Void Domain, Book 07 полностью

“I’m showing initiative in recruiting you. She meant without her help, not without help at all,” Nel said with confidence. That confidence shattered as Eva raised an eyebrow. “Probably. Look, you want this as much as I do, so why are you arguing? Was I mistaken? Have you–” Her good hand gripped her bad arm. “Have you forgotten what it was like under his knife?”

“I have not,” Eva said through grit teeth. “And that is why I am being cautious. We don’t have Arachne. Ylva won’t help. I could probably convince Zoe–”

Eva cut herself off with a glance over Nel’s shoulders. Zoe wasn’t at home at the moment—ostensibly to find more students for Brakket, though she had told Eva before leaving that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to bring anyone here—so talking loudly wouldn’t have mattered much. She didn’t want to tempt fate by shouting for the world to hear.

She had never felt guilty before. Not once in her life. Yet standing in the apartment building with four bloodstones clinking together in her pocket, she couldn’t help but imagine the disappointed look on Zoe’s face if she found out. Even the thought of explaining what scum they had been wasn’t enough to get the mental image out of her head.

“Look. One week. As soon as my treatment is finished. I don’t care if a full-scale demon invasion happened. I would ignore it to get to Sawyer.”

Nel crossed her arms, partially cradling the withered husk. She glared for a full minute before sighing. “I will hold you to that.”

Eva combed her hair back, running the sharp tips of her fingers across her scalp. Hair out of her face, she let out a long sigh. “He’s still in Idaho?”

“The large gap in my sight is. I’ve been unable to find him using his hand, so I assume so.”

“Good. Go keep an eye on him. If he moves, let me know sooner rather than later. Otherwise, one week.”

Turning on her heel, Eva left Nel behind before the augur could come up with any more reasons to speak.

She had a task set to for the day. Nel did not figure in on that task.

The moment that she arrived outside the apartment complex, Eva paused in her steps.

Ylva had been easy to find. She lived adjacent to Zoe. Eva had been to both of their apartments in the past.

School was out for the summer. Seminars hadn’t even started up yet. If she walked into the reception area, would Catherine be behind the secretary’s desk? Would Lucy and Daru be patrolling the hallways?

Or would they be at home? Did they even have homes?

Demons were supposed to be able to sense one another. Even keeping still and concentrating, Eva couldn’t feel much of anything. There was a vague sense of something powerful–Zagan perhaps–but not enough to pick a direction and start walking.

Eva gave a small shudder.

Despite her words to Devon, the thought of actually meeting with Zagan did not appeal to her. She wanted to. Zagan was a powerful demon and having him in the ritual would be nice, even if Eva wouldn’t get all that much out of it according to Devon.

At the same time, he wasn’t the nicest guy around. Case in point, he tore out her arms the first time he had met with Eva. He had put them back, but that was just because he had terrible mood swings. Or something.

It was hard to predict how he would react to being asked to join the treatment.

A light clearing of a throat startled Eva out of her thoughts.

“Excuse me. You’re blocking the road.”

“Sorry,” Eva said as she stepped to one side. She hadn’t moved from the doorway of the apartment complex. “Just a little lost in thought–”

A pair of hands clamped down on Eva’s shoulders as she found herself suddenly staring into the green eyes of a woman from about half a centimeter away. Or eye, rather. The woman had a solid black eye patch covering her right eye.

Eva tried to pull back, but the hands around her shoulders kept her from moving much other than her head.

The eye behind the patch had blood flowing through it. It turned left and right in tandem with the left eye. Having never seen a blind person that still had their eyes, Eva couldn’t say if that was normal or not. As far as she could tell through her sense of blood, the eye was working just as well as the uncovered one.

“Interesting eyes.”

Eva would have jumped had the woman’s hands not been holding onto her. One word came out as coarse as gravel while the other was almost melodious.

Her hands disappeared from Eva’s shoulders and reappeared around her wrist. She just about pulled Eva’s arm out of the socket as she yanked the hands towards her sole eye for a better look.

“I thought these were gloves from behind, but they’re not gloves at all!” Her finger traced over the curl of chitin where the carapace melded with skin. She dropped Eva’s arm as abruptly as she had grabbed hold of it. “And your legs!”

Eva took a step back before the insane woman could wrench her feet out from under her.

Luckily, the woman did not pursue.