We returned to the long corridor and went up a different stairwell, coming out in a little nook beside the lobby. LeeAnne stood out in front of the main counter, talking with several agitated customers. She saw us and waved for us to stop. While we waited, I looked around. Most of the evidence of Tabitha’s tantrum was gone, except for some bullet holes in the walls and furniture. A curtain of magic shimmered along the doors and outer walls, courtesy of the shutdown shields.
At last LeeAnne managed to excuse herself and joined us. Her eyes about bulged out of her head as she took in my dress and bare feet. I didn’t look at all like the woman she’d checked in earlier. I resisted the urge to smooth my sex-tousled hair. Neither did I cross my arms over my chest to hide myself.
“What happened?” she said, pretending I wasn’t there. “Why did you trigger the shields?”
Well, that answered that question.
“I didn’t,” he said.
“Then who? Why?”
“I don’t know. I have to sort out this murder. It’s likely the two are related.”
She flinched at the word “murder.” “Shh! We don’t need a panic. What do you know so far? What is she doing here?”
“Working,” I said unhelpfully. Something about the woman grated on me. More so now than before. Or maybe it was just the situation and the fact that I was tired and annoyed and now that she wasn’t ignoring me, she was looking at me as if I had lice.
Her brows arched nearly to her hairline. “Oh?” She looked me over from head to toe again. “Just what is it that you do, Ms. Carson?”
“I’m a Jill of many trades,” I said.
Her lips twitched into a contemptuous sneer. “I’m sure you are.”
She turned her attention back to Law. “How long before you lift the shields? The guests are getting restless.”
“No idea,” he said. “Not until I find out what triggered them.”
His glance at me added an unspoken warning that it would also be after we had our conversation.
“That’s unacceptable. I’ll give you an hour.”
I covered my snort with my hand. Law did not take getting bossed around very well.
“Very generous, I’m sure,” he drawled, taking my elbow. “But it won’t change anything. I don’t answer to you. I’m blood-bound to fulfill my contract. I’ll lift those shields when I’m damned well sure that Effrayant is safe.”
“Blood-bound?” I repeated as he pulled me away, shock rocking me to the soles of my feet. I felt like someone had smashed my head between two trash can lids. “You can’t be serious?”
“I am,” he said. His chin lifted and he looked arrogantly down his nose at me.
“Now who’s making limiting choices?” I taunted.
“I’ve got a comfortable life.”
“So if I had called you when I was in trouble, you couldn’t have come and helped me anyhow. All that was bullshit.”
I couldn’t help the accusation and betrayal that leeched into my voice. I didn’t have a right to either of them, but he’s the one who’d made a big deal of it, making it sound like I’d failed him somehow by not contacting him.
The truth was he couldn’t go far from Effrayant, and he couldn’t stay away too long. He probably could go twenty or thirty miles. Usually binding terms said no more than twenty-four hours before he got reeled back in, faster if something happened at Effrayant. Law would have no choice but to obey. If anybody got in his way, he’d go rabid in his efforts to get back. A magician of his particular talent could level New York City if he wanted. The blood-binding guaranteed he’d want to.
His expression went cold and austere, like stone in winter. “I signed it when I gave up on your coming back from you lich trip. It kept me on the sunny side of the dirt.”
It took a moment for that to sink in. When it did, my mouth fell open. He watched me, his eyes glittering.
“You can’t be serious,” I said.
“Can’t I?” he asked then gave a caustic laugh. “What a tragedy, then, that I am entirely serious.”
His confession was staggering. I locked my knees to keep from falling down. Could he have loved me the way I loved him? I shook my head. It wasn’t possible. I would have known. Wouldn’t I? The world started to spin drunkenly around me. Had I really misread his feelings so horribly six years ago? Could I have stayed with him?
The horror of all that I might have thrown away rose around my throat like a noose. What had I done?
Unforgiving honesty hit me like a blow. What drove me away had been my need to leave the extermination business. To not have to defend myself to Law. To not have him always judge me and find me wanting. Knowing he cared about me would have made me stay, and that would have destroyed me. I’d have ended up a corpse.
