Chapter 22

Twenty-Two

When morning came, both of us pretended like last night hadn't happened. Whatever spell Lucien had used to kill the electronics in our hotel room had worn off and recasting it during the day would definitely be noticed, so we went about our day as normal.

Well, maybe not exactly normal.

Neither of us were talking much. We took it in turns to surveil the Recondite temple, and when breakfast arrived, we ate in silence. Several tedious hours had gone past when we finally spotted something; a freight truck pulling into the alley we had been making out in last night.

It was the first real movement either of us had seen since last night. Not once had anyone used the building's front doors, and besides the robed man in the alley, we'd seen no one else even near it.

Lucien pressed his eyes to the telescopic camera, and I watched the laptop for the photos that popped up. The truck had backed in ass first, so it was impossible to see what was being moved from it to the building itself, but something was, and they were using that side entrance we had seen last night.

"Run the license plate," said Lucien.

"Run it?" I asked. "How?"

"Note the number down and enter it into the police database. It should be on the screen somewhere—just don't close it."

I zoomed in on the picture Lucien had taken of the truck, wrote down its license plate, and keyed it into the police database just as he had asked. I was pretty sure we weren't supposed to have access to this database, but I decided not to question it.

"What am I looking for?" I asked.

"Anything that stands out or seems unusual," he said.

I checked the readout that came up on the screen. Having had no previous experience here, I couldn't say I had spotted anything weird. Massachusetts registry, the truck's official owner was some packaging company I had never heard of, and it didn't flag up as wanted, stolen, or suspicious—assuming that was a thing that would have come up on the database I was using.

"Looks… normal," I ventured. "Nothing weird."

"What about the people driving it?" he asked. "Is there anything weird about them?"

I pulled up Lucien's photo of the truck driver. He hadn't stepped out to help unload it and was just sitting at the wheel, eating a doughnut or a sandwich or something. "Honestly, looks like a regular delivery guy."

"And I can't see what they're unloading from this angle."

"Is it important that the building is getting a delivery?"

"It's the first time we've seen that side entrance get used, without more data, we can't figure out whether that's a regular supply of goods, or a one-off, special delivery."

"You think it could be the crown?"

Lucien looked back at me. "Maybe. But even if it's not, this is the first delivery in two days; we don't have time to wait around and see if another delivery arrives."

"So, we have to assume it won't open again anytime soon."

"And since it's at ground level, we can also assume it will be as heavily protected as the front door… which leaves us only one option."

I frowned. "One option?"

Lucien picked the telescopic camera up, unplugged it from the laptop, and hauled it and its tripod toward the hotel room door. He turned to look at me. "Come with me," he said.

I got up and followed him all the way to the roof access door. It was locked, but Lucien pulled out a key from his pocket, opened the door, and stood aside to let me through first.

The sun was bright, the breeze was cool, and I could hear the sounds of life happening all around me. Car horns blared below, seagulls cawed above, and off in the distance, helicopters. A pair of them were flying overhead, skimming just above the tallest buildings in the district and heading toward… the ocean.

I ran over to the edge of the building and threw my gaze toward the horizon. There, between the buildings ahead of me, glittering as the light touched it, was the sea. I took a deep breath in, shut my eyes, and honestly thought I could smell the salt water.

"Wow…" I said to no one.

"Wow?" Lucien asked, as he came up beside me.

I opened my eyes again and stared at the ocean, at the ships in the harbor, at the seagulls hovering over the fish market. "I've never been to the ocean," I said.

"You haven't?"

I shook my head. "I've never even been to the beach."

"You live… in Boston."

"I know." I shook my head. "My family kept me under lock and key. I was never allowed to go anywhere."

"Not even with them?"

"Definitely not with them."

I shut my eyes, took another deep breath, and smiled to myself as the wind caressed my face and tugged at my hair. "It's beautiful. What did you bring me up here, for?"

"Surveillance… but I can give you a couple of minutes, if you like."

"What's the point of looking if I can't touch? We may as well get on with this."

Lucien nodded. "Alright."

"I appreciate the offer, though…" I turned my eyes up at him. Lucien held my gaze, leaving words unsaid.

"Over here," he said, and then he moved toward another of the building's edges.

When we reached a good vantage point over the Recondite temple, Lucien set the tripod camera up and aimed it at their rooftop. Their rooftop was lower than ours, which meant that from up here, we could see it perfectly.

The first thing I noticed was the guy in the suit with the sunglasses. He was pretty difficult to miss, leaning against the side of the building, watching the world go by below him. Lucien snapped a couple of photos of him—I could hear the click, click, click of his shots.

"Do you know who he is?" I asked.

"No idea," he said. "Just another guard."

