“Oh,” she murmured. “Ohyes.”
“You see where this is tending?”
“Brilliant.”
They wolfed down their sandwiches at Reed’s and jumped into his car. By the time he covered the main details of his plan and she relayed every relevant fact she could dredge up, they were inside the city limits and closing in on the hotel. The sky glowed with the last gasp of the day’s light.
“You wanted to make clear you’re doing this of your own accord,” she said abruptly. “That’s why you asked me to order you.”
“Yes.”
“Did you want to make it clear to me? Or to yourself?”
“Both.”
He could feel her eyes on him, but it took her a long moment to respond. “Why are you helping me?”
He almost saidby way of apologybut chickened out. “I know what it feels like to stand against powerful people.”
She wanted him to say more—unspoken questions pressed against him. But there on the right was the Key Hotel. He turned left into a massive parking lot for the sugar-processing factory across the road, emptied out for the lack of a swing shift, and was saved the necessity of further comment.
CHAPTER 21
Blackwell pulled the key from the ignition and several leaves from his pocket. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” she said, hoping outrage would trump nerves.
He touched his hand to hers, the leaves pressed between them. She could barely hear his murmured“heoloð”over the blood roaring in her ears.
And then—the oddest thing. She felt exactly the same, but she looked as if she had just winked out of existence, from the tip of her nose to her heels and—in between—the camera in her hands. She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw nothing.
“My God, that’s disorienting,” she said. “I don’t suppose there’s a spell that makes a person invisible only to everyone else?”
“Yes, but as it stops working the moment you move—breathing included—I wouldn’t recommend it. Hang on, I’m going to come around and open your door.”
He was quick about it, waiting for her to scramble out and then ducking his head in, apparently in case anyone was watching.
“Don’t walk near anything you could trip over,” he murmured as they waited to cross Key Highway. “It’s not easy to move around with feet you can’t see.”
“Right.”
“Remember that we can’t do any editing beyond lopping off the beginning or end, so don’t move the camera while it’s filming. Otherwise it won’t look like it was placed there by an employee.”
“OK,” she said, dashing across the road beside him.
“Andpleasekeep the camera as close to directly behind me as possible.”
“Because all wizards look the same from the back—check.”
He snorted. “Good luck,” he added in a whisper, and then they were in.
She walked as quietly in his wake as her heels allowed, the noise covered up by his loud footsteps as he strode to the reception desk.
“I need to speak with John Dockett,” he said to the young man behind the counter, the words and unspoken “or else” reminding her strongly of another day six weeks earlier, another counter.
The man took a step backward. “I’m—I’m afraid he’s unavailable?—”
Blackwell crossed his arms.
