Night Rune (Prof Croft Book 8) Page 4

  “What’s that thing doing here?” I muttered.

  Bree-yark barked a small laugh. “It’s all right, Dropsy. Everson’s a friend.”

  “Dropsy? It has a name?”

  “She must’ve gotten caught in Gretchen’s translocation spell back there.”

  “She?”

  Dropsy emerged from the brush, her light growing out again. The lantern took a tentative hop toward us, then another. I peeked around to make sure no one was looking, but we had the road to ourselves.

  Bree-yark stooped and lifted the lantern by a brass ring. “Gotcha, you little stinker.”

  Dropsy jiggled anxiously until Bree-yark switched her to his far hand, away from me. “Don’t take it personally, Everson,” he said. “Took her a few weeks to warm up to me, and that was only ’cause I let her watch cartoons on the big screen TV. She couldn’t get enough of ’em.”

  “Well, can you send her home?”

  “Home?” he barked. “That’s forty blocks from here, and she doesn’t know the city.”

  I eyed the enchanted item. She looked harmless enough, but not trusting anything from Gretchen’s hoard, I took a closer look through my wizard’s senses. The fae magic that powered her was a thin golden shimmer and not particularly strong. Probably a market knickknack of some kind.

  “I just don’t want any surprises,” I said.

  “Nah, Dropsy’s a sweetheart. Aren’t you?” He swung her from his hand. “She won’t be any trouble.”

  “Good, because that inbox is already full.”

  Bree-yark sniffed the tube I’d handed him.

  “Isn’t this what we drank at Epic Con?” he asked.

  I nodded and pointed out the emerald-green door off Seventieth Street. “We’re at the address of a powerful royal family. The neutralizing potion will protect us from incidental contact with its defenses, but that’s about it. Cheers.”

  I clinked my tube against his and downed the bitter potion.

  Bree-yark followed suit, grimacing as he glugged away. Upon finishing, he burped, drew a forearm across his lips, and spiked the tube against the sidewalk, shattering the Pyrex in all directions.

  “Hey, I reuse those!” I cried.

  But he was blinking up at the townhouse. “Holy thunder, there it is.” I could all but see the glamour thinning through his squash-colored eyes. “Man, and I’m usually pretty good at spotting enchantments.”

  “A few ground rules before we head up. One, let me do the talking. Two, don’t touch anything—that’s for your own protection. And three, no matter what anyone says or does, please, keep your cool. We’re dealing with fae nobility.” And if Arnaud’s insinuations were to be believed, nobility who had been compromised.

  “You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Bree-yark said. “Dropsy and I will stay out of the way.” He gave the lantern a little shake.

  “I’m not worried about Dropsy.”

  “Hey, I’ve been listening to a podcast on anger management. I have a process now.”

  “Just yesterday you threw a rock at that kid who came for Gretchen’s furniture. If I hadn’t shielded him, he’d still be leaking brain fluid.”

  Bree-yark scratched the back of his neck. “He caught me at a bad time was all.”

  “Well, that can’t happen here.”

  As I peered up the short flight of steps, my stomach churned with the double anxiety that no one would answer the door and that someone might answer. If the fae had abandoned my teammates, how were they going to react to my visit?

  Bree-yark clapped my back. “You’ve got this.”

  That got me moving. I took the steps quickly and rapped on the door. Bree-yark stood off to one side. When the lantern twisted and bucked in his grip, he gave me an apologetic look and moved her to his far side.

  I was distracted enough by the commotion that I hadn’t seen the door open. From the shadow beyond the entrance, a pair of gray eyes glimmered.

  “Good morning, Mr. Croft,” Osgood said.

  6

  Struck by the butler’s sudden manifestation, I stammered, “Wh-what happened to you?”

  The slight, silver-haired fae watched me with cool, unblinking eyes. “And to what might you be referring?”

