If this was a ward, was the demon near?
“There’s someone in there!” a voice called out, and I jolted from thought, ran forward to help them roll the vehicle over again.
“On three!” I said, as we grunted and strained to right the car.It had only just bounced onto all four tires when Black shouted my name. And there was warning in it.
“Elisa!”
I had no time to react. And then Black was on me, shoving me down onto concrete. I hit the sidewalk hard enough to rattle my bones, and felt the angry pop in my foot as my boot struck a wedge of concrete. His body fell atop mine some milliseconds later, and I instantaneously wondered if he was fighting me again. Until lightning struck the spot where I’d been standing, fracturing and buckling the asphalt so planks of it stood up four feet in the air.
I’d have been disintegrated.
“Damn,” I said quietly, my gratitude at being shoved aside dulling even the new pain in my foot.
“Sorry,” Jonathan said, rolling off me. He sat up, rubbing the elbow where he’d probably struck concrete. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll live,” I said. “Thanks.” And felt momentarily guilty for assuming he’d tried to take me out.
He nodded. “I owed you one.”
“Yeah, you did.” I stood up, felt the sharp pinch in my foot, could feel it swelling in my boot. Broken, but I was alive, and I’d heal in a few hours. I could ignore the pain and hobble until then.
I glanced back at Black. “You okay?”
He nodded. “Is this one of those demon protections?”
“That would be my guess.”
“Then where’s the damn demon?” he asked.
“Nearby” was all I knew. But I was beginning to wonder if the Guardians’ bark was worse than the demons’ bite. After all, the demon hadn’t harmed us, at least not yet.
Instinct had me looking up, and I saw the woman standing across the street in heels and a long coat. Monster felt the magic an instant before I did, and I felt its shuddering fear.
The demon, its camouflaging magic now gone, was ringed in sharp and grating and sulfurous magic. It had shed its disguise.
Connor had been right. We’d missed the obvious demon candidate.
It wasRose.
NINE
She stood beneath the stretching arms of a tree denuded of leaves by the coming autumn. She wore a short black dress and high dark heels beneath a long, fluid jacket that shimmered like bronze and shifted in the wind. It had a high collar of delicate feathers that wisped around her face. Her hair was down and waving now, and new highlights gleamed in the streetlight. The injuries we’d seen a few nights ago were gone now. Had she healed quickly, or had they been faked?
I stared at her for a full twenty seconds, trying to make sense of the last few days. And hoping against hope I was wrong. Or, if I was right, that she wore her sigil on a chain, and I could simply snatch it away.
Then I was running toward her, darting around people in the street. I reached her, stopped short. If she was surprised to see me, she didn’t show it.
“At least your message to Roger was honest,” I said flatly. “You’re clearly alive.”
“Clearly.” There was no fear in her now, no trembling. But she glanced at the sky, then again, as if waiting for lightning to strike, figuratively and literally. “I plan to stay that way.”
“You lied to us,” I said. “You lied to Roger.” And I already knew the debriefing was going to suck.
“Everyone lies,” Rose said. “I just happen to be especially goodat it.” She lowered her gaze, glanced at me. “Combine a convincing backstory and a pitiable character, and humans will believe it. I had plenty of time to plan while I waited for my chance.”
“To use us to cross the gate? You thought, what, that we’d battle our way through for you?”
“The timing wasn’t by choice,” she said. “I was discovered, you might say, by my former colleagues. I needed out of Edentown and knew I’d need help. Or ballast, at any rate. The time I’d spent nurturing my relationship with the Ombuds’ office paid off. You battled, so thank you.” Her smile went thin, and the loathing in her eyes had goose bumps lifting on my skin. So very different from the last time I’d had that reaction. There was nothing similar between her magic and that of the Pack’s.