Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Noah
Holy fucking shitballs, this can’t be real.
I reach out to the magic for the millionth time in the past few minutes, just to reassure myself it’s still there. I do not want to be all alone in this… place. Wherever it is.
Holy fucking shitballs.
At least I can reassure myself Tish and his goons didn’t get what they wanted from CSG.
They got me instead, which isn’t great, but I’m going to have a plan any second now.
As soon as I think of something. In the meantime, I nudge the magic again, picturing Percy in my mind’s eye and thinking about telling him I’m okay.
I don’t know if it’s working, but I’m going to keep trying, because I’m pretty sure Andrew is having an aneurysm right about now.
Either that, or he’s gone on the warpath and is ripping apart anyone who stands in his way.
Knowing that gives me a warm feeling inside.
Honestly, when I first heard voices coming from the executive reception, I thought Andrew had ditched the idea of dinner and come up to keep an overprotective eye on me.
That irritated me, and I went marching down the hall to give him a piece of my mind.
Fortunately for me, about halfway there I realized that voices meant more than one person, and some strange instinct made me slow down, then stop before I was in sight.
Lucky instinct, more like. Because about five seconds after that, I recognized Tish’s voice.
It’ll be burned in my memory for eternity, and not gonna lie, I nearly lost it and freaked out.
I’m so fucking proud of myself for holding it together, even if I was dumb enough not to go right back to my desk and grab my phone to call for help.
At that point, I wasn’t too worried. The after-hours ward at CSG is serious business.
The first time I had to pass through it, David and Percy had to do all kinds of work to make it happen.
And unlike a lot of wards, you can really feel this one.
Crossing it is like walking through a wall of Jell-O.
Or what I imagine walking through a wall of Jell-O would feel like, seeing as how I’ve never tried it. Has anyone?
So I figured I was safe on the inside of the ward, and based on what I’d been told, I knew it would activate and alert Percy if they tried to get through it.
Which was what convinced me to stay put and listen to what they were saying instead of going to get my phone and call Andrew.
Tish was supposed to be on the other side of the country, about to be taken into custody by David and Elinor.
That he was in the CSG offices told me something had gone seriously wrong, and I could only hope my friends were okay.
Tish and one other person seemed to be talking about what they needed to find.
It didn’t make a lot of sense to me—of course, I had to read between the words.
I guessed that “that trumped-up figurehead” was Percy, which meant they were planning to head for his office and would have to come down the hallway I was hiding in.
There was something about contacts and maps and a seal—which I really hoped was a seal of office and not the marine life type of seal—but the part that seemed strangest to me was the complete lack of any urgency.
Either they were just standing around talking, or they’d started working on breaking the ward but weren’t worried about working fast. Based on what David and Percy had told me, that wasn’t right.
The ward was supposed to notify Percy immediately of any attempt to breach it.
There was supposedly a team of enforcement demons on standby to respond to any call from Percy—not to mention the senior investigative team.
Andrew was literally two blocks away. A call from Percy would have had him moving right away, especially since he knew I was in the building.
So why weren’t Tish and his friend worried?
That was what convinced me to peek very carefully around the corner to see if I could work out what was going on. And what I saw horrified me.
Tish was there, and a lot more people than I’d expected.
They were all damn quiet. But the shocking part was what one of them was doing to the ward.
It was… fuck. I can’t see the individual weaves of a ward like sorcerers can, but right then, I could.
Because it was glowing bright violet. And one of Tish’s goons—although this one was a lot smaller and slimmer than the rest—was parting the weaves .
I don’t know how else to describe it. Nothing was being broken; nothing was being unpicked.
The purplish glow was coming from the hands of the goon, and where it touched the ward, the strands of the weave were elongating, stretching, and the extra length meant they were able to separate from each other and form a gap while the overall ward remained completely intact.
Thinking about it now, I don’t even know if that’s logical.