  How in the hell could he not know what I was talking about? I hesitated. Was this Osgood? His voice and butler attire were the same, but his bearing had always conveyed a hint of good humor, however subtle. Now he stood as rigid as a statue, his face a porcelain mask. I picked up an undercurrent that was inhospitable, verging on hostile. But it was him. I could sense his prodigious power.

  “The time catch,” I said. “You delivered us there yesterday evening. You were supposed to bring everyone back.”

  “Yes,” he said simply.

  “Then why didn’t you?”

  “I gave your companions specific instructions. Had they followed them, I would have returned them as agreed.”

  “What?”

  “Think back, Mr. Croft.”

  Subtle magic stirred around me, and it was suddenly evening. I was standing in Fort Jay’s central quadrangle with Malachi, Gorgantha, Seay, and Jordan, crumbling buildings rising around us. But everyone and everything appeared spectral. The only solid entity was Osgood. “The best way to return will be from this location,” he told us, tapping his foot twice. “Note it when you arrive.”

  I don’t fucking believe this, I thought as the illusion thinned away. He meant that exact spot.

  Two intersecting walkways marked the present location, but in the time catch, it had been a random place inside an earthworks manned by British soldiers. Short of planting a stake, the Upholders wouldn’t have found it.

  “So you left them over a technicality?” I said.

  I was also cursing myself. I should have known to mark the damned spot on our arrival, the fae being the fae. But things weren’t adding up. The cheap trick felt beneath Osgood, one. And two, he’d been under orders from Caroline. I couldn’t fathom her letting him abandon my teammates.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Croft,” Osgood said. “Was there anything else?”

  “Yes, there is. You’re going to bring them back. Now.”

  “I’m afraid that’s impossible. Not without—”

  “Not without them standing in your little spot?” I interrupted. “All right, so here’s what you’re going to do. You send me back there. I’ll see to it personally that we’re all where we need to be, and then you’ll be obligated to return us.”

  “I can’t send you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because that agreement was fulfilled.”

  “Then we’ll make a new one.”

  “I lack the authority.”

  “But not the power.”

  From the shadow of the entranceway, Osgood returned my stare.

  I leaned toward him and lowered my voice. “Do you want to tell me what the hell’s going on here?”

  Osgood glanced over at Bree-yark, who was still swinging the animated lantern. The goblin stopped and returned a stern nod.

  “I believe you have all the essential information,” Osgood said.

  “So you’re not going to return me to the time catch?”

  “No, Mr. Croft.” For the first time, a tiny wrinkle of what might have been regret showed beneath Osgood’s lower lip.

  “Then I’m going to ask you to do something else,” I said, bringing my voice back under control. I reached into a coat pocket and withdrew a letter. “I need you to deliver this to Caroline.” I’d written it hastily that morning, but it explained the situation and the urgency of recovering my teammates.

  Osgood shook his head. “I’m afraid I cannot, Mr. Croft.”

  “Under whose order?” I demanded.

  “No one’s.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “I can’t deliver your letter,” he said, “because Mrs. Caroline is missing.”

  My arm thrusting the letter toward him fell to my side. “Missing?”

  “N
ow if that’s all.”

  With my mind juggling everything thrown at me in the last minute, and now this revelation about Caroline, I was too slow to react to the door closing between us. My brain synapses kicked back to life. “Wait!” I cried, thrusting my cane toward the narrowing space. But a thick arm wrapped my body.

  “What the—?”

  “Whoa, there,” Bree-yark grunted, leaning back with his weight until my feet left the ground.

  The door closed over my best chance of recovering my teammates. As powerful fae magic sealed the frame, I sagged in Bree-yark’s grip. He’d been right to restrain me. The protections over the door were one thing, but those over the threshold would have annihilated my neutralizing magic and protection and then some.

  “Didn’t want you breaking your own rules,” Bree-yark said.

  “No, you did good.” I patted the goblin’s leathery hand. “Thanks.”

  When he set me back on my feet, I rapped the door several times with my cane, sending up more tendrils of fae magic. Predictably, no one answered this time.

  “Dammit,” I muttered.

