Page 14

Chapter 14

The bombed-out church was more heavily guarded than usual. Not too long ago, a rogue Seer had tried to seize control of the portal to subvert it for her own use. Not unlike how my mother had actually used it, apparently.

Unlike Mum, the Seer had wanted to wrest control of the Connection from the Symposium and start her own ruling dynasty. She had hired an army of ogres and trolls and cut her way to the portal. As a result of that incident, the bombed-out church was crawling with wizards ready to kill people who wanted to use the portal without the appropriate Symposium authorisation. We just had to wade through them. Easy.

We’d driven for hours to get to Liverpool. It was knocking on midnight, my butt was numb, my temper was short and I was tired and cranky. I was also incredibly nervous. It wasn’t every day that I broke into a heavily guarded government building.

‘How are we doing this?’ I asked, crouched next to a bush and feeling ridiculous – I am no GI Jane. I had my ever-present tote bag slung over my shoulder, packed with healing potions and an illusion potion.

I would admit to no one that I was hoping that I’d somehow be able to save Melva. I had helped Jinx pull off a miracle a time or two, and I hoped that Melva had a miracle coming her way. Maybe the body I’d seen had been an illusion painted on another corpse. I hadn’t seen the illusion break while we were there with Wise, but it was still possible even if it didn’t feel probable.

‘The portal is held in what used to be the nave of the church. There’s a hidden entrance for employees to the side of it that is accessible in emergencies,’ Oscar explained.

‘And you still have a key?’ I asked hopefully.

‘No, but I know the code.’

I stared. ‘That’s your plan? Use an old code? Oscar! They will have changed that code a decade ago!’

‘It’s a master code. Different codes are generated every day, but there’s only one master code. In the whole time I worked there, they never changed it. ’

‘And you’re hoping they still won’t have?’ I asked incredulously.

‘If it doesn’t work, we go to Plan B. But people are creatures of habit – the code will be the same,’ Oscar said confidently.

‘What’s Plan B?’

‘Fire and bombs.’ Bastion grinned. ‘Maybe even a Molotov cocktail or two.’ He sounded rather excited about the prospect. Someone was gunning for Plan B.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Goddess, let Plan A work , I prayed . It was just too late in the evening for bombs; they were more of an early morning thing.

‘I’m going to make it so we can’t be seen,’ Oscar murmured.

I blinked. ‘I thought you couldn’t use the IR on yourself.’

‘I can’t. I’m using the IR on anyone that we encounter. Interestingly, it works on CCTV footage as well. Jinx mentioned that once.’

‘Huh.’ I thought about it. ‘We’ll need to be visible when we go into the past. Frogmatch saw us.’

‘You will be,’ Oscar promised. ‘I won’t have cast the spell on you in the past.’

The whole thing made my head hurt. Bastion laced our fingers together, so we’d be in contact even if we were invisible. ‘Do it,’ he ordered Oscar.

A moment later, we winked out of sight. I lifted our joined hands but, although I could feel Bastion’s warm skin, I couldn’t see a damned thing. It was disconcerting.

Bastion tugged me up and I took a step forward. It was horrible not being able to see my feet; the foliage was tamped down where I was standing but I was invisible. I felt ethereal and ghostly and I didn’t like it one bit. I hoped it wasn’t a sign of what was to come.

We walked forward until we came to a door and a code box. It beeped as Oscar put in the code and I held my breath while we waited to see if it worked or if Plan B – B for bomb – would be needed.

The light flashed green then the door gave an obnoxiously loud buzz and popped open. It opened further and I hoped Oscar was pulling it rather than a guard who was curious about what appeared to be a self-opening door.

Bastion and I waited a beat. When there were no cries of alarm, he tugged me forward. My heart was thudding, and not in a Bastion-is-looking-at-me-like-I’m-cake kind of a way, and my palms were sweaty. I’m good in a crisis when blood is on the floor, but it seemed that creeping in darkness to break into a forbidden portal was not in my skillset.

Frankly, I was peeing myself. I wished I could blame early menopause but I wasn’t there yet; it was just me being cowardly. Not cowardly, I told myself firmly. Cowardly would be if I’d stayed home with a hot drink and a good book. Instead I was terrified but still moving forward, one step at a time. You’re facing your fear, DeLea, I told myself, and that’s brave. Keep stepping forward.

