Chapter 14

Chapter

14

I wasn't sure if it was the scent of coffee or the sound of sliding pages that woke me, but I stayed where I was despite the painful crick in my neck, slumped in a chair and smiling at the thought that I must have fallen asleep in Trent's office again.

Until a feminine, very un-Trent-like voice whispered, "Oh, that can't be legal."

My eyes flashed open, my smile fading at the sight of the rack of old, musty books. Not Trent's office. It was the ancient book locker.

I sat up, stifling a groan as I patted my pocket to assure myself that the broken stirring rod was still there. I was sore, stiff from sleeping in one of the ratty rolling office chairs that had been dumped down here. Elyse barely glanced up from her book, her butt in the other rolling chair, her institute-bland sneakers on the round table at the center of the small room. My jacket hung from the corner of a low bookshelf. Guess she was done with it.

"Good afternoon," she said, her high voice only slightly mocking.

"Is it?" I practically whispered. The book in her hand had been written by a demon, if the lack of a title meant anything. She had two paper cups of coffee beside her, and a sticky-looking pastry in her hand. "What spell?" I asked when she didn't respond, and I took a slow breath. She was getting crumbs on the pages, and it bothered me. "What spell can't be legal?"

"Freeze someone's blood in their veins. I thought it was an expression. I'll have to come back for this one," she said, her gaze never leaving the ancient text. "I know how to freeze inanimate things, but this one works past auras. I had no idea Cincinnati had such a treasure of illicit dark magic under her streets."

That tends to happen when you're one of the oldest cities in the U.S. I stretched, feeling my calves ache and my feet twinge from being on the cold concrete. My spiffy red shirt was wrinkled. One of the sequins was loose, and I jerked it free, flicking it to the filthy carpet. "What time is it?"

"Almost noon? You're the one with the phone." Elyse ate another bite, brushing the crumbs off when I pointedly noticed them. "I got you a pastry from the vending machine before the library opened. That coffee is yours, too, if you want it."

My neck cracked when I shifted my head, and I stood, feeling like a zombie as I shuffled over. "Thank you."

"I didn't know what you liked, so I got you a black, two sugars."

"Perfect." I dragged my rolling chair to the table. One of the casters was busted, so it took some effort.

"You're welcome," she added sullenly.

Wow. Just wow. I was too fuzzy to try to figure out what her problem was, and I sat down in my chair and took the coffee in both hands. The pasty was one of those nasty cinnamon rolls wrapped in cellophane, but it was the coffee I really wanted, and I tapped a line and warmed it up with a quick word. It had been sitting for a while.

Elyse's attention returned to her book. Her feet were still on the table, but I could sense a rising tension in her. The ancient book locker sat at the end of a long hallway in the basement of the university's library, safe behind a chain-link fence with a mundane lock and a magical deterrent they put in about a year ago after a particularly nasty break-in. Industrial lights hummed overhead, and my aura prickled at the hint of power.

A faint musty smell fought with the scent of burnt amber rising from the room's more valuable books. A cracked cement-block wall with a broken glass cabinet took up one side, books on the other three. Several more racks of books stood between our cozy ten-by-fourteen space and the chain-link fence and hall to give the occasional user less of a feeling of being in a cage. That was why the table and chairs. Nothing was supposed to leave the ancient book locker.

But it did, I thought, grimacing at the broken cabinet and the black stain below it as I wrestled with the pastry to try to get the cellophane to break.

Finally I got it open, and the scent of syrupy sugar made me a hundred times hungrier. "Thanks, I'm starving," I said as I pulled off a strand of dough and ate it.

There was a black hoodie on the back of her chair. It went with her gray sweats better than my sequined jacket, and my eyebrows rose. "You didn't get that from a vending machine."

"Nope." Elyse turned a page, playing with her coven pin as if it was a talisman. "I got it from the employees' break room along with your breakfast. And before you say anything, it was in the lost and found. They weren't even open yet. No one saw me."