  Bree-yark switched the lantern to his other hand. “So what do you think’s really going on?”

  It sounded like something had gotten to the fae, maybe the same entity responsible for Caroline’s disappearance. But I wasn’t ready to go there. Arnaud was already right about my teammates being trapped in the time catch. If he were right about the fae being compromised, then I was going to have to consider his next claim—that he was the only one capable of getting me into the time catch.

  I blew out my breath. “I don’t know, man.”

  I paced the landing, not ready to give up. I’d gone through Claudius, Gretchen, and now Osgood. Who did that leave? I checked to make sure Osgood hadn’t taken the letter like he had the last one, but I was still clutching the envelope to Caroline. I’d addressed it to her P.O. box in the event no one answered. After giving the door a final pair of bangs, I jerked my head for Bree-yark to follow.

  “Let’s drop this in the mail.”

  “The letter?” he asked. “But didn’t shiny pants say she was AWOL?”

  “Coming from the fae that could mean anything.”

  “True enough,” he grunted.

  We backtracked two blocks to a mailbox. I licked the envelope and dropped it in, hoping somehow, someway, it would find Caroline. She was my last shot. The alternative was having to tell Ricki I was contemplating a second conversation with Arnaud, this one a negotiation to enter the time catch.

  The letter had barely landed when hot pins erupted through my body—the same warning my magic had sent up outside 1 Police Plaza. I spoke quickly, hardening the surrounding air into a protective shield.

  “What’s up?” Bree-yark asked, sensing the change.

  “Someone or something’s watching us,” I whispered, taking furtive stock of the street and sidewalks.

  The goblin’s eyes cut around too. Even Dropsy rotated from side to side, checking out the scene for herself. In the next moment, Bree-yark hollered and threw up an arm as something zipped past our heads. Recoiling, I drew my cane into sword and staff. But I quickly recognized our company.

  “They’re allies,” I told Bree-yark, slotting my sword again. “Pixies.”

  As I tracked the peach and meadow-green contrails, fresh hope stirred inside me. Pip and Twerk had given us a major assist in the time catch, handling the British warships. Were they here to help again? They continued past a line of storefronts and at a corner townhouse undergoing major renovations, veered through a gap in a boarded-over window. What were they doing?

  “This way, Mr. Croft,” their small voices trailed after them.

  I broke into a run, weaving through the pedestrian traffic.

  “Wait,” Bree-yark called, hustling after me. “You don’t think it’s a trap?”

  “If the fae wanted to hurt us, they would have already,” I called back. Plus, I’d picked up an urgency in the twins’ voices. They had something to tell me. I pulled up at a construction fence surrounding the townhouse. A padlock secured the gate, but there didn’t appear to be any workers around.

  “Quickly, Mr. Croft,” Pip cried from inside.

  “Mind standing guard here?” I asked Bree-yark as he scuffed to a stop beside me.

  “Sure,” he said. “Pixies get on my nerves anyway.” Dropsy rocked forward and back as if in agreement.

  I wasted no time snapping the padlock with an invocation. Removing lock and chain, I passed through the gate and jogged up the steps. At the front door, I smashed the bolt with another spoken Word. Once inside, I held out my sword and called light to my cane. The glow from the opal showed a wooden floor that had been half pried up. I stepped around tools and piles of construction material.

  “Pip?” I called. “Twerk?”

  “In here,” one of them replied in a dismal voice.

  They’d flown into a windowless room in the back of the townhouse. I arrived to find the small cherubic beings holding one another in a hover, faces puffy from crying. Bits of their colorful light spilled beneath them like tears.

  “What in the hell’s going on?” I demanded.

  They clung to one another more tightly and began sobbing. The butterfly-like wings keeping the twin pixies aloft stirred their enchanting autumn hair and gossamer garments, but their faces looked miserable. I felt bad now for snapping at them, but my tolerance for strangeness was just about spent.

