“So,” Vas said as we walked out of the tower. “Where to now?”
After Samael broke my ward, I’d been sure I’d need to go home, take some painkillers and sleep off the headache. I’d never admit it to the demon, but Eldan had made me feel like a new woman. Other than the bone-deep weariness that came with healing, of course.
I lifted my face, basking in the way the sun heated my skin. “I got a text from the Mage Council. Albert wants to see me.”
Vas looked like he was trying very hard not to roll his eyes. Most demons didn’t think highly of the mages, but Vas seemed to have a real axe to grind. We crossed the street to where my car was parked. Vas narrowed his eyes on the car and heaved a sigh.
I heroically held back a smirk. “Why don’t you fly above me and I’ll meet you there?” He eyed me and I gave him squinty eyes. “You did it last night.”
The demon grinned at me. “I wondered if you’d notice that.” He sighed. “Okay, I’ll fly above you. But only under the condition that you never get out of your car until I’ve landed next to it.”
It was a compromise I could live with. “Fine. One more thing. I need you to wait outside the Mage Council. I’m getting enough shit over my short-term working relationship with Samael. If I walk in with a demon, my reputation is dead. No offense.”
He squared his shoulders and his wings rustled. A stray black feather dropped to the ground and I barely suppressed the urge to pick it up.
“The mages should behonoredif a demon chooses to visit their hovel,” he hissed.
Wow. Obviously I’d hit a nerve. “I understand the mages are only operating in this world with the demons’ permission,” I said carefully. “But you’ll frighten my colleagues, and frightened people lash out. And sinceyou’reso terrifying, they’ll lash out at me. Come on Vas. Do me a solid here.”
He examined me, his eyes frosty. Vas was so laid back most of the time it was easy to forget how dangerous he was. “Fine.” He shot up into the sky and my mouth dropped open as he disappeared.
Another feather floated to the ground and I glanced around, checking the coast was clear before I crouched and picked it up. Vas’ feather was a dark, glossy black, there were no words for how soft it was, yet it was also strong, and when I attempted to bend it, it felt like trying to snap a pencil.
I put the feather in the little cubby between my car seats. Finders keepers.
The Mage Council was only a couple of minutes away, back on East Main Street, and Vas kept his word, dropping down to walk me from my car to the door and then shooting back up into the sky.
The stares were just as bad as last time as I made my way through the lobby. It was definitely the right call to leave Vas outside. My insistence on coming in alone may have offended the demon, but he didn’t have to walk into this facility almost every day after my bond with Samael was broken. I did.
Albert’s office was on the 9thfloor. Unlike the 5thfloor, where mages and bounty hunters took jobs, ribbed on each other, and ate in the small lunchroom, the 9thfloor was eerily silent. Stepping off the elevator was like walking into a church.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, my eyes met the painted gaze of Colin Smith. The portrait was huge, presenting Colin as a man in his sixties or seventies with a patient, kind face, a slightly befuddled expression, and a soft chin. Before the portals opened, Colin Smith had been an ordinary human man in Guatemala doing volunteer work. When the witches had woken the demigod, he’d been close enough that the resulting influx of power had hit him. Hard.
He should’ve been dead. But instead, the influx of power had settled, allowing him to fight the lesser demons, fae, and werewolves who were on the rampage. When the demigod went back to sleep, the portals stayed open, and the once previously powerless man vowed to protect humans from the creatures that were pouring through the portals and laying waste to our world. Colin shared that power with ten others who were committed to protecting humanity. So began the Mage Council. No one knew exactly where the apprentice mages got their power from. They were spelled to never speak of it.
Colin’s power gave him a remarkably long life for someone who was once human. But eventually he died, passing the mantel to his son, Gabriel, who was notoriously reclusive. Gabriel lived in Chicago, only communicating with the ten other members of the Mage Council located throughout the United States. Albert was one of those mages, in charge of furthering the Mage Council’s interests throughout a large swathe of the East Coast.
Albert’s receptionist ran a hand through her sleek bob as I approached her desk. “You can go right in,” she said.
Albert’s huge steel desk was littered with an array of books and papers. The rest of his office was so clean it was as if dust bunnies didn’t dare take up residence on the leather-clad books squeezed into his bookcases or beneath the two high-backed grey chairs in front of the desk.
“Danica. Take a seat.”
As a kid, I’d never been sent to the principal’s office. Evie was the one who couldn’t resist getting into trouble at elementary school, while I tended to keep my head down. If the teachers thoughtIhad a problem with authority, they must’ve been in for a rude awakening when they had Evie in their class a few years later.
By the time we were old enough for high school, I was being dragged from one town to the next with mom. Did Evie continue sticking up for the bullied kids in high school? Was she a constant presence in detention, or did she learn to keep her mouth shut and her magic to herself?
“Danica?”
I jolted. “I apologize. What was that?”
Albert gave me a stern frown, his mustache trembling as he pursed his lips.
“I would like you to tell me about this… bond you have with the demon.” His gaze fell to my arm, which was covered by another long-sleeved t-shirt.
I need to keep this short and concise, and stick to the facts.
“I went to Samael’s club to speak with a demon–”
