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

we reached Fifth Avenue and had gotten some distance from whatever I’d felt on the street, the prickling sensation faded and the world around me began to steady. But I still felt strung out and queasy.

Bree-yark shifted in his seat. “Hey, uh, I’m thinking I should see Mae before she starts getting worried.”

I nodded. Her place wasn’t far, and I could use some space to catch my breath. While Bree-yark gave the driver the address, I peered out the window. Had I just met the possessed fae?

I didn’t know, but this entity was powerful.

And deadly.

7

“Everson!” Mae exclaimed. “What a pleasant surprise!”

The elderly woman threw her thick arms around my neck and rocked me back and forth. I’d had second thoughts about coming here—there was so much to process, to figure out—but her embrace had a grounding effect that I hadn’t known I’d needed. And her permed white hair, smelling like a grandmother’s love, drove out the last vestiges of the death stench from earlier.

“How are you, Mae?” I asked as we separated.

“Oh, not bad for a broad on the rocky side of seventy.” She took me by the shoulders and squinted at me from behind her thick glasses. “But goodness, you look as pale as a ghost. Come in and let me get something warm in you.”

Mae had decluttered the place considerably since my first visit here. Though a few boxes remained in the main hallway, I was able to step past her instead of having to edge through sideways. Behind me, I heard Mae and Bree-yark exchange tender greetings and kisses on the cheeks. Her drive to organize probably had a little to do with being courted after spending so many years alone.

“Go on and have a seat,” Mae called to me.

I followed a lingering aroma of baked bread into her kitchen. Still recovering from my proximity to whatever had been stalking me, I sat heavily at the table. I’d been thinking demon or fae, especially after what the pixies had told me, but now I considered the whiff of death I’d caught before climbing into the cab. The scent hadn’t been purely olfactory, had it? No, it had been tinged with magic.

Necromancy?

I nearly shouted when something climbed my dangling coattail and landed on my lap. A lobster-like creature stared at me above a mouth of writhing tendrils, thick claws held aloft. Mae’s pet.

“Hey, Buster,” I said, wiggling a finger at him.

Buster responded by snapping a claw at my face.

“What’s the matter with you?” Mae said, thumping Buster’s tail as she tottered past. “Everson’s a friend.”

Buster dropped his claws in a sulk and bowed his head. As I went to scratch him, he spotted Bree-yark. With a chirp, he leapt to the floor, leaving me hanging, and circled the goblin’s steel-toed boots like an eager puppy. Dropsy the lantern craned her glass face this way and that to get a better look at him.

“So Bree-yark tells me you’re in the middle of another case,” Mae said from the coffee maker.

“Yeah, and it’s a doozy.”

I gave her a rundown of events since we’d last worked together to rescue the efreet from the demons. As incredible as it seemed, that had only been a few days ago. So much had happened since, and I had to condense the account considerably. Even so, by the time I finished, the coffee had percolated and Mae was setting three steaming mugs around the table. She took a seat opposite me, beside Bree-yark. He’d placed Dropsy on the floor, where she and Buster were making cautious stabs at play.

“And now you need to get back to this time catch to help your friends,” Mae said.

I nodded and took a draw of hot coffee. Though not my preferred roast, it felt comforting going down. “Just the small matter of getting back there.”

Mae tsked. “Lord, I wish I could help, but that’s not my wheelhouse. And you’ve exhausted all your contacts?”

“Just about.”

“Maybe Caroline will get your letter,” Bree-yark offered.

“Maybe,” I echoed, but doubted it.

“Who does that leave?” Mae asked.

I hesitated a beat before answering. “That demon I told you about? Arnaud? He claims he can get me in. He’s going to want to deal, though, and I can’t do that.” It felt wrong telling them what I’d withheld from Vega, but at the same time it was a big relief. “And not only because he’s a demon.”

“That would seem reason enough,” Mae remarked.

“Agreed, but Vega would flip out if she even knew I was considering it. He’s a sadistic killer. He abducted her son a couple years ago, and when I met with Arnaud this morning, he made insinuations against our little girl.”

Mae’s head tilted. “Little girl?”

“Oh, yeah. We’re expecting.”

Her eyebrows folded down. “And you didn’t mention it till now?”

When she glanced over at Bree-yark, he said, “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’m hearing it for the first time too.”

“We haven’t announced it yet,” I said. “We just got the confirmation a couple days ago.”

Mae stood and opened her arms. “Well, come here then.” I went over and accepted her second enthusiastic hug of the morning. “Congratulations, Everson Croft. You’re going to be a wonderful father to that child.”

“Agreed,” Bree-yark said.

“Thanks, you two. I hope so.”

As Mae released me, she showed her stern face. “But talk to that woman about this demon of yours. She may not want to hear it, but she’s got a good head on her shoulders and she’s the mother of your child. You’ll need to figure it out together.”

I nodded even though I wasn’t quite ready to take the Arnaud step.

“And Everson?” she said. “I know this is the old-fashioned in me talking, but I hope you intend on making an honest woman of her.” She wriggled the band on her fourth finger with her thumb.

“That’s the plan.”

“Good.”

“Of course she has to say yes first.”

Mae swatted my shoulder. “As if she wouldn’t. Well, go on and have a seat. Your coffee’s getting cold.”

“Actually, I should probably get a move