shoved to my feet, my head spinning, stomach twisting, and patience gone. “If you learn anything about the artifact I’m interested in, or the demonic artifacts Tori asked about, let us know. You can reach us through the Crow and Hammer.”
“Wait!” He scooted forward on his chair. “You agreed to tell me if I answered your questions!”
“You didn’t have any answers, did you?” I gave him the same cutting stare Zylas gave me whenever I did something particularly zh’ūltis. “I expected more from a so-called expert.”
Stepping past Tori’s knees, I speed-walked across the room. As I pushed open the stairwell door, I replayed that last exchange in my head. Slow heat built in my cheeks.
Tori stepped through the door, letting it swing shut behind her.
“Was I too rude?” I blurted anxiously. “I should’ve been nicer. He was sort of helpful. I shouldn’t have—”
She grinned. “That was perfect. He was a dick. You’re one tough cookie, Robin.”
“Me?” No way she was talking about me. I was the opposite of tough.
“You didn’t let him intimidate you for a second.”
“Was he intimidating?”
“Kind of, yeah. But still.”
My brow wrinkled. Compared to Zylas in a temper, Naim was as intimidating as a toothless dog.
Tori started down the stairs. “So, what’s that ancient infernus thing you’re researching? It looked interesting.”
“I ran across it in an old grimoire,” I revealed, going with a version of the truth. “What about your demon-mage case? What got you started on an investigation?”
“I’m just doing some legwork for Aaron and Kai. It’s their job.”
Except it wasn’t for a job; Zylas had already exposed that lie.
“Oh, I see,” I murmured as we reached the bottom of the stairs.
She hesitated, glancing at me, and I returned the look, wishing I knew what she was thinking. She’d seen the amulet, probably on Tahēsh. Maybe she knew what had happened to it. On top of that, she was seeking rare Demonica knowledge likely connected to her mage friends’ secret.
Giving nothing away, Tori shrugged and stepped into the hall.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Hi, Izzah.”
As I squeezed into the hall with her, I spotted the group of people she’d almost collided with, headed by a vaguely familiar woman—the dark-haired one I’d seen leaving the Crow and Hammer on Wednesday evening.
“Tori?” The woman frowned. “Wei, what are you doing here?”
I leaned around Tori, curious about the woman’s unusual accent, but the redhead was giving the whole group a jaunty salute.
“Nice to see ya. We’re just heading out.”
“What were you here for? Tori—”
Tori walked away while the woman was still talking, and I rushed after her with an awkward peek at the bewildered group we were leaving behind.
I caught up to Tori as we entered the lobby. “Is something wrong?”
“Nope. It’s just that guy—the short, bald one at the back—is a famous bounty hunter and he was a dick to me at the pub the other day.”
I hadn’t noticed a short, bald man. “A famous bounty hunter? What’s his name?”
“Shane Davila.” She reached for the frosted glass door. “Have you heard of—”
There was no warning. I didn’t have the slightest inkling something might be off until an impact like a cannonball hit the building.
Chapter Six
Tori fell into me. The floor quaked and I caught the back of her coat for balance as mythics elsewhere in the guild yelled out in shock. Tori faced the door, her complexion bleached of color.
Orange light exploded across the glass, and I recoiled. That couldn’t be what it looked like. No way was there a literal inferno piling up on the—
The glass door shattered and fire blasted into the lobby.
Tori thrust her arm out. “Ori repercutio!”
The air shimmered and the raging fire bounced off nothing, splattering the walls instead of my and Tori’s flammable bodies. In her hand was a tattered playing card—a sorcery artifact.
Seizing her arm, I gasped, “I thought you were a witch!”
“Yeah, well—”
Something metal clanked loudly. The sound came again, then again, almost like—like approaching footsteps. Smoke filled the lobby as flames climbed the walls, but even half-blinded, I couldn’t miss the hulking shadow taking form in the open doorway.
With a clang, the steel beast stepped into the threshold. Four-legged, a metal mouth full of triangular teeth, its limbs connected with heavy gears. Glowing runes covered every inch of its body.
A golem? A golem here?
The metal beast charged us.
Tori hauled me sideways. The magically animated beast roared past us, its footfalls deafening, and she shoved me toward the door. “Out! Get outside!”
I wasn’t quick enough getting my numb legs moving, and she