But he did.
I descended the stairs into a wel -lit room. A generator roared somewhere out of sight, and a hiss whispered around the room as fresh air was pumped into the underground space. Judging by the number of cots pushed underground space. Judging by the number of cots pushed against the far wal , Bel wasn’t the only person staying here. No wonder Roy hadn’t been able to warn me until Bel made his move—they’d been hiding in a cemetery this whole time.
“Welcome,” Bel said, not rising from a large wooden chair that had been placed in the center of the room like it was a throne. Would that make him the king of sewer rats?
He smiled at me, and his dark eyes glinted, but not with mirth. No, with madness.
Magic clung in clumps around him. They weren’t spel s exactly, but high concentrations of magic forced with no skil into crude charms—like square pegs pounded into round holes. With a jackhammer.
“Forgive the unorthodox manner of your employment,” he said, but he slurred the words. I didn’t think alcohol had anything to do with his condition. “You see, we ran out of magic. You wil be wel compensated.”
Bullshit. He was a fugitive, and from the hungry look of the gathered skimmers, the lot of them were addicted from their brush with the Aetheric. They wanted a fix. Even if I did open a rift for them—which wasn’t an option—most would burn like a moth in a flame.
“Like I told you before, you can’t hire me to open a hole into the Aetheric.” I’d have liked to say I couldn’t do it, but that would have been a lie, and the words stuck in my throat.
Bel blinked at me. Then he nodded at the goons behind me. The rasp and clack of a gun cocking fil ed the room. A cold shiver shot down my spine and I froze, rooted to the concrete under my feet. The hard muzzle of the gun pressed into the flesh under my ear. My heart crashed in my chest, knocking the air out of my lungs, but I didn’t dare breathe too hard.
I could die right here, in this hole in the ground, and no one would ever know. The skimmers were crazy enough to do it. No one even looked surprised as they watched the do it. No one even looked surprised as they watched the goon press the gun hard enough against my skin to make my pulse burst like explosions in my ear. And I’ll be just another cemetery haunt. Death wouldn’t be able to reach me, and I’d be stuck until I was forgotten and faded away.
I glanced at the ghosts who had fol owed us into the mausoleum. They flitted about, chattering to themselves.
One woman, so indistinct that she was barely a shadow, smiled at me. I don’t know if she realized I could see her, or if she just thought I’d join her soon.
Not tonight I won’t.
Okay, points for bravado, but even if I could open the rift in reality—which I wasn’t sure I could do on command—
there were no guarantees that Bel would release me. And who knew how much damage the skimmers could do in their blissed-out madness if they had unlimited access to the Aetheric? It just wasn’t an option. I had to find some way out of this that didn’t endanger an unknown number of people while the skimmers fed their addiction.
“You’re awful y silent, Miss Craft,” Bel said, and the gun barrel ground harder into my skin.
I swal owed, tasting acidic fear. My dagger hummed in my boot, but even if my hands hadn’t been bound, the only thing I would be able to accomplish by drawing it would be to get myself shot. Of course, I did have one other thing. I had the whole damn graveyard. The idiots had dragged me off to a grave witch’s seat of power. Not that grave magic was the least bit effective against the living, but what I real y needed was a big enough distraction for me to get the hel out of here.
My gaze shot to the ghosts stil flitting about the room.
They might just provide me with one. But first I had to persuade Bel to remove my cuffs.
“Okay, Bel , you made your point. I’l perform a ritual.” I didn’t specify which ritual, but I doubted he’d notice.
“Splendid! And I told you to cal me Max. Now, how long wil the ritual take to prepare?”
wil the ritual take to prepare?”
“Not long.” Or at least I hoped not. “But if I’m going to do this, I’l need your men to uncuff me”— and get the damn gun away from my head—“so I can draw a circle.”
“My people can draw the circle for you.”