I gave my own pointed glance over my shoulder at the Fae. That purple glow was brighter around them now, shimmering. Glamour. I wondered briefly what they looked like to Wyn Kendrick as I turned back to the man.
“These are some of my contacts I spoke to you about just before everything happened,” I said. “They seem to think they have some ideas about how to solve our problem.”
“That’s wonderful,” he replied and I could feel the relief behind his words as he spoke them. “Tell me.”
He waited, expectantly.
“They’re Russian,” I blurted.
Lark turned slowly toward me.
“I know you don’t want to cause an international incident, Wyn,” I continued, lowering my voice so as not to be overheard. “These men and their government have just as much interest in closing the rift as we do but they will not use their equipment where they can be spied upon by the American military.”
I gave a pointed glance at the soldiers patrolling the rift on the other side of the encampment. Wyn’s gaze flicked from me to the men behind me, eyes widening as he realized what I was implying.
“I can order them away for a time,” Wyn told me. “I’ll open an account at the tavern in town, tell them to drink for the fallen, take the night off. I’ll make up some story about how we’ve been monitoring the wavelengths of sound from the rift and don’t see any immediate danger. But you won’t have long. An hour at most. And it won’t be until this evening.”
I nodded, reaching out and giving his arm a squeeze of gratitude.
“Thank you, Wyn,” I said with a smile. “We’ll be here.”
Chapter five
A Portal To Another Plane
Wespentourtimewaiting for nightfall at the tavern in the town a little further down the mountain. Rook shadowstepped to the town, preferring to avoid the embarrassing mortal labor of walking down the mountain on his own two feet. Lark offered to take me again but I refused. My gut was still roiling from the last time and I would rather trudge down that steep incline than puke all over the cobblestones in front of my colleagues. So Lark merely shrugged and fell into step beside me as I began the trek down.
“You said that man was in charge,” Lark spoke suddenly once we were halfway to the town. I glanced his way before turning my attention back to where I was stepping so I wouldn’t trip over a fallen rock.
“Wyn?” I asked. “He is. Of the camp, at least. This entire mission is his responsibility. Closing the rift is his responsibility. He’s a field agent for the DAA. That’s the Department of A—”
“I know what the DAA is,” he grumbled.
“Right,” I bit back through gritted teeth. “Well, whenever a rift opens up, the DAA assigns one of their field agents the task of closing it. Whenever the rift is proving harder to mend than others, Wyn requests help from Hadley and the university sends either my uncle or I to assist. Lately, I’ve been the lucky one.”
“And when the minotaur came?”
“He ran.”
Lark’s lip curled in open disgust.
“Not an outstanding leader,” he remarked.
“No,” I agreed with a snort. “He’s not.”
“Why aren’t you in charge?”
I glanced his way again.
“Why would I be?” I asked. “I’m just a professor and not even the head of my department. I’m here in a consulting capacity only and because the Dean of Hadley has some very useful connections.”
“Connections that a DAA agent believes capable of calling upon another foreign power to help heal a monster-dropping rift?” Lark asked, raising a brow in my direction.
“I thought it better than telling him you’re a supremely powerful magical being.”
“Supremely?” he smirked.
I rolled my eyes, ignoring him, and forged on.
