RoadBlock by Amelia Bishop Page A

power for it, so when they were too busy with Dagger they faltered.” Cal took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself enough to continue speaking. The thought of Dagger, helpless and alone, at the mercy of those lunatics, was just too much.
    “They’ll keep him there. In the back, there’s a room. An office I think, but it’s big. There are six of them. The rare-witch, who they call ‘the awaited one’, two other men, and three women. That’s the whole Theodosian group, plus the two that died chasing us. They wanted to get us today, too, but when the block lifted I knew they were coming and left before they could find us. They can only kill us all together, that’s why they tried the car attack yesterday. But it’s also why they won’t kill Dagger. If they kill us singly it will diminish their power, and the awaited one won’t kill anyone in any case. He’s not willing to pay the price.”
    “ Fuck! What do we do?”
    “Cal, did you learn anything about their plan? How are they planning to attack the covens?”
    Cal swallowed hard. He’d felt sick and hopeless ever since he caught the flash of insight into their plan. The Theodosians were evil and cold, and he had no idea how to stop them. “The awaited one has a rare power. He can absorb the powers of other witches, in a ritual. They need to be willing, so he has to do it on children, or people he can easily trick into allowing him into their minds. It’s kind of like our bond, only he doesn’t need a charm, the power is in him . And when he bonds with someone, he can siphon off their skill. They plan to do this to coven kids, so that when they come of age there’s no power to develop, nothing left to pass down, and eventually the covens will die out.”
    “Shit. That’s just…”
    “How do we even fight that? I mean, I see what Adelaide was saying, and clearly this awaited asshole has to die, but how ?”
    “I don’t know.” Calderon laid his head down on his knees, curling into himself. He was close to freaking out, but he didn’t want to scare Betony any more than he already had.
    “Let’s make a circle and try to contact Dagger. We can see if he’s okay, and maybe learn about where he is, maybe we can get him out or something.” Betony took Cal’s hand and led him out the door. Wade found a box of matches and a bottle of water and followed them to the patio.

16.
     
    Dagger woke with a pounding headache, and realized his hands and feet were tied to an office chair. The chair was propped in the corner of a small closet, wedged between boxes of copy paper and office supplies, which at least allowed him to rest his head back against the wall. He appeared to be alone, but he couldn’t see the entire office beyond the closet door, so he wasn’t sure. The restraints were fairly loose, but he cursed out loud when he got a look at them. Plastic zip ties . Rope, he would have been able to coax open with his telekinesis, but the zip ties would need to be cut. He still might be able to manage it, if there were scissors nearby. He scanned the desk across the room, but it’s top was neat and clean, only a small stack of papers piled in one corner, a phone and a cup of pens in the other.
    The outer door opened and two women in matching gray suits walked in. Both wore calf-length skirts, opaque tan stockings and matronly pumps, which to Dagger seemed a strange choice for August, even in a formal office setting. They pulled chairs out so they could sit at the desk but still keep him in their line of sight, then sat down and started flipping through magazines. Dagger thought it best not to speak first. Instead he watched them and tried to maintain an innocent air.
    They seemed sociable towards each other, and relaxed. But a prickle of alarm danced across his shoulders, the spell warning him these were Theodosians. If he hadn’t been tied up he’d have thought them friendly, if fashion challenged, and the spell might have been useful. As it