The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) Brad Magnarella (ink book reader txt) 📖

spring. I had detoured past it a few times since, in the hopes of catching Caroline coming or going. That must have held the portal to Angelus’s kingdom. The portal to Caroline’s mother’s kingdom would be somewhere in lower Manhattan.

“Ours is beneath Federal Hall,” Caroline said with a tired laugh, as though picking up my thought. “You can imagine the kinds of strings the fae have had to pull over the years.”

I grunted.

A stone’s throw from Wall Street, Federal Hall stood on the site of the first capitol of the United States, where George Washington himself had been sworn into office. The building had been a national monument until about a decade ago when the city wrested it under municipal control—and then promptly shut the site down for repairs. Probably the fae’s doing.

“I still don’t see what this has to do with me,” I said.

“Because of my connections to City Hall, I’ve been in talks with Mayor Lowder. He’s—”

“Wait, you’re talking to Budge? Even as he’s planning to wipe us out?”

“He’s not planning to wipe us out. Just listen,” she said when I started to interrupt again. “Budge saw you and me together at the gala that night back in April. He’s told me about your confrontation in his mansion. I’ve assured him that you’re not a threat, that you’ll be no further trouble to him.”

That damned professorial tone again. Indignation broke hot inside me.

“Thanks, but I can fight my own battles.”

“Not if Penny wakes up,” Caroline said.

“What do you mean?”

“Budge isn’t sure he can control her.”

“We already took care of that,” I said.

“If you’re talking about the information you have on them … Look, Budge covered his bases well. The sympathy campaign protects his wife while she’s comatose. Reveal anything about her werewolf nature now, and the public will eat you alive. That goes double when the eradication program gains momentum. The public will see it as a slander campaign. Meaning if and when Penny wakes up, she’ll have carte blanche to go after you.”

I had already been down that line of reasoning, but I refused to show any more weakness. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,” I said.

“For your safety,” Caroline went on, “I think you should come to the faerie realm for a period, as our guest.”

“Our, as in your and Angelus’s?” I shook my head. “Forget it.”

“Just until we can assess the situation, see where the eradication program leads. The fae don’t typically intervene on behalf of non-fae, but I’ve worked out an exception for you.”

I waved my hands for her to stop.

“You’re welcome to bring your cat, of course,” she said.

“Look, Caroline. I get that you feel bad about what happened between us, that you want to try to make it up to me. But I’m not a charity case. I can take care of myself.”

“Not against the kinds of forces that might be gathering.”

The gravity in her voice matched the weight of her gaze: whatever it was she wasn’t telling me. I wanted to press her, but my pride wouldn’t allow it. I stood from behind my desk.

“Thanks for stopping by,” I said.

“Everson…”

I strode to the classroom door and opened it. After a moment, she rose and walked toward me. “At least promise me you’ll think about it. You still have my number. Leave me a message.”

“I left several back in April,” I said coldly.

She made a tentative move to hug me, but I backed away a step and stared at a spot just above her head. After a moment, Caroline relented and walked out of my classroom and most likely my life.

Good riddance.

“My ice bags are all soggy,” Tabitha pouted as I hung my cane on the coat rack and locked the apartment door behind me.

I looked over at where my cat lounged on her divan, a box fan blowing orange hair from her squinting eyes. Her perch was a cooling system I had fixed up for her: a plus-sized cat bed set atop gallon bags of ice. The bags were water-filled now, one fallen to the floor and leaking.

“Yeah, yeah,” I sighed. “Hop up, and I’ll change them.”

“This heat is insufferable,” she complained as she stood from the cat bed and stretched. “Can’t you do anything about it?”

“I told you, we’re on a waiting list with the HVAC people.”

She stopped and eyed my approach. “You look like walking death.”

“Just a tough morning at the college.”

“Oh sure,” she said. “Telling stories to an audience of impressionable young women, mooning and batting their lashes up at you. Must be fucking torture.”

“It has nothing to do with my classes, and watch your mouth.” I picked up the dripping bags and carried them to the kitchen sink.

“Do tell.”

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

I could feel her sharp feline eyes on me as I emptied the bags and scooped fresh ice into them. The heat wave coupled with a dead air conditioner had made Tabitha more antagonistic than usual. She was looking for an opening to needle me. I wasn’t going to give her one.

“Well, if you don’t tell me what’s wrong,” she said, “how am I going to help you?”

“You help me?” I laughed once. “That’s rich.”

I returned with the ice bags and a fresh towel, arranging them beneath her cat bed. I used the old towel to wipe up the spill on the floor.

“Oh, come now, darling,” she said in her hurt voice, curling onto the bed, ice crunching as she shifted her weight around. “I know I don’t always show it, but it just kills me when something’s bothering you.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I’m serious. Besides, who else do you have to talk to?”

She had a point. With no one to confide in, my encounter with Caroline was only going to play a numb loop in my mind. A part of me felt a cold satisfaction at having shown Caroline the door, but the heart-piercing truth was that she had walked out of it a long time ago. The four months since our night