No doubt he’d never seen the likes of me before. His hand went to his belt where some kind of wand hung from a little holster.
I let go of Pond Flower and drew my sword, turning corporeal and lunging at him. As he drew his wand, I brought the hilt of my sword down upon his head. It cracked against his skull, and his eyes rolled back. He fell like an oak, out cold.
A silvery key ring glinted at his belt.
I knelt and checked his pulse, relieved to feel it beat. Pond Flower stood over his body, staring down at him.
“Thanks, pal,” I said to her as I fumbled for the keys. “You can go back and hang out with your buddies in the forest again.”
I didn’t want her hanging out here where she could get hurt. Better to have her frolicking in the forest.
She licked my hand as I stood, then disappeared. As I turned back to the locked door, I glanced at the water, hoping to see the boat where my lucky necklace had fallen off. The boat was gone.
Damn.
I stepped up to the door where a massive black lock awaited. It wasn’t hard to find the matching key. It, too, was massive and black. I shoved it into the lock and twisted until the familiar snicking noise sounded, then pushed open the door.
Roarke stepped out. “That was quick.”
“I got lucky.” I turned and dropped the keys near the guard, then called on my dragon sense. “We’re close. Come on.”
We hurried along the stone embankment, sticking close to the wall. A doorway caught my eye, and I pushed it open, revealing a small antechamber. Unlike the grim stone walls that surrounded the river, the walls were paneled with some kind of pretty wood. Glowing sconces provided light. There was a doorway opposite the one we stood in.
“That should lead into the rest of the building,” Roarke said.
We slipped inside.
“I think Boadica’s College is the one next to this one,” I whispered, following my dragon sense.
Roarke nodded and pushed open the door a crack. I dipped under his arm and peered out. A grand foyer stretched in front of us, the ornately tiled floor gleaming in the light of the chandelier above. Weird that the prison was next to such opulence. But then, this whole place was weird.
Two massive doors took up a big part of the adjacent wall. Windows revealed the snowy scene outside. The foyer was dead silent, so we hurried out of the little room and across the tiled floor. Fortunately, the doors weren’t locked, and we spilled out onto the massive front steps. An open courtyard stretched in front of us, with buildings looming on all sides.
Frosty air chilled my lungs as I followed my dragon sense down the stairs and to the left.
We kept to the shadows near the building, our footsteps silent. A narrow alley between buildings led us to another courtyard, this one smaller and filled with trees and plants. The sparkling lamps made it look like a fairy land. The buildings here weren’t the massive stone ones, but rather like old Tudor houses with the black wood and white plaster.
“That’s it.” I pointed to the largest building. There were multiple peaked roofs and many tiny, mullioned windows. Roses climbed up the sides, even more beautiful because they were speckled with snow.
We hurried through the garden and let ourselves in through the small wooden door. The foyer was tiny and dark, but warm, with a staircase on the other side.
“I think we go up,” I whispered. “Third floor.”
Roarke nodded and led the way up the narrow stairs. No matter how light we kept our footsteps, the old stairs creaked. At the third landing, warm yellow light glowed.
As soon as I reached the top, I caught sight of a room to the left of the stairs. Bookshelves crammed full of leather-bound tomes covered every inch of the walls. A fire glowed in the hearth. It smelled of books and woodsmoke, and the heat bowling out of the room warmed my icy skin.
In the middle of the room, a man leaned against the desk, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched us.
Horatio Penderren.
“Roarke Fallon.” Horatio nodded at Roarke. “I didn’t expect to see you again.”
Roarke stepped into the room. “I suppose not. But I need your assistance.”
“You trust me to provide it?”
Trust? What had happened between these two? It was impossible not to catch a serious undercurrent on the air. There was history between these two guys, and I definitely believed Roarke when he said that he and Horatio weren’t friends.
“You’re our only hope,” Roarke said.
Oh, I didn’t like the sound of that. I wanted more than one hope. I wanted multiple hopes.
“I’m Delphine Bellator.” I stepped into Horatio’s line of sight.
His green gaze snapped to me. He was slender, about forty years old with a scholar’s face. Spectacles perched on his nose, giving him a slightly owlish air.
Horatio gestured to two chairs in front of his desk. We sat while he went behind his desk and took the massive leather chair that looked like it had seen a lot of butts.
“How can I help you?” Horatio asked.
“I have power that I can’t control. But it’s a weird one. Can I rely on you not to share what you hear from me?”
He nodded, his gaze serious. I searched his face, looking for any sign of perfidy, then glanced at Roarke, who nodded. Roarke didn’t necessarily like the guy, but he trusted him. That was a good enough endorsement for me.
Horatio nodded and listened intently as I explained how I attracted demons with my new Ubilaz power. And that I had also taken an ice demon’s gift.
“But the thing I don’t get,” I said, “is how I can control the ice power but not the demon attraction. And I once had the power of teleportation—I was very good with that.”
Horatio leaned back in his chair, his gaze thoughtful. “The control of magic is a complex subject, but there are a few general principles. It is easier for you to control powers you were born with. Were you born with the teleportation gift?”
“I think so, yes.” And I was actually a Phantom, so it made sense I could control that.
“As for powers that you obtain from other sources—it’s easy for you to control lower category powers. Ice is a Cat 2. The Cat 5 power will be almost impossible to control.”
“So, for example, bringing back the past—what about that?”
Horatio nodded. “A rare power, that. Not normally associated with a category of demon. I’ve never heard of anyone mastering it.”
That made me feel a bit better.
“Do you have that gift?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Just trying to understand.”
The power had shown up out of the blue, but I hadn’t taken it from a demon. Which meant it was my own, and eventually I’d have better control of it.
From the crease of his brow, I could tell that he didn’t believe my lie, but I wasn’t going to tell this guy everything about me. Keeping things close to the vest was too ingrained.
“We’re here to see if you can help Del control the demon attraction,” Roarke said. “She needs to learn to repress it.”
“I can try.”