The Secret Coin (Accessory to Magic Book 3) Read online

  The Secret Coin

  Accessory to Magic Book 3

  Kathrin Hutson

  Copyright © 2021 Kathrin Hutson

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Cover Design by Covers by Christian

  Formatting by Jennifer Laslie

  ISBN: 978-1-7331613-9-8 (Exquisite Darkness Press)

  Contents

  Books by Kathrin Hutson

  Lakewood, Colorado 11:02 p.m

  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

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Acknowledgments

  A Note from the Author

  Connect with Kathrin

  Check out Kathrin Hutson’s Other Series

  About the Author

  Books by Kathrin Hutson

  Accessory to Magic (Dark Urban Fantasy)

  The Witching Vault

  The Cursed Fae

  The Secret Coin

  The Poisoned Veil

  Gyenona’s Children (Dark Fantasy)

  Daughter of the Drackan

  Mother of the Drackan

  The Unclaimed (NA Dark Fantasy)

  Sanctuary of Dehlyn

  Secret of Dehlyn

  Sacrament of Dehlyn

  Blue Helix (LGBTQ Dystopian Sci-Fi)

  Sleepwater Beat

  Sleepwater Static

  To those who have been broken, hidden, locked away.

  Open that box. Return to yourself.

  We need you now more than ever.

  Lakewood, Colorado 11:02 p.m

  The warlock in a long navy winter coat jerked his gloves off his hands in two quick tugs. Then he chucked them at the table scattered with all the spell reagents they’d worked so hard to get their hands on over the last week. “Where the hell is that damn fae?”

  The changeling shrugged and sipped at the cup he’d shaped from his own hand. “Maybe you should try calling him again.”

  That made the warlock scowl, and he shook his head. “He’s not answering. Phone’s been off for the last seven hours. If he hasn’t called back by now, he’s not calling anytime soon.”

  The brunette witch clicked her tongue and shot a sidelong glance at the changeling drinking water from his shapeshifting palm. Then she returned her attention to the warlock. “Do you think something happened to him?”

  Huddled in the darkest corner of the already irritatingly dark warehouse on the southwest end of Lakewood, Colorado, the normally silent elf scraped dirt and potion residue from beneath his fingernails with his own personal ritual knife.

  “He’s doing his job,” the elf grumbled. “Let him do it. The fae will reach out when he’s ready.”

  “And what if he doesn’t?” The warlock clenched his fists and pressed his knuckles painfully down into the thick grain of the wooden tabletop. “He’s notorious for redefining his job.”

  “He’ll get it done.”

  Loud slurping filled the warehouse as the changeling drained the rest of his drink. When he shook out his arm, the green-tinted cup at the end of it morphed back into a hand, and he flicked a spray of water droplets onto the floor. “Think he can get that witch on his side? Get her to trust him like we all need him to?”

  With a grimace, the warlock stared at the glistening drops of water dotting the dusty warehouse floor. “He’d better. If he doesn’t, we’re all fucked.”

  Chapter One

  Jessica Northwood sat at a table in the back of the Dutch Bros Coffee on East Colfax, fidgeting as she stared at the shop’s front door.

  Where were they?

  She stabbed the screen of her phone to wake it up and found only two minutes had passed since the last time she’d checked. Sure, she’d only been sitting here for ten minutes, and the rest of the crew had at least that long of a drive to meet her here. It was pointless to start freaking out now. Anthony had told her he’d gotten them all on board for one final job, and he always pulled through.

  Final job.

  The thought made her snort out a humorless chuckle. Jessica had never been given the opportunity for one final job before she’d been cuffed and booked and shipped out to MJ Pen almost nineteen months ago now. No chance to say goodbye. No last run-through to truly convince herself she was done with a life of crime—of heist after heist and body after body piling up around her. However Corpus had ended up disbanding after her sentencing, they’d apparently done it in style. Meaning no one else had found themselves behind bars and looking at the next five years spent in magical prison. Just her. And the fact that she’d gotten out on parole after only a year didn’t change the fact that she’d taken the fall for all of them. Especially fucking Mickey.

  No. The other magicals who’d become her family after four years of living in the shadows and following a mad Matahg of a boss had somehow found their way out of the life after Jessica thought she’d be spending so much more of hers behind bars. Somehow, they’d gotten out.

  Hard to believe they were ready to dive back in with her now just because she’d made a call and asked for a favor.

  But Anthony wouldn’t lie to her, right?

  Hard to tell. Jessica had taken drastic steps to rewrite who she was as a person—as the kind of witch she was. She couldn’t really blame the others for having changed themselves.

  The blast of cold air and roar of traffic out on Colfax whipped her out of her thoughts, and she looked up at the front door with a scowl.

