“Sign.” She thrust the tablet at me.
I signed. A few minutes later, we were leaving the fortress jail with Bryna, who looked like a lost fairy-tale princess in her torn and stained gown, frizzed hair, and smudged makeup. She put her charmed jewelry back on as we walked. Not that they’d do any good against my shadowsteel magic. Her eyes were a little glassy, courtesy of the spell.
Bryna slowed and then stopped to lean against the wall for balance and put on her heels, which she’d been carrying. She fumbled with them a little, her fingers clumsy.
Emmaline peered at her and then shot me a sharp look. “You spelled her?” she whispered.
I lifted my hands innocently. “Is that not allowed?”
Emmaline touched the back of her hand to her forehead and then let it drop. “I’m going to have to report that.”
“Do what you gotta do,” I said mildly. I had no regrets about using the spell.
She let out a low sound of disapproval as she recorded something on her tablet. “What kind of magic?”
“Just a wee bit of shadowsteel blood magic.” I held out my hand with my thumb and forefinger pinched together to leave only a sliver of space between them. “Teensy.”
She looked up long enough to give me a withering look.
Bryna stumbled toward us like she’d had one too many drinks. When her heel slid off the side of her shoe, she nearly went down. “My shoes. They don’t want to stay on my feet.”
I made a strangled noise in my throat. “Okay, this isn’t going to work. We need to get some real shoes for her.”
Emmaline shrugged. “I can’t leave the two of you alone.”
I fought the temptation to yank at my hair. “I’ll go get her some shoes.”
I took off at a run toward my apartment. At the door, I gave a warning knock, waited a second, and then opened the door. Maxen and Nicole were sitting in the living room area, she on the sofa with her feet curled up and he in the easy chair. In spite of my warning, they both jumped about a foot when I came in.
“Just need some shoes,” I said, and beelined to the bedroom. I found some of my old Chuck Taylors from when I was in high school.
“I’ll check in with you later,” I said to Nicole as I hurried back out the door. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and she was nervously playing with her honey-colored hair as she watched me rush in and out. I started to close the door behind me but then opened it up again and looked at Maxen. “I’ll be checking in with you, too, Lord Lothlorien.”
His brows rose, and he blinked a couple of times but didn’t have a chance to respond before I was gone.
I caught up with Emmaline and Bryna, and as soon as our Duergar charge had my Chuck Taylors tied onto her feet, we were off again toward the nearest doorway, which was located in an interior courtyard. We stood in front of the arched alcove.
“Okay, Bryna, you’re on,” I said. “Where do we go to find Van Zant?”
Her face hardened, her eyes tight. She shot me an insolent look, but when she opened her mouth to speak, no words came. Instead, she gasped and her eyes widened. Her fingers flew to her neck.
I leaned in so I could speak in her ear. “I suggest you cooperate, if you enjoy having your head attached to your body.”
She swallowed hard and blinked a couple of times and then drew a deep breath and let it out. The defiance had drained from her face.
“He’s in my room.” She turned her glassy gaze on me. “My quarters in the Duergar palace.”
I smacked the heel of my hand against my forehead. Great. Back into the lion’s den.
Chapter 22
“THERE’S A DOORWAY very near my quarters,” Bryna said. She blinked slowly as she spoke, as if for her everything was moving in slow motion.
She kept talking, the shadowsteel magic encouraging her to offer up more information than she normally would have. “That’s why I chose those rooms. I like to be able to come and go eeeasily. I do it aaall the time,” she said, starting to draw out vowel sounds.
I grimaced. “I bet.”
“Won’t that drop us right in the middle of things?” Emmaline asked me.
“Yeah. But the alternative is wasting time trying to get in and sneak to her rooms. And at this point it’s broad daylight, and I’m public enemy number one on Periclase’s list. That’s a bad combo for getting around unnoticed.”
We both looked at Bryna.
“We need to go in without getting caught. Our oath was binding,” I reminded her. “You get released only if you lead me to Van Zant and I make it through a doorway with him.”
“This is the best way. Reeeally,” she drawled.
I started to wonder if I’d used too much magic, and I had a bad feeling about using the doorway Bryna spoke of. But I didn’t have time to waste. Marisol’s deadline for turning in my mark and getting back to the fortress aligned with what my boss had told me—basically, I had a couple more hours to finish the job. If I didn’t, I’d lose my chance at the Van Zant bounty and its big payout. He’d still be loose and dealing VAMP3 blood, endangering Maeve-only-knew how many people. I’d be penalized by the Guild for failing to complete an assignment on deadline, by getting slapped with at least a month-long probation—an unpaid time-out from work at the Guild—guaranteeing I’d make no bounty money for that time. The exclusive mercenary contracts with the Guild, combined with the penalty periods for failing an assignment, kept us mercs hamstrung and very motivated to do our jobs. That gap in income would sink me. I’d have to keep pursuing Van Zant if his bounty got re-assigned to another merc, just to ease my conscience, but I wasn’t in a financial position to be doing charity work.
Sure, I could try to pick up other types of freelance work, but they all paid worse than Guild jobs, and most didn’t offer steady employment. That was why the Guild could be so ruthless with their terms. I was already behind on my part of the rent, and Lochlyn had just lost her own job. If we got evicted, I’d have no choice. I’d have to move back into the stone fortress.
A cringing shiver worked its way up my spine at the thought of being in the fortress permanently. As a full-time, resource-consuming resident, I’d have to pull my weight. That meant doing whatever job Marisol chose to assign me. I wouldn’t have time to keep up with Guild work in addition to a fortress job and acting as Nicole’s new BFF.
But far worse than all of that, I’d betray the oath I’d made to myself. To my dead mother. I’d sworn to dedicate my life to working as a vamp hunter for the Guild. In the fortress, my vamp hunting days would come to an end.
No. Just, no.
I had to get this job done, and I had to do it before time ran out.
I gestured at Bryna. “You’ll have to take us to the doorway near your quarters.”