The door shut behind Ulbrine with an obvious click. Immediately Trisk stood, angry and frustrated. Daniel could be dead for all she knew. She’d waited too long, tarried behind walls while people languished.
Leaving her tea beside Ulbrine’s coffee, she tried the door to find it was unlocked. Turning the knob silently, she opened it and looked out into the hall. Pelhan and Ulbrine were still there, lingering at a crossroads and discussing some small point. She froze as Pelhan saw her. But the witch diverted Ulbrine’s attention, ushering him down the hallway and presumably to a phone.
Trisk pulled back into the office, heart pounding. Her eyes closed as she listened at the crack in the door for their conversation to fade. A knot of anger eased; there were people who believed in her. Finally the hallway became quiet and Trisk slipped out into it. She headed for the front lobby, wondering if she should shirk people or pretend she had every right to be wandering around.
“Hi, Trisk,” Officer Randy said as she cautiously peeked into the open office floor before passing it. “Can I get you something?”
Pretend I have every right to be wandering around, she decided upon seeing his helpful smile. “Tea, but I’ll get it myself. Do you want any?” she said, and Randy shook his head, looking back down at his paperwork. “Hey, maybe you could tell me,” she added. “Do you know if they keep records of what person goes to what holding facility?”
“They sure do.” Randy stood and went to the next desk over. No one was at it, but it was covered with stacks of paper. “Gordon is supposed to be filing them, but he went downstairs to catch a few Z’s. Who are you looking for? The guy you were caught with?”
“Yes—” she said, her voice cutting off at a sudden shout coming from the break room.
“What now?” Randy said darkly, then added, “I’ll be right back,” as he wove between the desks to the back.
Before he’d even left the room, she was in the stacks of paper, shuffling down and looking for yesterday’s acquisitions. “Dr. Daniel Plank,” she said in satisfaction when she found him, noting he’d gone to the Chicago Stadium. It was a few miles away. She’d need transportation.
“Get off me!” Daniel’s voice filtered mutedly into the large common office. “You have no right to do this. Where’s Trisk? I won’t let you do this!”
Or I could just go down the hall, she thought dryly, her impetus to run faltering at a familiar clatter of wings. “Orchid!” she exclaimed, then her expression tightened. If Orchid was here, Kal wouldn’t be far behind.
“Hide me!” the tiny woman said, and Trisk started, shocked when Orchid tucked in between Trisk’s damp hair and her neck. “Daniel’s here to rescue you. You have to help him. Saladan and Kal are here!”
Trisk hesitated, then bolted in the direction Randy had gone. “And I should trust you because?” she said as she ran.
“Because Kal’s a slug turd,” Orchid said bitterly. “Who do you think helped Daniel escape out of that human pen? Me. I did. Go faster! I can’t fight Saladan. He throws magic around like Halloween candy. They’re going to kill him, Trisk!” Trisk ran faster, tapping a line as she went. “They want to hang the plague around his neck and let him sink, and they’d rather he be dead when they do it so he can’t complain.”
“Not if I can help it,” Trisk said, almost sliding past the open door to the break room. Daniel was on the floor, Randy holding him down with a knee on his back. Kal and Saladan stood over them, the older man looking as if he’d eaten something sour.
“I’m not letting you blame her for this, you bloodsucking hypocrites!” Daniel shouted.
“Then agree to take responsibility,” Saladan said as he leaned over the downed man.
“You son of a bitch,” she whispered, not sure which angered her more, Saladan’s domineering attitude or Kal’s satisfied smile as they used her to blackmail Daniel.
Her hands tingled with the force of the line running through her, hot and demanding to be loosed. Kal looked up, a flicker of fear in his eyes. “Trisk,” Daniel whispered when he saw her. Pox scarred his neck and face, and something in her shifted sideways with a painful realization. He’d come to find her, risked everything—and he was going to die.
But then Saladan pulled on the same ley line she was, and she dropped, four years of demon studies demanding it.
“Hey!” Orchid shrilled in protest, darting to the overhead light. Trisk rolled, instinct and an utter lack of trust saving her as Saladan’s evil-looking ball of purple-tinted energy hit the floor where she’d been, spreading out in a sparkling hiss that smelled of cut chives.
“What the hell?” Randy said, knee still on Daniel’s back, and Trisk stared at Kal, betrayal thick in her. Her eyes narrowed, and that fast, her world changed.
He had callously hurt someone she cared about, and that she would not forgive.
“Look out!” Kal shouted, lurching behind the tables when Trisk rolled to her feet, a glowing ball of energy already tingling her palms.