Luckily, Bastion was skilled in this sort of ninja crap. He led us onwards, pausing occasionally. We made achingly slow progress as we passed a number of guards. I felt sure that they could hear the hammering of my heart; I was certain it was breaking the silence around me.

The soldiers we passed were focused on their job. There was no idle chatter or hint of comradeship. They were alert and ready. Unfortunately for us.

We continued to sneak so slowly that it felt like we might be going backwards. Every time I glanced at the portal, it was still so damned far away but finally, after what felt like several days, we were near it. One guard was standing directly in front of it.

Bastion tugged my hand to make me crouch down as we watched the guard. He didn’t move; he didn’t so much as shift his weight. He was directly in our path, and I had no idea how we’d get around him short of tugging him into the portal with us. Which would mean we took one helluva pissed-off soldier back in time with us. I couldn’t think of another option, though; we couldn’t crouch there forever waiting for the changing of the guard. And every second that passed made it more likely we would be found.

‘Unless you want me to slice his throat, you’ll need to use a sleep potion on him,’ Bastion whispered so quietly I had to strain to hear him. ‘It’ll take too long to choke him and the other guards will be on us in a flash. We need something that’s almost instant.’

I baulked at the idea of painting an anaesthetic potion with an isa rune on someone who was unaware of it, but the thought of Bastion killing a man who was only doing his job pleased me even less. I guessed the sleep potion was the only other option.

I moved Bastion’s hand to my shoulder and pulled my tote bag around to the front of my body. I slowly undid the zip and the faint sound made me wince, but the guard didn’t look in our direction once. Opening my bag as silently as I could, I pulled out a jar.

Thankfully everything about me seemed to be invisible including my clothes and my potions, so the guard wasn’t confronted by a jar floating through the air. Unfortunately, because everything on me was invisible including my clothes and my potions, I couldn’t tell by touch which Kilner jar was which.

I fumbled around until I found a metal clasp, carefully opened the lid and sniffed. Ach! The acrid scent told me it was a healing potion. I closed the lid carefully and set it down by my foot so that I could return it to my bag after I’d located the correct jar.

It was like some kind of crazy lucky dip. I grabbed another jar and tried again. The familiar scent of an anaesthetic potion wafted up to me. Thank the Goddess; I had ten jars of potions with me so I was lucky to have found the right one so quickly.

I rifled through my bag to find my favourite paintbrush, which I could recognise by its width and the feel of its wooden handle. I dipped it into the pot and scooped up a generous amount of potion, then closed the pot and put it back in my bag. I picked up the potion by my foot and stowed that away, too. Then I slung my bag round to my back and stepped forward.

Bastion followed me, keeping his hand firmly on my shoulder. His touch reassured me; I was certainly playing in amateur hour but he wasn’t. He did this kind of thing all the time and he had my back.

I approached the guard from the side. The bombed-out church was lit with fairy lights, adding a soft glow to the darkness. The only visible skin to work with was on the back of the guard’s hand or on his face. Grimacing, I aimed for the former. He’d feel the cold, slimy potion the instant it touched his skin, so I pulled my magic forward ready to activate the rune the moment it was formed. The only problem was, I couldn’t see the rune I was drawing. There were definite downsides to invisibility.

It’s just like any other runing, I told myself firmly.

My heart was still hammering in my ears as I reached forward and drew isa on the back of the guard’s hand in two quick strokes. He frowned and looking down then raised his other hand, no doubt to wipe at the wet sensation. I released my magic through the rune before he could make contact with it. In my urgency, I used a little too much magic and he collapsed instantly in a dead faint.

Presumably Bastion or Oscar caught him at the last moment because invisible hands lowered him gently to the ground.

‘Go!’ Oscar hissed. ‘Picture the time and the location you need, then walk through the portal!’

‘Three pm, Melva’s offices,’ Bastion murmured to me. His hand slid down my shoulder to find my fingers again and his breath tickled my ear, doing all sorts of interesting things to my body. I had no time to examine them further or to respond as he tugged me forward. Hands linked once more, we walked forward into the shimmering light and let the portal consume us.

Three pm, Melva’s offices.