I’m not quite sure how much a permit costs at short notice, but I can imagine a lot, since a standard permit is already so expensive. “He’ll be fine,” I say mulishly. “He can afford it.”
Heloise is still staring at me with a funny expression on her face. “Sure,” she says. “But it’s pretty obvious—”
“What’s obvious?” Straightaway, I regret asking, but it’s too late. I didn’t stop myself in time.
She gives my shoulder a playful shove. “That he wants to get into your pants, Gwen.”
“He doesnot!” My face and chest prickle; I’m sure they’ve turned bright red.
I haven’t had a chance to tell Heloise yet about what Harrisford and I did last night. In fact, I’m not actually sure if Ieverwant to tell her.
In the cold light of day, it honestly is extremely embarrassing. At the time, it had felt so normal, casually discussing sex with Harrisford as though we were discussing the weather. But now, when Ithink about the way I’d pleaded with him to fuck me, all I want to do is crawl into a hole and die.
“Oh, he does,” she teases. “That boy ispiningfor you, G. He wants youbad.”
I grimace. No. He doesn’t. It was just a onetime thing—he’d readily agreed to that. We’d both agreed to it. Give it another few days, and he’ll be joyfully bedding someone else…someone who is probably less work—and infinitely more attractive—than boring old me.
But the memories rise involuntarily inside my mind. The way he looked. The way he felt. The way his strong arms held me against him, cradling me as we slept. The calluses on his palms as he kneaded my bare skin; the way his faint stubble felt under my fingers and against my inner thighs; the scars covering his shoulders, his back, his neck.
Something lurches in my belly at the memories, though I can’t quite put my finger on what. Shaking my head, I ignore it. There’s no time to obsess over Harrisford’s physical perfection—and imperfections—right now. Not when there’s a corporate conspiracy threatening to destroy the world. One that we somehow have to solve before exams start in less than a week. I brace myself, actively pushing all thoughts of Harrisford right out of my mind.
We’re in the hallway outside my room, so I glance around to make sure no one is watching, then drag Heloise through my door, shutting it behind us.
Percy immediately leaps out of my arms and begins pacing around the room, sniffing the walls and furniture intently. “Smell anything interesting?” I ask him, arching an eyebrow.
He’s now moved on to the hem of my trousers, his little nostrils flaring as they suck in all the scent.I can smell the Bum Scratcher onyour clothing, he says, then rubs himself contentedly against my leg, purring.
“All right, all right, that’s quite enough,” I grumble at him, before lifting him off the floor and depositing him on my bed.
After giving Percy a vigorous scratch behind his ears, I straighten to speak to Heli. “What are we going to do now, about Magecorp? About what we saw at the hospital?”
Heli turns to me, twisting one of her braids. “I’ve been thinking,” she says. “The list my mother gave us wasn’t just dead people, was it?”
“No, it also listed those who went missing, but—” Stopping short, I twist my mouth in confusion, trying to follow her train of thought. “What are you getting at?”
She gives a low chuckle. “Considering you’re the smartest witch at Seamere, G, I’m surprised you haven’t thought of this already. That man at the hospital—Jarvis—talked about using the tethers to hold open the portals, right?”
“Right,” I say, casting my mind back to the conversation we witnessed.
Nathaniel Price, Jarvis, and the doctor had been discussing how to continue harvesting magic despite having inadequate Source. They’d spoken of a “patient 39” who’d been implanted with a Source fragment a long time prior. And Jarvis had said:They might be the only individual capable of holding a long-term tether. If we station 39 as the tetherinsidethe Void, then our models suggest that they could hold the portal open for quite some time. We can just swap out the tethers on the outside as they burn out.
Reflexively, I reach out and grab Heli’s arm. “Shit, Heli. You think that the missing people might be inside theVoid?”
Heli nods. “Yeah. I think there’s a chance that whoever’s opening all the portals to steal magic is kidnapping people to use as tethers. Maybe they’re using the tethers that Magecorp already implanted,or maybe they’re new ones implanted with stolen Source. But either way, if we go in and rescue them—”
“—then we can close the portals and stop the surges!”
But then we both fall silent. I pace to the window, gripping the sill; Heli sinks onto the bed and starts stroking Percy’s back. There’s one major thing we’re missing…and that is: How do we get into the Void?
I lean my forehead against the glass, my burst of exhilaration dissipating until it’s thoroughly replaced by gloom. No one speaks for several long minutes.
That is, until Percy pipes up from where he’s lounging at the foot of my bed. He’s been listening to my thoughts, evidently.
If you want to enter the Void, Hairless One, he says,you’ll need to break into Nathaniel’s house and steal a big black box.
I swivel to face Percy. “A big black box?” Apart from the time he’d told me someone broke into the Price mansion, Percy has never spoken about his life there. And I’d never thought to ask, which in retrospect was a massive oversight.
He gives me a slow blink with his one eye.Yes. I saw my ex-human open portals many times.