  Anthony’s gaze fell on her immediately, his eyes growing wide with the huge grin flashing across his face. “There she is.”

  She held her breath. Where was everyone else?

  With a short laugh, Anthony glanced at the order counter and let the door shut behind him as he quickly crossed the coffee shop toward her. “Damn good to see you, Jess.”

  Jessica stood and walked right into the warlock’s embrace before she even realized what she was doing. His arms wrapped tightly around her with a thud, and her breath burst out of her in something like relief. “You too.”

  He released her and grabbed her shoulders, leaning back to look her up and down. “You look like shit.”

  “Well, I had a shitty day.” Despite everything they were about to do tonight—not to mention how much she hated leaving a fae completely unattended and unwatched in her bank—a slow smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “Hopefully, you guys can help me turn the tables on it. What did everyone else say?”

  “Oh, that’s what you’re worried about?” Anthony snorted. “They said hell yes, man. Cedrick pulled
in right after me. They’re here, Jess. Not a problem.”

  Right on cue, the door opened again, and in came the other three members of Corpus, which technically didn’t exist as Corpus anymore. And technically, there had been seven of them, not including their serious asshole of a dictator-boss. But Rufus was dead. And Mel was…

  Mel was to be kept out of this no matter what. No matter what their relationship had been before or whatever it was now, Jessica wasn’t dragging her best friend into this mess if she could help it.

  Now that she had the crew back together, at least for tonight, it seemed pretty damn easy.

  “Holy shit.” Cedrick smacked his gloved hands together and hurried across the shop toward Jessica and Anthony. “I thought this guy was just blowing smoke up my ass, man. But this is for real. You’re here!”

  Jessica grunted when the half-changeling wrapped her in a much tighter hug than Anthony’s.

  Then he stepped back and laughed, giving her a good whack on the shoulder. “How the hell’d you get out of that mess?”

  “Early parole for good behavior.” Jessica glanced at Anthony. “You didn’t tell them?”

  “I told them every goddamn thing you told me.” The warlock shook his head. “Apparently, I’m not as trustworthy as I thought.”

  “But he got us curious enough to come see for ourselves,” Damian added in his low, gruff voice as he approached the table. “Turns out he isn’t full of shit after all.”

  “Hey, Damian.” Jessica hesitated to approach the Umbál, who’d made it perfectly clear when she’d joined Corpus that he didn’t like to be touched. Neither did she. But he surprised her by clapping his arms around her for a brief hug and two quick pats against the back of her brown leather jacket.

  “You’re something else, you know that?”

  Jessica smirked at him and stuck her hands in her jacket pockets. “I’m just—”

  “Don’t tell her that, Damian.” Rebecca slowly headed toward them, her white puffy jacket almost glowing in the bright overhead lights. Her heeled boots clicked across the floor, and she folded her arms as she joined them, looking Jessica over from head to toe. “It’ll go straight to her head. Which I’m guessing isn’t nearly as big as it used to be.”

  Even with a greeting like that, Jessica couldn’t help but smile at the elf woman.

  And of course Rebecca had worn designer jeans and three-inch stiletto heels for a job.

  “A lot of things change in a year and a half,” Jessica muttered. “And then some things just don’t.”

  She stuck her hand out toward the elf and raised her eyebrows. Forget the hug. A handshake was as close as they would ever get.

  Rebecca’s nostrils flared when she glanced down at Jessica’s outstretched hand. “Don’t be stupid.”

  She leapt toward Jessica and threw her arms around her for an unbearably and surprisingly tight hug. Jessica didn’t have a chance to remove her other hand from her jacket pocket and couldn’t think of anything to say.

  They were hugging now?

  “I’m just glad you’re not dead,” Rebecca whispered in her ear, then quickly released her. Her heels clicked twice as she stepped back and tossed her shiny, perfectly styled blonde hair over her shoulder. “Anthony said you’ve been out for six months already, but you look like you just walked out.”

  Jessica let out a small laugh despite herself. “Just that kinda day. Seriously, guys. Thanks for coming. I know this is totally out of the blue—”

  “Damn right it is.” Damian grunted and roughly jerked the closest chair away from the table to sit.

  With a quick glance at the others, Jessica sat in her own chair again. Cedrick grabbed another and turned it around to sit backwards in it and fold his arms over the back. Anthony pulled out the last chair and offered it to Rebecca before grabbing one for himself from the next table over. When they were all sitting—and her old friends stared intently at Jessica, waiting for the rest of it—she took a deep breath and nodded. “Means a lot that you guys would drop everything like this.”