“It doesn’t change anything,” I said quietly. “We don’t fit together.” Pain coiled brambles around my heart. Self-preservation demanded that I turn and run out the doors right now, barefooted and in this ridiculous dress. I’d left Law once, and it had nearly killed me. How was I going to do it again? How was I going to do it knowing that he actually had feelings for me?
He went still. Feral savagery suffused his face, his green eyes narrowing to slits. He bent close to my ear, his breath brushing my skin. “Try to leave,” he crooned in a soft whisper. “Just try. See how far you get.”
I shivered at the promise and threat twisting through those words. My soft, gooey center loved his Tarzan show of dominance. The rest of me was annoyed as hell that he’d try to push me around. Then again, why wouldn’t he? He’d always been the one to take charge, and I’d let him. I’d been the junior partner with a lot less experience.
Not anymore. Not that I planned to fight with Law about it right now. Time for that when I finished the job.
I was just about to ask where exactly the dead incubus had been staying and could we please get this over with when a sudden mob of Gwyllion faeries dropped down through the ceiling. There had to have been a dozen of them, along with at least at many pygmy goats.
Each Gwyll measured about three and a half feet tall. They look a lot alike, with tangled black hair that fell to below their waists. They dressed in patchwork dresses of navy, charcoal, and green. Eyes glittered like obsidian from dried-apple faces below astonishing hats that looked like they’d been shopping for the Kentucky Derby. I blinked in awe at the display of outlandish color, feathers, and shapes. Their voices raised in a garble that sounded like the chitter and bark of woodland animals. The brown and black goats bleated and capered through the air and burrowed their heads beneath the Gwylls’ long skirts.
As silly as they appeared, I wasn’t fooled into thinking they were harmless. Though Gwylls normally weren’t known for violence, that didn’t mean they weren’t capable of real damage.
They settled about two feet off the ground in a semicircle facing LeeAnne, feathers and decorations from their oversized hats bobbing and fluttering. One wore a pale pink ruffled tulle hat that had to have been five feet in diameter, with a dark pink scarf securing it under her chin and three pheasant feathers standing straight up above. Another wore what looked like a wheeled red propeller on her head. Another was crowned with a silver- and blue-feathered beehive that swept down to her shoulders, a cutaway revealing her face. The fashionable crones hadn’t overlooked their goats either. Their shaggy beasts collected around and between the faeries, their horns twisted with ribbons, flowers, bells, and feathers, their hooves painted in brilliant colors and patterns.
“Hell,” Law swore and made to intercept them.
I hesitated before following. If I’d known the incubus’s room number, I’d have headed up without Law. He glanced back at me as if reading my mind. I gave him an innocent look, and he made a growling sound. He reached out and folded my hand in a firm grip before turning back to the trouble at hand.
I didn’t fight as he laced his long fingers through mine, drawing me closer to him. I knew he was just making sure I didn’t go running off without him. Even so, a thrill of happiness ran through me. I felt . . . claimed. Special. Chosen. His grip on me made a public statement that I belonged to him.
The air leaked from my happiness. I didn’t belong to him. Or maybe I did since I couldn’t seem to get over him, but that didn’t mean I could stay with him.
Could I?
I bit my bottom lip, trying not to feel hopeful, even as my mind raced. Lots of couples had disagreements and still managed to have relationships: Republicans and Democrats, vegans and carnivores, Coke and Pepsi drinkers, cowboys and Indians, jocks and nerds. We were reasonable adults. Maybe we could find a way to work this out.
It seemed crazy. Too good to be true. But God, how I wanted it.
We joined LeeAnne and the group of Gwylls. The housekeeper darted a glance at us, her gaze sliding down to our linked hands. Her mouth tightened. Then she returned her attention to the collection of faeries.
I had to admit to feeling a little smug, though I did refrain from sticking my tongue out at her.
“How may I be of service?” she asked the Gwylls, adopting her cool and helpful housekeeper persona.
All of the faeries answered at once, speaking gibberish as far as I could tell.
LeeAnne held up her hands. “Please. I want to help you, but I can’t understand when everyone speaks at once.”
That she could understand them at all was a miracle. But maybe she had a translation spell working for her. That prompted me to invoke my own. It let me understand many languages—supernatural and human—though most of the ones spoken by demons, gods, and ancients were off the table.
