It was Silver’s turn to grunt. “If you or any of your friends need care, you should go to the underside, not the vale’s hospital.”
Mrs. Delcourt gasped. “The underside!”
“I know. Believe me,I know. Mere weeks ago I would never have believed I could say that. But the underside’s a lot more civilized than we’ve been led to believe. I know for a fact they have a nice community down there. And they’re opening aswimming pool just because some elderly folk said they needed it.”
The woman blinked, visibly intrigued. “A swimming pool?”
Silver nodded eagerly. “I can ask around, one of my friend’s grandmother will know all the details.”
We left with a dozen cookies packed in a Tupperware that Mrs. “Call me Eris” Delcourt made us swear to bring back.
Once she shut the doors, Silver reeled toward me. “Well, that’s one way to waste an hour on the clock.”
“Waste?” I grinned. “I’m not the one who decided to set up an ancient swimming club.”
“We got nothing out of that,” she argued.
I rolled my eyes, crossing the corridor to the door opposite Eris’s. “We got entry, doll.”
She opened her mouth and closed it again. “We can’t just?—”
“Oops. I got lost on my way to the loo, silly me.”
“The door’s likely locked.”
It was. I jerked the handle down and shrugged innocently when the lock broke. “What? It’s not my fault if I can’t control my own strength.”
I could see the law-abiding protector wrestle between her desire to follow the lead or tell me off for a little breaking and entering.
“I can fix it on our way out,” I offered.
She sighed deeply. “You’re going to get us in so much trouble.”
But she walked in anyway.
14
SILVER
The next time I even thought of letting Cas take control, I needed someone to slap me in the face and dump a bucketful of freezing water on my head.
Of course the entry was rigged. Magical drug dealers didn’t just rely on simple locks and keys. I took the time to glare at Cas before scooping Amavi up in the crook of my arm and leaping up to avoid the wave of bright green curse flying across the carpeted floor. I leapt to the top of the sideboard. Cas didn’t bother to move, lazily blocking whatever nasty curse magic towards him by stomping his foot. I watched his lightning marks brighten, and he winced, visibly in pain.
“Your blocks aren’t that good, huh?”
He sniffed haughtily. “Even if I hadn’t bothered to block, that stupid spell wouldn’t have frozen me in place for more than five seconds. The price I pay to use magic is far more annoying.”
“Price?” I frowned.
He didn’t elaborate, simply striding in the dealer’s house as if he owned it.
“What if he’s inside?”
“There’s no one inside. I would have sensed it.”
“Well, there could be an alarm to warn him of intrusions—and more curses, too, if he’s gone.”
“So?” Cas shrugged.