I bobbed my head. If anything got us caught, it would be the scent of coffee.

Elyse slowly lost the chip on her shoulder at my silence, but the tension remained.

"Mmmm," she finally said. "I could do this if I had a snow crystal. I'll have to check Vivian's things."

Thinking she was baiting me, I ate another ribbon of dough. "That's not a spell. It's a curse," I said, and Elyse beamed at me.

"As long as no one dies, it's legal if you're coven," she said, and I took a slow, steadying breath. I was so tired of the hypocrisy.

I finished my coffee, lips set wryly at the last grainy dregs. My boots were unlaced, and I bent to tie them up. I had a busy day, and it would start with spelling her to sleep so she wouldn't follow me and muck things up.

"So…" Elyse's sneakers hit the floor and she pushed her rolling chair back a few feet. "I'm dying to know how you got the demon mark. I've heard rumors."

My gaze went to the cabinet Al had thrown me into, and I felt myself warm. "I'd think you'd be more curious as to how I got rid of it."

"I don't care how you got rid of it. I want to hear what you got in exchange for it."

I finished one boot and started on the other. "I got it because my boyfriend at the time didn't read the fine print." Which might account for him being overseas at the moment. I would have rather gone to Nick's abandoned apartment last night, but I'd be taking Kisten there tonight, and I didn't want to disturb anything.

Grief hit me, twice as potent as it was unexpected, and my fingers faltered on my laces. Crap on toast, he was going to die tonight, and here I was playing nanny to a coven member. I should have been in and out of here already.

But when I came up from my boots, Elyse was waiting for more, that little-girl look of hers on her face as she eyed me over her book.

"Oh, for the love of the Turn," I muttered. "Piscary sent a demon to kill me because he didn't like that Ivy thought I might be able to help her escape his hold on her. The demon caught up to me here, actually." Again I glanced at the busted cabinet. The glass had been swept up, but they hadn't bothered to get the wet-vac down here to pull the blood out of the flat, dirty carpet.

"That's my blood," I said, and Elyse lost some of the mocking lilt to her brow. "He busted my head against the cabinet there, then ripped open my wrist, all the while wearing the image of Ivy. Filled me with enough vampire spit to bind a cow."

"Merlin's mistletoe," she said, and I blinked at the odd curse.

"He would have killed me, but Nick circled him." I fiddled with my empty cup. "That broke the hold that Piscary had on him, and Nick made a new deal that rubbed out the one he'd made with Piscary. Ugly story short, the demon saved my life in the end by getting me back to my church, but I got a mark in exchange for it. So did Nick."

Mood sour, I stared at nothing. Nick was alive at the moment. If it wouldn't mess up the timeline, I wouldn't mind fixing that.

"The second mark I got was Lee's fault," I said, waggling my foot at her. "He abducted me, took me to the ever-after to sell me to the very same demon. But I didn't fight back and Lee looked like the more powerful magic user, so Al took him instead. You should have listened to me when I told you he was a dippy-doo."

Elyse's brow furrowed. "Wait. Al?" she questioned. "You're telling me the same demon who tried to kill you is now your teacher ?"

"More or less, emphasis on less." Because as much help as he gave me in getting here, he felt more like a mentor. There was a difference. Teachers give you information and teach you how to use it. Mentors are simply two steps ahead of you, able to lift you up or bring you down by what they share. Avoiding her, I began going through my bag to make two piles: one to take while talking to Newt, one to leave here to pick up later. I wasn't going to risk bringing anything I couldn't replace. Like the book that got me here, I thought as I set it aside—then looked at Elyse with mistrust.

"Mmmm." Elyse scooted closer, her finger marking her spot in her closed book. "How did you get rid of them?"

Empty splat gun…stays, I thought, setting it on the book. Newt would only be insulted. "I thought you didn't care."

"Just curious."

Elyse was silent as I put a stick of magnetic chalk on the "take" pile. "Hey, um, can you snap a picture of this for me?" she asked.

