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

to answer her door, for starters. And even if she did, she would only stonewall me. I knew from past experience that any help she proffered was on her terms—and in this case, that help could have already begun. Whether it was the vision with Malphas or transporting me here or something else entirely. I tuned into my magic. Was that a nod?

“Everson?” Bree-yark pressed.

“Fine, I won’t go back to Gretchen’s.”

“Thank the gods,” he exhaled as we reached the transverse road.

“There’s a fae townhouse not far from here,” I said. “They’re the ones who delivered me into the time catch. I stopped by this morning, but no one answered. I want to try them again.”

“The fae?” Bree-yark made a wary face.

“It’s either that or…” I thought of Arnaud’s claim that he was my sole ticket to the time catch. “It’s either that or I’m out of options.”

“Mind if I tag along?”

I looked over, surprised. “To the townhouse? I should be fine.”

“It’s not just about getting your back—which I’ve got any time, day or night, I hope you know that. No, it’s that I told Mae I’d stop by this morning, but I need some time to pull myself together. I’m still wound up from my talk with Gretchen. Mae would see something’s wrong and make a fuss, and I don’t like worrying her more than I already have. I mean, she’s letting me keep my stuff over there.”

“She is?”

“Good thing I had the sense to move it out of Gretchen’s, or I’d have never seen it again. I even parked my ride up there. It’s just until I can find my own place,” he added, as if defending Mae’s honor. “We’re not, you know, involved in that way.”

“I get it.”

“Well, not yet.”

I was hurriedly saying that he was welcome to accompany me, when the scorched brush at our backs rustled. I spun, energy charging down my cane. But it was just Gretchen’s lantern peering at us from behind a bush. Realizing it had been spotted, the lantern dimmed. With a sigh, I recalled my magic.

“What’s that thing doing here?” I muttered.

Bree-yark barked a small laugh. “It’s all right, Dropsy. Everson’s a friend.”

“Dropsy? It has a name?”

“She must’ve gotten caught in Gretchen’s translocation spell back there.”

“She?”

Dropsy emerged from the brush, her light growing out again. The lantern took a tentative hop toward us, then another. I peeked around to make sure no one was looking, but we had the road to ourselves.

Bree-yark stooped and lifted the lantern by a brass ring. “Gotcha, you little stinker.”

Dropsy jiggled anxiously until Bree-yark switched her to his far hand, away from me. “Don’t take it personally, Everson,” he said. “Took her a few weeks to warm up to me, and that was only ’cause I let her watch cartoons on the big screen TV. She couldn’t get enough of ’em.”

“Well, can you send her home?”

“Home?” he barked. “That’s forty blocks from here, and she doesn’t know the city.”

I eyed the enchanted item. She looked harmless enough, but not trusting anything from Gretchen’s hoard, I took a closer look through my wizard’s senses. The fae magic that powered her was a thin golden shimmer and not particularly strong. Probably a market knickknack of some kind.

“I just don’t want any surprises,” I said.

“Nah, Dropsy’s a sweetheart. Aren’t you?” He swung her from his hand. “She won’t be any trouble.”

“Good, because that inbox is already full.”

Bree-yark sniffed the tube I’d handed him.

“Isn’t this what we drank at Epic Con?” he asked.

I nodded and pointed out the emerald-green door off Seventieth Street. “We’re at the address of a powerful royal family. The neutralizing potion will protect us from incidental contact with its defenses, but that’s about it. Cheers.”

I clinked my tube against his and downed the bitter potion.

Bree-yark followed suit, grimacing as he glugged away. Upon finishing, he burped, drew a forearm across his lips, and spiked the tube against the sidewalk, shattering the Pyrex in all directions.

“Hey, I reuse those!” I cried.

But he was blinking up at the townhouse. “Holy thunder, there it is.” I could all but see the glamour thinning through his squash-colored eyes. “Man, and I’m usually pretty good at spotting enchantments.”

“A few ground rules before we head up. One, let me do the talking. Two, don’t touch anything—that’s for your own protection. And three, no matter what anyone says or does, please, keep your cool. We’re dealing with fae nobility.” And if Arnaud’s insinuations were to be believed, nobility who had been compromised.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Bree-yark said. “Dropsy and I will stay out of the way.” He gave the lantern a little shake.

“I’m not worried about Dropsy.”

“Hey, I’ve been listening to a podcast on anger management. I have a process now.”

“Just yesterday you threw a rock at that kid who came for Gretchen’s furniture. If I hadn’t shielded him, he’d still be leaking brain fluid.”

Bree-yark scratched the back of his neck. “He caught me at a bad time was all.”

“Well, that can’t happen here.”

As I peered up the short flight of steps, my stomach churned with the double anxiety that no one would answer the door and that someone might answer. If the fae had abandoned my teammates, how were they going to react to my visit?

Bree-yark clapped my back. “You’ve got this.”

That got me moving. I took the steps quickly and rapped on the door. Bree-yark stood off to one side. When the lantern twisted and bucked in his grip, he gave me an apologetic look and moved her to his far side.

I was distracted enough by the commotion that I hadn’t seen the door open. From the shadow beyond the entrance, a pair of gray eyes glimmered.

“Good morning, Mr. Croft,” Osgood said.

6

Struck by the butler’s sudden manifestation, I stammered, “Wh-what happened to you?”

The slight, silver-haired fae watched me with cool, unblinking eyes. “And to what might you be referring?”

How in the hell could he not know what I was talking about? I hesitated. Was this Osgood?