Gods and Swindlers (City of Eldrich Book 3) (15 page)

Dustin nodded. “Magic plays hell with electronics. I have some shielding charms that should help.”

“You’re hired.” Kady smiled at Sam, who was wearing Meaghan’s faded Arizona State T-shirt. It came to his knees. His legs were covered in a pair of Russ’s gym socks. “So are you, cutie. You can be my intern.”

Sam nodded, his face serious. “I will do my best to serve you.”

“First task,” Kady said. “Ask Russ to make me a sandwich. I’m starving.”

Owen called a few minutes later. They had decided to avoid the Keeles’ house until Luka arrived and they figured out their next steps. John would be staying with them for now.

Meaghan, relieved she wouldn’t have to deal with John yet, and assured by Kady that there was nothing pressing on her work calendar, went upstairs to lie down for a little while.

Hearing Matthew’s voice had rattled her. He hadn’t reached out to her since Fahraya. Why was she hearing his voice now? She’d had the occasional psychic flashback since Jhoro had dosed her with Fahrayan peyote in June. Maybe this was another one?

Nah,
she told herself.
That’s too easy.
She groaned and kicked off her shoes, then plopped on the bed.
Early onset Alzheimer’s? Or maybe I’m just nuts
.

Meaghan had a list of therapists to call, but she’d rather go for another moonlight drive in the woods. Therapy seemed so . . . weak, wussy, pathetic—
necessary
, her sensible voice told her. “Shut up, you,” she murmured. “I’m taking a nap.”

She fell asleep right way and had a stupid dream about Russ throwing blocks of Velveeta cheese at her and then she woke up.

The light in the room had changed. She glanced at the clock. It looked like dusk, but it was only three. She’d been asleep for over two hours. She rolled off the bed and looked out the window.

Snow fell thick and fast and—if the last three months had been any guide—would likely continue through the night. Already several inches of new snow had accumulated. With a shiver, Meaghan grabbed another sweater off the laundry pile and headed downstairs.

She found Sam alone in the dining room office. He’d changed back into his gray leggings and tunic, but he’d kept Meaghan’s T-shirt on over top. He sat at Kady’s computer, on a pile of phonebooks, staring at the monitor.

Meaghan glanced out the front window. Kady’s car was gone. “Did Kady go home?”

“Yes,” Sam said. “The snow is hard to drive in, she said, and she wanted to return to her home while she could.”

Meaghan nodded. “What are you doing?”

“I am looking at your Internet. It is very . . .” He stared at the screen. “Humans are very fond of cats.”

Meagan couldn’t hold back her laughter. “Among other things. There’re some corners of the Internet you definitely want to avoid.”

“And they are fond of arguing,” he said. “And they do not like trolls.” He shuddered. “This is wise. I met a troll once. In the wild lands before I found the gateway to the archive. I barely escaped.”

Meaghan booted up her laptop.
Time to do some research on the mysterious Luka Volkhov.
“Not the same kind of troll. Internet trolls are merely extremely unpleasant humans. But you met an actual troll? My father wrote in his journal that they’re almost extinct.”

Sam shook his head. “Not extinct. They were banished by the fair folk. To a demiworld. Like the dragons and other dangerous creatures.”

“Demiworld?”
Not the damn dragons again
 
.
 
.
 
.
Melanie had mentioned the dragons before Meaghan went to Fahraya. The thought of dragons had been more terrifying than the reality of giant snakes.
No dragons. I draw the line at dragons.

“A bubble. Like the archive. But these are sealed with strong magics. They are prisons, but sometimes things break free. Or are freed by accident.”

“Or on purpose.” Meaghan nodded, thinking of the Order’s efforts to free the squid on Labor Day. Before she could follow the thought further, Russ leaned in, a worried look on his face. “Have you heard from Natalie?”

“I just woke up.” She looked over at Sam. “Have you heard anything?”

“The Red Witch has not returned,” he said, his face solemn. “Miss Kady worries and asks that we call when we hear from her.”

