Magic on the Hunt by Devon Monk Page A

Dad and Victor really had been friends once. And though my dad would never acknowledge it, that token of compassion from Victor meant a lot to him.
    It was confusing sharing your mind with someone else.
    “I want you to help us find Sedra,” Victor said. What do you know? He hadn’t forgotten why we were there. “We will not abandon one of our own. You will show Allie where the location device is and how to use it.”
    Dad did not want to do that. At all. But he said, “My pleasure.”
    And then he pulled back into the cottony corner of my mind so quickly, I inhaled a sharp breath to fill up the space he had emptied.
    “It’s me,” I said. “Just me now.”
    Shame was done pacing and had poured another shot of whiskey, which he handed to me.
    “Thought you might want to wash the taste of him out of your mouth.”
    I took the whiskey. Got down half the shot. It burned and made my eyes water. I didn’t care.
    “So we get the locator,” Terric said, “and then follow it to wherever Jingo Jingo is? Remind me why we’ve spent weeks combing the city for him.”
    Hayden finally spoke. “We didn’t have the speaker of the dead over there giving us the inside information.”
    “If someone would have believed he was in my head, which I’ve been saying for months,” I said, “we could have done this sooner.”
    “What has happened,” Victor said, taking over the discussion, “is not what matters now. I do want to apologize for doubting you, Allie. You have not come to us in our brightest hour. Your father’s death, the increase in gates, the unrest, the disks, Greyson’s becoming a Necromorph—and now so much more. The storm. The betrayals. The kidnapping. Your possession.” He nodded.
    “Portland has always been more active due to the four wells, but these . . . crises are unprecedented. The best we can do is follow the rules and tenets of the Authority and pray that those rules will be enough to guide us.
    “And now that we have a modicum of control over your father, there is, at least, some relief for you. If what he says is true, we’ll soon be able to find Sedra and deal with Jingo Jingo.
    “I want you, Zayvion, and Shame to find the locator. Call as soon as you have it, and we will meet you before setting out to find Jingo. Everyone else, I’d like a moment with you to make sure we’re all up to date on everything that’s happened today.”
    “Let’s go,” Zay said to me quietly.
    “Wait,” I said. “Victor, I have a suggestion.”
    “Yes?”
    “I think we should utilize the Hounds.”
    Zay’s breath caught on the exhale, like he couldn’t believe I was bringing this up.
    “Really?” Victor said, not sounding at all interested in the idea. “How?”
    “To hunt. The Hounds could be looking for Dane. Could have been looking for Sedra and Jingo Jingo all this time. That’s what Hounds do. We hunt. We track. And we stay out of trouble and keep our mouths shut. I don’t trust every Hound in this city, but there’s a good handful that I believe would do the job and keep it quiet.”
    “We’ll discuss it,” he said.
    And that was a no in maybe clothing.
    “Come on,” Zay said.
    I stood and walked out with Zay, Shame behind us.
    Once we were through the door, I spoke. “I do not understand the unwillingness to get the Hounds involved in this. It doesn’t make any sense to be secretive just for the sake of being secretive. Hiring the Hounds would give the Authority twice the number of hands working to keep the city safe.”
    “Well, when you are the Head of the Authority,” Shame said, “you can try to convince all the long-timers that getting more civilians involved in things that are way over their heads and way too dangerous is a good idea.”
    “It shouldn’t take someone being the Head of the Authority to make people see logic.”
    “It’s an old business, magic,” Shame said again. “It’s all about who’s above whom.”
    “Is Sedra still the Head of the