“How big is this place, Callie?” I asked into the hush. I’d seen it from the car, but it had been impossible to judge the size at the speed we were going.
“Big. We’re not even halfway through.”
“Is the walking okay, Callie? Dizzy? You guys doing okay?” I asked, worrying about hips and bunions and whatever else they might have going on. “Penny, how’s the daintiness? Freaking out because you’re breaking a sweat?”
“I have run three marathons,” Penny said with heat to her voice. I liked it.
“Did someone fail to mention that I have healing magic?” Callie asked levelly. It was rarely a good sign. “Dizzy and I are like spring chickens.”
“As long as we don’t have to spring up from a crouch,” Dizzy amended.
“There’s the tower.” Callie pointed upward.
Over the lip of the cargo lining our way rose a building that had clearly been built to overlook the goings-on of the rail yard. I instinctively wanted to be up at the top. But to what end? It hardly seemed likely the mages would have peeled up the top of their workshop of horrors, allowing me to see inside.
“Then what?” I asked.
“Let’s see. The label says there’s some type of repair shop.” Callie squinted down at her phone. “I can’t read what type. Probably a little building. It’s just a speck.”
“And then?”
“The line of lots we’re in leads to the end of the yard. Then there’s side loader repair.”
I glanced into the crack between two containers to the open road. “Does that road lead all the way back?”
“Yes. It might connect with the freeway, but this isn’t much more than a cartoon map, so I can’t tell.”
After a while, we came to the end of the lots, having passed a couple of small buildings along the way. My hope was fizzling out with each step. Up ahead, the expanse of tracks, many now filled with parked trains, reduced down into a few bare tracks leading out of the area.
“That must be the side loader repair,” Callie said, pointing at a building at the end. “Which is the end of the line.”
I put my hands on my hips and looked around, my heart in my shoes. “He’s not here. I’m screwed.”
“We will find the shifter from the bar,” Darius said, suddenly pressed against my side. “We can ask him for more information.”
“Wait.” Penny leaned over Callie’s arm and pointed at the edge of Callie’s phone screen. “What’s over there?”
Callie scrunched her brow as she worked the screen. “More lots. Another checkpoint, another entrance. More railroad tracks.”
I shook my head, my chest tight.
“Learn from our mistakes,” Darius said insistently. “Let’s check it out, then move on.”
“What happens if we don’t find the demon in time?” Penny asked.
Everyone fell silent. Callie and Dizzy’s heads dipped to the ground. Darius’s gaze turned fierce.
“No one can know for sure,” I said with a thick tongue. “But judging by the number of parties trying to lay claim to me, I’d say my chances of living a quiet, uneventful life don’t look so good.”
Chapter Thirty-One
“Hurry, you fools!” Agnon shouted, barely able to hold up the human’s head.
The mages had furnished it with a body. A weak, diseased, aged body that was dying as Agnon crouched within it, feeding off its energy. It wouldn’t be long before the human deteriorated, forcing Agnon to eject and drain precious energy of its own.
The male mage worked his knife, trying to get the correct amount of power to enact the circle.
All Agnon needed was a proper banishing spell. It didn’t have to be much, just powerful enough to shove it in the right direction. As soon as it crossed the line between worlds, it could rejuvenate within the Dark Kingdom until it was ready to travel to its sect.
“Banishing a demon should be second nature to a mage,” Agnon hissed, its voice filling the space. “Why is this taking so long?”
“We need a sacrifice to send someone of your strength,” a woman said. “We need more energy.”
“You need a better circle of mages!” Agnon roared, lying on the ground decrepitly. “You must send me off before she finds us. She will be my death if she catches me on the surface.”
But she would be Agnon’s greatest boon if it could get below. The heir had both elements of the Dark Kingdom’s power—something only the Great Master shared with her. Agnon hadn’t seen the incendium magic, the fire, but it had felt it when her sword pierced its body. Luckily for it, the heir hadn’t yet learned the full extent of her power. She was as strong as the Great Master himself, able to move worlds. Alter time. Agnon had felt that incredible might pulsing deeply within her.
And she was only in her infancy.
If Agnon could’ve giggled like one of those silly, tiny humans, it would have.
Its sect could train her in secret. Help her develop her power. Since she had both elements of the Great Master’s power, they could bring in a neighboring incendium sect, form an alliance, and have two halves of the whole.
But first, it had to get below.
“Hurry,” it yelled again.
“Master, there is no way she can find us. We are hidden from view,” one of those insufferable humans said.
“She is the almighty,” Agnon said. “This shack is not hidden from her eyes.”
“It is not a shack, I assure you,” the lead mage said in an arrogant tone. “But we are in a rural place. She’ll find nothing in my home to point her here. I removed all the evidence of this location. Even if she found this place, she wouldn’t know to come all the way to this removed area. Trust me—we have all the time in the world.”
If Agnon had not needed this disgusting human, it would have killed him right then. How dare he disregard the heir’s abilities as merely human?
“I hope she finds you just after you have sent me below,” Agnon said.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“I vote we go,” Callie said. “A quick look. Then we head on. Because really, what choice do we have?”
I glanced at the clock. Middle of the night. Time was flying. Chances were, if it wasn’t here, we wouldn’t find it tonight. Then we’d be hampered by the sunlight. Granted, the magical people could hang, but I needed Darius. He could help me take out the demon, and if not, he could help me keep from losing myself. He might be the end game.
The chances that it wasn’t here were good.
I shook my head and looked back toward the distant parking garage. “There is no way they can hide in the lots. Say they were using a container, or a group of them, and hiding their freaky workshop with a spell. Humans would eventually realize there was an unnatural absence of cargo.”
“Well…that’s not necessarily true.” Penny scratched her nose. “In addition to making something invisible, you could use a spell to distract the human mind so they don’t recognize the gap between things that aren’t invisible…”