The Lightning Mage

30 | The Crimson Witch, Part I

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A little more than six months ago...

The tinted glass bottle stood on the table, small, fragile, and almost unnoticeable. To Brendan, however, its presence was overwhelming—as if it was screaming at him, slapping him in the face, scolding him for all the mistakes he had ever made in his life. He pinched his nose and let out a slow sigh.

"Why on Earth would you do something like that, Lyn?" he asked, picking up the bottle of truth serum.

This cursed concoction had not been easy to obtain, and he had pulled so many strings to get his hands on it. It certainly served its purpose, but still, it backfired on him.

Just like everything else in his life.

He lifted his head to look at the auburn-haired woman, who had been silent ever since her confession. The usual proud lift of the chin had withered away, while the spark in her eyes was replaced by a lifeless void. As the enforcers cuffed her hands and bound her ankle with a magic suppressor, she put up zero resistance, her gaze glued to the ground.

"Do you have a lawyer you can contact?"

Again, Lyn did not reply.

"Lyn, letting an admitted blood magic user go is not something you can get away with easily," Brendan cautioned. "You need a good lawyer. I can help you get in touch with some if you need me to."

Lyn shook her head. "The rest of my team won't be affected, right?" she whispered. "They have nothing to do with this."

Brendan stared at her incredulously. She had dodged his questions and ignored his offers to help, only to ask about her other team members. Not to mention, she was in this unfortunate situation because she would rather break the law than turn in her wanted team member.

He sighed. This woman was just as insane and foolish as that person. "Of course not. If they have no part to play in this, nothing will happen to them."

Lyn nodded, relief washed over her face.

Brendan leaned against his table and watched as Lyn was ushered out of the room. Her head hung low as if the world had collapsed on her, but her back remained straight. Her eyes seeped with anguish as if her heart had been yanked out of her chest and torn into shreds, but her expression remained stoic and unreadable.

She reminded him too much of that person. Way too much.

He closed his eyes. "Rin."

"Yes, Mr. Oakley?"

"Inform the partners. We have a confirmed case of a blood magic user: Cydney Yen. Put her in our priority search list."

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Present...

Brendan took a sip of the coffee as he read the headlines in the newspaper: "Mystic Dragon Sapphire: Fifth Treasure to Go Missing This Month!" The bitter coffee lingered in his mouth before he pushed it down his throat. He could already imagine all the angry messages and heated meetings he was going to have about this. First the missing blood magic user, and now a barrage of high-profile thefts—his department could not catch a break.

"Mr. Oakley?"

He tore his eyes away from the newspaper. His assistant, Rin, had poked her head into the break room. She was holding a manila folder that was as brown as the hair bun on her head.

"S- Sorry, Mr. Oakley, I didn't mean to intrude on your break, but- but just a reminder, you have a briefing with the questers in fifteen minutes, in- in conference room C."