Caden dropped one leg out the side and used his arms to pull himself out the rest of the way. A panicked flutter expanded in my chest. The ledge didn’t collapse. Standing flat against the side of the building, he reached back and held out his hand.
“Let’s go, Graves.”
Nope. No way. I did not sign on for narrow window ledges.I glanced over my shoulder as a flashlight beam bounced through the glass in the door. Crap. I was out of time.
“Loki, hide under the desk.” I pointed beneath the wooden frame and snapped my fingers.
The dog leaped into motion, obeying my order. Then, lunging for Caden’s hand, I scrambled through the window casing. The ledge was only a few inches wide, and my throat closed as the edge crumbled. Tiny pieces of concrete rained three stories down to the stone walkway below.
Pressed tightly against his side, we held our breaths, backs firmly against the wall as someone entered the office. My knees shook as I looked out over the campus.
“Afraid of heights, Graves?” he murmured in my ear.
I nodded and squeezed my eyes shut.
His grip tightened around my hand, fingers interlocking with mine. The wind sailed over us, drowning out any noise from inside the office.
On the wind, I smelled the hint of iron. It was faint, an essence of dark magic wafting out the window. My stomach lurched. Whoever was inside wasn’t just a cleaner come to empty the wastebasket; they had magic, and the senses went two ways.
A hysterical laugh bubbled inside my throat. How was I supposed to defend myself now? None of my in-game simulations had taught me how to remove a demon blade from my boot while standing on a four-inch ledge, forty feet in the air—and even if it had, it wasn’t as if I would have practiced it.
“Don’t move, Graves,” Caden breathed. A pulse of magic flowed between our hands. He was cloaking our power to disguise our presence. I just hoped it was enough.
Blowing air out between my teeth, I locked my knees and waited. A few more concrete crumbles fell to the ground below.
If I didn’t die, I was definitely going to throw up.
We waited for what felt like half an hour but was probably only fifteen minutes. The rain started up again, droplets pelting the stone and drenching my clothes. My hair stuck to the sides of my face as water sluiced down my neck.
“They’re gone,” Caden said, squeezing some life back into my hand. “I can’t sense them anymore.”
“We can go back inside now?”
“Yes, but slowly!”
I turned my head, hoping he could see the incredulous look on my features. “Slowly, huh? And here I thought it was a race. First one inside wins a prize! Tell him what he wins, Johnny,” I mocked in my best TV host accent.
Caden frowned, but the edges wobbled a bit. “You’re a funny one, Graves.” His grip tightened when I started to move. “I mean it. Go slow.”
Centimeter by centimeter, I shuffled closer to the window, afraid to pick up my feet on the slippery concrete. When I’d reached the casing, I wrapped my hands around the top of the window and slowly eased myself back inside.
My feet landed on solid ground, and I bent over in relief. Caden came in behind me as Loki floated out from beneath the desk. He tried to nuzzle my hand while I caught my breath.
“What do you think they were searching for?” I asked, straightening to look around the office. Everything looked exactly the same. Nothing was tossed or disturbed.
“I don’t know.”
My gaze landed on the surface of Professor Roberts’ desk. The pens were still lined up neatly next to the books. Each scrap of paper was in the perfect position, but something was out of place.
“Caden, look at the blotter. There’s a card missing. She had everything organized in strict lines with no spaces. Pull up the photos from before.”
Caden swiped through the photos on his phone, stopping on the one he’d taken of her desk. Zooming in, he focused on the notes underneath the blotter.
“There—that’s what’s missing. It looks like a business card.”
“Whoever was in here must have taken it.”
“There’s an address at the bottom. Looks like we have our first promising lead.” He pocketed his phone and studied me. There was a strange look on his face, almost as if he was impressed by my quick deduction.