She was holding out the book to that blood-freezing curse, and I gave her a look. "I'm not going to put an illicit curse on my phone for you to call me a dark practitioner with."

A hurt expression drew her childlike face in. "That wasn't my intention. My phone didn't make the trip."

She set the book on the table with a thump, frowning when I ignored it. "What are you doing?" she asked as I fingered my new transposition charm. If I left it here, anyone might find it, but if I took it with me, Newt might say I stole it, seeing as it was hers, or had been, or whatever. Grimacing, I reluctantly put the stone next to my splat gun, trusting the ancient book locker to keep it safe. Elyse might take it, but she was going nappies before I left.

"Prepping to trick a crazy demon into giving me something for nothing," I said, remembering she'd asked me a question. Maybe I could stop at the coffee shop on the way. Demons would give a lot for a cup of sweet coffee untainted by the stink of burnt amber. Actually, that's not a bad idea…

Elyse glanced at the two piles, her lower lip between her teeth. "I saw half a dozen good spells you could use."

"Newt has better ones." My fingertips touched my pocket with the snapped stirring rod. The necessity to keep it safe warred with the need to keep it with me, and I left it where it was. Memory charms—take. Zip-strip snipper…definitely.

"Not for trading, for fighting," she said with a grin. "I for one wouldn't mind stopping at a spell shop first."

Crap on toast, she thinks she's coming? I scowled at her. "You can't fight a demon. Ever. You get them curious enough not to drag you away immediately, then stall for time, wedging in what you really want amid your teasers."

"Sure, but—"

"But nothing," I interrupted, setting a second memory charm next to the first on the "take" pile. "At the moment, there aren't any laws protecting people against demons. That little gem won't come into effect until, oh, a few years from now, thanks to Trent."

I looked at the books surrounding me. One of them might interest Newt if it was hers, but all the really old ones had been in the glass cabinet and were gone. Stymied, I glanced at the one I had brought with me, the one that Newt had written. No. I only have a few books as it is.

"Okay, so what are you going to give her?"

I glanced at my new pinky ring, and my hand fisted. "Yeah. That's the question." I weighed my phone before setting it by the forget charms to take. "I woke up a few days ago—the me of this time period, not the one we belong in—with Newt in my head. She had possessed me so she could walk on hallowed ground to search the church. At the time, I'd assumed she was looking for the focus, which is currently in David's freezer turning the women he is having sex with into Weres, but now I think Newt was searching for a memory of when we first met." My eyes dropped to the filthy carpet. "I think she guessed I was a demon straight off. The only reason Al snagged me first was because Minias, her caretaker, probably dosed her with a forget charm, accidentally obliterating the information. She might trade that memory for the mirror."

"A memory of you is going to buy a priceless, one-of-a-kind mirror?" she asked, and I felt myself warm at the scorn in her voice. "Morgan, you are my ticket home, and I'm not risking you being abducted by a demon because you trust in the importance of your birthright. I'm coming with you. You need some firepower, and I'm it."

Son of a moss-wipe pixy pisser. My jaw clenched, and I forced it to relax. She was right about needing more, though, and I reluctantly moved the spell book to the "take" pile. I'd offer it as a last resort. Clearly I was connected to the demon collective and didn't need it to get home. I'd rather lose that than Trent's mom's ring.

"Ah, you can get me home, right?" Elyse asked suddenly, taking my silence for unease.

"Probably."

Elyse blanched. "You're not sure?" She sat up, shoulders stiff. "You came here and didn't have a way home? Were you planning on living those two years again?"

"It was supposed to be five," I snapped, thinking I was going to have to surprise her if I had any hope of downing her, singed synapses or not. "And no. I have a way home. You're the problem. You've always been the problem."

She was silent, her expression empty as I began shoving my "take" pile into my bag.

My eye twitched. It was going to require a defunct, ancient stasis charm to get her home, but if I told her that now, she would insist on coming so she could barter one from Newt. I knew Trent had one, but it was defunct, and not only would I have to steal it, I'd have to rekindle it, too—in front of a coven member. Son of a moss-wipe troll hickey.

