Over your dead body!
Say “boo” to possession!
Tolliver came up with that one.
As a familiar, Crowlene should offer the normal benefits of her kind: an extra pair of eyes (metaphorically speaking, since she onlyhas the one), unwavering loyalty, free pest control. But my spell must have gone wrong, because she provides none of that. She can, however, fly unnoticed in the dark and drop bits of sea glass spelled so that when they hit the ground, they cause dramatic, yet ultimately harmless, explosions. Perfect distraction.
Crowlene was a little early, but her timing’s never been great. Better early than late, I guess, which she is far more often. I silently wish Poppy and CJ luck as Rook and I slip through the museum. The red emergency lights cast an eerie glow in the darkness.
We find our way back to the Temple of Hercules, where across from us, Hercules’s statue holds his unfortunate-looking weapon. I wait for a moment, listening for approaching footsteps, but all I hear are distant screams.
Honestly, it’s a bit much. The explosions have stopped by now, and even if they hadn’t, all the guests are already Dead. Bunch of drama queens, if you ask me.
We don’t have much time. An efficient evacuation of a building this size should take about two and a half minutes. In the event of an emergency, most people would call the fire department or police, but I doubt Hecate wants to involve an institution that doesn’t have loyalties to her syndicate. She probably has her own team trained for this sort of thing, and Tolliver will only be able to hold them off for so long. My estimate is ten minutes tops before the Coven realizes all the explosions were harmless, so we have to get on with the job. We didn’t come here to cause chaos. We came here to steal a book.
Ugh, codex.
I step toward the display case, the only sounds my harsh breath and the distant mayhem. The air smells of sweat and must and the sea air. A halo of light shines on the case.
But the grimoire is gone.
Eighteen
Which means I was right!
When I motioned to the camera earlier, I was letting Tolliver know my theory. It had seemed odd that the Coven was just putting a whole grimoire on display like that, so we had a plan for if it was actually illusion.
The missing codex proves it, because the case is still intact. Nothing was getting in or out without the glass ending up in pieces. And while there’s a lot the Coven can do with this type of magic, there are some limitations. For instance, illusions can’t be cast from far away. And re-creating an existing object requires physical contact with the object itself. Meaning somebody was casting the spell from nearby with the codex in their possession.
I grab the small flashlight from my pocket as I stand in front of the empty display case. Pointing it at the security camera, I flash the light nine times, in three intervals of three. Then I start taking off my dress.
For a moment, Rook just stares.
“Unzip me?” I ask, pulling my hair to the side and peering at him over my shoulder.
He shakes his head and swallows but does as I ask.
A professional would be clinical about it—quick and efficient. But this is Rook’s first job, and I can feel his hesitation, his breath on my neck, the whisper of fabric against skin as he pulls the zipper slowly down my back. I turn toward him, slipping the dress off my shoulders. It falls to my waist, and I have to shimmy to get it past my hips.
I can see Rook watching me, and I might do a little more shimmying than is strictly necessary.
I’m left in a black skintight bodysuit. The neckline of my dress made it so that the suit had to sit under my breasts, so I have to pull it up over my strapless bra and wiggle my arms into the sleeves, then roll down the pant legs. Rook is still staring.
I raise an eyebrow. “Your turn.”
As he removes his clothes, revealing a similar bodysuit underneath, I pull grippy gloves and slippers out of the hidden pockets of my dress. Once Rook is finished, I flash the light at the camera again, this time two sets of three.
I wait for a breathless moment before the camera swivels toward the statue. One of the nearby emergency lights flashes five times, then pauses, then once more.
“Would you care to fill me in on what’s going on?” Rook says, adjusting his sleeves. “First the thing with CJ and Poppy, now this. Is the next surprise that you’ll be leaving me behind as well?”
I’m a professional, so I don’t let my gaze linger on the way I can see the muscles in his chest and arms through the nylon, and I definitely don’t look lower. Instead, I move toward the statue.
“I told you what you needed to know,” I say, stepping behind Hercules and into the alcove. “And I won’t leave you behind as long as you don’t get caught.”
On the back wall I count five blocks of marble up from the bottom on the far left. I take off a glove so I can run my fingers over the cool surface. It takes a moment, but I finally feel a catch where it’s not quite smooth, like there’s a tiny button. And I love pressing buttons.
I push it, and the entire wall moves. The marble groans backward, then makes a scraping noise as it slides to the side. We’re hit with a puff of dust, the air stale and moldy. I wave it away and walk through the opening.
