Chapter 31
“Eleven percent is a decent shot?” I barked, wincing when my voice echoed over the noise of the splashing fountain.
It was nearing two in the morning and the memorial garden was nothing but moonlight and shadows, peaceful apart from us.
I was sure if Thoth knew where we were, there’d be blue and gold lights and ugly demands to put our faces on the ground.
Pluck’s annoyance fizzed through me. The shadow was currently in his human shift, taking no chances that his opinions would not be heard as we waited for Herm and Benedict.
Lev and Cameron sat across from me at the seating nook, that heavy-weight glass bottle and a Waffle House bag on the low stone table between us.
“It’s better than the five percent I estimated three days ago,” Pluck said, his low voice still surprising me.
Lev ate the last bite of his burger, head tilting as he licked the sweet barbecue sauce from his fingers.
“I’m in.” He glanced at Cameron, and when she shook her head, he pulled the paper bag with the fries closer.
“This shadow has to go down, and no one is better suited than us to do it. It won’t be pretty, but we’ll manage.
Eleven percent just means we come out bruised. ”
Cameron frowned at Lev jamming fries into his mouth. “Our chances go up if we can get Benedict and Herm free, right?”
“Yes.”
Pluck’s voice was confident, but my breath caught at a flash of memory: his last weaver, dying in his arms. Shadow spit, Pluck had patterned his human shift on him. Guilt, regret, and empathy washed through me, and feeling it, Pluck met my eyes and shrugged. It was a long time ago.
Damn. I might get everyone I cared about killed. Effing eleven percent.
“Here.” Lev held out the bag to me. “You want these?”
After two burgers, a milkshake, and a folder of fries, I wasn’t hungry, but I took the bag, surprised when I found the fries steaming.
Lev must have warmed them up. Sure enough, a thin ribbon of dross drifted about his feet, and I sighed when he nudged it into the vegetation that lined our little three-bench nook.
Oblivious, Lev resettled himself. “Once Ben and Herm get here, we are moving.” He lifted his eyes to where sky met the old shell of the auditorium. “Not that this isn’t…nice.”
Pluck snorted, the noise sounding a lot like his dog huff.
Benedict and Herm were in transit. The marshal had shown up when Lev and I had arrived, making me wonder if she’d been watching from the shadows.
Marty and Aasta had been with her, and the two of them were sitting by the well within earshot as they tried to come to terms with their new situation.
Marty wanted to help, but risking her seemed cruel.
“Pluck, I put our chances near eighty with Ben and Herm.” Lev crumpled his fry sleeve and tossed it into the empty bag. “We have everything we need, sticks included.”
My gaze went to the five balanced sticks propped up against the bench. Now that we had them, they hardly seemed like enough. Sure, Pluck and I had blown off the top of the vault, but I hadn’t known what I was doing. It would be too easy to seriously hurt someone, and that wasn’t the goal.
“You do your thing,” Lev said confidently. “Ben hammers him with his fire/ice magic. Herm throws the dross we create at him, leaving me to pin Thoth down. Cameron keeps him confused by altering his perceptions.”
“That’s not how ether magic works, but okay,” the woman muttered.
“If we harass him enough, the shadow will evaporate,” Lev continued. “When he does, you and Pluck snare him in a field and put him in a bottle.”
My gut hurt as I glanced at the lab-grade bottle Lev had lifted. Snaring Thoth would be like catching a feral cat bare-handed.
Clearly worried, Cameron glanced at the well. “Do you think Marty and Aasta could be of some help?”
Pluck shifted on the hard bench, his outline going hazy as his worry fizzed through me. “Ah, I’d rather they stay clear,” I said, though a fully functioning weaver/shadow pair would have been helpful. “Marty has a lot to learn, and Aasta is still adapting to her.”
“Let them help,” Lev said softly. “Marty has been evading Thoth on her own for how long?”
Pluck fizzed possessively in my thoughts. “Hands off. She’s not militia,” I grumbled.
Lev sighed. “Chances are, neither am I anymore. Refusal to follow ‘illegal orders’ won’t fly unless we pull this off and prove Dana was possessed.” Lev hesitated, looking at Cameron now. “I was thinking…If you put Thoth to sleep, bottling him would be a snap.”
Cameron’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “I can’t put a shadow to sleep.
I’d have to join my thoughts to his and he’d drop me in a coma again.
