“And this breach?” I asked, holding back a malevolent grin I could feel trying to emerge.
“She was able to slip past me,” he admitted, no doubt expecting my wrath. The admission did not come easily, though there was no shame in it. If anything, it made the situation even more curious.
“I see,” I replied, and when he started to apologize, I sent a wave of ease rippling toward him before my words followed. “No need, Vor, but I am intrigued. What else was spoken?”
“Torin knows more, but as for the summoning she spoke of, this wasn’t something I couldn’t detect as I should have.”
I frowned at his choice of words.
“I feel as if there is a but coming.”
I heard him sigh ever so slightly before admitting,
“I did feel something, but it was not what I would have expected.”
“And that was?”
“The lingering of a spell… a very powerful spell, my lord.”
I raised a brow at that, his words only adding weight to my theory. Another layer for my hopefulness to bury me under.
I considered his words, my gaze drifting briefly toward the club below, where music continued to thrum as if nothing were amiss. A human who could summon, even unintentionally, should not have escaped Torin’s notice so cleanly.
“Where is she now?” I asked.
Vor’s head turned slightly, as though listening to something beyond the physical plane.
“She moved deeper into the club before Torin, or I could track her further.”Now that should not have been possible.
“The altar,” I said. Not a question, at this point, or they would have found her before then.
But there were many hidden passageways that branched off from the main entrance, if you knew where to look for them. As she would have no doubt gathered by now, the outer shell of this building was nothing but a ruse, designed to conceal the truth that waited beyond it.
But it seemed as though she had been drawn to the club… perhaps subconsciously to…to me.
“Yes,” Vor confirmed.
“She should not have passed it,” I stated firmly. A ripple of interest stirring within me. The altar was old magic, blood-bound and unforgiving, designed to halt intruders long before they reached the inner levels. Those unwelcome did not cross it, and mortal life was at the top of that list.
“She did,” Vor said again, quietly, and I stilled completely.
“Then she is no ordinary human,” I replied, more to myself than to my necromancer. My thoughts turned once more to coincidence, to timing, to a name that refused to loosen its hold.
“Have Torin report to me.”
“At once, my lord.” Vor inclined his head and stepped back, already withdrawing from the conversation as his role concluded. He had delivered the information. What followed would not concern him.
As he turned away, my attention shifted downward, toward the heart of the club, where the pulse of life and magic converged. Whoever she was, whatever had carried her past wards that should have stopped her cold, she had just made herself interesting.
And I did not care for coincidences.
I cared for facts.
And foolishly, right now…
I also cared for hope.
12