"You can't get me home?" she asked, her voice high, and I felt a moment of sympathy. "Is that why it hurt so bad?"

"I don't know," I said truthfully. "The curse I used doesn't simply move you back in time. It shifts your entire body to an earlier state. That's why you're younger. You lose energy going into the past and require it going into the future."

"I'm hearing a big ‘however,'?" she said, her face pale.

"Yep," I said sourly. "It's not designed to move living things, so I twined an energy-spindling spell into the traveling curse to catch the lost energy. That part of the curse is illicit, but I figured since I was stealing my own energy, it would be okay. The energy is stored in the demon collective and will unspool on the way home. I didn't know you were there. I didn't include you in the, ah, curse."

"Then…" She studied the racks of books. "How the hell am I going to get home?" Her focus sharpened. "This was all a trick, wasn't it! You want me dead. If I'm stuck here, you get away with everything!"

Oh, for little flying pixy turds… She was starting to lose it, and I rubbed my forehead as if tired—which I was—hoping it made me look nonthreatening. Singed synapses or not, the woman was dangerous. "Relax, Elyse Embers. I can get you home with a stasis charm."

"You mean a stasis charm that spontaneously breaks after three days to prevent death by dehydration? Try again!"

I nodded. The auto-break was a coven mandate—for good reason. Stasis charms wouldn't work any longer than three days on the undead, either. "You're right, if it's witch made." I slung my bag, feeling confident at its book-heavy weight, though I would be loath to lose it if worse came to worst. "But I'm not a witch, am I."

Elyse licked her lips, eyeing my bag. "I'm coming with you to the ever-after."

"No, you aren't." I picked up my splat gun and the rest and took them to the shelves.

"Hey! I may look eighteen, but I'm really twenty!" she said.

Oh. My. God. "I'll be back once I have the mirror. If I wanted to leave you behind, I wouldn't have bailed you out of jail."

"You didn't bail me out. You broke me out. And if you screw any of this up, I'm stuck here! I'm going with you."

I tucked the splat gun behind a couple of tomes and turned. "You think you can play the part of my familiar?"

"Your what?" she said in repugnance. "I'm not going to be your slave."

Elyse had stood. Maybe I could knock her down, sit on her, and tie her to a bookcase. "It would be safer if you stayed here and went through the books for a stasis spell that will last longer than three days. I suggest the old ones without titles." Because if she couldn't find one, I'd be stealing one from Trent.

Elyse lifted her chin. "You can't stop me from following you."

She sounded like Jenks. Her expression was just as determined, and I went to get my jacket, seeing as she had her lost-and-found special. Rhinestones… "I could." I let that sit there for a moment. "You can't tap a line yet, and I doubt you spent your adolescence in the gym learning how to fend off creeps."

Her eye twitched. "I can help," she said, switching tactics. "I'll be quiet. It will be good experience. I bet Newt knows how to collect enough energy to live on for two years."

This was exactly what I had wanted to avoid, and I stiffly shoved my arms into my jacket and tugged it straight. "I know she does. Where do you think I got the spell?"

"Then I can bargain with her for it."

"That's why you aren't coming." I gathered myself to leave, not sure what to do anymore. "Stay here. Concentrate on the demon tomes. Maybe you'll get lucky. Because if you ask her, she'll want your soul. I guarantee it. Nice young coven member. She won't have to break you of any bad habits."

Bag over my shoulder, I strode through the freestanding racks of musty books. Her scuffing steps were right behind me, and I half expected her to try to hit me on the way out. I shoved the chain-link gate open and stepped into the darker hallway, senses tingling as the wire door scraped loudly.

And then I made a mistake. I turned to latch the gate shut.

