I smiled a little. ‘Yeah. That’s on my to-do list.’
‘Do it faster,’ she suggested, ‘or you might not be around to finish the list.’
‘The same thought had occurred to me,’ I agreed. ‘Get back to work, the lot of you.’
‘We’re off shift,’ Elvira said. ‘Don’t bitch. Thackeray called in a couple of other Inspectors for us so we could be here for you. Moral support and shit. A show of unity.’
‘I don’t need unity. I need magic.’
‘And some knickers,’ Laura suggested, making the others snicker.
I tilted my chin up. ‘Actually, I prefer to go commando.’
With the tatters of my dignity firmly gathered around me, I walked out.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Robbie took me straight to the Storyhouse despite Amber’s many objections. We spent the night together there in one of their hidden apartments, and all the while I looked at the dove-like bird with panic.
Sleep, when it came, was nightmare-ridden and gruelling.
In the morning, I washed the night sweats away, dressed hastily, and dashed down to the portal. I walked through the portal and hoped that my bond with Loki would snap reassuringly into place, but it didn’t.
I had to claw around for it, searching for it in the recesses of my soul. It was there but terrifyingly faint. Even as I walked back up the stairs, I poured my newly acquired magic down the bond to my caladrius.
He’d taken the effects of the knockout potion for me, but he was so much smaller that it had hit him way harder.I just had to pray that my magic could jump-start my avian bestie. I prayed, and I poured more magic into him.
We spent another day and night at the portal. I drained all my magic into Loki, recharged myself and tried again. The second time, I felt him almost as soon as I walked back into the Other.
He was tired, but he was there.
I ran up the Storyhouse’s stairs and burst into the safe house we’d been staying in while I had no magic. I searched Loki out and when I saw him soaring around the ceiling, I gave a happy squeal that was not befitting an officer of the Connection.
Loki!
Pigdog, he greeted.Ham? Starving!
A burble of laughter escaped me. He flew into my arms, and I nuzzled him gently. ‘You can have all the ham you want, buddy. You saved me. I owe you big time.’
Tuna?he suggested.
‘Tunaandham, if you want it.’
Sounds nice.
Finally, the tension slid from my shoulders. I beamed at Robbie.
‘Youheard her,’ Robbie said to Maktel. ‘Get the bird some ham and tuna.’
‘Would it kill you to say please?’ I huffed at my fiancé.
‘Yes. I am a king. I must give orders.’
‘I will be uncomfortable if he adds please,’ Maktel weighed in. ‘An ogre king is not polite. He rips the heads off his enemies. He does not say please and thank you. He demands. It is right.’ He dropped his voice and muttered under his breath, ‘Even if he does make me feed your pet.’
‘You guys are so weird.’
‘You love us,’ Hanlon said.