I felt Law glance at me, but I ignored him. He couldn’t know that the spell was from cutting.
“Magyar, Lotus, and Kieren have been kidnapped,” one of the crones snapped, the one with the feathered beehive. “What are you going to do about it?” She pointed a gnarled finger at LeeAnne, her fingernail pointed and black.
“Three Gwylls have been kidnapped?” LeeAnne asked. Her voice remained quiet, though urgency sharpened her tone. “How long have they been missing? Do you know who took them?”
“Not Gwylls. Goats,” said a crone with a whirl of purple and white flowers circling what appeared to be a bird’s nest on her head. “They vanished no more than an hour ago.”
“We searched and summoned. They didn’t answer,” chimed in Propeller Hat. She sniffed and pressed a gray handkerchief to her eyes.
“They always answer,” declared the first one. Her voice dropped into a growl like thunder. A dark smoke rose up from her feet, curling around her body. “Someone here has taken them. We demand that you find them. We will have them back, or you will pay.”
I caught the hot smell of ozone and sulfur as the smoke swirled wider. Law muttered and gestured with his free hand. Glimmering walls closed the Gwylls in a sphere of gold energy, containing the widening cloud.
“What on earth do you think are you doing?” LeeAnne demanded.
Law frowned. “My job.”
“The Gwylls are Effrayant guests. Release them at once.”
“Don’t be stupid,” he said.
Not the answer LeeAnne was looking for. She fixed an icy blue stare on him, her pupils contracting. A heaviness moved within her, ponderous, like a dragon rolling over. All my hairs stood on end. If Law hadn’t had a hold of me, I’d have backed away. She wasn’t a sorcerer, but she certainly wasn’t a human either.
“I will remind you that I am Effrayant’s housekeeper. You answer to me.” Her eyes flashed uncannily, and caustic energy flickered hot in the air before vanishing. My mouth went dry. I’d totally underestimated LeeAnne. Whatever she was, she wasn’t to be taken lightly.
Law didn’t back down. “Not when there’s trouble. Then I take over.”
“The Gwylls are merely upset and with good reason. They are not a threat.”
“They used magic outside the confines of their own rooms and uncontained by wards. That compromises the safety of the entire auberge and its clientele, not to mention you.” He faced the Gwylls and dipped in a slight bow. His voice softened. “I apologize for the necessity of the shielding. I understand your anger and concern for your missing friends. I, too, have had someone I care deeply about go missing.” His hand tightened on mine. “I will look into it immediately.”
Just then a goat poked its head through Law’s shield followed by the rest of her body. She trotted across the air, coming over to sniff our linked hands. My eyes widened and I reached out my other hand to scratch the little beast’s ears. She leaned her bony head into my hand and wuffled happily.
“That accounts for how the three escaped,” Law said so only I could hear.
Another goat followed the first and butted in between us. I let go of Law to pet him. Several more followed, and I found myself surrounded. The ghosts fluttered and reached out invisible hands to pet the greedy animals.
“We’d better go,” Law said.
His voice made me stiffen. He sounded too casual. He gave another little bow to the faeries. “Please excuse us. LeeAnne will make you comfortable.” He shot the housekeeper a warning look and took my hand again. We set off across the lobby.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as we passed a coffee kiosk.
“The Gwyll apartments are one floor below your incubus’s rooms,” he said.
I made the connection as fast as he had. Shields didn’t keep the goats from wandering. They could easily have wandered into the incubus’s rooms. “But how would they get in? It’s not like they can go through walls.”
Law grunted annoyance. “Yes, they can. Damned things are curious as hell too. They’re always getting into places where they don’t belong.”
The dominos started to fall in my head. The timeline looked ominous. The goats had been missing for over an hour. The incubus had been dead that long. If the beasts had wandered into the incubus’s apartment while his killer was searching for the box—
“Shit.”
“Exactly,” Law said, guiding me around the central column of elevators and down a broad corridor into one of the four wings. It was less a corridor than a massive lobby area, complete with a terrarium, dozens of cozy seating areas, a juice bar, a regular bar, and several little bistro-style cafés and restaurants. The ceiling was open all the way up. The rooms ran around the outer wall, and chrome railings kept people from falling down into the middle. On the opposite side, a bank of glass elevators ran up and down like bubbles.
