I slip away from the crowd as if to go to the ladies’ room. As soon as I’m in the seclusion of the hall, I wrap more magic around me to hide my form and venture down the hall past the bathrooms.
Farther down, there’s a door with a tarnished plaque saying MANAGER’S OFFICE, locked but with no magical protections. I could turn the deadbolt easily, but it’s hard to believe any lucent would keep sensitive materials so unguarded.
At another door, I risk a peek inside and find only cleaning supplies. Nose wrinkling at the pungent smell, I creep onward.
When I was here before—when I saw Dad’s consultant Ms. Lupul in the lane—she came out of a second-floor room with an outside entrance. Where are the inner stairs? Are the two levels totally separate?
The memory sends a chill coiling around my gut. Why was Ms. Lupul here at all? Does that mean?—
I shake off the thought before it can fullyform. Dad is smart and cautious—and a strong lucent in his own right. He wouldn’t be drawn in by claims about elevated powers.
I can’t believe he’d get involved with a group out to harm innocent people.
Maybe Ms. Lupul was investigating the same possible villains I am now? Or maybe Grady was coming to the club hoping to catch the notice of legitimate lucent mentors and Gwyn caught him in her murderous claws under their nose?
If the latter is true, then I won’t find any evidence I need here.
Tamping down my uneasiness, I slink onward to the end of the hall. Two doors remain, one with an EXIT sign glowing faintly overtop and the other plain and unlabeled.
I reach for the handle on the second door and halt with my hand still a couple of inches away. A hum of thickly layered ephemera prickles over my skin.
Oh, there’s something here all right, or I’m a princess of Atlantis.
The flat drone of the energy tugs at two threads of recognition. It’s a broad security measure, powerful but without much nuance, like the one on the estate Uncle Nik had me infiltrate a couple of years ago.
And beneath the surface, something about the vibration niggles at the edge of my awareness. Almost like… like that strangeness I sensed about the magic in Kenneth’s enhanced clothing.
Even when I concentrate, it’s hard to say for sure this ephemera has the same quality. It’s so subtle. If I hadn’t encountered a similar sensation before in a situation so intense it’s burned into my mind, I don’t think I’d have noticed anything at all.
Isthe magic slightly heavier or more condensed than most spells I encounter? Or is that simply a result of how thickly this particular effect is layered?
I could be just grasping at random strings.
It doesn’t matter. Either way, I need to find out what someone at this club is protecting so avidly.
I gather energy of my own and test the barrier the way Nik taught me. Drag my needle of ephemera across the surface until it catches on some small notch.
To make the spell this sturdy, it’s as if the ephemera is woven in heavy strands. Pushing through them directly is all but impossible. But like with a coarse fabric, the larger the strands, the more possibility for gaps in between if you know how to prod them open…
I hone my attention and press more emphatically.
The first snag sends a quiver through my nerves.
There. Now to slowly wiggle the gap looser like an imp unraveling the knitting…
An ache forms in the center of my forehead. A bead of sweat trickles down the back of my neck, but I don’t dare swipe at it. All my concentration fixes on the task at hand.
I don’t only need to finesse my way through—I need to do it before anyone else decides to come back here.
I sense the strands of energy easing farther apart. My honed ephemera traces a winding path through the layers of energy.
Holding that image in my mind, I grasp the door handle and pull it open.
As I ease over the threshold, my skin jitters. A sharp sensation slices through my lungs.
I step forward and nearly tumble over the lip of a stair.
My hand shoots out and collides with a railing. I clutch at the cool bar as my mind registers that I’m through the barrier.
