The Beautiful and the Faultless | Cami O'Connell

Chapter 5

Dahlia kept her so busy, she couldn't even think about Cami.

At the crack of dawn, she woke her up and handed her a list of assignments. While Dahlia handled using Josephine La Rue as a puppet to send a message, she had Ingrid working on all sorts of Locator Spells to find Hayley and Hope, who'd been moved out of the Compound while they were at the church.

Ingrid resisted the urge to retort. If they'd just followed along with her idea of having her go to the Compound while Dahlia distracted the others, she could have followed where they took them, or even ripped Hope out of Hayley's arms before she managed to do anything.

Now, instead, she was suffering, her face beaded with sweat as she kept using map after map, trying to pinpoint Hope's magical signature. But she simply wasn't finding anything. It was as if the little girl was dead, which obviously couldn't be the case.

"She's not cloaked directly, or I would sense it," muttered Ingrid to herself, loud enough for Dahlia to hear her. "Maybe I need to start looking for where I can't find magic in this city. Somewhere that... could restrict it. Dim down a signature without cloaking it entirely."

"Get to it, then," said Dahlia impatiently, before returning to her spell to watch over the Compound. She lingered in it for a few more minutes, then reported, "The siblings are cross with Niklaus. He has hidden Mikael's ashes, preventing them from creating a weapon. Freya will likely still try to turn Elijah and Rebekah against him. They will fall apart soon enough." She snapped her fingers at her. "Get back to work."

Ingrid just huffed, her head aching after all the effort that she was putting into this, combined with the spell Dahlia had refreshed the night before. Somehow, it didn't feel the same as it usually did. As if it hadn't rooted itself in as well as before. Ingrid knew she'd need to pretend it took, otherwise, Dahlia might just put her back to sleep and remove her from the equation entirely.

"The entire city is brimming with magic," she muttered to herself, spilling more black salt on the map. "Because of the Ancestral Well. But, there must be some places where magic cannot exist. The Ancestors can't possibly control everything. I just need to find it." She closed her eyes and concentrated, "Nei magi, ingen ledestjerne. Nei magi, ingen ledestjerne..."

The sand started to spread, covering the entirety of the New Orleans city map, except for one small spot in Algiers. A building labeled as the 'St. James Infirmary.'

"Tante," said Ingrid, causing Dahlia to come over to her. "We ought to check this building." Before Dahlia could give any orders, she decided, "I will have my little kittens go and examine the area. No doubt there will be wolves guarding them. I recognize a few, I will know if they are there or not based on the faces I see."

"Very well," said Dahlia. "Get it done."

She focused on finding the two cats she'd kenned. She was almost bummed out to find they were in different parts of the city, digging through trash. She decided that if she were allowed to, she would take the two cats in and have them be with her. Safe and warm.

She had them sneak into cars, and used them to ken the drivers to take them to the St. James Infirmary so that they wouldn't have to walk too far, and potentially get hurt. When they arrived, they both walked by the entrance and saw several men were patrolling the surrounding area. As they peered inside, they saw Hayley with Hope.

"She's there, alright," said Ingrid, letting the cats go their separate ways if they wished (though, a rather nice thought came to mind and she wondered if they might become friends, which clearly indicated Cami's words were doing a better job of helping her fight the control than what she cared to admit). "We ought to greet her."