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

“For someone who had his memories scrubbed, you seem to be recalling an awful lot.”

“Ah, yes. I heard your fae friend’s claim.” Arnaud worked his lips into a tired smile. “Nothing was ‘scrubbed,’ Mr. Croft. There wasn’t time. One moment we were in the alley, and in the next we were in your cell.”

I gave a harsh laugh. “And there it is.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Your ploy,” I said. “Get Everson to doubt his teammates.”

“Have I lied to you thus far, Mr. Croft? I said your friends were in the time catch, and they are. I said I was the only one who could return you here, and I did. I warned you that the time catch was unstable, and it is.” He ticked each one off his fingers. “Now I’m telling you that my memories remain intact. Also true.”

I still didn’t believe him. There was no reason for Caroline to lie about that.

“Had I been the demon planted in Faerie,” he went on, “I would have studied those in power for the weakest link. Caroline is only a half-fae, is she not?”

Instead of answering the question, he left it dangling. I’d pondered the question of how a lower demon had been able to subjugate a fae as powerful as Angelus. But what if he hadn’t subjugated Angelus? What if Angelus’s warning about Caroline not being herself was the truth?

The demon-vampire’s eyes watched mine. “Allow me a little more freedom,” he said, “and I can tell you definitively.”

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. In fact…” I retrieved the muzzle from where I’d set it.

“You’d be foolish to underestimate Malphas,” he said.

“More foolish than underestimating you?”

“I’m much more valuable than you realize.”

When my magic nodded, I paused. It was agreeing with that?

As much to shut up my magic as Arnaud, I placed the muzzle over his jaw and cinched it tightly.

“Is everything all right?” Caroline asked as I entered the larger cave, gripping Arnaud by his emaciated arm.

“Yeah, it was touch and go there for a minute, but he has enough energy coming in now to sustain him. Still far from full strength, though.”

When Arnaud’s legs buckled, I sat him against a wall. He closed his eyes heavily. As Caroline looked over the demon-vampire, I examined her aura again for any sign she’d been compromised. Nothing jumped out, but there were still enchantments swirling around her that could be hiding anything.

Yeah, like the revenant hunting you, I shot back.

I hated that I’d let Arnaud drive in that sliver of doubt, but it was there and nagging the hell out of me. Arnaud could well have had his memories of 1776 wiped and was lying about what he remembered, having pieced together the info from watching and listening to us. But his point about the demon in Faerie…

“Should I restore the remaining enchantments?” Caroline asked.

My gaze jumped back to hers. “Ah, not quite yet. I want to get a decent charge into him first. Avoid a repeat of what happened earlier.”

“And when we can ill afford it,” she agreed.

I turned toward the cave entrance. Outside, a wintry dusk was gathering over the river. I’d spent longer with Arnaud than I realized. When fae energy warmed my shoulder, I realized Caroline had come up beside me.

“Are you sure everything’s all right?” she asked softly.

“Yeah, just thinking about Seay. Any word from the half-fae?”

“Not yet,” she said.

Was this Caroline, or was the demon just this good?

“Hey, Everson,” Bree-yark called. “C’mon over and try this fish Gorgantha caught.”

He and Malachi were sitting on opposite sides of the fire, skewers hung with thick filets. Dropsy, done exploring for the time being, sat between them. Gorgantha emerged from the river a moment later, a striped bass hanging from one of her talons. “Plenty more where this came from,” she said.

The cooking fish smelled amazing, but my stomach was an anxious fist. “I’ll be over in a few,” I said, then turned back to Caroline. “Hey, do you mind if I ask you something?”

I could either go back and forth in my mind about whether to trust her, or I could ask her outright if she’d lied about Arnaud’s memories being wiped. In the corner of my eye, I saw the demon-vampire watching us.

“Sure,” Caroline said, eyebrows raised.

A violent tremor shook the cavern, sending me into a stumble away from her. When I fell, cold water gushed around my hands and knees and surged toward the fire. With a shout, Bree-yark grabbed Dropsy and jumped up. Malachi went into a rambling fit and scurried back, hair flying every which way.

I peered toward the cave entrance at what was happening outside. But it made zero sense. The snow was falling horizontally, and the river seemed to be standing on end, the water along the shoreline crashing down. The cavern around us began to grind now. Stones cracked and plunged into the water.

“What in the hell?” I demanded.

I thrust my cane up, prepared to cast a shield invocation. And then, just like that, everything was back to normal. The water flowed back out, chased by smoke from the extinguished fire, and rejoined the Hudson. Caroline stepped from the wall where she’d braced herself and helped me to my feet.

“The time catch is failing,” she said.

Malachi splashed up beside us. “Just here, just here it is. This one isn’t very stable, never was, never was. We have to get to the next one.”

“What about Seay and the others?” Gorgantha asked. She had grabbed Arnaud to keep him from being washed away, and now she dragged him by the arm as she joined us too. Bree-yark hustled up behind them.

“Seay will come, Seay will come,” Malachi insisted.

He waved his hands to get us moving toward the entrance, but the others turned to me for direction. I flinched at what I thought was another quake, but it was just my body trembling from the wet and cold.

“Let’s head back up to the road,”