I shivered. The air-conditioned air raised goose pimples all over me, and my nipples turned into rocks. I was all too aware that my feet were bare and I was wearing only a thong beneath my barely there dress. Law loosened his fingers from mine and put his arm around me, pulling me against him. His warmth enveloped me, and I sucked in the scent of him. I so didn’t want to leave him.
We rode up the elevator with a pair of whispering couples. The elevator filled with cloying perfume and cologne. They ignored me and Law completely. I leaned against the brass rail and watched them. I was no longer touching Law, who stood a few inches away. I could feel him watching me. One of the girls looked familiar. She was the same height as me, with bobbed hair and a heart-shaped face. She flicked a glance at me. Blue eyes gleamed. She glanced from me to Law and back, and her coral lips pursed in appreciation as she winked.
We got out on the sixth floor. Law went midway down on the left side, stopping at an ornate door made of wood and brass with a brass number plate that read 6119 in flowing script letters.
“Wait outside,” he said as he reached for the keypad.
“I don’t think so.”
His head whipped around. “I can handle whatever this asshole has to throw at us.”
“Two’s better than one.”
“I don’t want to have to worry about you getting hurt,” he gritted out when I didn’t back down.
I folded my arms across my chest. “Funny, you didn’t used to worry about that.” So here it was. My greatest fear come to life.
“You know damned well what’s changed.”
“Yeah. You think I can’t handle myself anymore.”
His scowl cut deep lines around his mouth. “What I think is that I’m not going to risk losing you again.”
“I’m not going to sit safe on my ass when I’ve got a job to do.”
He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Fine.”
He put his forefinger on the keypad. Power engulfed his digit, and the door popped open. I wondered if the incubus had set any personal wards, but Law stepped inside without any trouble. I followed.
The air smelled faintly of nutmeg and the musky odor I’d come to associate with the incubus. It was masculine and tantalizing. I touched the emerald pendant around my neck, and the lingering effects of the sex demon’s presence slid away from me.
The suite was much smaller than mine, with a bedroom, a bathroom, a sitting area, and a balcony looking west. It was plush with plenty of space and French furniture upholstered in sea blues and vanilla cream. In the bedroom, clothes had been flung haphazardly over the dresser and bed and onto the floor. Damp towels on the carpet indicated the incubus had showered. A suitcase on the end of the bed was empty. Another on the floor was full.
I prowled around, keeping my distance from Law. I didn’t see any sign of the goats or the box in the bedroom or bathroom and returned to the sitting room.
“Anything?” Law asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing. Maybe the goats went somewhere else.”
“Maybe.” He scanned the room. “Do you get the feeling something’s off here?” he asked.
It was true. Something had been gnawing at me since we came in, but I’d been too focused on my feelings for Law to pay attention. I mentally kicked myself. At the rate I was going, I was going to prove to Law that I was as incompetent as he thought I was. Stung by the thought, I forced myself to concentrate, stuffing my emotions deep down where they couldn’t interfere. I took a breath and let it out slowly, letting my senses spread from me.
Something was off. But what? I frowned.
I centered myself. A thought invoked a revelation spell. It unrooted from my flesh and floated out above my head. The edges unfolded like the petals of a rose then whirled softly. Magic unfurled in hundreds of violet streamers. They filled the air then puffed into particles as fine as sugar. Washed on an invisible tide, they rose on a wave and swept into the corners of the room and up to the ceiling. After a moment, they sifted down.
I waited. As the flecks of magic descended, they began to catch on invisible symmetrical cones ranging from inches to several feet in height. They thrust up from the floor and down from the ceiling like teeth.
“Impressive,” Law said when the spell had run to completion.
I couldn’t tell if he really meant it or not. I decided to take it at face value. “Thanks. What are they?”
We both walked around them. There didn’t seem to be a pattern to the design, and they had not reacted to my magic. I couldn’t feel any energy in them. They seemed more like playground toys than anything else. Except there was a menacing quality to them—like the white curve of fangs or the reflection of eyes in the black of night.
