He thought back to the hints of intent he’d caught while fighting the creature. He’d come in behind Zane and seen the chimera pacing back and forth in the living room. It hadn’t had time to rampage through the condo.
“I think it was left to deter anyone seeking out Russ,” Grayson said.
“So if someone selling cookies knocked, it would—what? Attack, take them out?”
Now that he wasn’t worried about getting his face ripped off or making sure Zane didn’t get a barb in the gut, he replayed his first glimpse of the hex. “No, it was more subtle than that.” The hex had been linked to an existing cast that was tied to… he narrowed his eyes. “The security code.”
Confused, Cass stared at him. “What?”
“The spell that triggered the chimera, it was tied to the security code.” The picture rapidly fell into place. “You put in the code, right?”
She nodded.
“Do you remember what you were thinking when you entered it?”
Light color stained her cheeks as she folded her arms. “I was thinking of how to get Russ to answer my questions.”
Based on the glint in her eyes, he took a guess. “Did those plans involve bloodshed?”
Her chin lifted defiantly. “I wasn’t going to act on it.”
He wouldn’t have blamed her if she had. “No judgment, but that intent triggered the chimera.” When her frown deepened into confusion, he explained, “You were pissed when you punched in the code, and you were pissed at Russ specifically. Those two factors flipped the trigger on the cast, which opened the rift and released the chimera. Until those two conditions were met, the hex lay dormant, keeping it locked on the other side. If I had time for a deeper examination of the spell, I’m betting there was a third condition that would trigger it to attack, one that was met when Zane and I busted in.”
She rubbed her arms. “Was it really from hell?”
Remembering the oily slide of magic and the burn that lingered as he’d fought against it, he said, “No question.”
“Is it dead, then?”
He shook his head. “Not really. Demonic casts are extremely difficult to kill.”
She gave a delicate shudder. “So, that stuff Zane did at the end… what was that about?”
“Zane needed it to be far enough on our side so he could sever the magical bindings that allowed it to shift between its dimension and ours. Destroying those bindings basically locks it out of accessing our realm.”
She angled her head and studied him. “What about that weird shadow thing at the end?”
He frowned. “You mean the portal?”
“Sure?”
The questioning lilt of her reply told him she was a little unnerved. Not that he blamed her. Wrangling monsters was bound to leave you a little rattled. Not to mention dimensional rifts were not run-of-the-mill occurrences.
He tugged her close, giving her something to hold on to. “It needed to be sealed before anything nastier found it and crawled through.”
She eyed the empty living room. “You’re sure nothing’s coming back.”
He rubbed a comforting hand along her spine. “I’m sure.”
She rested her head against his shoulder. “As much as I want to get my hands on Russ, maybe we should head back to my parents so you can work on Sofia.”
He rested his cheek against the top of her head and briefly considered not admitting what he was about to share. “I know you’re worried about her, sweetheart, but honestly? Our chances of breaking her curse are higher if we can get to Russ.”
She pulled back so she could see his face, panic in her beautiful eyes. “What do you mean?”
He opened his mouth to explain that his conversation with Walter and scanning through the books had only given him a general frame of reference. He needed to work smarter, not harder, and that meant determining how Russ had factored into setting the hex and, more specifically, what triggers were embedded within it. Otherwise, Grayson could spend days trying to undo the curse, and he didn’t think Sofia had that much time.
He didn’t get a chance to say any of that because Zane opened the sliding glass door and stalked inside, a keen light in his dark eyes. “Got lucky. Camera on a business behind the complex caught a shot of your guy being shoved into a cargo van.” He turned his phone so they could see the screen, where a surprisingly clear video shot showed a dusty white cargo van awkwardly parked between one of the condo’s back entrances and the cinderblock wall that separated the condos from the small business park. “Can’t get much because that back wall is blocking the plates, but watch this.” He hit Play.