I scanned the rooftop, picking out interesting features as I went. Vents, a skylight, and a door leading into the building's stairwell. I couldn't see what the skylight looked into, I also couldn't tell whether the door that led into the building was alarmed, or locked, but I did realize something I thought was important.

"Look at that," I said.

"At what?"

"The birds."

Lucien stepped away from the camera and looked at the birds sitting on the rooftop across from us. "What about them?" he asked.

"They're not avoiding the building like the people on the street are."

He paused. "So, either there are no protective wards on the rooftop… or it only works on people."

My heart sank. "How would we even test that? We can't exactly grab a pigeon and yeet it at the front door."

Lucien grabbed the camera and quickly searched the rest of the building.

"There," he said, pointing toward one of the protected windows. A small bird was trying its hardest to land on the window's outer ledge, but an invisible force kept pushing it away.

"That's the first bit of good news we've had all day," I said, "But how are we supposed to get over there?"

Lucien looked down at me and grinned.

"What's that face about?" I dared to ask.

"There's only one way across from up here."

"Magic?" I ventured.

He shook his head. "Zip-line."

All of the blood drained from my face. "You're kidding."

Another cheeky smirk.

I slapped him on the arm. "You're not serious."

"I am deathly serious. The only way we're getting onto that rooftop, without magic alerting every mage within it, is to use a zip-line."

I looked down at the gap between buildings. "That's easily a sixty-foot gap! You're out of your mind if you think I'm hurling myself across it on a flimsy rope."

"It would be a state-of-the-art piece of equipment, not a flimsy rope."

"In any case, we still don't know exactly whether or not the roof is a good option. There may not be a forcefield to contend with, but there's still the matter of the guard."

"One guard, as opposed to the two we know watch the front door, and the unknown number behind the side door."

"You're insane."

"I am, but unless a better option presents itself, we have to consider that this one could be it. We'll redouble our surveillance efforts, see if we can figure out when and if that guard moves, and plan our way in."

"That's another issue. Once we get in, then what? How are we supposed to find the crown?"

"I have something that will help us with that."

I paused. "Something which is…"

"You'll see."

"Now isn't the time to be cryptic. I'm putting my life in your hands here.."

He glanced at the rooftop across from us, then back at me. "I have a demon."

"A demon?!"

"It's trapped in a reliquary right now, behind several, potent, protective spells. When we get inside, I'll release it, and it will find the crown for us. It will be drawn to its energy."

I shook my head. "You lost me at the word release. A demon? Really? You said yourself, they can't be controlled without the engine."

"Normally, no, but I think I can control this one."

"And if you can't?"

"I won't fail. You have to trust me."

There it was again, the big question. Did I trust him?

I knew, now, that his mother had been able to control demons without the Engine, that he had been studying to do the same, but he hadn't been able to get it to work yet. He was obviously confident in his own magical ability, but I hadn't seen enough of it myself to agree with him.

"So much of this mission is already dangerous…" I replied. "The last thing we need is another unpredictable element thrown into the mix."

"Do you have a better suggestion? Because we haven't exactly been able to pierce the outer shell of that building with our equipment. Getting in is all well and good, but if we don't know where the crown is, we're screwed."

I took a deep breath, then exhaled. "Maybe… I can help with that."

He frowned. "Maybe?"

"I think I can. I'm not sure."

"What do you think you can do?"

"I can't… cross into the Ether. Not physically. But I may be able to throw my consciousness into it."

"Astral projection?"

"Something like that. It's tricky, though, and I've only ever done it once or twice."

"Will they detect you while your consciousness is in the Ether?"

"I'm not sure. They shouldn't, but I don't know what kind of powers they have."

Lucien's look turned grave. "If they detect you, our mission is over before it starts."

"Unless we figure out where that crown is before we get inside, our mission is doomed to fail anyway."

Lucien looked over at the Recondite guard. "Are you up for a practice run?"

"I may be up for a bit more than that, but I'll need your help."

"Help?"

I nodded. "My body will be vulnerable while I'm projecting. I'll need you to keep me upright… and safe."

"I can do that for you," he said, after a pause.

"Okay… let's try it."

Lucien moved into position behind me while I turned around and faced the building's edge. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pressed his body against my back, holding me firmly in place.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yeah…" I angled my head to the side and grinned at him. "Just don't get any funny ideas, back there."

"Try to keep still and it won't be a problem."

"Okay. I'm going."

Shutting my eyes, I let my mind wander. I thought about the breeze pushing through my hair and whooshing past my ears. I listened to the seagulls calling overhead. I drowned out the honking, and the horns, and mechanical sounds of cars rushing around underneath us. There was only the wind, and the birds, and nature.

In there, somewhere, was the barrier that separated our world from the Ether.

All I had to do was find it, send my mind into it, and hope I could find my way back in one piece.