Power Game by Brad Magnarella

Author:Brad Magnarella [Magnarella, Brad]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Croftverse Press
Published: 2018-12-16T07:00:00+00:00

I arrived back in my lab and dispelled the shields from my ears. My right leg tingled with sleep as I put my shoes back on and stood. I stomped the leg back to life as I circled the lab. From the library, I pulled down a couple reference books, swapping them for two others in my interplanar cubbyhole. I then squatted in front of the bins beneath my table, restocking my coat pockets with starter potions.

I was still carrying the sealed vial with the frog-beast goo, but sometime after leaving the hotel the substance had gone inert, leaving me zip to cast from. Something told me to hold onto the vial anyway.

With the demons off my scent, I had bought myself some time. But Arianna’s warning from last night echoed through my thoughts: The being is concealed now, but that will change. Which suggested a clock was ticking down to the moment the demons would be able to locate Sefu without me.

With a full coat, I lunged for the ladder to get a move on, then made myself stop. At what point today had I quieted my thinking mind and really listened to my magic? It was the number one thing Gretchen had been drilling into me. Arianna had also alluded to it last night: The same magic that speaks to me also speaks to you.

I sighed and closed my eyes again, cleared my thoughts.

And there was my magic, shifting around in seemingly random patterns. As if catching me watching it, my magic stopped suddenly and started into a new motion, one that took a moment to gain rhythm and momentum. It was the nodding I’d felt earlier. My magic seemed to be assuring me that I was on the right path, that I was gathering what I needed. It didn’t feel like head-shaking anyway.

I waited for more, but that was it. Just a slow nodding: Keep going. Keep going. By now, though, the sound of my watch’s second hand was intruding. A peek told me an hour had passed while I was in Thelonious’s realm, and that felt like an hour too long. Especially with Arnaud in the city.

I needed to get up to the Bronx to check on Vega’s son.

I found my two teammates downstairs, plates and bowls lying around them. Tabitha was sacked out on her divan while Bree-Yark sawed logs from the sofa. He’d kicked off his work boots, crossed his large feet at the ankles, and pulled an afghan across his belly. When I shook one of his toes, he snorted awake.

“You ready?” I asked.

He ground his fists into his eye sockets and squinted up at me. “I’m gonna let that one fly ’cause you didn’t know,” he growled. “But never touch a goblin’s feet.” A snarl curled his scarred lower lip.

“Noted,” I said, showing my hands.

As Bree-Yark put on his shoes, Tabitha lifted her head from the divan. “Are we leaving already? I just nodded off.”

“Yeah, c’mon,” Bree-Yark said, swatting her divan in a gesture of comradery I found touching.

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