Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,29
rabbit hole. All other possible gateways have been destroyed over the years, so we don’t have much choice. I’ve listed down the pros and cons of each.”
West doubled over, coughing out bits of meat. Ken leaned back against his chair and pretended to choke himself. Only Loki remained silent, though their expression was resigned.
“Not another pro-con list.” Ken lifted his hands, as if to ward off some unseen attacker.
“What’s a rabbit hole?” Tala wanted to know.
“Portals, basically,” Zoe explained, unfolding the sheet to reveal notebook paper covered in meticulous writing, with a vertical line drawn down the middle. Several incomprehensible doodles covered the bottom half. “Rabbit holes are natural, magical portals. Looking glasses are man-made category one spelltech. There’s a looking glass outside of Invierno no one else knows about, which was how we got here quickly. Avalonian cartographers were very particular about documenting their locations.” She made a face. “They’ve also discovered an ancient rabbit hole within Invierno itself, which should be easier for us to reach at this point. It should lead out into a protected site in New York City, where there should be some Avalonians standing by to retrieve us.”
“New York City?” Tala squawked. “There’s a portal here that could teleport us to New fricking York City, and we never knew about it?”
“We’re not even sure it still exists,” Zoe reminded her. “Most countries have banned both rabbit holes and looking glasses, especially in the Royal States. Fears of people using them to get here illegally, I guess.”
“And where exactly is this rabbit hole located?”
“According to online maps, it’s at 34 Rodney Drive.”
That sounded awfully familiar. “34 Rodney…Sydney Doering’s place? The rabbit hole is at Sydney Doering’s place?”
“Not familiar with her, but if she owns 34 Rodney Drive, then yes. Odd as it might sound, Invierno wasn’t always impervious to magic. This place used to be a Mexican settlement. They cursed the land when the colonizers invaded, using spells I imagine might be similar to those employed by the Makilings.”
Tala stared at her, and then started to laugh. “You know what’s ironic? There’s a party there tonight. Alex invited me. I should have accepted.”
“We’ll take care of it,” Loki said softly.
“I hope it works because I’m not sure we can leave the way we came in,” Ken added cheerfully, “after all the trouble we had with those agents staking out the city exits. We’re gonna have another fight on our hands if we use the same route back.”
“Attack is such a violent term. We just turned them to stone is all.”
“What?”
“Only long enough for us to sneak in. Powerful spell, I’m surprised it worked so close to the town. It’s a minute spell, turned them back after we snuck in, and with them none the wiser. But I don’t think we can pull that trick a second time.”
“Then a quick map of Invierno should prove invaluable.” Zoe indicated her rough sketch.
Ken screwed his eyes up. “That’s not a map. All I see is a mermaid French-kissing a unicorn.”
“Shut up. Look—here’s the looking glass we used to get here—three miles outside the city, at the Casa Grande domes.”
“There’s a looking glass there?” Tala exclaimed. “That place’s been abandoned for years.”
“All the more reason to hurry, then.” Zoe pointed at a squiggle marked with an X. “Pro: It’s virtually a deserted area, so no one will notice us. Con: We’ll have to brave a checkpoint to get there. As Ken mentioned, they know something’s up, so we can’t pull the same stunt on them again.”
Tala swallowed.
“Con,” Ken said. “I hate pro-con lists. The more difficult you tell me something is, the more I wanna do it.”
Zoe made a face at him. “Avalonians also take very meticulous care when it comes to documenting looking glasses, and the Cheshire’s certain there’s only that looking glass at the domes, aside from the rabbit hole at Rodney Drive.” She studied the paper carefully. “Naturally, we’ll still need to find His Highness before we decide anything. You guys sure he’s not here?”
“Positive,” West promised.
“Hopefully he’ll be at the game. Sergeant Urduja is on a rampage trying to find him. You guys keep looking, I’ll rendezvous with Peets and discuss our next move. Anything else before we start?”
“No, Mother,” Loki said, with a faint smile.
“I need to pee,” West said.
“I’m not kidding,” Ken said, still studying the paper. “That mermaid’s really going to town on that unicorn.”