Unleashing Echoes (Reconstructionist 3) Read online

  Unleashing Echoes

  Reconstructionist 3

  Meghan Ciana Doidge

  Old Man in the CrossWalk Productions

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Dowser Series Cookbook

  The Adept Universe by MCD

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  Author’s Note:

  * * *

  Unleashing Echoes is the third book in the Reconstructionist series, which is set in the same universe as the Dowser and Oracle series.

  While it is not necessary to read all three series, in order to avoid spoilers the ideal reading order is as follows:

  Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1)

  Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 2)

  Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser 3)

  I See Me (Oracle 1)

  Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic (Dowser 4)

  Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser 5)

  I See You (Oracle 2)

  Artifacts, Dragons, and Other Lethal Magic (Dowser 6)

  I See Us (Oracle 3)

  Catching Echoes (Reconstructionist 1)

  Tangled Echoes (Reconstructionist 2)

  Unleashing Echoes (Reconstructionist 3)

  Other books in the Dowser series to follow.

  More information can be found at www.madebymeghan.ca/novels

  Introduction

  For twelve years, I had managed to separate my personal life from my professional life, becoming one of the best reconstructionists in the world — and proving to myself that I could do so on my own merits.

  Then I’d been forced into contact with my family, reuniting with someone I thought I’d lost forever, and rescuing my best friend. Now I had to savor what little time I had left before the contract with the Conclave came due and my future was wrenched from my control.

  Except there was one last case to solve.

  One last set of puzzle pieces to collect, then assemble again.

  But this time, I would have to be the investigator and the executioner. Whether I wanted to be or not.

  Because it seemed as though the future wouldn’t be allowed to finally unfold until the past had its way.

  Chapter 1

  The moment that Jasper reclaimed the manor … the moment he regained control of the magic embedded in the Fairchild estate, I fell to my knees in the produce section of a Whole Foods in Chicago. Losing hold of the lemon I’d been about to add to my basket, I gasped as the magical connection was ripped from me — torn from what felt like my very soul, my very essence.

  Then, with a wash of brownie magic, rough-skinned fingers I couldn’t see brushed my arms, and a disembodied voice whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  “Lark,” I murmured, struggling to focus through the aching emptiness radiating out through my chest and into my limbs.

  “You must come.” The brownie’s hushed request was woeful.

  Lark had pledged herself to me after I’d claimed the Fairchild estate magic almost four months before, in a rash attempt to free Jasmine and Declan from the clutches of three vampires. Even as I struggled to regain my equilibrium, I felt a moment of honest surprise that it had taken Jasper so long to wrestle control of the ancestral magic back. Though I didn’t doubt that it had taken some terrible feat to break the connection, anchored as it was to the power of three — namely Jasmine, Declan, and me.

  That same manner of dreadful magic had most likely been responsible for my uncle getting out of his wheelchair. He’d been walking when I saw him in Litchfield, for the first time in more than twelve years. But I’d chosen — selfishly perhaps — to once again walk away from Connecticut and everything it represented only a day after rescuing Jasmine. And I had no plans to return, despite my aunt Rose’s repeated attempts to woo me back into the Fairchild coven.

  The energy of the brownie’s magic lingered around me for the space of a single breath. Then I was alone.

  Once again, I was disconnected from the magic of the Fairchild coven. Severed from the power that was my ancestral right to wield.

  I should have felt relieved of the burden, of the obligation. Instead, I knelt on gray-stained wood flooring and felt … bereft.

  Weak.

  Incomplete.

  Missing.

  A low pulse of frenetic energy nearby informed me that Jasmine was running back through the grocery store toward me. I’d left her drooling over the candy bars and chips a couple of aisles away. I could feel her magic and her panic before she cleared the towering display of organic Royal Gala apples, then slid to a stop as she spotted me.

  Her dark golden curls tumbled across her shoulders. She was pale, frantic. Her bright-blue eyes were wide with tension and simmering with her witch magic. The vivid and unusual power display was likely a residual of whatever effect Jasper’s reclaiming the estate was having on her — on us — since I’d inadvertently bound her and Declan, along with myself, to the estate’s magic.

  Jasper. Our uncle. The bane of my existence. Reaching out once again and playing with my life, as easily as the wind stirred the leaves in the apple orchard that had once been a haven from my childhood.

  Perhaps I shouldn’t have walked away so readily. But there was no place for me in Litchfield. Nothing but constant reminders of an abusive childhood, despite us holding the ancestral ties to the magic of the Fairchild estate. The coven was corrupt from within, and I had no ability to forgive and forget. Honestly, I hadn’t wanted the responsibility of confronting our elders, purging the corruption and destroying the coven in the process.

  Jasmine took another step toward me. Her expression twisted with despair, reacting to whatever she saw on my own face. Reacting to a decision I hadn’t even made yet. But Lark wouldn’t have asked me to return to the manor if it wasn’t crucial.

