Night Rune (Prof Croft Book 8) by Brad Magnarella (best e reader for academics txt) 📕

around too. Even Dropsy rotated from side to side, checking out the scene for herself. In the next moment, Bree-yark hollered and threw up an arm as something zipped past our heads. Recoiling, I drew my cane into sword and staff. But I quickly recognized our company.

“They’re allies,” I told Bree-yark, slotting my sword again. “Pixies.”

As I tracked the peach and meadow-green contrails, fresh hope stirred inside me. Pip and Twerk had given us a major assist in the time catch, handling the British warships. Were they here to help again? They continued past a line of storefronts and at a corner townhouse undergoing major renovations, veered through a gap in a boarded-over window. What were they doing?

“This way, Mr. Croft,” their small voices trailed after them.

I broke into a run, weaving through the pedestrian traffic.

“Wait,” Bree-yark called, hustling after me. “You don’t think it’s a trap?”

“If the fae wanted to hurt us, they would have already,” I called back. Plus, I’d picked up an urgency in the twins’ voices. They had something to tell me. I pulled up at a construction fence surrounding the townhouse. A padlock secured the gate, but there didn’t appear to be any workers around.

“Quickly, Mr. Croft,” Pip cried from inside.

“Mind standing guard here?” I asked Bree-yark as he scuffed to a stop beside me.

“Sure,” he said. “Pixies get on my nerves anyway.” Dropsy rocked forward and back as if in agreement.

I wasted no time snapping the padlock with an invocation. Removing lock and chain, I passed through the gate and jogged up the steps. At the front door, I smashed the bolt with another spoken Word. Once inside, I held out my sword and called light to my cane. The glow from the opal showed a wooden floor that had been half pried up. I stepped around tools and piles of construction material.

“Pip?” I called. “Twerk?”

“In here,” one of them replied in a dismal voice.

They’d flown into a windowless room in the back of the townhouse. I arrived to find the small cherubic beings holding one another in a hover, faces puffy from crying. Bits of their colorful light spilled beneath them like tears.

“What in the hell’s going on?” I demanded.

They clung to one another more tightly and began sobbing. The butterfly-like wings keeping the twin pixies aloft stirred their enchanting autumn hair and gossamer garments, but their faces looked miserable. I felt bad now for snapping at them, but my tolerance for strangeness was just about spent.

Remembering the decorum for dealing with pixies, I cleared my throat. “What I meant to say is, what troubles you, fair ones? Why hast thou summoned me here?”

“Something’s happened,” Pip gasped.

“Something horrible, Mr. Croft,” Twerk put in between sobs.

Then just spit it out, I thought in aggravation.

“Is this to do with Caroline?” I pressed gently.

Pip sniffled and wiped her eyes with her little arm. “It’s to do with everything.”

“Everything, Mr. Croft,” Twerk echoed.

At least they were pulling themselves together, but Jesus. “Perhaps you might start your tale at the beginning?” I suggested.

The pixies looked at one another. Please don’t break into song, I thought.

“Once all was bright in our kingdom home,” they harmonized in sad voices. “But evil stirred in the coming gloam.”

I sighed. They’d broken into song.

“He slipped among us, wicked and dark. Casting fear and woe unto noble hearts.”

It sounded like a demon had gotten into the upper echelon, dammit. “Who has he claimed?” I pressed.

“Aye, they’ve fallen under shadow deep,” the pair continued. “The—”

With small popping sounds, the pixies disappeared in bursts of peach and meadow-green dust. I looked all around.

“Pip!” I cried. “Twerk!”

I listened for them, but all I could hear was the sound of traffic outside. I called their names repeatedly as I searched the rest of the house. I even cast a reveal spell. But the two had simply vanished.

“What was that all about?” Bree-yark asked when I rejoined him outside the fence.

“Sounds like a demon infiltrated the fae kingdom connected to the townhouse. Which would explain Osgood’s sudden reversal as well as Caroline’s disappearance. The pixies were about to tell me more, but they disappeared.” I peered back at the townhouse as if I might catch their colorful contrails or hear their voices. I could only hope they’d been translocated and not popped from existence.

“Probably Osgood’s doing,” Bree-yark grumbled.

“Actually, I think he’s the one who let them out.”

As Bree-yark raised his brows in surprise, I remembered the regretful look the fae butler had slipped me.

“I don’t know Osgood’s history,” I said. “He’s at least as powerful as the nobility he serves, but he’s dutybound to obey them for some reason. Caroline ordered him to help us the last time. Malphas must have intervened, possessed someone high up in the kingdom. Now Osgood can’t help us, and Caroline’s missing.” I suspected that the only reason I’d managed to return from the time catch was thanks to my backchannel to 1 Police Plaza. “So yeah, I think Osgood released the pixies to tip me off to what was happening. Until someone in the kingdom shut them up.”

Bree-yark nodded grimly. “So now what?”

“Other than having to worry about a demon-possessed fae?” I muttered.

I was dragging a hand across my jaw stubble when the savage prickling from earlier returned. The watcher was back, and with the warning came a whiff of something deathlike. He or she was closer this time.

“You all right?” Bree-yark asked.

I staggered as the surrounding buildings began to warp and bend. And now the whole block was tilting. Or so it seemed. The pedestrians weren’t reacting. And except for the troubled look on Bree-yark’s face, neither was he.

“We need to get out of here,” I said, worried now I was going to lose my breakfast.

Bree-yark wheeled toward the street and released a sharp whistle. When a cab stopped, the goblin opened the door and helped me in. He then joined me on the other side, cradling Dropsy on his lap.

“Just drive,” I told the cabby in a shaky voice.

By the time