Chapter 13
Quinn
By the end of my third session of sorcery, I’d compelled the little spiky creature to walk all along the railing from one end of the terrace to the other, jump into Rollick’s arms—which it definitely did not want to do—and in an impromptu moment of inspiration for the demon, pounce on a gull that very unwisely decided to land on one of the lounge chairs.
The last command made me balk the most. I’d dawdled, hoping the gull would realize its impending doom and get the hell away. But Rollick had arched his eyebrows at me, and I’d thought about my parents somewhere below me. That’d been enough motivation to propel the strange words from my throat.
The creature had slammed the bird right off the chair onto the tiles as it tore open its throat. I didn’t think I’d ordered it to kill the gull, but maybe the sorcery words for “pounce” and “slaughter” were the same… or maybe the mini monster simply couldn’t imagine doing the former without also doing the latter.
Blood smeared across the tiles, and my stomach lurched. I jerked around, nausea continuing to roil in my gut.
Rollick seemed to realize he’d pushed me to my limit. He snatched up the beast by the scruff of its neck like it was an errant kitten, stuffed it back in the box, and did something with his supernatural powers that I couldn’t follow but that resulted in both the bird and most of the blood vanishing within a matter of seconds. All that remained was a faintly pinkish smudge on the pale gray tiles. He cocked his head at it. “The next rain should take care of that.”
The demon turned to me then, his dark blue eyes glinting slyly despite his haste to end the session. “You’re doing very well, sorcerer. Maybe I’ll bring a bigger beastie next time and see how well you can exert your will on it.”
Maybe we should see what happens if I exert my will on you, I thought, but I kept the snarky words to myself this time. I hadn’t forgotten how he’d threatened to make me practice on Lance. And over the past few days, I’d become increasingly conscious of the time ticking away before our deal was dissolved.
It’d been almost exactly seven days since the moment we’d made that deal. Rollick had snuck me into his suite a week ago. What was going to happen after three more days had passed? Was I impressing him enough, or would he decide my heart was more useful to him as dinner?
If I had impressed him… what was he going to want me to do next?
After he’d left, I roamed around the terrace and the living room, even more restless than usual. At least I might be able to negotiate safety for my parents if we set new terms. But on the other hand, I’d lost a lot of my bargaining power. Before, Crag could have fought for me on turf that wasn’t any more familiar to Rollick than it was to the gargoyle. We could have made a run for it. Now, Rollick controlled almost everything about my situation.
What leverage did I really have?
Out on the terrace again, I squinted against the bright sun, peering at the terrace above mine. The one that jutted from Rollick’s office, ending at the edge of his personal apartment’s roof.
I’d made a lot of tricky scrambles over the past several years. Climbing up maintenance ladders, scaling fences designed to keep out the curious, hefting myself to a higher floor of an abandoned building through nothing but a hole in the floor. I should be able to manage that climb if I planned it carefully.
There was more on the uppermost levels of the hotel than just Rollick’s office. I doubted the office itself was significantly bigger than his entire personal apartment, and the sub-penthouse floor had other regular hotel rooms like the one Torrent and I had made use of. I’d heard distant music and laughter from above before—one of the men had said something about a rooftop bar.
It still wouldn’t be wise for me to let anyone else see me, but I’d like to know what I was working with here. Get a better sense of the layout of the hotel. Figure out what my potential escape routes might be if I felt I needed to make a run for it later.
Anything that might add one small advantage to my side.
I studied the patio chairs and dragged the sturdiest one over to the inner corner of the terrace. If I started to lose my balance, I could hop down on its padding, and it wouldn’t be too bad a landing. I clambered from it onto the railing—first the stucco edge, then the steel bar that ran half a foot above the more solid wall.
From there, I could just reach the base of the office terrace. Rollick had opted for maximum visibility rather than privacy there, which served my purposes just fine. The whole barrier along the edge was made of steel posts with decent gaps in between them.
I grasped them and swung my legs up. I’d been keeping up my regular exercise routine during the long hours of boredom in the hotel room, and I hefted my weight without much trouble. In a moment, I was hooking my feet around two of the bars. With my legs holding the rest of me more stable, I pulled myself upright hand over hand until I could unhook one foot and then the other and swing right over the railing onto the terrace proper.
