Page 52 of Hexbound

"Let you go?" Bishop's gaze flattened. "That's why you have so many boys watching the shop. You think he's going to come after you?"

"Well—" Trask cleared his throat, cutting a glance toward Verity. "—he's tying up loose ends. I didn't want to be one of them 'ends.'"

Bishop stepped away from him. "So you have no idea where the Chalice is?"

"None...." There was a hesitation on the end of that though.

"You're lying," Verity said.

"Think about it," Trask said, swallowing visibly. "The Chalice needs someone from the Grave Arts to work it. The demon can't use it."

Thought clearly raced behind Bishop's dark eyes. "Who? Who's working with Guthrie?"

Trask shrugged. "Don't know. My part in this was done." His gaze slid sideways toward Verity. "But if it's a Grave sorcerer at his side, then it ain't one of the Order."

"Which leaves... five possibilities," Bishop muttered, half to himself.

That's when a flare of red magic spat into the sky outside.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 12

"WHAT WAS THAT?"

Bishop strode to the window, glancing out into the Labyrinth. Dealing with Trask had all his nerves on edge, and the flare of sputtering sparks that slowly fell back into the Labyrinth's streets made his gut knot up tight.

"Jesus." Trask scrambled for the back door, but Verity blocked it and set her pistol right in his face. "Get out of the way, you daft woman! They're coming!"

"Who's coming?" Verity demanded.

"Something! I don't know! That's a warning sign from one of my boys." Trask shoved her aside, careless of the pistol. "I ain't staying around to find out what it is."

"Let him go," Bishop told her, and Trask snatched a carpetbag off the floor and bolted toward the back.

"He wiped my memories," Verity said, glaring after him.

"Did you want him to dabble in your head again and bring them back?" Her expression said it all. "I thought not. Trask is a coward, and he'll meet a bad end one day. But not at our hands. Let's get out of here."

"Exactly what I was thinking," Verity replied.

They were halfway to the door when a second flare of magic went up. It burst just below the glass panes above that shielded the quarter from normal eyes.

"Get moving," Bishop barked, pushing her through the door and out into the streets.

People screamed from the direction in which they'd come. Magic washed the walls and cast a bluish glow over the entrance to the Labyrinth.

"How do we get out?" Verity gasped.

"This way." He shoved her toward the right, and the back of the cramped quarter. They started running, Verity cursing her skirts under her breath as he tugged her along.

Arum. The guttural cry didn't come from any throat he'd ever heard.

"What the hell is that?" Verity cried, glancing over her shoulder.

His skin was crawling along his arms, sorcery thrilling through his veins and stirring the dark pulse that lay at the heart of him. "Grave magic."

Verity shot him a sharp look, her green eyes meeting his. "The Chalice?"