Shield of the Pack: Great Lakes Investigations™ Book Six by Norcross Philippa & Anderle Michael

Author:Norcross, Philippa & Anderle, Michael
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2022-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“I could say the same to you,” the woman on the balcony replied. Then Maggie blinked, and she was on the ground floor in front of them.

Ignoring the heart attacks she’d caused among the group, Cyrilla walked up to Maggie and stopped within arm’s reach. “Why are you here?”

Maggie drew a deep breath, feeling as if she were taking her life in her hands. She firmly set aside the thought that she might actually be doing so. “I’m here to ask a favor.”

Cyrilla arched an eyebrow. “Do you hear yourself right now?”

Maggie winced. “Unfortunately, yes.”

The other woman stared her down, somehow still imposing despite being an inch shorter than Maggie even with the hairdo. “Explain.”

Maggie opened her mouth to launch into the requested explanation, but when in the next heartbeat she was in an entirely different room, she said, “Um—” in a highly eloquent manner.

Cyrilla walked away from Maggie and behind a desk of dark wood with ornate carvings—more two-tailed mermaids, these swimming among seaweed and rocks—and sat. Through the window behind her, Maggie saw the Italian countryside stretching into the distance, and she realized they were on the second floor.

Matter manipulation is terrifying on its own, but Cyrilla takes it to a whole other level, she said to Matt, taking a second to get a handle on her nerves. Until she realized she and Cyrilla were alone in what was presumably Cyrilla’s study, given the preponderance of knickknacks and incense holders on the shelves lining the walls. Then she maybe freaked out a little. “Where are they?” she demanded.

“Who? Oh, your little friends?” Cyrilla made a dismissive gesture with one hand as she leaned back in her chair. “They’re right where we left them downstairs. I wanted to talk to you without their interference.”

“You will not harm them.” Maggie’s jaw was already clenched.

Matt groaned. This doesn’t bode well for your negotiating abilities. Keep your cool, Mags.

I have no proof they’re still in the hall! They could be down in some dungeon somewhere! “Harm them, and I walk away,” Maggie continued, glaring daggers at the woman in the chair.

Cyrilla snorted. “You’re not about to walk away. There’s too much at stake for you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Don’t I?” Cyrilla raised her other eyebrow. “You came to ask me a favor. Now, before we get derailed onto another tangent, explain.”

Maggie growled deep in the back of her throat, then powered through a rapid-fire rundown of the situation. “That’s why I came to find you,” she wrapped up. “I don’t know anyone else who could come to grips with the level and complexity of the magic I saw.”

Cyrilla was leaning forward with her elbows on her desk and her hands folded in front of her mouth. She watched Maggie for several long moments. Maggie couldn’t read her eyes. Was she angry? Puzzled? Was she even interested?

At last, she spoke. “You brought them here to sway me?”

“I know better than that,” Maggie scoffed. “I brought them here because it’s their pack, and they should have a say—and they ought to know what’s going on.

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