When my sneakers hit the tiles, which matched those on my own terrace below, I froze. For all I knew, the demon had come up to his office after he’d left me.
There wasn’t much of anywhere to hide on this smaller outdoor space, which appeared to be intended mainly for schmoozing with potential business prospects rather than private relaxation. There were no chairs or loungers at all, only a couple of small, bar-height tables that looked designed to hold drinks while the people around them stood.
I waited for the space of several heartbeats, but no one emerged from behind the glass door that led into Rollick’s office. Straightening up, I slunk over to it. Who knew what leverage I might be able to find in there?
I wasn’t really surprised to discover that the door was locked, though. I peered through the glass into the shadowy interior, but I couldn’t make out much beyond the thin wash of light that spilled through the windows, which revealed a thick carpet like the one downstairs and the shape of a desk with a bulky leather chair. Nothing particularly useful.
Better not to hang around on Rollick’s immediate turf too long anyway. I went back to the railing, walking the length of it to get the full view from this slightly higher vantage point. I couldn’t make out much more than the sprawl of ocean water I could see from my own terrace.
Jazzy notes were already lilting through the air from somewhere less distant now. I moved to the inner corner of the terrace and studied the wall.
The building protruded on either side of the terrace to hug its sides with solid, windowless stucco all the way up, no railing to clamber onto. But there was a rectangular bulge just above my reach, some kind of maintenance fixture, and a decorative slat above it that I thought would be wide enough to get my fingers around.
I eyeballed them for a minute, picturing the movements I’d need to make, and then dragged over one of the little tables. It wasn’t as steady as the chair I’d used before, but when I braced it in the corner, I could heave myself onto it and balance with only a little wobbling.
From that height, I could hook my elbow over the rectangular box. I leapt up, bracing my feet against the wall, and caught hold of the slat by the fingertips of my other hand.
For one dizzy moment, I thought I was going to skid back down to fall on my ass. Then I managed to shove my legs farther up and push off the box. Once I had one foot planted on it, hauling myself upright wasn’t too much trouble.
I could see onto the roof over Rollick’s office now—and it was just roof. The music and faint chatter I could now hear from the bar seemed to be coming from beyond a tall white wall that ran along the roof about twenty feet away, making sure no patrons wandered too close to Rollick’s private domain. The area I could see was a plain, smooth white surface, dappled with rain-streaked grit here and there.
It obviously wasn’t meant for visitors. There was no railing at all other than a simple bar that stood less than a foot high along the lip. But I was familiar with rooftops. I yanked myself up and over, crawled a few feet from the edge for safety’s sake, and then walked the rest of the way over to the wall.
I didn’t want anyone on the other side to get a glimpse of me, but I had to figure out whether the patio bar was accessible to me at all. If the hotel patrons used it, there must be a way to get down through the hotel from there. A potential escape route for desperate times.
But I’d only just reached the slanted shadow that fell along the looming wall when an unfamiliar lithe figure leapt into being a few feet away from me.
He jumped into my frame of view at an angle as if he’d hopped over the wall. If I hadn’t known shadowkind existed, I’d probably have believed that was what he’d done. But I knew he hadn’t been there a moment ago—he’d flickered into being right out of the shadow above.
I backed up a step, tensing as he grinned at me. The stranger didn’t look particularly monstrous at the moment, pale eyes gleaming amid peachy skin under a fall of rumpled chestnut hair, but I had no idea who he was either. And Rollick had been very clear that he didn’t want any shadowkind at all finding out I was here.
Shit. Just how much had I potentially fucked up the security of my hideout by exploring like this?
And what the hell did I do now?
As my heart pounded, the shadowkind man cocked his head in a casual motion, looking me up and down. “You must be one of the owner’s toys,” he said in an amused tone. “Decided to do a little wandering? Has he kept you all caged up?”
“No,” I blurted out. “I—I’m fine. I just wanted to get the best possible view.” I motioned vaguely toward the seascape beyond the roof.
