Chapter 24

Chapter

24

The step from the couch into the ever-after was a long, sudden drop. I came down hard, the reek of burnt amber a choking assault as it filled my nose, my lungs, my very pores. If the surface was bad, this was almost intolerable. A sticky heat and a loud thump of music slammed into me, the myriad conversations continuing as if someone stepping out of nothing into a demon coffeehouse was commonplace. But when in the ever-after, it sort of was.

I didn't see Elyse, but the door to the coffeehouse was before me and I grabbed it, wondering if my Kalamack Industries uniform glamour was any good here. The transposition curse was demon based, sure, but that didn't mean they couldn't see through it.

But the scent of burnt amber was finally slipping into the background, and I opened the door and stepped in.

As I had already seen while using my second sight, the shop was busy. Everyone was talking, and I held the satchel with my bag closer as I scanned the familiars standing in line, their diverse outfits making it feel like a studio commissary. I wasn't as out of place as I had first thought. More familiars served as baristas, efficiently moving the line as they used magic to prep the drinks and light fare. Their banter with their regular customers seemed cheerful despite their enforced servitude. Elyse wasn't here, and my shoulders slumped. Crap on toast, you've got to be kidding me. She must have gone all the way into the vault.

"Hey, sport," a low voice said, and I spun to see two demons sitting at a high table, one in a wide-lapel, bold-color seventies leisure suit, the other in a pair of running sweats and enough jewelry to please even Constance—both staring at me in interest. "Your aura is too bright to have been here long. Who let you out so soon, little man?"

Boz and Clemt, I thought, knowing every demon by their common name after having fended off their interests more than once. For as long as I had known him, Boz was stuck in the disco era. Clemt had recently abandoned his penchant for penal-colony Australia for the eighties rap scene. The two were somewhat ostracized for their modern tastes, hence them palling around in the Coffee Vault, but I'd always appreciated their attempts to fit in.

At least I know my disguise is holding. Even so, it was never good to be interesting to a demon, even one you knew, and I turned to the last person in line. "Hey, was there a, ah, guy just here?" I asked him. "Blond hair, dressed like me, scared looking."

"I said, who owns you?" Clemt demanded, gold chains jingling, and the familiar ahead of me shook his head and pressed forward, divorcing himself from any possible trouble.

Boz smacked Clemt's arm for his attention. "I think he's from the Kalamack estate," he said. "I swear he came through the line."

"Yeah?" Clemt's interest sharpened.

"Seriously?" I said as I decided how I wanted to play this. Elyse was nowhere. I didn't want to leave her if I was wrong and she'd run out into the mall. Damn it, Elyse…

"Yeah," Boz said, echoing Clemt. "That shiny little elf shit pulled the line down again. See?" He gestured at me with his cracked ceramic coffee mug. "Trying to get into the vault and lost your way, little elf? He's a thief, I bet. Think he's worth the effort?"

Clemt grunted in interest. "He's not afraid, so either he's really good or really dumb."

The demon slid from his high chair, his intent obvious, and I took a step back into the ley line, my hair snarling in the unfocused magic. "Let's go with dumb," I said.

The demon reached for me, but it was too late, and I vanished, willing myself into reality. This time the move was seamless, and I blinked, trying to see in the utter darkness of the Kalamack vault. The reek of burnt amber lifted from me, and I felt the air, trying to find a wall or rack. Eyes open or shut, it all looked the same.

"Visio deli!" a high-pitched voice rang out, and I ducked, squinting as a brilliant light exploded into existence—headed right for me. If it hit, I'd be temporarily blind.

"Rhombus!" I countered, cowering as the glowing orb smashed into my protection circle. "Elyse, it's me! It's me! Demons can't cross on their own. They have to be summoned. Damn it back to the Turn! What are you doing here? You were supposed to keep our exit open!"

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. It wasn'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.

And then we both jumped at the sudden thud at the bare wall. Plaster chipped and fell.

They were trying to break in. Why? I thought as the muffled sound of splintering drywall grew louder. Trent's security knew how to move through the ley lines.

And then I figured it out. Everyone in Trent's security knew how to move through the ley lines. They knew demons were waiting to snag them if they tried. Son of a fairy-farting whore…

"Elyse, we have to go," I said as the cracking of the wallboard became louder. "The ever-after is the only way out. We'll get to the surface and walk to a ley line." And still she stood there, staring at me. "Put on your robe!"

Her chin trembled in what I thought was anger. "You planned this. This entire charade was to sell me to Newt for that damned mirror with no witnesses. There's no way to rekindle a used ley line charm, and I believed you! You're going to sell me to Newt!" Head shaking, she retreated as the wall splintered.

"Elyse…" I protested.

"I'll take my chances with Kalamack," she added bitterly. "I'm not the one who arrested him at his wedding. I'm the little girl you kidnapped from camp as a hostage." She turned to the widening cracks. "Help me! Please! She's going to sell me to the demons!"

"You little…" Furious, I lunged for her. She yelped, backpedaling to crash into Trent's elf porn. We went down, me atop her. A thought flickered through me of Boz and Clemt, either laughing their asses off or taking bets as to who was going to win.

Elyse howled, clearly pissed as she tried to shove me off her.

"Put on the robe! I am not trying to sell you!" I shouted, then jumped as energy zinged through me. It was Elyse, flooding me with raw power, straight from the line we had fallen into.

I didn't have time for this, and I pulled the fizzing energy in, forcing it into established patterns worn painless from use. Her power hummed, tasting of salt and lilac as it filled my chi. I added to it, jaw clenching when I shoved it right back.

Elyse screamed in pain, and then she went slack. I'd knocked her out.

"Get away from the woman!" someone demanded, and my attention jerked to the ragged hole in the wall. It wasn't wide enough for them to see me yet, and when it was, they'd start slinging spells.

"If I wanted to sell you, I would have done it already," I said, pissed to the ends of the earth as I shoved myself up and off her. The display case was shattered, statues rolling and glass tinkling as I grabbed her robe and hat, giving them a little shake before stuffing them into my shoulder bag. Had she learned nothing from the last time we argued?

"Ow…" came a whisper, and I stomped over to Elyse. Motions rough, I took the splat gun from her holster, then rolled her over with my foot to reach the one at the small of her back.

"Can you walk?" I yanked her up, struggling to manage her weight. "If you're lucky, I singed your synapses so you can't do anything that will get you killed."

"Rachel…" she slurred, a hand going to her head. "You will rot in Alcatraz for this."

"Yeah, well, I have to get you home first." She couldn't stand, and my stomach muscles clenched as I caught my shoulder under hers and took her weight. Behind me, chunks of plaster hit the floor as they widened the hole. "I won't let you be taken," I said as she blinked at me. "And if someone does take you, I will get you free. I promise. But we have to get out of here. They won't dare follow us into the ever-after or they would have jumped in here already."

"Wait…" she rasped, alarm widening her eyes. "Rachel, no!"

"Do me a favor and don't do any magic," I whispered. And with me in my spelling robes and her in her I.S. sweats, I shifted both our auras to match the line and we were gone.