I have about a million questions to ask David about the logistics of the ward reacting that way, never mind how it was actually done and what the purple light was.
Fuck, I really hope David’s okay and that he just turned up to the cult’s compound and realized Tish was gone.
But as the gap in the ward slowly got bigger, going from the size of an apple to a grapefruit, then picking up speed and becoming the size of a watermelon in half that time, I reacted, reaching for the magic and visualizing myself punching a hole through the ward.
I didn’t actually think it would work. My reasoning—limited as it was in a split-second decision—was that any assault against the ward would set it off.
I didn’t intend to actually breach it. Maybe the inside isn’t braced as much as the outside?
Or maybe the ward isn’t designed to stand up against human magic, since nobody really uses it—not combatively, anyway.
Whatever the reason, I bashed a hole right through the ward where purple-glow guy was doing his thing.
They spotted me then—no surprise, the way purple-glow guy was carrying on—and two of them shifted into hellhounds and came through the hole in the ward after me.
I still wasn’t that worried. I figured they had to leave ASAP unless they wanted to be caught.
So these hellhounds could come after me, I’d distract them for a bit, then they’d race out—hopefully right into the arms of the demons who would be teleporting into the building within seconds.
I’d retreated a few feet up the hallway and conjured a couple of fireballs to throw at the hellhounds—which gave me way too much satisfaction—causing one to yelp and hesitate but sadly missing them both, although I think I singed some fur. Add “practice aiming fireballs” to my to-do list.
Then shit got real. Tish yelled, “Grab him!” I had two seconds to wonder why they weren’t already on their way out before the hellhounds shifted and took me down.
I didn’t stand a chance against them—they were bigger, faster, stronger—but I still wasn’t that worried.
By then, demons had to be mere seconds away, and I was sure Andrew would be right behind them.
Tish and his goons would walk right into their arms. Maybe they’d try to use me as a hostage, but with a few moments to prepare, I’d set them all on fire and walk away whistling.
I might even ask the demons from enforcement if they had any marshmallows, and tomorrow, the gossip in the office would be about how badass cool I am.
I was mentally rehearsing the marshmallow line and struggling lightly against the hellhounds’ hold—to keep up appearances—when they shoved me through the hole I’d made in the ward.
FYI, not as big as I’d thought it was. And yes, I made an inappropriate and poorly timed joke about holes as I was being pushed through, which might be why the goons on the other side were so rough when they grabbed me.
Or they might just be assholes. I vote for them being assholes.
The two hellhounds shifted, jumped through the hole, and shifted back, and then, I kid you not, purple-glow guy started glowing again and a fucking portal opened .
That’s right. It was some real science fiction shit.
And it’s definitely not something sorcerers can do.
Part of my research into human magic was extensively exploring what abilities sorcerers have and looking for historical events that show humans once had a matching ability.
The only species that can circumvent having to travel in real time and space is demon, and there are limits on teleportation. Portals? No fucking way.
Tish went through the portal first. Two of his goons followed.
Then they shoved me through, and this time, I wasn’t struggling lightly for show.
There was some real kicking and screaming going on.
The screaming stopped when one of the goons punched me in the face—I hope the dumb motherfucker broke his hand on my jaw—but I kept on with the kicking and struggling right up until purple-glow guy stepped through the portal and it closed.
Which brings us to now. I’m huddled on a floor that feels like stone but is an iridescent green color.
Should I be worried about radiation? I’ll put it on the long-term list. Short-term, the conversation going on above me is of more interest. Also, if you match the fact that I didn’t think stone came in that color with the portal, it could mean I’m somewhere very not where I should be.
Purple-glow guy is talking, and he doesn’t sound happy.
“…assured us you could get the seal. That’s why we have been assisting you. Now one of my brethren is dead, this creature”—he nudges me with his toe, and I fight down the urge to kick him back—“is here defiling our home, and we still do not have the seal. My lord is going to want blood for this.”