I narrowed my eyes. “And you don’t think they’ll leave anyone behind as guard? They can’t even trust their own people.”
“Mm-mm. Remember those boobytraps you were worried about? It’s your job to nullify them without setting off the alarm. I’ll do the rest.”
“Fabulous.”
Headlights approached from the cross street, and Ember flattened herself against the van. “You’ve got Shade’s spells?”
My lip curled. “Yeah.”
“Good. Activate one to get us from here to there. Be ready for the second one when it wears off.”
I stuck my finger into my mouth, pretending to gag.
Ember rolled her eyes. “Real mature, Ash.”
“His intentions just don’t mix well with my vim. We’re like oil and water. Colors that clash. Eating a greasy burrito on a transatlantic flight.”
The car passed, and she slid the door shut. “Then why did you sleep with him?”
“I…” My mouth hung open as I tried to find the words to defend myself.
“You had sex with the man you despise?” Chaos sounded incredulous, and I couldn’t say I blamed him. I sometimes had trouble believing it myself.
“There was alcohol involved. Alcohol leads to bad decisions. I know it was wrong.” In my defense, I had just finished a fabulous enemies-to-lovers romance novel, and I was still caught up in the magic of my favorite trope. A lower-level demon had slipped through the veil, as they did in Salem from time to time, and the team had vanquished it. No ghoul guts or cemetery fires involved.
Tequila shots in the kitchen to celebrate. Ember went to bed; everyone else went home. Shade stayed. You can figure out the rest. I woke up with regrets; he woke with goo-goo eyes. Cocky asshats didn’t handle rejection well. We went from mildly annoying each other to mortal enemies in one night flat.
“Did he force you? I’ll tear off his limbs and shove them into every orifice on his body.”
Now that would be a sight to see. “Down, boy. Nobody forced anybody. It was a mutual mistake.”
“You set?” Ember’s voice pulled me to the present.
“Ready as I’ll ever be to sneak into a boobytrapped, dark magic HQ.” Which was not at all.
“Activate the first shadow spell.”
I really did gag a little this time, but I tried my best to hide it as I popped the cork on Shade’s bottled essence—double gag—and poured the black powder into my hand. Then I read the slip of paper he’d included with the vials. “Hide from sight our magical plight. With the power of Shade, my intent is conveyed.”
Seriously? Who wrote themselves into a spell? I was certain he rhymed it that way just to grate on my nerves. Whatever.
I blew the power into the air, and it billowed into a thick gray cloud before falling around us, cloaking us. The world turned unsaturated, nearly grayscale, and we hoofed it toward the entrance.
Okay, that wasn’t so bad. Maybe I had been a bit overly dramatic about using shadow magic. Note to self: act like an effing grownup. Especially when he was poking me. Metaphorically, of course, because his poker would never get close enough to poke me again.
Two blocks from our target, a homeless man sat huddled against a building. A little brown terrier lay beside him, snuggled in a green blanket while the man used a piece of a cardboard box to block the wind. My heart ached for the pair, so I dug in my pocket and pulled out a ten.
He didn’t react as I approached, and when I laid the money on the ground next to him, he sucked in a ragged breath, his hooded eyes growing wide like saucers. “A blessing from the goddess,” he mumbled.
I smiled. “Something like that.”
“Ash!” Ember shouted. “No time for bleeding hearts. Let’s keep moving.”
The man tucked the money into his shirt, completely oblivious to our presence.
“The spell mutes sound too?” I followed my sister across the intersection. The building stood one block away.
“I told him to put everything he had into them. He’ll probably sleep fifteen hours tonight. He looked like shit when I picked them up.”
“Well, color me impressed.”
“Me too. Maybe I won’t kill him. He seems useful to you.”
I laughed. “I suppose he can be.”
Ember lifted her brows, silently telling me to fill her in.
“He says Shade might be useful, so he won’t kill him.”
“Probably won’t.”
She crossed her arms, widening her stance. “If he so much as pretends he’s going to harm one of our coven members, I’ll send him right back to his dark prison and turn his skull into powder so he can never resurrect.”
“I would like to see her try.”
I held up my hands. “Stop, both of you. Let’s focus on the mission, mm-kay? My heart is beating like a racehorse trampling through my chest, and I would like to get this over with before they get done with their ritual.”
“Hmph,” he grumbled.
