Shadow Duel (Prof Croft Book 9) by Brad Magnarella (ereader with android .txt) 📕

and why he’d killed Bear. I was fully aware I was on my own here. Hoffman and the NYPD weren’t going to touch someone of Robert Strock’s stature, not without irrefutable proof. And even then they might not.

But there was also the Doideag’s prophecy about failure—wars coming, seas boiling, lands running.

I’d take him down myself if I had to.

I found a set of stairs leading up and took them two at a time. I’d gone halfway when someone called my name: “Everson Croft!”

Vega?

Last we spoke she was going to wait for my call before driving from her brothers’ to pick me up, but it looked like she’d come anyway. And she didn’t sound happy. Her approaching shadow grew in the corridor beneath me. As I descended, I noticed the lights along the stairwell had dimmed from golden to a grayish yellow.

I arrived at the bottom of the stairs a few steps ahead of Vega. She stopped and trained her service pistol at my head.

“Hey, it’s me,” I said, raising my free hand. I noticed she’d changed from her blues to her detective blacks. Had new evidence on the Goldburn case brought her? But what would she even be doing in the field?

“Drop your cane,” she ordered, eyes cold and dark. “Lock your fingers behind your head and face the wall.”

“Seriously?”

“Do it!”

It was my wife’s voice, my wife’s aura—but when my gaze traced her belly, my own stomach lurched.

She wasn’t pregnant.

Four backup officers were approaching from farther down the corridor. I squinted, trying to see if I recognized them, but the corridor was much dimmer than only a few moments before, and the runner had changed.

The shadow present?

I’d theorized that I’d crossed over in my apartment because my wards had preserved the weakness the perp had introduced to the boundary. So how could it be happening here, at the Discovery Society?

“This is the last time I’m going to tell you,” the shadow Vega said.

“Fine, but I have a right to know why you’re detaining me at gunpoint.”

“You’re under arrest for the murder of Bear Goldburn.”

21

“What?”

My stomach clenched with shock, but my mind was still working, struggling to make sense of what was happening. This version of Vega looked hard-bitten, the skin around her eyes heavy and stress-lined. She wore a dull band on her left ring finger, different than the one I’d given her. My heart staggered. Not only was this version of my wife not pregnant with our child, she was married to someone else.

And she’s arresting me for Bear’s murder?

I had a hundred questions, but I wasn’t going to get any answers from her. That would be the judge and public defender’s job—assuming I let her arrest me. And that was a hell no. Between the alt versions of my apartment and Vega, I was getting a good picture of the city in this shadow present, and it made the problems in the actual present look quaint in comparison. Prison would be a murder hole.

“Protezione,” I uttered.

Light burst from the opal end of my cane and gathered around me into a shield of hardened air. Vega responded by compressing her lips and firing. I grunted into a backpedal as the impacts flashed from my shield. I shouldn’t have felt them this much, but the energy in the shadow present was just that—shadowy. No matter how much I channeled into my protection, the energy lacked the same solidity.

At both ends of the corridor, Vega’s officers had taken blocking positions. They shouted a cacophony of surrender commands. Vega’s next shot fractured my protection, the bullet searing my cheek.

“Respingere!” I bellowed.

Force and light burst from the shield, causing officers to throw forearms to faces and knocking Vega onto her back. I fled up the stairs. A minute earlier, I’d been intent on finding Strock. Now I just wanted to get the hell out of the Discovery Society and find refuge.

At the top of the stairs, I drew my sword and spoke into the second rune. Activated by an efreet, it held the power of elemental fire.

“Fuoco!”

The rune glowed like an ember and fire crackled down the blade. I wasted no time bathing the stairwell in flames. Beyond the storm, recovering officers arrived at the bottom of the steps. Vega stood among them, the fire’s fury reflected in eyes that bore into mine. She shouted orders, and the officers split.

They’re surrounding the building.

As sprinklers activated, I turned and accessed the second-story corridor. Knowing the front of the building would be covered from the street, I ran toward the back, passing various rooms.

My body might have been in flight mode, but my mind was still working furiously. Individuals in the actual and shadow realities were supposed to operate independently of one another, meaning the shadow Bear had been murdered too. And the shadow me had either committed the murder or been framed for it.

But how had Vega known to find me in the Discovery Society? Had someone tipped off the police and ensured I’d be in the shadow present when they arrived? And what about Strock? He’d been carrying the potion I found in Bear’s system. How was he involved? Not to mention Sven Roe and the Hermes cult?

The corridor ended at a closed door. I hit it with a force blast and shouldered through the splintered wood into an office. A window overlooked an alley that ran between the back of the row of townhouses and the one behind it.

I stepped back and shouted another invocation. The force shattered the window but failed to blow out the security bars. Extending my staff between two of them, I summoned a shield and strained to grow it out and force the bars apart.

C’mon, dammit.

The aged bars yielded with a pair of surprising snaps and clanged down into the alley. I squeezed through the tight space until I was standing on a window ledge.

As fire alarms began to sound in the club behind me, I peered both ways. No police lights yet, but I knew