Void Domain, Book 06 полностью

Though it was true that Eva wasn’t fond of the other former nun all that much. Nel had annoyed Eva from the moment she showed up on her front porch. A combination of being part of the reasons Sister Cross had attacked her, spying on her, and expecting Eva to just help out from the goodness of her heart.

At least Eva could understand Nel’s motivations.

Alicia wasn’t so straightforward. It didn’t help that she had eyes for no one but Ylva. And apparently Nel, though it didn’t sound quite the same in that case. Ali had been the one to pull Eva out of her little nightmare and yet she had yet to speak more than ten words to the woman.

According to Zoe, Alicia had been tortured into serving Ylva. No matter how she was acting now, Eva couldn’t be sure that torture was an effective method of recruitment.

One of the first things she had done was to fix up the wards around the prison. Alicia was not invited to the women’s ward. True, the other nuns had managed to break her wards. But that had been a group of them and it had still taken several minutes. They had likely been dedicated ward breakers as well.

Eva was quite confident that she would be able to notice any foul play on Alicia’s part and have plenty of time to react should she try anything. Especially thanks to a few tricks she had learned on the subject of blood wards.

“It’s probably just my imagination,” Nel said with a sigh.

“Are you willing to take that chance?”

Nel bit her bottom lip. After gnawing for a moment, she said, “you think she would do something?”

Eva shrugged. “I’m not the one who has been getting death glares. Do you think she would hurt you?” Eva held up her hand before the ex-nun could respond. “I don’t care. But I bet Ylva does.” Go bother her, Eva tacked on in her mind.

Update on Sawyer received and wanting nothing more from the augur, Eva left. Nel stayed still behind her altar with a thoughtful expression on her face.

The cold January air smacked her in the face with a bundle of snow the moment she stepped outside Ylva’s domain. After taking a few deep breaths to flush the frankincense from her system, Eva ignited her hands.

Fire crept up her arms, right to the edge of where her carapace met skin. She held up her hands to her face. Heat washed over her, blocking the cold from reaching her exposed skin.

Snow, Eva had decided, was one of her mortal enemies. Not quite as high on her list as Sawyer, but still somewhere up there. Maybe it was because of her treatments, or maybe it was just having lived in Florida for most of her life. Whatever it was, the cold just did not agree with her.

Running barefoot–the cold of the snow didn’t bother her exoskeleton much–Eva made her way to Devon’s building. She sprinted straight to the top, feeling no fatigue in her legs. She pounded out three short knocks on the door.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Eva was almost confident that he was in. Devon never left if he could help it.

However, there would usually be a sign that he was in. The tell-tale sound of books snapping shut, drawers snapping shut, jars clanking closed, or some other manner of him hiding whatever he was doing.

This time, there was nothing but silence.

“Master?” Eva called out as she knocked again. “Are you home?”

Again, Eva waited. Again, nothing answered but silence.

Trying the handle, Eva blinked in surprise. It wasn’t even locked.

Something was definitely wrong. It didn’t matter if her master was in or out, he almost never forgot to lock the door.

She pushed the door inwards. With cautious steps, Eva moved inside, half expecting a trap.

No flames exploded in her face. No shackles had been set up around the door. There wasn’t even a trip-wire hooked up to a shelf of unpleasant potions.

Devon was missing as well.

His bed was made, his books were neatly set into the shelf, and his desk was clean of any work. The uncanny tidiness of it all served to draw Eva’s eye to the center of the room.

A half-drawn pattern covered the floor. It wasn’t like any summoning circle Eva had ever seen. In fact, it wasn’t even a circle. Part of it was missing, but it would have formed a triangle if it had been finished. The part that was missing looked more like a miniature explosion had gone off. Part of the stone ground was chipped and scattered about the room.

Eva knelt down right at the edge. Even damaged, she wasn’t interested in stepping in the center. In fact, because it was damaged, she should definitely keep out. There could be residual magic hiding in the inscriptions if the ritual had been activated. Who knew what kind of nasty effects that could cause.

Unfortunately, Eva didn’t recognize any of the scribbles on the whole side of the triangle. Some looked a lot closer to the designs within her treatment ritual circle than any other demonic magics. But, from what Eva knew, they were all wrong.

“Just what was he trying to do?” Eva mumbled to herself.

“None of your business.”