I had my silver pen-dagger in my pocket, but suddenly it felt woefully inadequate. I had trouble imagining where I could stab it that I could manage to land and that would slow this guy down even slightly. Attacking him might make the situation ten times worse. My hand dropped to my pocket just in case.
He stepped closer, and I automatically retreated, starkly aware of how much roof I had left before I couldn’t back up at all. But the shadowkind man didn’t pursue me any farther.
A slow smile stretched across his lips. When he spoke next, there was a strange melodic quality to his voice that shivered through my thoughts and into my bones.
“You’d like to play with me now. It’s awfully hot up here, though. Better take that shirt off.”
I wanted to sputter a laugh in his face. No way was I getting undressed because some random dude asked me to. But before my mouth could even open, my arms were rising, my hands grasping the hem of my tank top.
My pulse hitched. What the fuck? I tried to stiffen my muscles against the movement, but I couldn’t stop them. It was like my common sense had been locked away by whatever magic he’d cast on me, and I couldn’t regain control no matter how I wrenched at myself inside. Some deep part of my mind thought there was nothing odd at all about lifting the fabric up over my bra and?—
With the cloth pulled up partly over my face, I only saw a blur of motion. There was a thump and a hiss and the start of a shout, cut off with a gurgle. The vice-like grip on my free will shattered. I whipped my hands and my shirt down, my skin damp with a chilly sweat.
In full demon form, Rollick had the other man, whatever kind of monster he was, pinned to the rooftop. He’d already slashed right through the guy’s throat with his claws, sending smoky blood billowing up. He snarled down at the intruder, his demonic face twisted with vicious fury.
“This is what you get when you mess with me and mine,” he spat out, and snuffed out whatever life had been left in the man by crushing the remains of his neck.
I hugged myself, my pulse still racing, as Rollick straightened up. Gripping the body, he dove into the shadows and returned an instant later empty-handed. Only a small smudge of smoke remained, wisping away into the air as I watched.
The demon turned toward me, wiping his hands together as he contracted into his less monstrous form. His normally cheerful face was darkened by a savage frown.
“Was that—was that one of the shadowkind that’ve been killing the sorcerers?” I asked. “He compelled me—he made me?—”
Rollick was already shaking his head. His frown relaxed a little. “There are many shadowkind who can manipulate mortals to their will,” he said. “We just generally can’t control each other by that sort of means.” He glowered at the spot where he’d caught the other man. “Too many cajoling merfolk around when you’re near the ocean. Never trust a siren.”
“Oh.” My gaze slid to the water, mythic tales swimming up through my mind.
Was that how it felt for the shadowkind when sorcerers compelled them? I’d gotten one brief taste of supernatural persuasion, and even that had been horrifying.
I looked back at Rollick. “How did you know I was here?”
His expression turned to pure amusement. “I don’t imagine you can blame me for being curious when I see the mortal who’s supposed to be staying in her very nice rooms clambering around the hotel. But as you can see, I wasn’t going to let you get into any actual danger. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“Thank you,” I said automatically, but then a prickle of anger rose up inside me. The way he’d tackled the siren hadn’t been so different from how he’d pinned me down just a couple of days ago, making promises that’d only been a shade distant from threats. I raised my chin. “Let’s not pretend you’re such a hero, though. You only protected me because you don’t want anyone messing with your plans or inconveniencing you.”
If he’d had the sort of persuasive power that other shadowkind had, maybe he’d have simply brainwashed my compliance just as quickly without a twinge of conscience. The only reason he hadn’t let his succubus do it was because he didn’t want her knowing I was here.
Rollick let out a huff that sounded more teasing than actually offended. “Whatever you think of my motivations, you’re much better off now than you were five minutes ago. Did you discover all you hoped to, little adventurer?”
I gritted my teeth. “I just wanted a better sense of where I actually am. I wasn’t going to let anyone see me—I didn’t think anyone would be able to get over to this part of the roof.”
“You came too close to the wall,” Rollick informed me. “He wouldn’t have been able to approach or affect you if you’d been over by the edge. But it’s done now.” He motioned to me. “Come on, let’s get you back where you belong and see if we can’t keep you in one piece for at least a few days longer.”