  Remembering the decorum for dealing with pixies, I cleared my throat. “What I meant to say is, what troubles you, fair ones? Why hast thou summoned me here?”

  “Something’s happened,” Pip gasped.

  “Something horrible, Mr. Croft,” Twerk put in between sobs.

  Then just spit it out, I thought in aggravation.

  “Is this to do with Caroline?” I pressed gently.

  Pip sniffled and wiped her eyes with her little arm. “It’s to do with everything.”

  “Everything, Mr. Croft,” Twerk echoed.

  At least they were pulling themselves together, but Jesus. “Perhaps you might start your tale at the beginning?” I suggested.

  The pixies looked at one another. Please don’t break into song, I thought.

  “Once all was bright in our kingdom home,” they harmonized in sad voices. “But evil stirred in the coming gloam.”

  I sighed. They’d broken into song.

  “He slipped among us, wicked and dark. Casting fear and woe unto noble hearts.”

  It sounded like a demon had gotten into the upper echelon, dammit. “Who has he claimed?” I pressed.

  “Aye, they’ve fallen under shadow deep,” the pair continued. “The—”

  With small popping sounds, the pixies disappeared in bursts of peach and meadow-green dust. I looked all around.

  “Pip!” I cried. “Twerk!”

  I listened for them, but all I could hear was the sound of traffic outside. I called their names repeatedly as I searched the rest of the house. I even cast a reveal spell. But the two had simply vanished.

  “What was that all about?” Bree-yark asked when I rejoined him outside the fence.

  “Sounds like a demon infiltrated the fae kingdom connected to the townhouse. Which would explain Osgood’s sudden reversal as well as Caroline’s disappearance. The pixies were about to tell me more, but they disappeared.” I peered back at the townhouse as if I might catch their colorful contrails or hear their voices. I could only hope they’d been translocated and not popped from existence.

  “Probably Osgood’s doing,” Bree-yark grumbled.

  “Actually, I think he’s the one who let them out.”

  As Bree-yark raised his brows in surprise, I remembered the regretful look the fae butler had slipped me.

  “I don’t know Osgood’s history,” I said. “He’s at least as powerful as the nobility he serves, but he’s dutybound to obey them for some reason. Caroline ordered him to help us the last time. Malphas must have
intervened, possessed someone high up in the kingdom. Now Osgood can’t help us, and Caroline’s missing.” I suspected that the only reason I’d managed to return from the time catch was thanks to my backchannel to 1 Police Plaza. “So yeah, I think Osgood released the pixies to tip me off to what was happening. Until someone in the kingdom shut them up.”

  Bree-yark nodded grimly. “So now what?”

  “Other than having to worry about a demon-possessed fae?” I muttered.

  I was dragging a hand across my jaw stubble when the savage prickling from earlier returned. The watcher was back, and with the warning came a whiff of something deathlike. He or she was closer this time.

  “You all right?” Bree-yark asked.

  I staggered as the surrounding buildings began to warp and bend. And now the whole block was tilting. Or so it seemed. The pedestrians weren’t reacting. And except for the troubled look on Bree-yark’s face, neither was he.

  “We need to get out of here,” I said, worried now I was going to lose my breakfast.

  Bree-yark wheeled toward the street and released a sharp whistle. When a cab stopped, the goblin opened the door and helped me in. He then joined me on the other side, cradling Dropsy on his lap.

  “Just drive,” I told the cabby in a shaky voice.

  By the time we reached Fifth Avenue and had gotten some distance from whatever I’d felt on the street, the prickling sensation faded and the world around me began to steady. But I still felt strung out and queasy.

  Bree-yark shifted in his seat. “Hey, uh, I’m thinking I should see Mae before she starts getting worried.”

  I nodded. Her place wasn’t far, and I could use some space to catch my breath. While Bree-yark gave the driver the address, I peered out the window. Had I just met the possessed fae?

  I didn’t know, but this entity was powerful.

  And deadly.

  7

  “Everson!” Mae exclaimed. “What a pleasant surprise!”