  “You aren’t his keeper, Wisteria,” she said. She meant Jasper.

  “If not me, then who?” I whispered, placing my palms flat on the floor and pushing myself to my feet.

  Jasmine’s phone buzzed.

  Glancing around and hoping I hadn’t drawn any awkward attention from the few patrons quietly grocery shopping alongside me, I smoothed the fabric of my fitted, dark-navy, stretch-linen dress, making sure the subtle black lacework appliqué that ran from the center neck to the hem wasn’t oddly twisted.

  Jasmine pulled her phone out of the pocket of her figure-hugging brown suede jacket, answering the call but not taking her gaze from me. “She’s here.”

  Declan. He would have felt the severing of the connection to the estate magic, as Jasmine had.

  Ignoring the way my heart rate momentarily ramped up at the thought of Jasmine’s brother calling out of concern for me, I checked to make sure my white-to-teal-blue gradient silk scarf was still draped around my neck, artfully tucked underneath my open Burberry heritage navy-blue trench coat.

  “We’re on a job in Chicago,” Jasmine said, still eyeing me as she spoke to her brother. “A missing girl.”

  Turning away from her conversation, I collected the items that had spilled from my basket — two bananas, an orange, and the lemon I’d lost hold of. We’d been shopping for light breakfast items for the following
morning, filling the hour between our flights and the meeting that had brought us to Chicago. Well, along with snacks for Jasmine, though she appeared to have left her basket elsewhere.

  “You know I can’t stop her,” Jasmine said crossly. “But duty will keep her in Chicago. For now.”

  I contemplated the apples. Jasmine was partly correct. Duty did drive me. Duty to my job as a reconstructionist for the witches’ Convocation. But despite my resolve and resistance, I understood that Lark’s plea was going to force me back to Connecticut once again.

  Because of Jasper. Because of whatever malicious spell he’d cast to reject the brownies’ dominion over Fairchild Manor. Whatever magic had let him tear through the familial ties I’d grounded in my own, Declan’s, and Jasmine’s magic.

  Because investigating terrible deeds was our job. My duty.

  Even if it meant facing our family again. Even if it meant facing our own ingrained fears and nightmares.

  Unfortunately for me, those were one and the same.

  “It’s time,” I said to Jasmine, heedless of whatever Declan was saying to her. “We’re just hypocrites otherwise. Investigating the crimes of Adepts not powerful enough to hide from us, from the Convocation. But ignoring those crimes committed by our own coven.”

  “A child is missing —”

  “And we’ll find her,” I said, interrupting the beginning of my cousin’s protest. “Then we’ll go and collect enough evidence to bring Jasper to a tribunal. We’ll depose him. Properly.”

  Jasmine stared at me, utterly aghast.

  I placed two apples in my basket.

  Declan shouted something through the speaker on Jasmine’s phone. I didn’t catch his words, just the furious intonation.

  Jasmine snapped her mouth shut, then spoke into the phone rather than to me. “If you want to stop her, then get your ass over here.” Then she ended the call, hanging up on Declan.

  “No one in the family is clean,” she said to me. “None of them are without some tarnish. Are you prepared to head the coven?”

  I shook my head. “Rose will. Officially, as she does now. And the coven magic will naturally settle on her.”

  Jasmine snorted. “If you rip down the facade, she’ll be the first conspirator to be condemned.”

  I closed the space between us, gently placing my hand on Jasmine’s arm. She shuddered at the touch of my magic.

  “It’s time,” I said quietly. “You don’t ever have to be in the same room as him. But it’s time.”

  “Just tear it all down, hey?” Her voice cracked with emotion. “Just expose all our darkness? Invite the world to witness our wounds?”

  “Yes. It’s time to move forward.” I dropped my hand. I crossed through the produce section, adding seedless red grapes to my basket, then moving toward an open-front refrigerator that held freshly blended juices.

  Jasmine trailed after me.

  I couldn’t carry the pain any longer — mine, Jasmine’s or Declan’s.

  I had almost lost myself, almost allowed myself to be consumed within my own reconstruction of my happiest childhood memory in order to flee that pain. We were all lost within it even now, clinging to each other — though none of us stood on solid ground.

  Jasper wasn’t a monster. He was just a man. Flawed and depraved, yes. Insurmountable, no.

  So though I felt like sobbing at the devastating loss of the magic that had just been torn from me, I would move forward. I would force the three of us into the future. I had no other choice, really.

  It was time to put an end to the feud with Jasper. And it would be better to do so before Kett was compelled to demand my acceptance of the conditions of the contract with the Conclave. Time-sensitive stipulations, which required my lifeblood but would gift me with immortality and invulnerability.

  It would be better to defeat Jasper as a witch, on witch terms, and within the bounds of Convocation law.

  Because after I was a vampire?

  Well, depending on how the transformation affected me, I expected it was going to be much better for the health of the coven if I never set foot in Connecticut again.

