“They’re a trick,” Roarke said.
I blinked and shook my head, trying to clear the slight haze in my mind that the lights had created. He was right. As soon as we came to a branch in the path, my dragon sense pulled in the opposite direction of the lights. I turned, heading down the narrow lane with Roarke at my side. Without the guiding lights, it was darker, so I drew my sword and fed it some of my Phantom power. It was a trick I’d worked on, and the blue glow gave us some light to see by. Now that Roarke knew what I was—or at least, part of what I was—so I could use a bit of my strange magic in front of him.
“This maze is clever,” I said. “I bet we’re going into a more protected area.”
The magic felt stronger as we walked, as if we were entering the true heart of Cambridge.
When we finally reached the end, a short path led to the river he’d mentioned. It was wide and slow moving, with buildings on either side. The massive stone structures butted up right to the water, with no room to walk on the bank between the building and the river. To our right, a smaller structure crouched on a stone platform. Long, shallow boats had been pulled onto the narrow strip of shore. It must be a boathouse. Tall poles were stacked against the boathouse wall. For pushing the boat along, perhaps.
I took stock of my dragon sense, unsurprised when it pulled us right.
“We either have to go through the buildings or take a boat down river,” I said.
“Boat.”
“Yeah.”
Together, we put one of the long, shallow boats in the water. They had wide, flat platforms on either side—perfect for standing upon and pushing the boat along with one of the poles. I grabbed one of the tall poles and hopped in. Roarke grabbed another and followed.
I stood on the front platform, while he stepped onto the back. In tandem, we stuck our poles in the water. Mine hit the bottom only a few feet down and I pushed, propelling us forward. We moved quickly down the river, our boat gliding along silently in the dark.
It was a good thing it was so late and this place was full of hard-working scholars. They were all asleep in their beds or had their noses in books, not outside to witness our silent passage.
The thought was still fresh in my mind when a rustling on the shore caught my attention.
I glanced over. A massive, horned demon was running alongside the boat. My heart thundered.
Damn.
A rustling from the other side of the shore caught my attention a moment later. There was another demon, this one spindly and thin. Two more followed behind him.
“We’ve got company,” I said.
“Four more on the right.”
I looked over. That made at least eight demons total.
“Where the heck did they come from?” I asked as I pushed us along. For now, the demons weren’t jumping in the water to come get us. But they would eventually.
“Maybe they were already here.”
Or they had come through the hole in the protection charm Roarke had created. Either way, we had a problem.
I turned to look at Roarke. “Should we each take a bank and get rid of them?”
“We have bigger problems.” He pointed ahead.
I spun around. Five other boats were drifting toward us, each manned by a huge Magica. Their power rolled out from them in waves.
“Who the hell are they?” I whispered.
“Security.”
“Damn.” What the hell were we going to do? I didn’t want to fight a bunch of security guards who were just doing their job.
“We’re here to see Horatio Penderren,” Roarke called. “We mean no harm.”
“Then you shouldn’t have brought your demon minions.” The mage who spoke threw out his hands. A light blasted from him.
Before I could fully process it, a massive net flew through the air and landed on top of Roarke and me, throwing us down. I thrashed, struggling to get up, but the heavy net bound us tight into the hull of the boat. It stung slightly wherever it touched my bare face and hands.
Beside me, Roarke struggled to stand, putting all his strength into tearing through the net. But the thing wouldn’t budge. It was like it had wrapped around the bottom of the boat, trapping us inside.
“Don’t bother,” the guard said. “The Montaris Net won’t let you out.”
He steered his boat against the stern of ours, the other guards maneuvering their crafts until our little boat was surrounded. I peered up through the net, my skin stinging like mad. It got worse the longer we were trapped under the damned thing.
“We really are just here to talk to Horatio Penderren,” I said.
“Then you should have set up an appointment. And mentioned that you were bringing along an army of demons.” His face twisted, as if the very idea offended him to his core.
I couldn’t blame him if he thought I was here to attack them.
On the shore, more guards appeared to take care of the demons.
“We’re not here to do any harm,” Roarke said.
“I can hardly trust the word of someone who broke in under the cover of darkness and who possesses the power to compel demons.” The guard began to push us along, directing our boat with his.
“We didn’t bring the demons!” I cried.
The guard’s face turned red with rage. His dark, beady eyes bulged. “Don’t lie!”
“I’m not! Just let me talk to someone. Your boss, or anyone. I can explain.”
He puffed himself up, raising his reed-thin body to its fullest height as indignation distorted his face. “I am the Chief Constable!”
Oooh, shoot. I pissed him off.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t bring the demons, I promise.”
“Lies!” His venomous gaze met mine as his voice filled with threat. “The Order of the Magica will be very interested to hear about this.”
“No!” I struggled to stand, desperate to make him hear reason. He couldn’t report me to the Order.
Roarke grabbed my arm, forcing me to meet his gaze.
“Shh!” The noise was short and harsh, but his message clear.
Anything I said would only hurt us. The Chief Constable clearly had it out for us. Me, in fact. Maybe I looked like an ex-girlfriend who had dumped him.
So I shut up, though it was damned hard. I just wanted to scream at the guard that he was a freaking moron. Or turn into a Phantom and drift through this net. But if I did that, I’d have to kill all the guards who saw me in my Phantom form. And I didn’t want to do that.
Better to wait and see where they took us, then deal with this once the enchanted net was off.
I lay still, fuming. I could feel the guard’s beady gaze on me, seething. I felt his ire like a brand against my skin.
As he pushed us along in the boat, I did my best to keep track of where we were going, noting our location in relation to that of Horatio Penderren. We were heading away, unfortunately.