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CHAPTER TWELVE

We decided to take two cars. Orik would drive the van and take Dante with him. I would drive my Jeep and Carson would ride with me. We left Duran with Sophia, because we were heading into a dangerous situation and he wasn’t trained for fighting.

On the way, Carson said, “Did you really believe in the gods before meeting Hecate?”

“I’ve thought a lot about it, and you know, I think did,” I said. “But it was more theoretical. I know Penn’s a priestess, and I know that Sophia knows Zeus—and pissed him off—but until you stand face-to-face with one…it seems more of an archetype-thing. You know what I mean?”

He thought for a moment. “I realized that until this morning, I thought the gods might be part of…well…like a split personality. That sounds stupid, but my brain works with numbers and figures, not energy. I believe in magic, but I’ve seen it done.

Now, my whole world view has taken a huge shift and I’m going to have to process everything differently now. ”

I paused. “You know that Penn truly cares about you, right? She didn’t turn you down because she doesn’t like you.

In fact, she turned you down so she wouldn’t break your heart.

The Fae usually aren’t comfortable settling down with one partner.

” I wasn’t sure if Penn had ever explained why she had turned down Carson’s advance.

He let out a long sigh. “I know. She did tell me. That doesn’t mean I still don’t have a crush on her, but I understand. And I appreciate that she took the time to explain, instead of blowing me off.”

“You do know she’s old enough to be your grandma? She’s?—”

“I know that, but age doesn’t mean much when we’re talking about the Supe Community. She looks in her thirties. You look in your twenties. So, who cares at that point? If I were dating a vampire, she might be several hundred years old,” Carson added.

On one hand, he was right. On the other, experience counted for a lot in a relationship. But chemistry was chemistry, and Carson responded to Penn. I felt bad for him, but Carson would find someone else eventually. He was young and had time.

We drove along Aurora Avenue, turning right on North 50 th Street, then making a left onto East Green Lake Way. From there it was a straight shot to Second Avenue, where a left turn would bring us to the restaurant.

“Why do you think they took her?” Carson asked.

“I don’t know. At first I thought it was because she’s one…

was one…of the portal keepers. But given what Terrance told us, I’m not so sure now.

They had to have some reason.” Even as I said it, I was thinking that Brim Fire was chaotic enough to pull off stunts that might be meaningless to us.

Who knew what was going on in those wacked-out minds of theirs?

“Well, whatever they’re up to, I hope it backfires on them. After we have Penn back, that is,” Carson said, scowling. “You just can’t go breaking into people’s homes and kidnapping them.”

“Speaking of…I think I need to find a new security system,” I said. “Do you have any recommendations?”

He snorted. “I can barely afford a run-down apartment. My security system consists of a bunch of iron bars on the windows with garlic attached to them, in case any vampire decides to drop by. Except Lazenti, of course. He came over last night to meet my sister. She’s offered to do a painting of him.

In fact, Maya’s moving up here. She’s getting tired of California. ”

“I like her,” I said. “She’s sweet and incredibly talented.

” When I first met Carson, he’d been so introverted it was hard for him to make any social chit-chat.

He’d blossomed out, and though I suspected he was on the spectrum, he seemed in his element when he was at work.

I seldom asked him to go out on investigations with us—he wasn’t a people-person—but he was a whiz where we needed him to be.

“She’s lonely down there. Grandma died a year ago, and Grandpa sits in that big old house all by himself. Maya’s going to move in with him and take care of him in exchange for rent. I don’t think I could move home again, but I told Maya that I’ll help out as much as I can.”

“Maya and Grandpa better show at our annual Thanksgiving,” I said. We celebrated together every year at Orik and Hilda’s. We all chipped in and helped, and I charged the food to the business. Carson had always shown up a little late after spending the early afternoon with his grandparents.

“I’m sure they’d love it,” he said, giving me a broad smile. “How much further?”

I glanced at the street sign. “We’re almost there. I’m going to pull around back to see if there’s a back entrance. Can you text Dante and Orik and tell them my plan?”

“Consider it done.” A few seconds later, Dante texted back. “Dante will follow your lead. They’re right behind us.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay, here we are.” It was a shopping center, with several buildings on one massive lot, and I turned into the alley behind the first, which was Bellissimo Piatto.

Just like I thought there would be, a door offered a back entrance for the staff.

Next to the entrance was a large dumpster.

I drove down the alley to where it opened out to the far side of the parking lot.

Instead of parking near the restaurant, I parked in front of a thrift store—Karen’s Closet.

It was open, but there didn’t seem to be many customers yet, and I parked as far to the side as I could so we wouldn’t be seen by the restaurant staff, if any came in early.

It was nine-thirty, and the restaurant didn’t open until one PM , so hopefully, there wouldn’t be anybody there yet. Dante parked next to me, and we moved around back, into the alley, before clustering together to discuss our next move.

“I say we break in, find her, and get her out before we deal with Jiles. And I think we should talk to the Queen. Since Jiles is part of the Crystal Court, we probably should turn him in and let them take care of it,” I said. “I don’t like them, but they need to know.”

