At least, I hope it’ll fly under the radar.
“Honestly, that makes me feel much better about things,” Lacey says.
“Why’s that?” I ask.
She makes a noncommittal noise as she shrugs. “Just comforting to know that there’s a system out there working to keep things like giant cockroaches that can split dimensional barriers in check.”
“Truth.” I chuckle darkly. “You don’t want to meet one of those.”
“Students,” Nai Nai declares loudly with a clap. “Focus. We have runes to master if we’re going to capture our enemies.”
“Yes, elder Feng!” I say as I turn my attention back to the pages before me.
After another few minutes of swishing our brushes around, Nai Nai brings out our real canvases: paper lanterns. We flip them inside out and paint the symbols along the fold seams to hide them.
The lanterns have to be burned to activate their runes, and while I don’t completely disagree with the plan to have Lacey and Ace help when Lei shows up, the other half of me doesn’t want either of them anywhere near the conflict.
I have the power of a demon inside me. I canhandleLei.
When we have four good lanterns, we fold them up and do the first test run.
On Ace.
He doesn’t agree to it, which makes it work even better.
I hold him still while Nai Nai puts a torch to two, and Deelia gets the others. The paper burns fast, and hot chains of fire lash out from their centers, wrapping around us. The fire is just like Rhazan’s, the edge of uncomfortable, but to me, there’s an undercurrent of comfort. It’s like he’s hugging me.
“All right, it works! Let me go!” Ace yells.
Ah, yes, step four of the process—releasing them after we’ve coerced them into a magical contract to leave us alone—requiresme. I try to get my arms out so I can perform the essential hand gestures, but I’m firmly stuck to Ace.
“A little help?” I ask as we flop to the side.
Nai Nai eats one of the cookies from earlier today, and I watch as orange magic swells in her chest. She chants the incantation and moves her arms in the gestures to release the bindings. The meager power that one cookie afforded her ekes out through her mouth and slips from the tips of her fingers. It floats on the air like moths, and when it collides with the burning chains, they all collapse into embers.
We fall apart but go still at the sound of slow clapping from behind the bar.
My heart soars when I see him. I realize it’s a little silly since he was just here a few hours ago, but something about him revealing himself—his real self—to everyone just for me makes me melt.
“Rhaz.” I jump up and run to him.
He wraps an arm around me, then looks at Nai Nai. “It’s time for me to steal her.”
“What? Why?” I ask.
“You got your panties so twisted about anyone helping you,” Nai Nai says with a sniff. “Rhazan and I decided you should be able to light the lanterns on your own.”
“You decided that when?” I ask, looking up at him.
“While you were sleeping.” He smirks. “You snore.”
My cheeks heat. “I do not.”
Deelia makes a little mumbling peep. “It’syou.”
He looks at her and cocks his head. “You?”
Some little part of me is jealous that they have history, but she used to do seances here, so I don’t doubt she would’ve seensomething. It also tells me just how long he’s been trapped in the bar.