Elyse was standing there looking desperate: desperate to help, desperate not to be left behind, desperate to be taken seriously. It was the last that broke me, and my grip on the chain-link tightened. Suddenly I couldn't bring myself to shut it. "Okay. Seriously," I said, and the light of hope brightened her expression. "Can you pretend to be my familiar? Do what I say? Take all manner of insults? Keep your mouth shut? I mean it. Can you? Because familiars take a lot of shit." But the real question was, would she?

"Yes," she said immediately, and my mood soured. I am so stupid.

"Fine, you can come. It's probably a good thing you can't do any magic, because if you did, Newt would flatten you like a bug. Let's go."

Elyse stepped into the hall and slammed the gate shut behind her. She had left her hoodie, but I was betting she didn't trust me enough not to lock her in if she went to get it. "You didn't prep anything," she said as I secured the gate with the mundane key.

"Okay, what would you do?" I said as I tucked the key into its hidey-hole where Nick kept it. "Summon Newt into a circle? Demand the information? Trick her like you tricked me?"

The young woman flushed.

"I saw her take down a three-ringed blood circle not three days ago local time. Anything you could spell wouldn't stand. Any information you gained from her wouldn't be a lie, but she'd leave something out that would make it worthless. You trick her," I said, voice gaining strength as I stared her down, "and she will kill you where you stand with no more thought than swatting a spider. There's nothing wrong with an up-front, honest deal, Elyse." I reshouldered my bag and started down the long hall, chain-link cages to either side. "Demons don't have to do anything, even if you circle them. And Newt? She's the worst. No one, even her, knows her summoning name. She just shows up wherever and whenever she feels like it, as if she was immune to the curse that imprisoned the rest in the hellhole of the EA."

I was telling Elyse how to survive, but I didn't think she was listening.

"It's not as if I can do any magic anyway," she said sullenly, and I stopped.

"Look, you wanted me in your coven to learn about demons, right?" I said. "I'm trying to tell you something. How about listening?"

Elyse stared belligerently at me. I knew she wasn't eighteen, but twenty wasn't much better. "Here," I said as I took the chalk from my pocket and snapped it in two. "Before we get started with Newt, draw a circle and I'll invoke it for you."

"Why not circle Newt?"

I shuddered. "Not her. Never her. That would only piss her off. She might laugh if you circle yourself. It won't last long if she wants to take it down, but I might be able to distract her in the meantime."

Elyse considered the chalk in her hand as if I'd given her a slingshot against a tank. "You're asking me to go against thousands of years of lore and trust you? Seems to me that a coven member for a mirror would be a damn fine trade. No one would ever know."

"I would." Somehow the dim lighting made her seem older. Or maybe it was her skeptical expression. "I told you to stay here, remember? Besides, Newt already has a demon for a familiar. You'd be a step down. Just because people have been circling demons for thousands of years, it doesn't mean that it's right or that there isn't a better way."

Elyse put the chalk into a pocket. "How are you going to find her if you don't summon her?"

I peered up the grungy stairway. "I have an idea," I said as I started up. "One that will keep Minias out of the equation, too."

Elyse's shoes scuffed on the cold cement as she followed me, the sound uncomfortable in the tight confines. I was beginning to think Elyse should see the ever-after, witness firsthand what five thousand years of a magic war does to a world. But then again, I didn't want to spend my life trying to free Elyse from a demon. Getting her free from the I.S. had been hard enough.

"You know," Elyse said from three stairs down, "we could end this and go home right now if you agree to be coven."

My grip on the filthy banister tightened. "I'm not doing this for the coven. I need to uncurse Brad. Evading the coven was always secondary. Besides, easy always bites me on the ass, and baby, you're easy."

Her heavy sigh turned me around and I winced at her gray sweats. Sure, she was glamoured, but it was a demon curse and Newt might be able to see through it. "Hey, ah, does Vivian give you an allowance when you're at coven camp?"

"Yeah, why?"

I glanced down at myself, cringing at the sequins. "If you are going to be my familiar, you can't go in like that. You need some style. We both do."

Elyse smiled. "There's an ATM in the lobby."