Natalie lived within walking distance of city hall. “Maybe she headed home.”

Russ shook his head. “I called Patrice and asked her to check. And she’s not answering her cell.”

“Where’s Dustin?”

“Asleep in Jhoro’s room,” Russ said. “I guess the computer charms knocked him out.”

“Let me check something.” Meaghan dialed Emily’s office line and got no answer, so she called her cell.

“Emily Proctor.”

“It’s Meaghan. Where are you?”

“In the car. Tony sent everyone home.”

“What for?”

“Haven’t you seen the weather report? This is only the start. We’re supposed to get slammed. They’re predicting record snowfalls.”

Meaghan frowned. “Since when? They usually warn you about this crap days in advance.”

“This one slipped under the radar, I guess. We get these freak snowstorms once in a while that blow up out of nowhere. Something to do with Lake Erie and the mountains, I think.”

“Not magically induced?” Meaghan asked.

“Not any magic I’m familiar with,” Emily said.

“Have you heard anything from Natalie?”

Emily gave a small polite laugh. “What have I done now?”

“You’re fine. But nobody seems to know where she is.”

“I’m the last person she’d call,” Emily said. “You know that.”

Meaghan smiled. “I thought maybe she’d drop by to glower or taunt or something.”

“My office is still well warded against her. At least until she warms up to me a little. Listen, the roads are terrible. Even with all-wheel drive, I’m all over the place. I need to hang up and focus on driving. I’ll call you if I hear anything.”

Meaghan said good-bye and hung up. She looked at Russ and shook her head. “Who’s downstairs? With you know who?”

“Gretchen and Lynette,” Russ said.

“They’ve been here all day. I thought they were calling in reinforcements.”

Russ shrugged. “Some new witches are coming later, I think. Lynette is being really picky about who’s down there, I guess. At least that’s what Gretchen says.”

“Picky is good,” Meaghan said, “until we have a better idea of our guest’s abilities.”

“I know who you speak of. I tried to talk with him.” Sam smiled. “He was most displeased to see me.”

“I bet,” Meaghan said. “He’s not all that fond of me either.”

“He wanted to know how I got here.” Sam’s look darkened. “Anything we tell him, he will report back to the others.”

Meaghan smiled. “We’re counting on it.”

“You mean to deceive them?”

“We do. Are they smart enough to see through it?”

Sam shook his small head. “They believe humans to be fools. Let him believe that he has tricked the information from you, and they will be certain of its truth.”

Meaghan nodded. “Good idea.” She turned her attention back to Russ. “Natalie was working on neutralizing the carpet signal in the archives. Maybe she’s still there. You talked to Dustin?”

“No,” Russ said. “He’s been asleep. I think I’ll go wake him up.”

Which meant Russ was worried—he wouldn’t disturb a sleeping houseguest otherwise—which in turn worried Meaghan. Besides being her baby sister, Natalie was still her biggest gun. She was, by far, the most powerful witch in Eldrich, and the last time any of them had seen her, she’d been heading into the archive.

And somebody had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure the archive gateway was jammed wide open.

If it had merely been an error, then why was Bottaio Design in the wind now that the job was done? Even if they were merely con men who’d spotted a fat mark in Tony Diebler, what were the odds that they’d inadvertently sell him sigil-covered carpeting?

Astronomical
, she thought.

But why? It had been merely a fluke of timing that sent Natalie to the archive. It could as easily have been Kady or somebody else who ended up over there.

Meaghan’s gut told her that this was about her, not about any of the witches. Who stood to gain from Meaghan getting a direct line to information about the fair folk?

Not the fair folk, that was certain.

So, it must be an enemy of the fair folk. But if it had been somebody sympathetic to Meaghan, then why the fly-by-night approach?

Meaghan thought of the adage about the enemy of your enemy being your friend. It had never made sense to her. In her experience, the enemy of your enemy could easily be a different enemy. If somebody wanted to destroy you, becoming allies for the sake of expediency gave them better access.

