Wicked Deal (Shadow Guild: The Rebel 2)

“Really?” she asked.

I nodded. “It is my name, after all.”

“Um…okay. Maybe.”

Discomfort prickled against my neck. I turned back to the street and resisted rubbing my chest. It felt strange.

This all felt strange.

Fortunately, we reached the edge of town a moment later. Thank fates—a distraction from my idiocy.

The hill rose steeply here, small buildings crawling up the sides. They were primarily residential, though it wasn’t the nicer part of town.

“Who lives here?” Carrow asked.

“Generally dark magic practitioners.”

“Evil magic?”

“Normally, yes. Depending on how you use it.”

“The Council allows them to stay here?”

“If they pay the right dues.”

“Through you?”

I shook my head. “I don’t tend to deal in dark magic. There’s enough money to be made on the sidelines of light.”

She gave me a considering look, and a strong desire for her approval flowed through me. I shook my head to drive off the feeling and turned back to the covered stairs that stretched up the hill. The rickety wooden steps were covered by a dilapidated peaked wooden roof that protected them from the rain.

Carrow stepped closer and peered up the stairwell, which extended more than a hundred meters upward. The space was narrow and dark, with shafts of light shining through the sides and the holes in the ceiling.

She whistled low. “Must take a lot of magic to hide a hill like this in London.”

“An immense amount.” I’d helped collect much of it when the city was founded. “There’s a series of magical batteries that help power the spell that hides us.”

She turned to me, her brows raised. “Magical batteries?”

I nodded. “Certain objects possess more magic than others, either because of their history or what they are. They can be difficult to find, but the power in them can be used for many things.”

“Could your enemies be threatening those?”

“Possibly. They’re so well protected and hidden that I doubt they could find one. But it’s always possible. If they are planning to blow up Black Church, I don’t know how one would play a role in that.”

She shivered, then began to climb the wooden stairs. I followed right behind her. Light streamed through the darkness, and as we climbed, it grew colder and colder.

She looked over her shoulder. “Is this the haunting?”

“Yes.”

Snow began to fall outside, totally out of place in London at this time of year. She shivered hard and hugged her arms to her chest.

I stripped off my jacket and handed it to her.

She gave me a confused look.

“Put it on.” Protectiveness itched under my skin, an uncomfortably unfamiliar feeling that I couldn’t resist.