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

through Ed’s eyes, but she looked even less human now, more fae. From the amulet, a scent of honeydew rose and a soft, prickling wave swept over my skin. My body began to straighten and tighten, facial features migrating back into place. As the recharge finished, I decided that, yes, Caroline was definitely more fae.

She stepped back, eyes dark with concern.

“Thank you,” I said, the words wooden but much easier to form.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

I looked over at Pretzel, who was staring up at Caroline with a dreamy expression. “Hey, mind giving us a minute?” I said.

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Pretzel staggered off several paces before turning. “Ask if she’s got a friend,” he called back in a loud whisper. He found a park bench and collapsed onto his back.

I looked at Caroline again. “I’m at Arnaud’s.”

“I know. We’ve been trying to get you out of there.”

“The situation’s become more complicated,” I said with a wince. “Arnaud … bit me.”

Caroline’s face paled. “Bit you?”

“He took over my mind and forced me to call up a shadow fiend. I couldn’t stop him. I’m pretty sure he intends to turn the fiend loose on the city after it takes care of the trolls. And me.”

Caroline searched my eyes, appearing to weigh the information.

“I’m not asking you to help me,” I said. “I’ve blown my chances, and it’s too dangerous anyway. But I can tell you something Arnaud never intended for anyone to find out. He bound the shadow fiend to himself in a way that makes it dependent on his life force. This guarantees the fiend will remain loyal to Arnaud, but it’s also an Achilles heel.”

“Kill Arnaud, and the fiend perishes,” Caroline said.

“Exactly. Meaning there can’t be any more negotiations with the vampires. Arnaud has to be destroyed.”

Caroline nodded. “We’ll take your heed.”

“Good,” I said, noting how she was even starting to talk like a fae. “And, look, whatever happens … I want you to know I’m sorry. I should have listened to you.”

“It’s not your fault. I gave you ample reason to distrust me.” Caroline smiled tightly. “The fae and their secrecy … I wasn’t to discuss my involvement in the mayor’s programs with anyone else. Nor was I to intervene directly in the outcomes of those programs.”

“You saw the potential for complications, though,” I said.

She nodded. “Including the vampires trying to twist the eradication program to their own ends. That story about you … I knew where it originated. But Captain Cole reacted first, preempting the mayor. He organized the hunt for you and lay siege to the Financial District. City Hall had to play catch up.”

The war has begun, I remembered Arnaud telling me as his building shook.

“Arnaud fired the first shot, didn’t he?” I said, coming to yet another realization of how thoroughly I’d been duped. She nodded. “So Budge’s offer to end the siege in exchange for my extradition…?”

“Was to get you to safety,” Caroline affirmed. “We were in the process of clearing your name.”

“And the trolls?”

“Sent to help you.”

I shook my head in anguish. Who knew how many would die before the shadow fiend—and Arnaud—could be stopped. If they could be stopped. And all because I’d wanted to prove Caroline wrong.

She cupped my chin and raised it until our eyes aligned. “When we spoke in your classroom a few weeks ago, I told you I had worked out an exception in your case. I was given three chances to intervene on your behalf. The first was convincing Budge to negotiate for your release, the second was deploying the trolls. Everson, I still have one more chance to help you. If you’ll let me.”

“At what cost to you?”

The skin between her brows dimpled.

“Oh, c’mon,” I said, “I know the fae well enough to know there are no freebies. I mean, you gave up your mortality to help your father. What did you have to give up to help me?”

She hesitated. “My feelings for you.”

That was why she’d kept her distance. She had known this moment was coming.

“And with this third chance, the deal’s sealed?” I asked. “The feelings go away?”

The moisture in her eyes answered the question for her. I looked over her face, trying to frame it in my memory: every perfect line, every sensual color, from the blush of her lips to the blue-green spires of her irises.

Over on the bench, Pretzel began to croon about faded love.

No kidding, I thought. Caroline will never look at me this way again.

I drew a deep breath and, nodding, took her hand.

“Let’s make it a good one, then,” I said.

32

I stood slowly, feeling my way up the vault door.

The merry-go-round motion had stopped moments before, and I’d opened my eyes. Gone was the hazy light of the park, Pretzel’s singing, Caroline’s tender touch, the clean scent of fae magic. There was only a soulless darkness that smelled of sulfur and rancid blood.

But I was still alive.

I pressed my ear to the door’s cold metal. I couldn’t hear anything. Had the troll massacre ended? Where had Arnaud and the shadow fiend gone? Not out into the city, I hoped.

Okay, need to focus. Need to—

“You’re up, I see,” Arnaud said.

Blood roared in my ears as I spun toward his voice. No, it was too damned soon!

From the far end of the vault, footsteps clicked toward me. “You were lying so still, I feared you’d succumbed to the transformation. Not everyone has the constitution for it, I’m afraid. I would wager that for every young man I enslave, three to four die. A horrible inefficiency—a nuisance, really. Especially when one is trying his best to play down his true nature.”

I pressed myself flat against the vault door, and edged away from his voice, from the soul-raking presence of the shadow fiend.

“But at last the days of hiding are behind us, Mr. Croft. The trick was making the cost of persecution too high. Today, the city received a taste. Tonight, we will give them so much more.” Arnaud’s eyes shone