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

wheel as we motored up Eighth Avenue. I would have preferred to have had this conversation in private—I’d known Vega wasn’t going to like my plan—but with time being a factor, calling her on the way to the goblin tunnels was the best solution.

She sighed.

“Look, I started with my most trustworthy contact and moved down the list,” I said. “Claudius couldn’t get me there, and neither could Gretchen. The fae, well, I told you what happened. This is where we are.”

“Crusspatch,” she said skeptically.

“Yeah, I don’t like the name either. It sounds like a skin condition. But I’m not going alone,” I reminded her. She’d worked with Bree-yark just a few days earlier, the two fighting side-by-side in the West Nyack rock quarry to repel a host of demons.

“And Bree-yark knows the Fae Wilds?” she asked. “He knows how to get where you’re going?”

The goblin’s ears perked up at mention of his name, and he gave me a thumbs-up.

“Yes,” I said. “And I have everything I need for the journey. Journeys plural, if Crusspatch can get me into the time catch.” I looked past my lumpy coat pockets to the rucksack between my feet. The only thing we were light on was food. With little time to prep, I’d packed the gingersnaps and Mae’s coffee—refreshments, basically, until we could find something more substantial.

“When can I expect you back?”

“With the time differentials, it shouldn’t be any later than tonight.”

“How about an actual time, so I can know when to start worrying?”

I consulted my watch—it was still before noon—and then did a little math. “How about seven o’clock this evening? If for some reason I don’t show up by then, call Claudius and Gretchen.”

“The two people who couldn’t help you?”

“Couldn’t help me into the time catch,” I stressed. “If we run into trouble in the Fae Wilds, one or both can reach me there.” I was putting out a lot more confidence than I was feeling. I had no idea if Gretchen was helping me at the moment, and Claudius didn’t even know what city he was in, much less the year.

“But it shouldn’t come to that,” I added.

“All right,” Vega said, her voice softening as though to suggest she was through being the concerned girlfriend. “I hate to bring this up, but have you considered what you’ll do if Crusspatch can’t help you?”

I heard Mae’s voice: Talk to that woman about this demon of yours. You need to work it out together. But having already passed Penn Station blocks ago, that conversation wasn’t going to fit into the few minutes between here and Central Park. Of course, the goal was never needing to have that conversation in the first place.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said. “Any updates on Arnaud?”

“I’m looking at him right now.” I pictured her staring at the monitor for his holding cell, the grainy light reflecting from her troubled eyes. “He’s just sitting there, legs crossed like he’s expecting a visitor.”

Yeah, me, I thought sickly.

“And he’s got this stupid smile on his face. Are you sure he’s getting weaker?”

“He is. He just hides it well.”

“He does look thinner,” she allowed.

“Have the Sup Squad keep an eye on him.”

“Oh, that’s not changing until he’s dead and gone.”

“You have your coin pendant on, right?” I asked, partly to change the subject.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Well, when I left your office earlier today, I had the feeling I was being watched. It happened again on the Upper East Side, and Tabitha said someone came to my door earlier.”

“Any idea who?”

“No, but there could be magic involved.” I left out the part about the death smell—I still didn’t know what it meant—but I pictured Mae Johnson frowning her disapproval. “Is Tony at the apartment?”

“Yeah, with Camilla.”

“Good, have them stay there. It could be nothing, but the wards will keep them safe. I just want to be extra careful until I know what’s going on.”

“I appreciate that.”

At Columbus Circle, Bree-yark turned right and pressed the hand accelerator.

“We’re almost there,” I told Vega. “I’ll see you tonight, if not sooner.”

“Try to make it sooner.”

“Are you going to be all right?”

“Do I have a choice?” She sighed. “I’ll be better when I know you’re safe.”

“I have three very good reasons to stay that way,” I said, referring to her, Tony, and our pea-sized girl.

I shouted as Bree-yark swerved off road to avoid a line of cement traffic barriers. The Hummer caught air and landed in a series of violent jounces before joining up with a drive that led into the park. A set of wooden barricades greeted us. The Hummer’s steel bumper smashed through them, sending planks clattering over the rooftop.

“What’s that racket?” Vega asked.

“Um, nothing the city can’t replace.”

“All right,” she said thinly. “I love you.”

“Love you too. Give your tummy a pat for me.”

She snorted a laugh. “Will do.”

I nearly put the phone back in my coat, but the device couldn’t make the journey to Faerie. As I placed it in the glove compartment along with my watch, the idea of not having an immediate line to Vega punched my heart. Something told me these types of trips away were going to get harder, not easier.

Bree-yark looked over at me. “That seemed to go pretty well. I never would’ve been able to have that kind of talk with Gretchen. No, siree.” He said it as though still trying to convince himself that leaving her had been the right move.

“Good thing to remember if you’re ever tempted to backslide.”

“So what do you think Gretchen’s doing right now?” he mused, as if my words had gone in one notched ear and out the other.

“No telling,” I muttered.

Bree-yark rounded a horseshoe-shaped pond and pulled up beside the old skating rink, now a burnt ruins. As he killed the engine, I eyed a familiar pile of boulders. A couple months earlier, I’d picked my way through them and dropped into the goblin tunnels to stop Damien from reconstituting his five-member cult of devotees. Damien had