Petra watched her for a moment, gaze narrowed, then looked at me. “Tell her what happened, Elisa.”
“We were... proceeding toward Chicago in our... carriage,” I said, recalling a Victorian ghost wasn’t going to be up to speed (sorry not sorry) on modern roads and Autos, “when magic erupted from Chicago’s South Gate. It’s a large arcing structure,” I said, demonstrating its shape with my hands. “Ghosts came out and attacked us. They stopped our carriage and injured me and my partner. They kept saying ‘no’ and ‘go back.’ ”
She looked at each of us in turn. “You are not demons.”
“No, we are not. We were with a sympath, who was being pursued by her enemies.”
“Which must have included a demon,” Patience said, and seemed relieved that particular piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.
“But they weren’t trying to get into Chicago,” Theo said. “They were trying to keep our victim with them.”
“They were chasing you into Chicago,” Connor pointed out. “Maybe that would have been enough.”
We all looked at Patience, who nodded. “The wards were triggered by the demon’s proximity.”
“How many are there?” Petra asked.
“There are—” But she broke off as if the thought had been wiped from her mind. She cleared her throat. “I am sorry. I do not know.”
“They didn’t tell the Chronicler how many wards there were?” Theo murmured.
“Where are they?” Petra asked.
Patience looked distressed, rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry. I do not know.”
“Is there a written record?” I asked. “Maps or physical plans?”
“I do not know,” Patience said again. And this time, I felt the faintest pulse of magic. I believed her—and I thought there was a reason she didn’t have any more information.
“Who are the other Guardians?” Petra asked. “Can we speak with them?”
We all knew the answer before she said it. “I do not know.”
“How are we talking to you?” Theo asked.
“I built a connection into the farthest ward so I could explain... what I could remember.”
And what she could remember—or what she was able to say—was limited. By old magic or new?
Patience frowned, looked away. “It should not have been able to break through. Each ward ought have been strong enough to stop the demon.”
“It didn’t stop me,” I pointed out. “Or Theo. The ghosts injured us but did not stop us.”
“You are not chaos demons,” Patience said. “It was not meant to stop you.”
“Maybe the wards have gotten weaker,” Ariel said.
We all looked at Ariel. “What?” Patience asked first.
“Well, it’s been more than a hundred years since the magic was put into place. And there’s been big magic in Chicago lately. I mean, the fairies tried to pull the green land here. That’s portal magic—big magic.”
We’d stopped Ruadan, the fairy who’d turned chunks of Chicago into rolling hills of misty green, and turned him over to the queen of the fairies, Claudia.
“The green land?” Patience asked.
“Long story short,” Petra said, “there’s been a lot of magical upheaval in Chicago in the last few months.”
“Claudia said something about Ruadan tearing open the world. Messing up place and time.” I looked at Patience. “Maybe that weakened the wards enough to give the demon a chance?”