“I have no idea,” Law said.
That was saying something. He was a walking magical encyclopedia. As I examined them, I felt like I should know what they were. They struck a chord in me. I resisted the urge to touch them. In the course of our search, Law and I had certainly walked through more than one and suffered no harm, but I didn’t want to risk it again.
“Maybe these were supposed to signal the incubus if anyone trespassed into his suite,” I suggested.
“Could be.” Law sounded doubtful.
He was right. If they were trip alarms, they’d have been on thresholds and in walkways, not clinging to the ceilings and hiding in corners.
“There are getting to be entirely too many unknowns in this situation for my comfort,” I complained.
“Preaching to the choir,” Law said, a phrase so familiar from the years of our partnership that it made my chest ache.
I shook away the memories before they could cloud my reason. Instead I reviewed what we knew.
“So the incubus steals the box, then travels across country like he has time to waste, even after killing the woman in Vegas. Something spooks him in Chicago, and he rushes to Effrayant. He checks in and within a few hours, he gets himself murdered and in a most violent way. The box I was supposed to recover is missing, probably taken by the killer, which could be someone or something called So’la, according to Tabitha, who is also terrified of the creature. Now we have these weird shapes.”
“Don’t forget the shutdown shields triggered,” Law added. “I’d like to know why. And the goats. Where are they?”
I nodded and pinched my lower lip. “Here’s the big question: Did the incubus know this So’la? Or was it a coincidental murder?”
“I find the last hard to believe,” Law said.
“Me too. This all has to fit together somehow. We just don’t have enough clues to put it together.”
That left me with only one thing to do. The root of this mess was the stolen box. I needed to call Ivan. Unfortunately my cell was in my suite.
“Let me borrow your phone.” I held out my hand.
Law’s brows rose, but he said nothing as he pulled his cell from his pocket and handed it over. I did my best not to notice the jolt of heat that ran through me as his fingers brushed mine.
“Maybe we’d better step out of here while I reach Ivan,” I said, eyeing the cone shapes.
“You read my mind,” Law said and pushed me ahead of him to the door.
It didn’t open.
I frowned, depressing the thumb lever and yanking. Nothing happened. Law elbowed me aside and did the same, rattling it back and forth. It might as well have been a solid wall. He swore and slapped his hands flat against it, releasing a blast of silvery magic that should have charred the wood to cinders. Instead it bounced away and sucked down into the nearest cones, disappearing like water into dry sand.
“They absorb magic,” I said. “But I did the revelation spell and they didn’t interfere. Why not?”
Law turned, his eyes flinty and faintly worried. He glanced at me then scanned the collection of cones. “Could be your spell armed them. It was predictable that one of us would cast a revelation spell, so once we did, the door sealed and the cones activated. I don’t like this.”
Preaching to the choir. I didn’t say it. A shiver rippled across my skin. I should have known or at least expected the trap. It seemed obvious now, though it wasn’t an easy sort of magic and nothing that an incubus should have been capable of. It was a complex working and required a deep ability. I didn’t know how he would have come by such a spell or why he’d have set it. He’d clearly made a beeline to Effrayant because he thought it was a haven. All the same, I could have kicked myself. It pays to be paranoid in my line of work. Either I was more tired than I thought or Law had me that distracted. Or both.
“We were meant to be here,” I said slowly as my brain started to work. “This is a witch trap.” I quickly leaped to the obvious conclusion. “This isn’t the incubus’s work at all. This is So’la’s.”
“I agree. The question is, what exactly does he or it want with us?”
I didn’t have an answer, but I did still have Law’s phone. I tapped Ivan’s number into it and waited. Nothing happened. I hung up and tried again, but even though the phone had full bars and a healthy battery charge, it refused to connect.
I resisted the urge to throw it at the wall and instead handed it back to Law.
“No signal,” I said.
He scowled and hit a speed-dial number. He tried three different times before he gave up. I wanted to tell him I told you so, but I refrained—barely. Did he think I’d forgotten how to use a stupid phone?
I crossed my arms, and the beading of my dress rustled, the silk cool against my skin. I would have given a lot to be wearing jeans and a T-shirt.
