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

his grandfather. That was years before I would learn Grandpa had been a centuries-old magic-user.

Splashed across the poster’s bottom:

BARNUM’S AMERICAN MUSEUM

NEW YORK CITY

“You recovered her,” Caroline observed when we returned to Five Points.

“Not without a little negotiating,” Bree-yark said, stowing Dropsy in his pouch and sliding me a dubious look.

I filled Caroline in on our meeting with Hellcat Maggie, finishing with our agreement. “My grandfather was a powerful magic-user. If he’s at Barnum’s, he could be an asset like he was the last time.”

That said, I wasn’t relishing the idea of having to prove who I was to him all over again. I’d succeeded with the 1776 version, but we were in a different period now. This Grandpa would have no knowledge of the other encounter.

“Worst case,” I said, “he’s not there, and we recover the locket. Then Maggie sets up a meeting with this ‘traveler,’ who could be an Upholder.”

“If we can trust her,” Bree-yark added.

Caroline’s eyes diffused, and I felt her studying the vampiric agreement that obligated me. I took the opportunity to push power into the druidic symbol on my hand. Still no connection with the other Upholders, though.

“She’ll keep her word,” Caroline decided. “But we shouldn’t spend too much time here. I’ve been examining the bonds holding this time catch together, and they aren’t particularly strong. They could begin to unravel at any moment.”

“The museum’s nearby,” I said. “Broadway and Ann.”

We set out at a fast walk. Within a couple blocks, the buildings along the street sturdied and straightened, flower boxes appearing in windows. The Broadway that opened out ahead was a much different street than its 1776 counterpart. Paved now and enclosed by crowds of tall buildings, it also conducted multiple times the traffic. Horse-drawn carts and buses clattered up and down the thoroughfare while streams of people crossed back and forth and poured around shouting sidewalk vendors. As we rounded the corner, Bree-yark flinched from several paperboys cawing the latest headlines.

“Kind of loud,” he grumbled.

I slowed to check the date on one of the papers: October 13, 1861. Caroline had been really damned close. All around us, men wore vintage business suits and hats, many of them stovepipes like Abe Lincoln’s, while the women’s elaborate dresses spoke to a higher society than the neighborhood we’d left. I noticed Caroline had subtly altered our glamours to appear more middle class.

Walking south along the sidewalk, we passed the former sugar house where a Stranger had held Seay’s friends captive and soon came upon the recently completed City Hall, an undeveloped park when I’d passed it in 1776. The ley energy was disorganized in this time catch too, but with each block south it seemed to be gathering strength. A plus if I needed to cast. At the southern end of City Hall Park, we stopped at a busy road.

“There it is,” Caroline said.

Opposite us, on the corner of Ann Street, stood an enormous five-story building. Constructed at angles to conform to the wide corner, the white-washed edifice looked like the entrance to a baseball stadium. A line of world flags flapped from the building’s top like pennants, a large American flag presiding over them. And painted above the windows on the third floor in giant circus font:

BARNUM’S AMERICAN MUSEUM

“C’mon,” I said.

We hustled across the street, dodging carriages, and joined the back of a line. Placards shouted the admission fee—“Only 25 Cents!”—while posters glued to the wall announced the museum’s various draws, from freakish acts to exotic animals to a brand new mystery attraction guaranteed to “Astonish and Horrify!”

I searched for Asmus the Great posters, but couldn’t see any.

On an outdoor balcony right above us, a brass band struck up a lively tune, pulling in people from across the street to watch and listen. The clash of noises was clearly irritating Bree-yark’s sensitive ears, but he gave a grudging nod.

“Man knows how to sell tickets,” he muttered.

At the front of the line, I exchanged a glamoured one-dollar coin for four museum tickets, and we were ushered into a massive entrance hall full of people, their faces glowing with anticipation. Signs pointed to a grand staircase, the conveyance to the main attractions. We moved off to one side to get our bearings. From what I could gather, exhibits were on the second and third floors, while a performance hall occupied the fourth, shows on the half hour. An usher called out that the next would begin in ten minutes.

“Barnum’s office is in back,” Caroline said, nodding past the staircase. “To save time, I can take Arnaud and check it out if you and Bree-yark want to search the upper floors for your grandfather.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “Just be careful. The locket is warded.”

Caroline flashed a smile. “I’ll only be looking, not touching.”

As Bree-yark and I took the stairs up, I watched her over the polished balustrade. She had glamoured the demon-vampire to look like a feeble man who needed escorting. Thanks to his restraints, that’s about what he’d become. But he was still Arnaud Thorne, which meant dangerous. I’d promised Vega I wouldn’t forget that.

“Something going on with you two?” Bree-yark asked.

I snapped my head around. “Huh?”

“The looks she keeps giving you.”

“Who, Caroline? What looks?”

“You know, the sparkly-eyed kind.”

“Not possible. She bargained away her feelings for me two years ago.”

Bree-yark grunted skeptically. “Did someone bother telling her feelings that?”

I had noticed the looks, of course, but it disturbed me that Bree-yark had as well.

“Look, nothing’s going on,” I said testily. “She’s married, and I’m with Vega.”

“Yeah, well, in case you haven’t noticed, things aren’t going so well with Mr. Fae Prince. He’s hunting her with giant birds.”

“Which is exactly why she’s here. To put everything right with her kingdom.”

“I still don’t trust her.”

“Well, there’s nothing I can do about that,” I muttered, not wanting to rehash the debate.

We arrived on the second floor to find display cases stretched end to end. As we made our way to another staircase across the room, I glanced around. The objects ranged