“Yes, but not yet.” Darius stopped in front of it. “That would alert Lucifer to a breach.”
“Obviously.” Emery’s eyes were still moving across it, then coming to a stop. His brow lowered. “This is incredible magic. The weave is intricate and tight. It would take a while to get through it. Maybe we should’ve left Reagan here for longer. Let her learn first.”
“She’ll have time to learn.” Darius got himself situated, adjusting his jacket and then his backpack, as if he were gearing up for what came next. “Once we get into the sect, we won’t be rushing. Can’t rush. One wrong step, and we’ll be hunted. We need to play this safe.”
“We only have food rations for a week, though,” Penny said. “That isn’t a lot of time for her to learn.”
“There is human food here, as well as various animals to hunt. They probably won’t be appetizing to you, but if you’re hungry enough, you’ll eat them. I have a store of canned goods hidden away in various sects for just such an occasion. We are aiming for Reagan being in his care for another two weeks, making it three total. We can push to four, but any longer and I fear she won’t want to leave. She is an incredibly fast learner—even Cahal mentioned his surprise. It’ll be enough time for her to learn the basics. She can build her knowledge from there.”
“She’ll want to leave.” Penny nodded as she studied the fog. Emery was right: that thing was a beast. It wouldn’t take forever for them to rip it down, though. All it would take was the spell Penny had devised to cripple Reagan’s magic.
“Ready?” Darius spared them a glance, and then he was easing into the fog, his body tensing up. That meant it hurt, probably pretty badly for him to show it.
“Do you think it will hurt us that badly?” she asked Emery, a quiver in her voice that she couldn’t quite help.
“No.” He didn’t sound sure. “Ready?”
She took his hand and stepped up to the fog. It licked her front, stinging, questing, hunting for the key that would allow them through.
They kept pushing forward. Magical needles pierced her, and she gasped. It felt like it was probing, trying to get at her blood. Wanting a sample of what granted her admission.
Emery tugged on her, forcing her farther into the fog. The pain increased, digging into her now, ever searching.
She knew what it was doing—it was seeking out the godly power she’d accidentally stolen from that horrible little goblin. She offered up what it was seeking to help it along.
The fog sizzled, peeling away from her tiny string of magic and then her body, deadening the pain as it let her pass.
It slithered around Emery’s body next, now popping and hissing, before letting him pass too.
She frowned as they stepped into the area beyond, where Darius waited with a watchful gaze and loose posture. A single boat waited at the end of the pier, occupied by a solitary figure at the bow.
Despite Darius’s posture, the tightness around his eyes suggested that he’d wondered if Penny and Emery would make it.
The hissing and popping continued after they passed, the thick white fog turning black. The magic peeling away. Evaporating. The change in fog racing into the sky…but not stopping there.
“What’s happening?” Darius asked, alarm in his voice.
“I…don’t know.” Penny watched as the magic continued to sizzle and pop and eventually burn away, exposing other piers with boats waiting at the ends. “I just offered up the magic it was searching for…”
“It looks like it’s unraveling the whole spell,” Emery said, still holding Penny’s hand, looking back at the beach, and then the sky. “Did you use the spell that deadens Reagan’s magic?”
“No! That’s a complex one—you’ve seen it. This was literally just me allowing it to find the magic I got from that Red Cap. The godly magic. That’s it, I swear!”
“Reagan is of the Underworld,” Darius said softly, and the sudden hard lines of his body made Penny jolt with adrenaline. It advertised his alarm. “But she had a mage’s magic through her mother. She has a godly touch. The two halves must exist in her in a unique way. Godly magic doesn’t unravel her Underworld magic this way. Come. Quickly. This will be noticed and reported immediately. We must go. Hurry!”
Penny jolted backward as a drop splattered across her forehead. “How did he come up with all that so fast…” she said as Emery tugged her on, rushing to the boat at the end of the pier.
The people in the boats down the way were looking upward. Some had turned in their direction.
“Donkey balls dipped in milk,” Penny swore, allowing Darius to grab her other arm and help Emery lower her into the boat. This was not a great time to be clumsy. She did not want to fall into the stagnant yet murky river water. Lord knew what was in it.