Chapter Fourteen
Taking Milo’s advice, I returned home and passed out.
My telepathy soared while I wandered through a dreamless night.
Perhaps no memories haunted me because the present frightened me enough.
Perhaps my mind simply couldn’t sort past regrets and maintain such a powerful tether.
Not that an answer mattered. I hovered beside Enchanter Evergreen as he strutted into La Maison de l’Infini, flashing an invitation Cassidy had been kind enough to acquire for him.
Something about this secret club would help him solve the demon case and stop the murders.
It was stunning how he waltzed inside without raising a single quizzical response.
Sure, he’d gotten enchantments laced with glamours to alter his appearance, but La Maison de l’Infini had hundreds of sigils, glyphs, and wards to hide its location and monitor all their clientele.
Inside, those enchantments lined the high-arched ceiling and marble floors.
Then again, in a place where everyone hid who they were so they could be who they wanted, it wasn’t too shocking his glamoured appearance passed the check-in, especially since the support items Cerberus Guild provided were top-tier crafted.
The sigils in the diamond stud earrings he wore were quite discreet, despite nothing about his current glamoured look being inconspicuous. Pretty certain they called this peacocking.
Flashy to draw attention, yet Milo believed in a place like this, doing everything he could to stand out would ensure he went unnoticed.
He’d changed the color of his eyes to a bright purple, which might explain why no one questioned his glamour enchantment.
It seemed more than a few guests altered their aesthetic to stand out; either that or they possessed an augmentation branch.
Milo had traded in his spiky blond trademark look for gelled-back black hair, closer to my length than his.
Though his complexion hadn’t changed from his usual tan, he’d gained a small face tattoo of two hearts.
The appearance was something he didn’t mind for blending, but the outfit irritated him. The polo shirt was itchy compared to his soft dress shirts, and the raised collar tickled his ears. And the jeans. While I very much appreciated the view of his assets, he hated the feel of denim.
As expected, La Maison de l’Infini had a lot of illegal activities to offer, enough for him to spot in a few quick glances and shut down the club if he so desired. Milo eyed the upper floor lined with portals and a sign.
Le Port Sans Fin
Some portals had rippling watery blues, others made of fiery red mist, and a few made of sheen forest green.
Each cosmic doorway was linked to a different lounge in a different city somewhere across the world.
This place was international, and Milo had merely gained entry to the Chicago Lounge.
Each glowing portal had a bouncer positioned and another necessary invitation to cross through.
Ignoring the warp portals that led to nearby lounges offering the same delights for the right price, Milo walked through the casino section, making note of every table, bar, and guest as he perused.
Milo didn’t want to shut the place down.
It’d simply open somewhere new in the city after a few weeks or months, and he had no interest in exploring the other guarded locations.
He wanted to focus on this singular hotspot that’d become a hunting ground for a dangerous demon.
With the number of victims so low, Milo figured the demon might be traveling through the portals, killing in different cities across the world while maintaining a low profile.
He ground his teeth, annoyed La Maison de l’Infini had such lax protections against demonic energy.
When someone met his gaze, he instinctively forced his tense frown into a chipper grin.
It didn’t matter if the demon hunted in other areas.
It came to Chicago’s port to kill, and he’d find it here.
Besides, he lacked the jurisdiction necessary to investigate through the portals, which would require more permits and too much time. Time that’d leave more bodies. Bodies Milo didn’t want to carry guilt for, so he pressed ahead, exploring the fighting pits.
The crowd cheered. Gambling of all kinds occurred at La Maison de l’Infini, but nothing reeled in an audience quite as much as their fighting pit.
Powerful and flashy magics were used to eviscerate opponents.
A blood sport everyone at the cages delighted in, and something Milo suspected helped lure the demon.
Based on Melody’s branch and the state of her corpse, he suspected the woman partook in these events.
She had many older healed-over injuries that showed a history of combat, much like several of the other victims .
