Page 38

Chapter 38

Bastion got us to Edinburgh in less than two hours, probably breaking some sort of griffin record. When he shifted back to human he looked even bulkier, as if the workout in griffin form had strengthened his human one.

‘Frogmatch!’ I said, suddenly panicking. ‘Have you killed someone recently? There are wards and only those that have just killed can come in. You’ll have to stay outside.’ Dammit, why had I forgotten that?

Frogmatch blinked at me before nodding reluctantly. ‘Yes, I’ve killed recently.’

I gaped. He’d killed someone? How? A car wreck, perhaps? Imps did so love to sabotage cars, trains and planes. Something about metal really seemed to piss them off.

Bastion seemed unsurprised. He always treated the imp with a sort of wary respect that seemed at odds with Frogmatch’s diminutive size .

‘We’ll be fine then,’ I said briskly, like my view of him hadn’t changed. I liked the imp – as much as I liked anyone – but if he was responsible for some innocent human dying…? I needed to know more before I judged him unfairly, but now wasn’t the time or place. Still, it reminded me that I really didn’t know much about my indentured imp.

Bastion and I settled our cloaks around us, concealing our clothes and faces in shadow. ‘The cowls are great. It’s so handy that you don’t have to wear makeup,’ I noted.

‘Yes,’ Bastion agreed, deadpan. ‘It saved me hours of getting-ready time.’

I snorted with laughter and some of my tension eased. Sure, we were sneaking into an invite-only black auction, but I was with Bastion so it would be fine. He probably did this sort of thing all of the time. This was a walk in the park for him.

‘That’s better,’ he murmured. ‘Remember, we belong here. We’re here to look around and gather information and – if the opportunity arises – to buy a really evil jewel. Nothing more.’

‘I’m not good at this cloak-and-dagger stuff,’ I admitted.

I couldn’t see his face but I felt his amusement and I didn’t doubt that he was grinning at me. He reached under my cloak to touch my athame – my dagger – which was resting in an ankle holster, then tugged at my cloak. ‘I’d say you’re pretty good at this cloak-and-dagger stuff.’

I gave him a flat look that was spoiled by him not being able to see it. ‘Funny guy. Just hilarious.’ I cleared my throat. ‘Let’s go.’

He nodded. Humour was replaced with determination and alertness; he was ready for danger. That made one of us.

Frogmatch concealed himself again inside my top and we walked towards the entrance of the Chimera Auction House. It was getting dark but the streets were bustling, so nobody paid us any attention. No doubt the Common realmers simply thought we were doing cosplay and we’d used make-up to conceal our faces. The Other realm’s magic goes to quite some lengths to persuade Common realmers that they never see anything amiss.

The auction house was well lit. It was a grand old building that had recently been gutted and renovated. There was no queue outside, though I saw a number of ogres acting as security: hired hands. Fury rocketed through me. Each species has rogues but to my knowledge, ogres are the exception to that rule. Rogue ogres are hunted down and killed; if you aren’t part of the den, you are dead to them. Literally .

Krieg’s men were here, so he knew about this gathering of black witches yet he’d said nothing. The bastard! I’d spoken to him on the phone earlier and, despite his fury with the black witches and the necromantic witch who’d possessed his men, he’d still said nothing!

‘Easy, Bambi,’ Bastion murmured, feeling my rage. ‘We need to keep a level head.’

I realised my anger was affecting him as I felt his temper bubbling, growing, being swept along by mine. I took a deep breath and forced myself to settle down. There would be time for recriminations later.

‘Okay,’ I said tightly. ‘I’m calm.’ Jinx’s lie detector would have pinged if she’d heard me say that, but I was definitely calm er, though rage was simmering beneath the surface in a wrathful torrent that I tried to ignore. Damn Krieg! Could I trust no one in this forsaken realm?

We approached the imposing entrance to the building. Someone had laid down a red carpet and as soon as I stepped on it I knew that they had painted a tonne of truth runes under it. Rune ruin! That made things a helluva lot trickier.

No doubt Bastion sensed the same. ‘Let me take lead,’ he murmured. I said nothing; he’d take my silence as acquiescence.

We approached the ogres. Next to them was a petite woman, gaunt and pale as if she hadn’t seen the sun in a while. She looked starved and sick. ‘They are both full of rage,’ she murmured to the hulking ogre beside her.

‘And?’ the ogre said.

‘I sense three living beings and a familiar bond.’

‘I have my familiar with me,’ Bastion said coolly, implying that the third living being was his familiar.

‘What is your purpose in coming here?’ the ogre asked.

‘I intend to pay an exorbitant amount of money for the harkan crystal,’ Bastion responded.

‘True,’ the lady murmured. Was she an empath relying on the truth runes we stood upon, or a truth-seeker like Jinx? I hadn’t heard of another one in at least a generation. I studied her with interest. She looked like a firm breeze would push her over.

‘Obviously,’ the ogre snorted. ‘He’s standing on enough runes to force Nixon to tell the truth.’ In a less dire situation, I would have laughed. ‘Have you killed someone recently?’ he asked.

‘Of course,’ Bastion said smoothly.

‘And you?’ The ogre pointed to me.

‘Yes,’ I said simply.

‘Do you have any phones on you?’

‘No,’ Bastion declared.

‘No,’ I confirmed. Bastion had warned me that it was unlikely we’d be able to take phones or weapons inside, so my tote bag, potions, athame and our phones were tucked behind a bin a few streets away. I hoped they’d still be there when we got back. Bastion still had his backpack in his hands, which looked somewhat incongruous with the cloak.

The ogre patted us down impersonally and we walked through the metal detectors. He rooted around in Bastion’s bag then looked impressed. I should have looked to see what was inside it; it couldn’t be weapons because he handed it back to Bastion without further comment.

I heard steps behind us and turned. Another cloak wearer was waiting patiently. Huh. How many of these bespelled cloaks did the Seers make?

The ogre waved us in. ‘What is your purpose in coming here?’ he started asking the next entrant.

We swept inside.