
    Yes, someone who witnessed the destruction. Even if he didn’t do it, the Flame Lord could shed some light on what happened that night. If he wasn’t innocent…
    “You are serious.” James interrupted my thoughts.
    “I could do it. I know a few potions that’ll make any guy talk.” I’d need to pick up some ingredients. And it’d take a day to prepare.
    “You going to slip it in his drink or what?”
    James had a point. The delivery system might prove tricky. But first I’d have to get in to see the Flame Lord. “Don’t they hear petitions?”
    “How do you know your potion would even work? You know how unpredictable they can be with the magical.”
    “I could experiment.” I kept my eyes on the road. “On you, if you’d let me. Unless there’s something about your magic that’s different.”
    “It’s a curse.” His low voice just reached me. “Centuries ago an ancestor made a deal.”
    “With the devil?” I joked.
    “The details have been lost, but I do know that he bartered away not only his own life, but those of his descendants.”
    “Your brothers?”
    “It doesn’t work like that. Only one of us has to pay the price.”
    “The price?”
    He fell silent, and I looked over to find him watching the dark landscape flashing past his window. Wow. Old Magic. Rare and wondrous, and not following any of the modern laws. Well, none of the New Magic laws. Magic, being a product of the mind, was molded by the user’s beliefs. When magic returned almost two decades ago, it found a modern world rooted in science, and those beliefs colored the way New Magic manifested.
    Old Magic was different. It had always been around, hiding in the dark and forgotten places, pretending not to exist. Quietly passed down through the generations to a distant descendant…like James.
    I made an effort to rein in my enthusiasm. Why did he call it a curse? That sounded like a clichéd B movie.
    “Werewolf?”
    “No.” He squinted in the glare of a passing car. “I’m a grim.”
    I searched my memory. “If I knew what that was, I no longer do.”
    “Shuck, devil dog, hellhound.”
    “Hellhound? Your eyes aren’t red, they’re green.
    He grunted and leaned back in his seat again.
    “I’m kidding. Come on, a hellhound?”
    He didn’t respond. Why didn’t he want to talk about this? It wasn’t like he was evil. He’d come to my rescue tonight, and it wasn’t the first time.
    “The night the Alchemica burned. You ran those guys off.”
    “Yeah.”
    I waited, but he didn’t offer anything else. When I glanced over again, his eyes were closed. “James?”
    A soft snore answered me.

Chapter
4
    I had no trouble getting an audience with the Lord of Flames. All it took was a phone call. As leaders of the magical community, the Elements led in a manner similar to any organization in the modern world: they maintained central offices that required an appointment. When the magical had a problem, the Elemental Offices helped them find a solution. I didn’t qualify as magical, but I figured having a problem with the magical was close enough.
    James dropped another bullet into a cardboard ammo box.