  “You’re out of prison, Jess.” Cedrick snorted. “And you kept the rest of us from winding up in the same place. Why the hell wouldn’t we be here?”

  “Well some of us still have a life,” Rebecca muttered, pretending to pick at her manicured nails before shooting Jessica a quick glance. “Even if it’s not the Life.”

  Jessica pressed her lips together to hide the smile. None of them had changed. These were the same magicals she knew—the ones she’d lived with, fought with, completed job after dangerous job with. The ones she’d mourned in her own way, because she really didn’t think she’d ever see them again. “I know. And just to be clear, this doesn’t mean I’m trying to get something going again, okay? It’s just a one-time thing.”

  “Yeah, you said that.” Anthony ran a hand through his shaggy blond hair. “And yet, here we are.”

  Damian sniffed. “So what’s the job?”

  “Right.” Jessica reached into her pocket and pulled out the sheet of paper Leandras had torn from his tiny spiral-bound notebook. “Extraction of a high-level item. Any other day, I’d say it’d be impossible, but I got the details from the owner, so it’s—”

  “Wait, someone’s paying us to steal something they already own?”

  She looked up at Anthony and grimaced. “It’s not actually a paid gig. Shit, I didn’t tell you that part.”

  “Nah, I’m just fucking with you.” He waved her off with a laugh. “You said life-or-death for a friend. Most people standing on the edge of that cliff aren’t trying to shell out for good work anyway.”

  “And you guys are still good with it?”

  The other members of Corpus-that-was glanced at each other and shrugged.

  “You’re out, Jess.” Cedrick rested his chin on his arms folded over the back of the chair. “And we’re bored as fuck.”

  Rebecca scoffed. “Again, speak for yourself.”

  “Oh, yeah?” He lifted his chin from his folded arms and looked the elf woman up and down. “What you got goin’ on that’s so damn exciting, you can’t even act like you’re a little happy to be here?”

  “That’s none of your business.” She met Jessica’s gaze and raised an eyebrow, her lips twitching into a small, knowing smile. “But I’m here. So let’s hear it.”

  “Okay.” Jessica unfolded the piece of paper in her hands to read back over Leandras’ crimped, hurried handwriting. When she’d left him all alone at the bank—with only an immortal lizard to keep an eye on him—she’d failed to notice the splotches along this sheet that had bled through the one on top of it. Now, she scanned his list of wards and security charms and high-level attack activations through the smudged remnants of both their blood with which they’d sealed their mutual binding together—hers a normal crimson and Leandras’ a thick, sludgy, not-quite-blood black.

  She cleared her throat. “Location’s downtown. Figured this was as good a place as any to meet halfway. As long as someone doesn’t mind letting me hitch a ride there and back.”

  Cedrick hummed in amusement. “Still no car, huh?”

  “No. I don’t need one. The item’s apparently stored and protected in the center of the home. We’ll have to tap through a Soul Shroud just to touch the thing—”

  “No shit.” Anthony drummed his fingers on the table, then pointed at her. “You’ve got friends with some seriously messed-up ways of protecting their valuables.”

  “Among other seriously messed-up ways, yeah.” Jessica pursed her lips in consideration. That might have been the best way to describe Leandras in a cold, creepy, weirdly attractive nutshell. And yes, from the outside looking in, this job was all kinds of messed up too—getting one of the most successful magical heist teams back together again after their untimely end via Mickey’s betrayal to break into a fae’s home and retrieve the source of his magic on Earth. Because Leandras wasn’t from this world…

  She had to stay focused on the job. Wrapping her head a
round what it meant to have a centuries-old fae from the other side of the Gateway portal waiting for her at her bank would have to wait until they were finished.

  “So that’s the biggest obstacle around the actual item,” she continued. “But seeing as this is coming straight from the owner—”

  “So weird,” Damian interjected, scowling at the paper.

  “Yeah, I know. I have a reagent to help crack through the Soul Shroud. Offered willingly, so there aren’t any extra steps to circumvent intention.”

  “What is it?” Rebecca asked.

  Jessica looked up and cocked her head. “Hankie with his blood on it.”

  “Hankie?” Cedrick straightened in his backward chair and let out a wry laugh, gazing at each face around the table with a crooked smile. “Who the hell says hankie anymore? Who even uses one?”

  “This guy does. Trust me, that’s the least surprising thing.”

  Not to mention that Leandras’ blood looked more like tar on the delicate square of fabric.

  Jessica glanced down at the paper again. “Soul Shroud will be the last step. It’s a live extraction.”

  The former members of Corpus exchanged quick glances. Yeah, the stakes just got a little higher, and that wasn’t even the worst bomb she’d drop on them in the next five minutes.

  “How many?” Cedrick asked.