Page 23 of Gray Dawn

This was it. The moment of truth. Colby would be here soon.

Thehowleft me in a cold sweat, unsure who she would arrive with and in what condition.

For an hour, those fears gnawed on me like a dog with a hambone, splintering me between its teeth.

The timer I set on my phone for six o’clock chimed, jerking my spine straight and my shoulders back, but there was no sign of her. Or Clay. Or the director. And if they used glamour to conceal themselves?

Well, I would be worthless detecting it, let alone piercing it, without any magic of my own to counter it.

Good thing Asa was here. The Mayhews too. That gave us plenty of sniffing power to root out any active spells. Even in a flurry of activity and smells, black magic’s ripe stench wasn’t easily ignored.

“Flights run late all the time.” Asa slid one arm around my waist. He held Colby’s green blanket, the one he had knitted her, in the other. He must have had it retrieved from where she and Clay had been staying. That he didn’t also have her laptop told me it had been taken. “We don’t know which was hers.”

But the board flickering with updates showed no delays for domestic flights for the next three hours.

A teenage girl with curly blue hair swerved out of the line for coffee and trotted up to me. “Rue Hollis?”

Asa flared his nostrils then nodded once to me that it was safe.

“That’s me.” I kept a wary eye on her. “How can I help you?”

“Calixta Damaris, the High Queen of Hael, her royal majesty, bid me deliver this to you.”

Once she handed over a sealed envelope, she stood there with her hand out, slowly blinking.

Without a word of protest, Asa pulled an earring from his ear—a gold hoop with a ruby setting—and set it on her palm in payment for her delivery services. “Thank you for your efforts.”

She thrust the metal post through her ear, piercing it in front of us, then walked off slurping her coffee.

Shoving my thumb beneath the flap, I held my breath as I broke the seal. Stomach churning, I read aloud to Asa, “Circumstances prevent me from meeting at our arranged time.”

After giving me a moment to continue, then realizing I was done, he reached for the paper. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.” I slumped on my weary bones. “We’re safe.”

“Until we’re not.” He turned the paper over, but there was only the one line. “Still, a reprieve is a reprieve.”

Another hour passed, during which I tore the note into tiny pieces as my anxiety ratcheted higher, and acid rose up the back of my throat.

“This might be a trap.” I hated to admit it. “Maybe Clay put her on the phone under duress.”

Any number of agents loyal to the director could be closing in on us, tightening the net to catch us.

Fear stroked icy fingers down my spine as it hit me,reallyhit me, how much trouble we could be in. The anticipation soured my stomach, and I began playing and replaying that brief phone call in my mind.

“I smell burnt sugar.” Asa flared his nostrils, straightening to his full height. “And…mold?”

“We’re standing next to the restroom reno.” I’d noticed it our last time here, but I hadn’t thought much of it until we posted up beside it. “And there’s a Cinnabon around here too. Maybe more than one.”

Hope, as always, ached too much to hold on to. Doubt was easier. It hurt less.

Absolute silence stuffed my ears, deafening me, as a white flicker caught my eye.

For a second, I thought it was a piece of trash volleyed in an updraft, but it was moving too fast.

And heading this way.

Right.