In the ring, a woman levitated above a man twice her size, grabbing his shoulders and flipping behind him.
When her foot made contact, she channeled telekinesis which threw him into the chain-linked fence.
Milo was pleased Acolyte Novak had arrived and entered the competition per his instructions.
She looked nothing like her brother, Jamie.
Either they didn’t favor any features, or she used a glamour enchantment, too.
Though where she hid it, I couldn’t tell.
She had short black hair, barely reaching the nape of her neck, and wore no visible jewelry, unlike Milo, who’d flaunted enough to make him worth pickpocketing—something he suspected would make his task of glimpsing futures a bit simpler since some folks would stroll right up to him, seeking an easy mark.
Acolyte Novak wore a black tank and tight matching sweats.
Her arms were covered by sleeve tattoos, which Milo noticed had changed from the ones in her file pictures.
He’d have preferred she used a glamour that covered them instead of altering them.
And there it was. She had a tattooed enchantment tucked somewhere in one of her arm sleeves, making no one the wiser she’d changed her appearance.
The man who Novak had thrown against the chain-link fence turned, roaring at her.
The arena rumbled, and his echoed voice carried terrible screeches that ripped the flooring apart.
Milo winced at the piercing sound, which clearly packed a powerful punch if the audience members were affected.
Novak used her telekinesis and levitation to easily evade the echoed strikes.
“ Didn’t pick you to show off, Lena. ” Milo tsked, crossing his arms. “ Well, not your roots, anyway. ”
Lena dragged out the fight, toying with her opponent.
It didn’t matter how much time witches and warlocks spent fighting in pits like these for entertainment—an industry witch always held the finest training to maintain their stamina and casting endurance.
Clearly aggravated, the man belted out an outrageous sound burst. The entire arena vibrated, rattling the fence and breaking wards in place to nullify the fighters’ magics from spilling into the crowd.
In that instance, Lena twirled round and round in the air, unleashing bubbles from her palms and silencing the attack.
Each tiny bubble popped when hitting a vibration and dulling the shrieking roar.
There it was. The powerful arcane branch Milo wanted the acolyte to flaunt in the fight.
Every victim had possessed an arcane branch or no registered branch at all.
It was possible some of the victims were branchless, but considering demons sought powerful quarry to whet their appetites, Milo suspected the unlicensed victims simply never disclosed their branch with the state, likely avoiding any tax penalties an arcane branch would incur.
Arcane branches were among the most coveted branches due to the fact they usually acted as a unique merger of two or more different branches creating something mysterious.
A flurry of bubbles popped in quick succession, clearing a path for Lena, who easily soared at the man she fought.
Much like her brother, Jamie, her arcane branch mixed with the primal water element.
Unlike Jamie’s whirlpool, which used water and warp portal traveling, her bubble burst magic seemed to distort or destroy magic the bubbled water encountered.
Lena closed the distance between herself and her opponent, swinging a fist, unafraid of his much more muscular arm barreling to counter her.
Each of them swelled with telekinesis channeled into their knuckles.
When they collided, bubbles released from Lena’s wrist, eating away at the telekinetic burst both had created, yet a few popped along the man’s arms. A caustic strike, which made him wince, and his muscles waned.
Unable to maintain his stance, Lena easily overpowered him and knocked him directly to the ground.
Clearly, her bubble burst affected more than magics.
It seemed to weaken anything and everything it came into contact with, including her own root magics.
A powerful yet dangerous branch. All Enchanter Evergreen focused on was if it’d be enough to entice a demon for the evening.
He didn’t expect much luck but kept a close eye on the crowd, glimpsing snippets of their potentials and immediately crossing them off his suspect list.
Demons possessed heightened resistance to magic which was what made me so uncomfortable with Milo taking this case.
Any case involving demons. Their resistance made it nearly impossible for him to predict outcomes.
However, he believed if he encountered one directly, his clairvoyance would have a better chance of interacting, deciphering.