“I know! But we don’t have a choice, because I don’t recognize the demon you’re talking about. I’m going to get everyone on it. And we have to find someone who can get us to whatever afterworld it was taken to.”
Shite. She was right. Certain Mytheans could aetherwalk, but not many of them had free access to all the afterworlds. Very, very few did. It’d take time to find someone who could get them there. Too much time.
“We’re coming there,” Fiona said.
“Good. It won’t take long to get the word out. The council will be together by the time you get here.”
The council. The ones who’d demoted her and stripped her of her position when she’d failed to find the book. Her shoulders tensed.
Fuck it. It didn’t matter, not in the face of all this.
She mashed the End button and struggled to her feet. “We’ve got to get to the university.”
“Aye.”
They were able to exit via the alley door on the first floor, allowing them to avoid the charmed exhibits. Fiona didn’t know if she could face them in her condition, and Ian was still limping. Thank gods the police were gone from the alley. The dark concealed their bloodstained clothes as they crossed the street toward the flat.
It took only minutes to retrieve the car keys and their possessions. There’d be no reason to come back here. Once they’d replaced their blood-splattered clothes with clean ones, she approached Ian with the collar and snapped it about his neck before he could stop her.
“Really?” he asked.
She nodded, her chest feeling tight. “The council will need to see that you’re wearing it.”
He frowned, but beneath the annoyance she swore—hoped—she saw understanding.
“How’s your arm?” she asked as they descended the stairs to street level.
“Healing.”
She nodded. He’d torn up a shirt and tied it around his arm. If it was still a problem when they got to the university, they’d have a healer look at it. She wouldn’t mind having her hip and stomach gashes looked at. The wounds wouldn’t kill her, but a bandage would be nice.
They slipped into her hatchback and took off through Edinburgh. It was after midnight and the streets had quieted.
Fiona was vibrating with tension by the time they drove through the university gates. She’d hoped to return through these gates with the book in hand, fate proven, sanity saved, and her old job won back. She was returning a failure. A true Failte.
Her lips tightened. Not for long.
She parked her car beneath the same tree she’d put it under when she’d sprung Ian from prison. She climbed out and looked over the roof at him.
“I’ll see to it they doona put you back in that cell,” she said. They’d be going back into the Praesidium, the same building that housed the prison in the basement. Lea’s office happened to be in on the first floor.
He nodded, his lips tight and his eyes doubtful. Her heart sank, because though she’d fight to keep him out, her power didn’t extend that far. But they didn’t have a choice about going into the Praesidium. They had to get the book back.
They crossed the cobblestone lot and climbed the expansive stairs to the looming stone building. A chill raced over her skin as they walked into the atrium. The glass ceiling soared above the gleaming wooden floor.
“Doona worry about Lea,” Fiona said as they walked down the hall. “She’s going to look like a ghost, but she’s no’. And she’s harmless.”
“What is she?”
“I doona know. She’s just fading. It might have something to do with the fact that she never leaves her office. It’s a library that she had expanded into a suite, but she hasn’t left in at least a hundred years. Maybe longer. She’s the best at what she does, though. She knows everything there is about Mythean history, or where to find it. And she’s one of the top ranking officials.”
“Good thing she’s on our side,” he said when they reached a wooden door.
“Exactly.” Fiona knocked.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ian followed Fiona into the library office.