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“This is us,” said Lucien, who unlocked the door to room 1410.
Relief filled me as I saw both Diaboli men move into the room opposite ours. My anxiety spiked again as I came to the sudden, horrifying realization that I was about to have to share a room with Lucien Diaboli. I didn’t know which outcome I preferred.
My anxiety fell away as soon as I entered the room, though. I was greeted with a fresh, lavender scent and a gorgeous suite. The suite was perfectly conditioned, the décor was lush without being over the top, there was a huge television, a desk, wide windows, and a bed.
A bed.
One bed.
Shit, shit, shit.
My anxiety returned, and I didn’t appreciate the roller-coaster. There were no couches in here, and no extra beds, only an armchair next to the desk. The bed was huge, it looked comfortable as all hell, and it was covered in pillows, but there was only one of them.
And we were going to be here for a few days.
“Okay,” I said, once the door closed, “We need to talk about?—”
Without warning, Lucien wrapped his hand around my mouth. He brought his other hand up and pressed a finger to his lips. I stood there, my heart hammering inside of my chest, Lucien’s musky cologne filling my nostrils.
He scanned the bedroom door, then waited… and waited. A moment later, he brought his lips to my ear, and whispered. “We need to be quiet,” he said.
Swallowing hard, I nodded.
“I’m going to let you go, but you need to listen first.”
Again, I nodded, only it took a moment because the warmth of his breath against my ear had left me feeling a little lightheaded in all the right—and wrong—ways.
“Don’t think for a moment my father doesn’t have this place monitored,” he said. “I’m going to need to scan for cameras and listening devices. He wouldn’t have been stupid enough to rig this place with magic. In a moment, one of those guys is going to come in here with equipment for us to set up, then he’s going to leave. Keep playing along like you’ve been doing so far, you’re doing great. It’ll just be a little longer. Can you do that for me?”
What the hell is he doing to me?
I nodded again.
True to his word, Lucien released me and backed away. I had questions for him, so many questions, but my mind was racing, and my blood was pumping. Instead of speaking, I tried to loosen up and shake off the rush of emotions I was feeling. I headed over to one of the windows and looked outside.
From up here I could see all the way up and down the length of the block. Some of the buildings on it were taller than the one I was on, but most of them weren’t. I saw the cars on the street below, window-cleaners on their carts hanging off the sides of buildings and steam venting from some of the nearby rooftops.
Where the hell is the temple?
That was the thought wedged in my mind when one of the men across from us knocked on the door. Lucien opened it, let the man in, and followed him as he brought another suitcase into the room for us. He placed the suitcase on the bed and opened it without saying a word. Inside there were cameras, tripods, telescopes. I saw small drones, charging platforms, cables; the kind of surveillance equipment I had only ever seen people use in movies.
“That’ll be all,” Lucien said. A moment later, the man who had come in with the suitcase left us alone. He scanned the room again, then looked at me and placed a finger to his lips. “Let me show you how to set all this up,” he said. “Our target is across the street.”
“Across the street?” I asked, turning around and looking out the window again. The building across from us was plain, and boring; not at all like any of the temples I had ever seen in movies. “That thing?”
“That’s it,” said Lucien. “The crown is in there, somewhere. We’ll try to find it from out here. If we can’t, we’ll use this equipment to figure out the best way in and out.”
I couldn’t believe it.
I was here, in the city, with Boston at my fingertips… but I had just moved from one prison to another. Sure, this one had less demons in it, and that made for an upgrade, absolutely, but it was still a prison.
“Alright,” I said. “Show me how this stuff all works, and I’ll make myself useful.”
Lucien walked up to me, his reflection becoming visible in the window in front of me. I looked at him through it, eyes locked. He nodded, lightly, and without saying a word, he turned around and began to comb the room, quietly, looking for surveillance equipment that we couldn’t see.
All I could think about was how we were about to spend the next few days in this room.
Together.
