“Holy fates!” I cried.
We plowed through the mist, the cart hitting the flat section of the mountain with a bump and careening around the curve, following the track. Another curve and we were on the next ramp, speeding down and out of the mist that had cloaked the mountaintop. An enormous vista of the black quarry and distant mountains stretched out ahead of us.
It was so thrilling that I couldn’t even feel the cold, a crazy rollercoaster ride straight out of history. Roarke gripped me from behind, trying to keep me from flying out of the cart. We were hurtling through space as we careened down the mountain. We passed the slate-cutting buildings and the shocked miners, but I had eyes only for the track ahead.
There was another cart, and it wasn’t moving nearly as fast as ours since a dragon hadn’t given it a nudge.
I focused my magic, imagining that specific cart sent back in time to where it belonged.
It disappeared, easy as that.
I gripped the sword hilt, grateful of its help, and held on for dear life as we plunged down.
When we reached the bottom near the lake, the cart flew off the tracks and skidded onto the beach.
The old boat still sat there, beached just as we’d left it.
Laughing, I turned to Roarke. “Wasn’t that amaz—shit! Run!”
Coblynau had caught up. We leapt out of the cart and raced across the beach.
“Morwena!” I screamed. “Help!”
She popped out of the water, her gaze wide, then swam for the boat. We jumped on board just as she climbed up.
“You’re going to owe me,” she said.
“Okay! Anything!”
Roarke pushed us offshore just as the Coblynau reached the water. Morwena took over from there, using the power of the water to direct the boat to the other shore.
I stood on deck, panting. “Holy fates, that was wild.”
“Beyond wild.” Roarke joined me, stripping off his jacket and draping it around my shoulders. He then swooped me off my feet and into his arms. Only once my bare feet were off the freezing deck did I realize how damned cold I was.
“Why are you naked?” Morwena asked.
“Long story.” I met her gaze where she stood at the back of the boat. “What do I owe you for helping us?”
“A favor. To be determined at a later date.”
“Deal.” I really didn’t have the energy to deal with it right now. I needed a freaking nap.
Roarke carried me all the way to the car. The whole way, I’d clutched the sword hilt to my chest. It’d been a little awkward when we’d walked through the festival, but the nice woman with the hot cocoa stand had given us a blanket and muttered something about the pixies stealing my clothes. We’d let her run with that theory.
By the time Roarke put me in the passenger seat, I’d warmed up a bit from the ride down the mountain. He walked around the front of the car, pulling his phone out of his pocket and punching in a number.
“We need a house. A nice one. With dinner and a healer,” he said as he climbed in and cranked the engine. “Text me an address.”
He hung up and pulled onto the road, making an eighty-seven-point turn to head back out of town.
“Who was that?” I fiddled with the heat, setting it to blasting.
“Same demon who got us a car. He’s arranging a house. After breaking through the blast house, I don’t have the strength to get us through the Underpath. I need to recharge.”
“How’s he going to find a house at this hour?” It was nearly seven at night according to the car’s dash clock.
“Holiday homes. You book them on the internet.” He glanced at me. “What, did you think we’d stay at his place?”
“No, I uh, didn’t think about it much at all. How can you get a house with so little notice?”
“Money.”
“So the demons are your travel agents and bankers and healers?”
“And chefs and drivers and messengers and whatever else you can think of.”
“Must be nice to be you.”
“It’s all right.” He smiled at me. His phone buzzed and he checked it, then punched an address into the GPS. The destination came up as a place about twenty minutes away. “How are you feeling? That was…an adventure.”
“Wasn’t it?” I laughed. “I’ve been on some crazy jobs with Cass and Nix, but this topped all of those!”
“Mercenary jobs?”
I stopped laughing.
Right.
Now was the moment of truth. Should I trust him and fess up? He’d had my back through that whole thing at the mountain and all the time before.
Yeah. I should trust him.
“No.” I turned in the seat to look at him. “I’m not just a mercenary. And Ancient Magic isn’t just a normal shop.”
“I could have guessed that.”
“It’s how we stock it that’s not normal.” My heart started to pound. Cass and Nix were okay with this. They were. Even Nix, the most suspicious person I’d ever met. I could do this. “I’m not a seeker, like I told you. We’re FireSouls. We use our dragon sense to find the treasure.”
The car slowed briefly. His hands tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles whitening, and he turned to look at me. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. But we don’t steal powers intentionally. I swear.” I swallowed hard, praying he’d believe me.
“Is that how you got the Ubilaz demon’s power, though?”
“No. When a FireSoul takes a power, it’s a conscious decision. I didn’t even realize I was taking the Ubilaz demon’s power. I never would have taken that!”
“You would have if you wanted a demon army.”
Holy fates. “I don’t want one of those.”
“I know.”
“And it’s not like I could control one, even if I had it. You’ve noticed, right, that they try to kill me? I swear, I didn’t do it on purpose. And we’re not bad people because we’re FireSouls.”
“I know that.” He glanced at me for a moment, holding my gaze. “You’re the best people I’ve ever met. I like you, Del. And I like your sisters. I’m not going to judge you for what you are. People don’t trust me because I’m half demon. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
He glanced back at the road. I flushed, remembering that I’d held that prejudice about him when I’d first met him.
“Thank you for telling me,” he said.
My shoulders relaxed. “You won’t turn us in?”
But I already knew the answer.
He scowled. “Of course not. But I can understand now why you might have been hesitant to tell me that. And why it seemed that you were hiding something. It’s your whole life.”
“Exactly. And I’ve been hiding it a long time. That’s a hard switch to turn off. It’s ingrained in me.” I adopted Gollum’s voice and hissed, “Keep it secret, keep it safe.”
He laughed as he slowed the car and turned onto a narrow drive.
“Are we here?” I asked.
“Just about.”
A moment later, a house appeared at the end of the drive. It was large and old, but very pretty. Just the kind of thing a family would want on holiday.