“Got any good ideas for escape?” I asked, mentally ticking through my own arsenal.
The only way to really take out magic suckers was to overload them. That could easily exhaust us both before we succeeded. As it was, I could feel them sucking on my shields. I was replenishing them with a trickle of magic, but a constant drain would take its toll. Once my shields went, the suckers would drain the spell carvings and eventually kill me.
Even though it wouldn’t help, I backed away from the cones as far as I could get. At some point the doors to the other bedroom and the bathroom had swung closed.
“The ghosts might overload the cones,” Law said.
I knew he’d get around to suggesting it sooner or later, and I couldn’t resent him for it. After all, as far as he cared, they were already dead and unnatural. Their potent energy could be used to save our lives.
Was it crazy that I wasn’t even tempted to ask them? Suicide is insane, they say, and choosing not to feed the ghosts to the trap meant I could very well die or worse, depending what this So’la had in mind for us. All the same, I couldn’t do it. They were people to me—maybe not flesh and blood, but people all the same.
I shook my head, bracing for the condemnation that was sure to follow. But Law surprised me.
“You’re that committed?” Genuine surprise colored his voice.
“They’re innocent,” I said with a shrug. “I can’t kill them just to save myself.” What about to save him? I couldn’t let myself answer that. The answer scared me.
“Once our magic is spent, this So’la will be able to do anything to us,” he argued. “There’s a better than good chance we’ll end up like the incubus and the ghosts will get sucked up anyway. Nobody wins.”
“Hopefully it won’t come to that. We’re a smart pair of sorcerers with a lot of experience in dire situations. We should be able to come up with a way out that keeps us from an early grave.”
“Optimism in the face of sure disaster. I always did like that in you,” he said with a wry grin.
I grinned back and my chest expanded. For a silver moment, it almost felt like the past six years apart had never happened. “I aim to please. Got any tricks up your sleeves?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Law said, sobering. “These cones will leave us helpless in no time. Their pull on my shields is increasing. Can’t you feel it?”
“You could drop them.”
“I don’t think it’s wise. This trap was well planned. I’m betting our captor anticipated us doing just that.” He scowled at me. “Don’t even think about trying it.”
“Yes, Dad,” I said. Then, because he needed to know my limitations, “Besides, it would be fatal if I did.”
He stared, his expression going pale as my words sank in. He slowly slid his hands into his pockets as if he feared what he might do with them if they weren’t contained. “What exactly are you saying?” he asked in the same careful voice I’d used.
“I’ve been spell carving.” I braced for his inevitable explosion.
It didn’t come. Instead Law took a long breath and blew it out slowly, scraping both hands through his hair. He turned and paced across the room to the window, touching his fingers to the glass then down below the sill.
“What are you doing?”
“Figuring out how to get out of this mess.” He sounded choked.
He went around to the other walls, touching each, then crouched to brush his knuckles over the floor. He straightened.
“I’m cut off from Effrayant.”
“I know. We’re in a trap.”
“No, you don’t know. The place is an auberge.”
“I do know that. It’s written on the sign outside.” I was beginning to feel like one of us had had a head injury, and I don’t think it was me, but then again, I was really tired and Law was right—the drain on my magic was growing stronger. We needed to figure out a way to get out of the trap soon. I wasn’t eager to knock on death’s door so soon after the lich-cat episode.
He began pacing around the cones, examining them. “Not that it matters at the moment, but an auberge isn’t just a hotel. They are always anchored in a ley junction, and magic flows through them. My blood-bond lets me tap into that power at need. The trap is blocking me from doing that.”
“Which means that the trap was meant for us in particular. Why?”
“Because of the box, of course,” a young, feminine voice said.
I spun around to face the door. Just inside was the young woman from the elevator who’d seemed so familiar. In her hands she held three chains attached to the three missing goats. The animals strained at the end of their leashes to get as far from their captor as possible, eyes sprung wide with fear. Ice clamped my bones as Tabitha dug deeper inside me. I felt her shaking. Her fear turned my mouth dry and made my heart explode. I breathed quietly, trying to calm my body, even as my own fear surged.
That’s when I realized who the woman was. The incubus had killed her in Vegas. She was a corpse.