Page 102 of Demon's Bluff
There was no second attack, and I peered past the glowing forces twining about themselves, snapping and popping.Lenio cinis,I thought, finding Elyse when my globe of light blossomed into existence. She was half hiding behind a rack of books, both scared and determined. Boz and Clemt were undoubtedly watching the entire thing with their second sight, laughing their asses off if I knew demons.
“Rachel?” Elyse peered suspiciously at me, and I made a “well?” gesture as our energies canceled each other out and I let my circle drop. “Where you go, I go!”
I had lost any idea of what might be happening in the hall, and I ran a hand over my snarled hair, wishing Jenks were here to tame it. “Elyse, you are the worst partner I have ever had to work with. How the hell are we supposed to know what’s happening on the other side of the wall? If they switch the resonator off, we’re stuck here. That’s why I brought you!”
“Then you go watch. I’ll find the amulet,” she said, making her own light, brilliant and eye-squinting. Clearly her synapses were fine.Two days, my pixy puff ass.
“Out,” I said, pointing at the wall. “Do what you’re here for.”
“Through the ever-after? While you get what you need and leave me? Not a chance.” Elyse continued to study a shelf of ancient elven books. “There are demons there. I barely got away the first time.”
And now, getting back would be harder. Worse, other than knocking her on the head and moving her across the wall myself, I couldn’t force her.
“Oh, my God!” she exclaimed as she reached for a book. “Where did he get that?”
“Don’t touch it!” I shouted, and she jerked away. “They’re covered with security spells.”
“These are all illegal,” she said, clearly miffed,
“Well, that’s why they’re in his vault, and the only reason they are banned is because they make people uncomfortable.” I bypassed the rack of elven porn that had lured me in here the first time, going right to the unlocked drawers built into the wall. “Knowledge isn’t right or wrong. How or if you use it is.” I glanced at her, frowning when she reached out again. “I said don’t touch. You want to tell Trent’s security where we are?”
Grimacing, she drew her hand away. “I thought we had the last copy of that.” She stared at it, her want obvious. “Ours is missing pages.”
I slid open the drawer, making a soft “mmmm” at the ancient-looking metal circlet amulets in their little custom-foam compartments, most complete with their invocation pin. “Everything on that shelf is wired. If you’re nice, maybe I can get Trent to show you his library when we get home.” But I doubted it. The coven had proven themselves to be grabby paws.
“The charm we need is probably in here,” I said, then whispered,“Abundans cautela non nocet,”to check for safeguards. A haze of gold and black settled over the drawer, but nothing glowed a warning, and I deemed them free of any magical entanglements. They were all defunct. The only reason they were down here was because the room was temperature and humidity controlled. That, and the engraved circlets were ancient.
“As soon as I find the one we need, we are out of here,” I said as I picked up the first to read the invocation inscription. The metal felt entirely dead, cold in my fingers as I squinted at the faded writing.Nope.Itwasn’t the one I wanted, but it was still an amazing piece of art, the twisted circle of metal still retaining the original invoking pin. It made it more valuable, kind of like the toy still in the box. Value because we give it value. It was useless.
Good thing I’d spun useless into gold before.
The next was the same, and the third. I glanced at Elyse, satisfied when I found her at a stack of paintings, flicking through them as if she was at an art fair and looking for something to hang over her couch.
But when I moved to the second row, an odd sensation tripped over my aura as I rubbed the old silver clean and read the invocation.Thank you, Trent.Elated, I curved my fingers about it, searching for a flicker of magic, but it was just dead metal.I could have sworn I felt something…
“Uh, Rachel?” Elyse said, and then I jumped when the overhead lights flicked on. In the distance, a faint hooting sounded through the walls.
Crap on toast, I had triggered the very alarm I had warned Elyse about.
“Time to go,” I said, stuffing the charm into my pocket as I pushed her to the ley line. It was still here. They couldn’t shut it down until they came through the line themselves.
“Where?” she said, white-faced. “Rachel, we can’t bull our way through Kalamack’s security.”
We had two minutes, tops. I could not be caught. Both Trent and Quen would assume I was the Rachel who arrested him, and he was so angry at me right now. He would not think. He would kill me. Change me into a fox and run me down in the night.
Never again. We were going out through the ever-after.
Scared, I grabbed my transposition stone.Finis,I thought, shuddering as I felt our glamours dissolve. Madison’s image wouldn’t help me anymore. I had to be myself in the ever-after if I was to survive.
“What are you doing?” Elyse said, eyes wide as I shook my shoulder bag out of the Kalamack Industries satchel to get our robes and hats. Familiars. We had to look like familiars.
“Put it on,” I said, motions sure as I threw her robe at her and she caught it. “We can’t go out through reality.”
“You want to go through the ever-after?!”
I shimmied into my robe, frantic as I jammed the hat on my head and tied my sleeves to make pockets. Embarrassment kept my eyes down, embarrassment that I had tripped one of Trent’s safeguards—right after warning Elyse. Madison’s splat gun went in one of the robe’s pockets, my cherry-red one in the other. After a moment of hesitation, I moved my last forget potion to a jeans pocket…just in case.
Elyse stood there, her robe in hand, a horrified expression on her face. “Why aren’t you getting dressed?” I asked.