“I agree on that. What if he’s with Penn?” Dante asked.

“Then we do whatever we need to in order to free her. It’s as simple as that,” I said. I wouldn’t hesitate to take out someone hurting my friend.

We hustled down the alley, stopping in front of the restaurant door. I tried to press my ear against it, to see if I could hear any noise, but nothing stood out.

“Do you think they have a security system?” I asked.

Carson examined the door. “I don’t think so. This is a pretty nice part of town, too. One of the lowest crime rates in the city.”

“I’m taking the chance,” I said as I examined the lock.

It wasn’t all that difficult—I could pick it without a problem.

I’d learned how to pick locks while living on the street.

There had been times where I had no place to stay, so I’d break into a small, out of the way shop, sleep, then wake before morning and be off again before anybody ever got there.

I pulled out my picklocks and went to work, while the others covered me. It didn’t take much to spring the lock, and as I cautiously opened the door, I listened for any alarm, but none came. Letting out a deep breath, I stepped into the back storage room and waved the others in.

“Shut the door,” I said, keeping my voice low.

There were no signs that anybody else was here, and so we began scouting around.

“Look for the basement door,” I said, passing by a stack of sauté pans. The kitchen was impressively clean and the lingering smells of food from the day before weren’t overwhelming. They must have an impressive air circulation system.

“Here!” Dante said.

We hurried over to his side. He was standing in front of a door with a sign on it. The sign had a picture of a staircase, with the words watch your step below.

“This has to be it,” I said. I motioned for them to let me open the door, and when I did, I stopped short.

The stairs went down, as usual, but the feel of magic was strong.

Or rather, it was strong at the doorstep.

As I stepped through, onto the staircase, everything dissipated, as though every shred of magic had been gobbled up.

“An anti-magic zone,” I said. I wished we’d brought Duran with us now, but Orik might be able to help. “Orik, come here. Can you sense the shift in energy?”

The six-eight priest stepped through the door, onto the stairs with me. If the door was two inches shorter, he would have bumped his head. Frowning, he turned around and ran his hands around the doorframe.

“Yes, there’s an anti-magic spell cast down here and it starts at the door.

They probably cast it to fill the basement.

” He shook his head. “Kyann, it takes a powerful witch to set up a spell this strong. Usually, anti-magic spells cover a small area. Or a person in particular—either so they can’t cast magic, or so magic can’t be cast on them.

A small but important difference to focus on when casting the spell. ”

I let out a long sigh. “Then the more we can evade Jiles and let the Crystal Court take over, the better.”

“Would Hecate want you to leave it up to them?” Dante asked. “She seemed pretty determined that we take care of these guys.”

“Yeah, but…well, we’ll deal with that after we free Penn.

” I headed down the stairs, pencil thin flashlight casting a narrow beam.

When I was halfway down, the lights came on by themselves.

I jumped, nearly falling forward down the steps but Orik tapped me on the shoulder and pointed back to Dante, who had flipped the light switch at the top.

After he steadied me, Orik drew a short sword and I drew a dagger, and we hurried the rest of the way down the stairs, ready to meet whatever might be lurking around the corner.

The basement seemed divided into several spaces.

A wall cordoned off the far end of the basement—probably two-thirds of it—with another door in it.

Where we were, the furnace blasted out a steady stream of warm air.

Next to the furnace stood a washer and dryer—for table linens and dishtowels, most likely.

And next to them—a folding table with a stack of linens, all neatly ironed and pressed.

“All right, here we go” I headed toward the door. As I reached the door, I steeled myself for whatever might be on the other side. Cautiously, I opened it and peeked in.

The room was obviously a storage room. Right off the bat, I caught sight of a giant walk-in freezer. Near the freezer, were a stack of cases of Italian wine, and next to the wine cases, sat Penn, tied to a chair. She looked to be asleep, her chest rising and falling evenly.

“Found her!” I turned to Orik. “Get Dante. Tell Carson to stay up top, on the look out for others while we untie her.”

Orik headed back up the steps while I rushed to Penn’s side. I couldn’t see any traps, so I knelt down beside her and gently shook her by the shoulders.

“Penn, wake up! Penn?”

Her eyes fluttered and she slowly came to consciousness. “What?”

“Wake up. Get up! We need to get out of here.” I continued to shake her gently until she focused on me and gasped.

“You came!”

“Of course we did. Is there anything I should know before I release you from your bonds?” I asked.

“You need to get out of here, fast ,” Penn said. “If you can, take me but for the sake of the gods, please, hurry!”

I frowned, wondering what was wrong. “What’s going on?”

“They—” she froze, as a click against the floor sounded. “Quick, cut me lose!”

My blade was razor sharp and I cut through the thick ropes without a problem, but I was worried.

If Penn thought there was danger, there probably was.

I reached out to cut her loose, but the next moment the clicking against the floor grew louder as the faint outline of a trapdoor appeared.

The next moment, it flew open, and I froze as three scary-ass looking creatures emerged from beneath the floor, all armed with long, sharp daggers.