Bridge of Souls by Meredith Wild & Angel Payne

Author:Meredith Wild & Angel Payne [Wild, Meredith & Payne, Angel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642633245
Publisher: Waterhouse Press

Chapter Sixteen

Maximus

The last time I stood on this spot along the Coast Highway, my heart was somewhere in my throat and my legs had turned into in concrete. It was a dark night, bested only by the dread that threatened to eat me alive.

The situation’s only marginally better now. At least Kara’s by my side, and the fading purples and peaches of the sunset do amazing things for her classic dark beauty.

But now’s not the time for odes and poetry. Though we’ve still got hours to spare, the hex’s ticking time clock isn’t far from my mind. Or nervous system.

“So…plan of attack, anyone?” I mutter, not bothering to lock the dinged old ranch service van that Circe rounded up from some obscure corner of Iremia for our transport out of the canyon. But even if it were a stagecoach and some tired Clydesdales, I’d be grateful to her for not defaulting to her powers and zapping us here. Between my field trip to Labyrinth with Z and my zip through the underworld with Gio, supernatural teleportation isn’t high on my bucket list anymore.

“Please don’t call it that,” Circe responds. “Starting a war isn’t our intention. Not here. Not now.”

“Make love, not war,” Arden croons, earning him an instant snarl from the enchantress.

“Prieto. I swear, if you keep taking credit for lines that your black soul will never comprehend…”

“How about disruption, not detonation?” Kara offers a bit too brightly. But it accomplishes the purpose, defusing them both.

“Ah. There’s the golden ticket,” Circe commends. “Except that motto might be easier declared than done.”

Arden pulls out his phone and wakes up the screen. “Not all the favors I redeemed were in other realms. Courtesy of the Malibu Planners office, here are the up-to-date blueprints for Rerek’s place. Wish I could say it possesses anything unique from every other residence along this stretch. The front entrance basically seems like nothing, though it’s a heavily monitored fortress in its own right. The majority of the larger entrances face the shore at the other side.”

“Viable entrances that are surrounded by clear glass walls,” I say with a frown. “So our element of surprise might as well be some hand sparklers and a marching band.”

It’s a better metaphor for the moment than I think. As Kara steps forward again, she looks like one of those symbolic sparklers, ignited in breathtaking human form. “Unless…” she ventures, eyes agleam and feet rocking, “we enter another way.”

Circe’s the first one to comprehend that declaration, lifting her head to follow the figurative comet trail behind Kara’s look. “Another way…as in the roof?” Her gaze bugs wide. “And that’s deflection over detonation…how?”

“Ah.” Arden smirks. “For a dour demon who enjoys card games with Rasputin and Lizzie Borden when summoned down under, Rerek is strangely fond of skylights.”

“The villa came that way,” Kara explains. “For a bunch of years, Rerek planned to get rid of them. He even talked to some trendy gothic artist out of Rotterdam about doing murals over them.”

“What happened to all that?” I ask.

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