That left the Order, but Meaghan had no idea what their beef might be with the fair folk. Or could it be an enemy they hadn’t encountered yet? “Sam, do the fair folk have any enemies besides humans?”

“Oh, yes,” Sam said. “They are friends with no one. They have enslaved and imprisoned many species.”

“Well, that narrows it right down,” Meaghan said, with a sigh.

Sam gave her a confused look.

She patted his small back. “Don’t mind me. I’m trying to figure out who was responsible for the sigil carpet. You keep looking at cats.”

Chapter Nineteen

M
EAGHAN HEARD THE
snowplow before she saw it. She peered out the dining room window and expected to see one of the battered orange city plows. But this was a brand new pickup, extended cab, with the dealer sticker still in the side window, equipped with a snowplow blade and chains on the tires.

It stopped in front of Terry’s house. Three figures bundled up in winter clothing stepped out. One of the men was huge, nearly as broad as he was tall. They all shook hands, and then the smallest of the three turned and trudged up Terry’s driveway.

The other two headed toward Meaghan. After a moment, she realized the slender one was Jamie.

“Sam, we’ve got people coming. I’m going to pull this door shut for now. I’ll come get you when I know it’s safe.”

He waved at her, totally engrossed in something online.

Meaghan closed the pocket door separating the dining room from the hall. When she heard them stomp onto the porch, she pulled open the front door.

The huge one saw her, grinned, and stuck out a giant hand. “At last we meet,” he boomed. “Buzz Hallam.”

She took his hand, tentatively. Buzz looked like he could crush her fingers into paste if he squeezed too hard. “It’s freezing out here. Come on in.”

He gave her hand a gentle shake, then followed her into the house. “The roads are already bad and this storm’s only getting started. Caught a lift from Williamsport with your neighbor’s cousin. His limo cancelled on him, so he bought a truck.”

“With a credit card,” Jamie added. He pulled his knit cap off, his dark blond hair crushed against his skull except for the hairs standing straight up from static electricity. “I thought the salesman was gonna have a stroke.”

“Nice hat head,” Meaghan said. “How’d you hook up with Luka?”

“Kady set it up somehow. She called Dad or Dad called her, they figured out I was already down there, and asked if I could give Luka a ride. But the roads were already so bad I knew my car wouldn’t make it.”

Meaghan nodded and turned back to Buzz. “While I’m thrilled to finally meet you in person, what are you doing all the way up here? I thought you lived in Williamsport.”

He smiled down at her. He pulled off his own hat. Between his smiling, craggy face and shiny bald head, Buzz looked like an amiable boulder. “Got some family I need to check on up in Slepp’s Holler. So I hitched a ride. Luka’s gonna let me use his new truck to go out there. Nice fella for a gazillionaire.”

She looked at Jamie. “What about you?”

He grinned at her. “I’m going to shamelessly mooch something to eat under the pretense of checking in at the office and then Buzz is going to drop me home.”

Meaghan nodded. “You haven’t heard from Natalie, by any chance?”

Jamie shook his head. “No. Why?”

“Just wondered,” Meaghan said. Until she knew there was a reason to be worried, she wasn’t going to tell him more. Despite his return to work and his outward cheerfulness, Meaghan could tell he was still struggling to recover from what had happened to him over the summer. The physical scars had faded, but there was a wariness about him that hadn’t been there before, and dark circles remained around his eyes.

She stuffed their coats in the closet and followed them back to the kitchen.

“Buzz!” Russ shouted with joy. “If I’d known you were coming, I’d have bought more groceries.”

Buzz pulled Russ into a hug and lifted him off his feet.

By Meaghan’s calculation, Buzz had to be pushing seventy, but he moved like a much younger man.

“Russell, you snot-nosed brat, how the hell are you?” he bellowed, before setting Russ down. “I hear you got a new woman in your life. What’s her name?”

Russ grinned. “Annie. I think this is the one, Buzz. This time I’m getting it right.”