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

that her session with Caroline had also healed her burn wounds. “So you remember what happened?” I asked. “After I left you guys on Governor’s Island?”

Gorgantha blew out her breath. “More than I care to.”

“Just take your time,” I told her, leaning against the windowsill.

She began slowly, as if revisiting the memories with a flashlight. “Took maybe two, three hours till everyone could walk that night. Seay and her friends kept us hid with glamours, but most of the soldiers were still busy on the river, trying to figure out what happened to the big ships.” She was referring to the warships whose crews Pip and Twerk had enchanted. “We got to the pickup spot at the fort, or where we thought it was, and we waited. Nothing happened. We tried a few other places, but same story every time. No ride home.”

“A demon compromised the fae,” I said, glancing over at Caroline. “That’s why they didn’t bring you back.”

I cursed myself again for not marking the place where we’d arrived. But something told me that if the fae hadn’t used that loophole to deny the Upholders’ return, they would have come up with something else.

“So Osgood left us hanging?” Gorgantha asked.

“He was bound by orders,” Caroline explained. “Had it been up to him, he would have returned you.”

“That’s why Caroline’s here,” I said.

Gorgantha made a sound of semi-understanding and began walking the room in measured paces, her tail twitching. “It was gonna get light soon,” she continued, “and Seay’s gang was running low on glamour juice, so we returned to the boats, rowed over to Brooklyn. We found a wooded place to duck out. The druids used plant magic to make these wicked screens for us and the boats. By daylight, the warships had started moving again. Soldiers were rowing ashore, trying to find whoever had ganked the prison ship. The original plan was for us to stay put that day, try the fort again at night.”

“But not everyone agreed,” I said, reading her grim expression.

“No,” she confirmed. “Jordan wanted to go somewhere safer. He talked about crossing back over to Manhattan that night and laying low at your grandpa’s farm, waiting for things to settle down. He even mentioned joining his druid circle up in the forest. The two who’d helped us had flown back by then.”

“Lorcan and Failend,” I said, remembering their names. “Jordan was probably just worried for his wife.” Delphine’s abduction at the hands of the Stranger had driven him into an obsessive search, often involving recklessness. We’d had more than a few head-butting sessions. But after recovering her and the other druids, it sounded like Jordan had switched to an ultra-cautious mode to ensure their safe return.

“Maybe, but Seay wasn’t having it,” Gorgantha went on. “She wanted to stick to the original plan. They argued about it half the day. The rest of us stepped in, finally getting Jordan to agree to try the fort again that night. So that’s what we did. But British backup had been arriving all day. That dirt fort looked like an anthill. The druids and half-fae had to push their magic to the max to keep all of us hid. We tried a few spots, like the night before, but nothing took.”

I snuck a look at Caroline. She was listening with an elbow propped on her crossed arm, chin resting on curved fingers. Whatever guilt she may have felt was overshadowed by an expression of concern.

“Finally, we rowed back to our spot in Brooklyn. And if I thought the arguing was bad the day before…” Gorgantha shook her head. “We could all agree the fort was a bust, but Jordan was set now on going to his druid circle, seeing if they could muster the kind of magic needed to return us. But Seay wanted to keep closer to home base. In case you came back for us.” She looked over at me. “The two went at it like a pair of bullheads, their groups lining up behind them. I tried to play referee, but without Malachi, we—”

“What happened to Malachi?” I interrupted.

“The day before, he was fine. Fact, he was the one who helped bring about the truce. But that day, he was acting all janky. Then he started saying things that didn’t make sense. How we couldn’t stay, but we couldn’t go either.”

“Kind of like the song,” Bree-yark remarked.

I shook my head while wondering if Malachi had had another one of his premonitions.

“Thing is,” Gorgantha continued, “everyone was so busy scrapping with each other to notice that Malachi was coming unglued. At one point, he just up and disappeared. I found him off by himself, sitting under a tree. When I tried to bring him back to the group he started in about worlds colliding.”

Caroline’s and my eyes met.

“What happened next?” I pressed.

“Well, we hadn’t eaten in more than a day, so I offered to go into the city, fill up one of the boats. Figured some food might get everyone to chill. Also figured Jordan wouldn’t run off till I got back. So wearing Seay’s glamour, I set out. I stayed in the water for the trip, swimming behind the boat in case I needed to bail. I was maybe halfway across the river when a cannon went off. I didn’t know who it was aimed at, so I dove under and waited a few minutes before coming back up.”

She stopped pacing to give us all a look that said, You’re not gonna believe this next part.

“When I did come up, it was nighttime. Not only that, the city was all trees, right to the shore. Not a building or boat anywhere. And Everson, there were things swimming in that river I’d never seen before. When this huge sucker came at me, it was haul butt time. Whatever the thing was, it had flippers and crazy big teeth.”

It sounded like she’d crossed the barrier into the prehistoric period.

“I was too far from any shore,” she