  And I wanted my vengeance cold and calculated. After all, that was exactly how Jasper had ruined our childhoods. He deserved the same in return.

  A violent, terrifying death would be too simple for him. And too easy for the coven to cover up — as they had already covered up the mental and sexual abuse our uncle skillfully inflicted on Jasmine, Declan, and me under the guise of training the next generation of Fairchild witches.

  No, I didn’t want Jasper’s blood. I wanted to strip away everything that gave his life meaning and worth. And I’d do it all aboveboard.

  Then we’d finally be even.

  But first I had a job to do, and a missing girl to find.

  The Camerons lived among a block of brownstones on South Slate Street, only five minutes from the downtown core of Chicago. A series of interconnected parks that created a narrow but well-maintained green space between the shore of Lake Michigan and the metropolis was within walking distance. Well, it would have been walking distance if I’d changed into my work flats, and if a flash thunderstorm hadn’t overshadowed the mild, sunny afternoon moments after we’d climbed into a taxi with our groceries.

  Whether it was specific to the month of May or not, the weather in Chicago most definitely lived up to its capricious reputation. The thunderstorm passed so quickly that the downpour ceased during our dash from the side street where we’d asked the cabbie to drop us. By the time Jasmine and I jogged up the steps to the Camerons’ black-painted front door, we’d stopped cursing our lack of umbrellas.

  Jasmine had formally requested my services through the Convocation for the investigation, which she’d been assigned the day before. We’d flown in from different locations, meeting at the airport. Though she was currently living with me in Seattle, my best friend had been on another job in New York.

  The Chicago case centered around a nine-year-old witch, Ruby Cameron. She was missing. And to make matters even more sinister, her mother, Coral, swore that her child didn’t exist.

  It was just after four o’clock as Jasmine reached for the brass knocker on the front door. Having been told that the Camerons wouldn’t be available to talk to us until late afternoon had given us the time to have our bags dropped at the hotel, and for our Whole Foods stop. I remembered to take a step back, angling myself slightly behind my cousin — I wasn’t the lead investigator — moments before a sandy-haired man in his midthirties opened the door.

  He took one look at us, and relief flooded through his entire body. “Thank God,” he said. “I’ve been … worried you weren’t coming … that you wouldn’t get here soon enough.”

  “I’m Jasmine Fairchild,” my cousin said. “This is Wisteria Fairchild. She specializes in reconstructions.”

  “Thank you. Thank you.” The man thrust out his hand as he spoke, but then at the last minute, he curled his fingers back from the offered handshake. His smile faltered as he glanced back and forth between us. “I’m … Jon Cameron. Jonquil. It’s a shade of yellow. But I go by … Jon …”

  Jasmine smiled. “We’re here from the Convocation, Jon. Not to hurt you. Or your family.”

  Jon straightened his shoulders, looking embarrassed. “Of course … not. I just … it’s been a weird weekend, and I wasn’t certain … about …” He trailed off awkwardly.

  “Shall we come in?”

  “Yes. Um …” He stepped back to allow us entry into the townhouse. “But if we could have a moment, please. Before we involve my sister, Coral.”

  An open but practically empty closet was tucked into a niche on the left side of the tight entranceway. I closed and latched the front door behind me, then quickly tucked our brown-paper grocery bags inside the closet and hung up my soaked trench coat, carefully allowing space between it and the single coat already hanging there. Jasmine unbuttoned her jacket but didn’t remove it.

  A steep, narrow stai
rcase led almost directly from the front door to the second level. Given what we’d seen of the building, it seemed likely that there were at least three floors above us and one below. Jon hustled past the stairs, though, turning right into a living room that overlooked the busy street. Jasmine and I followed.

  “Tea?” Jon asked, wringing his hands. He paused behind the long, low couch facing a retrofitted gas fireplace.

  “Perhaps later,” Jasmine said. “I’ve read the transcript of the conversation you had with your coven leader.”

  “Well,” he said, flustered again as he circled the couch but didn’t sit down. “Not my coven leader. I mean, I’m a Cameron, but I’m not a practicing witch. Coral is … was …”

  The Camerons were one of the founding families of the Convocation, along with the Godfreys and the Fairchilds. They actively held one of the thirteen seats. But those members who resided in Chicago, and in North America in general, were distant relatives to the main branch of Camerons, whose estate was based in Scotland.

  “I actually wasn’t sure of the protocol,” Jon said. “I thought I should call the police, but Coral’s mental state was …” He reached up and adjusted a picture on the mantel, showing a cherub-faced, ginger-haired child sitting in a swing. “Ruby … taken a few months ago.”

  Oddly, the photograph seemed to be the only personal item set out in the room. I glanced through a doorway to our left, catching a glimpse of the kitchen at the back of the house.

  “How long has Ruby been missing?” Jasmine asked. She would have been issued a report when she was assigned the case, but reconfirming details was always the best way to begin a conversation with a potential witness.