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

“How long will that be?” With a host of fae on their way to head us off and a revenant tracking me, I was anxious to be moving again.

“As long as it requires.” She smiled faintly. “How’s that for a fae answer?”

“Not bad,” I allowed, looking around the room. We’d left Arnaud in a shadowy corner, and as my gaze moved past him, the skin around his eyes seemed a little too tense for someone entranced. But by the time I took a second look, his eyes had assumed their prior slackness. A trick of the light?

“How do Arnaud’s restraints seem to you?” I asked Caroline.

I kept a close watch on him as she walked up beside me. “Intact. Why?”

They felt intact to me too, humming with the warding energy that negated his powers and cut him off from the infernal realm. Arnaud’s face continued to exhibit the sunken look that had begun to concern me in the restaurant. When I snapped my fingers in front of his eyes, they remained empty globes.

“Hey, guys?” Gorgantha called from the doorway. “Bree-yark’s signaling.”

I turned from Arnaud. Past the mermaid’s body, Dropsy’s light was pulsing an emergency sequence from the road.

Shit, I thought, pulling my cane into sword and staff.

“Mind staying here with these two?” I asked Caroline, gesturing to Arnaud and Malachi. Now that she was drawing from a limited reservoir, we needed to preserve every ounce of fae energy for the essential work: glamours, Arnaud, and restoring the Upholders—not to mention getting us back to the present.

“Go carefully,” Caroline said.

As I hurried from the building, Gorgantha fell into step behind me. I gathered the weak currents of ley energy and firmed the air into a shield, though I didn’t know how much protection it would actually afford us.

We were halfway across the yard when Bree-yark backed into our view. He had hooked Dropsy to his belt and drawn his goblin blade. When he saw us approaching, he hustled into the yard to meet us.

“We’ve got a mob coming,” he said. “And they don’t look right.”

I ventured past him to the road. Large crowds were coming down Bloomingdale Road from both directions, torches blazing above a sea of heads. But unlike the human stampede I’d encountered in Five Points, these crowds moved in utter silence. The only sounds were the march of boots and crackling of torch fire. Yeah, eerie as fuck. I opened my wizard’s senses and swore some more.

“What is it?” Gorgantha asked when I returned.

“Remember the soulless soldiers from 1776?”

“That some kind of tongue twister?” Bree-yark grunted.

“Yeah, I remember,” Gorgantha said, massaging a fist. “Cracked a knuckle on one of their noggins.”

“Well, we’ve got two soulless mobs coming our way.” I turned to include Caroline, whose glamoured figure split the light from the outbuilding. “It means there’s a demon active in this time catch. One of Malphas’s, judging from the interest in us. We’ve got about a minute to get Malachi out of here.”

“I’ll grab him,” Gorgantha said.

Caroline emerged with Arnaud. “How many?” she asked.

“Fifty?” I guessed. “Too many to take on.” Especially with ley energy scant and fae power at a premium.

“We could squeeze out through there.” Bree-yark pointed to a space between the out building and tavern where some old beer barrels had been stacked. “That’ll take us east, away from the mobs.”

I nodded quickly as Gorgantha emerged with Malachi cradled in one of her massive arms. She’d hung his shoes around his neck by the laces and tucked his Bible into the waist of his loose pants. I took lead, shoving the barrels aside. Behind the wall of the tavern, drunken laughter sounded. I was almost through when I spotted a third mob coming from the direction of Central Park.

How many frigging souls did he claim?

Signaling for everyone to stay low, I led the way around the back of the outbuilding and then cut northeast through a field of chicken coops. We were too exposed in this part of the city. Central Park would give us cover. But the southbound mob wasn’t fooled. The glow of their torches veered from the road to head us off.

“I can glamour us,” Caroline whispered from behind me.

“Let me try something first. You, Malachi, and Arnaud down here, against the coop.” As Gorgantha set Malachi on the ground, I turned to Bree-yark and signaled for him to pass Dropsy to Caroline. He unclasped the lantern from his belt and handed her over. Caroline nodded, catching on to what I was planning.

“All right, everyone in close,” I whispered.

Bree-yark, Gorgantha, and I arranged our bodies into a shield around the other three. Caroline’s free hand was gripping Arnaud’s far shoulder, holding him to her side. I searched the demon-vampire’s eyes for any signs of cognizance, but they remained sunken and empty.

Caroline whispered to the lantern, and Dropsy’s light pulled in, wrapping herself in a glamour of invisibility. The glamour swelled to encompass Caroline, Malachi, and Arnaud, but only caught the edges of the rest of us.

Knowing that might happen, I whispered, “Oscurare.”

The shadow of the coop deepened around us until we were as concealed as we were going to be.

The southbound mob arrived moments later. They spread throughout the plot in a silent mass, torch light reflected in their hollow eyes. Judging by their appearances, the demon had selected them from the poor streets and shipyards—men and women who wouldn’t be missed. As the mob neared, torches warped the shadows around the others coops, but the one concealing us remained an immovable block.

The westbound mob joined them, several members wandering within feet of us. I gripped my sword, ready to activate the banishment rune, but the lantern’s glamour coupled with my low-level invocation were doing their jobs.

Soon, both mobs were beyond us. I waited to be sure no stragglers were coming up behind them before releasing the invocation with a shaky breath. As the coop’s shadow lightened around us, the lantern’s glamour contracted back inside the