Which is why I still think we need to free Dana first. If Thoth can use her skills to drop Petra and Pluck into a glass-lined vault, she can do the same thing to him whether he is evaporated or not—if she’s free of him. ”
“I doubt it will work a second time on him,” Pluck interjected. “He is forewarned. Additionally, we can’t force him to evaporate. It has to be his idea.” His gaze went to Aasta sitting with Marty, the two of them talking. “All of these strategies failed hundreds of years ago.”
Lev leaned back, eyes narrowed. “You use a lot of big words for a dog.”
“Okay.” I cleaned the salt and grease from my fingers, silent as a car drove past the walls and continued on. “I hear you, Pluck, and I want to learn from past attempts, but has anyone ever tried to catch Thoth with mage magic?”
Annoyance fluttered against my thoughts. “Not with any effect,” he admitted.
Cameron’s expression was pinched. “I still say we need to concentrate on Dana. She can clear your name if nothing else. Trust me. The woman knows what’s going on.
If we can get her free, she will be totally on board and able to bring as many airologists and ether mages and anything else you want to bear.
Why are we trying to do this with minimal staff? ”
“Because a small footprint can be dusted away easier than a large one,” Lev argued. “St. Unoc is already under scrutiny because of the auditorium collapse. We add another national news story, we risk breaking the silence of our existence. It’s shaky enough already. Area 52 anyone?”
Cameron crossed her arms over her middle and frowned at him. “This is because you went AWOL, isn’t it.”
Lev flushed. “I did not go AWOL. I refused an illegal order. We can handle this. The more people that are involved, the more likely it’s going to turn into a war by committee. If that happens, Thoth wins hands down.”
“Just because you can’t work with more than one person…”
I tuned them out, my gaze following Pluck’s attention to the far gate. His feet hazed to nothing and my expression blanked at his flash of concern. That car…I thought, tension spiking as the gate creaked open.
“It’s Benedict and Herm,” Pluck said, green eyes glinting. “They’re alone.”
My shoulders relaxed and I stood, recognizing Benedict’s familiar silhouette when he waved.
“Good.” Lev stood as well, clearly pleased. “That makes it six on one. Seven if we can get Thoth out of Dana.”
“We are going to have to,” Cameron said grumpily. “I don’t want to face a shadow wielding an airologist’s skills.”
The memory of falling through the earth flickered, and then Benedict was before me, his brow furrowed in concern as he pulled me into a heady hug.
“Petra,” he whispered, and my arms went around him, eyes closing as I breathed him in, feeling whole again, secure. “You’re okay. Pluck got you out?”
“We got out together.” I couldn’t seem to let go of him, and I tried to stifle my overflowing relief so Pluck wouldn’t have to wade through my emotions.
Pluck, though, was as relieved as I was to see Benedict, which was nice all on its own.
Benedict’s hug tightened to an almost frightening strength. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more terrified than when you fell through the floor and into the vault,” he said. “I knew Pluck would get you out.”
“Not half as terrified as me sitting in the dark not knowing what happened to you,” I responded, and he let go just enough that I could give him a kiss.
Warmth swirled up as if from nowhere as our lips met, soothing, comforting, and oh so pleasant.
It was as sure and strong as Pluck’s measured chill, but where Pluck’s thoughts held companionship and devotion, Benedict’s held love as well—and as I pulled away, a hint of fizzing twined through my thoughts, assuring me that Pluck thought that was a good thing.
Oblivious as to the reason behind my sudden smile, Benedict beamed down, his arms still around me. “I’m fine,” he said.
Herm harrumphed, giving my shoulder a pat as he went to stand by Lev.
“I’m glad you’re okay, too, Pluck,” Benedict said, and the shadow’s spiky hair hazed with sparkles.
“You sure you don’t want to keep playing dead?
” Herm grinned as he stood between Lev and the bench where Cameron was sitting.
“It wouldn’t be hard to disappear.” I shook my head, and he nodded as if proud of me.
“Good. I knew you were alive. Even after the news said they called off the search when the militia found a body. Always making up stories to protect the silence. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel any safer for it. ”
“The corpse was real,” I said, and his expression faltered. “Nodal wanted me to play dead so they could force Pluck and me to be their secret weapon.”
Brow furrowed in accusation, Herm turned to Lev.
“Lev got me out. He didn’t think it was a good idea, either,” I added, and Herm grunted, mood brightening again.
“Illegal orders,” Lev said as he wadded his burger paper into a tiny knot.
“Smart man.” Shoulders rolling, the Spinner flicked his gaze to Marty, now coming to sit with us, then to me, his eyebrows rising when I shrugged. “I have a plan if no one else does,” the older man said.
“Does it involve Mexico or Canada?” Benedict sighed.