Page 83 of Inkpot Gods

It’s a humorous thought, but somehow it doesn’t make her laugh, or even crack a smile. Lilianne leans back in her seat, belt tight across her middle, and watches the streets roll by outside the windows. Erin will get them there safely.

That may be the last safety any of them will see anytime soon.

Scrying

TIMELINE: AUGUST 23, 2018.

They don’t drive far before Erin is turning off the surface streets and into a narrow alley that runs behind a large residential apartment building, heading for a wider alley tucked away out of sight, fenced in by brick on all sides. Once there, she wedges the van into an open spot half-concealed by a dumpster and kills the engine.

Even with the dumpster in the way, it’s obvious that the van is the newest vehicle in this space by more than a decade, and it’s also the only one with no visible dents or dings. Erin shoves the keys into her pocket and climbs out of the van, not looking back.

“Erin always finds parking,” says Smita, apparently taking Lilianne’s silence for confusion. “It’s something about the way the streets order themselves. Honestly, it feels like a stretch to me, but nobody asked me whether I thought magic parking should come with being the incarnation of passive-aggressively rearranging the fridge magnets.”

Artemis snorts, clearly more amused than the statement deserves, and everyone else starts getting out of the van.

Judy pokes Lilianne in the shoulder. “Hey,” she says. “Get out. You’re sort of trapping us in here.”

Lilianne doesn’t move.

Judy pokes her again, this time saying something irritated in Cantonese.

Roger snorts and responds in kind before leaning around his girlfriend and saying, “We really do need you to move, please. We can’t go down to the lab until we all get out of the van. Getting out of the van is a pretty key first step.”

“What if I don’t get out of the van?”

“Well, eventually Erin will notice you’re still in the van, and she’ll come back to remove you.” Roger says it like it’s completely reasonable, and not the most terrifying thing he could possibly have said.

Lilianne gets out of the van.

“Great, thanks,” says Judy, climbing out and moving away, Roger close on her heels. He pauses to give Lilianne a sympathetic look, then keeps moving, following Judy to the others, who have clumped up in the center of the alley. With a heavy sigh, Lilianne goes after them, catching up to the group just as Erin pushes the button on her keys to close the van door.

“All right,” she says. “We know where the entrance is in this apartment complex, so we’re going in through the front door. We’re not going to talk to anyone, and if someone asks why we’re here, we’re just going to keep moving. It’s rude, but it’s also the best way to make sure no one else is in a position to get hurt tonight. Do you all understand?”

General murmurs of assent rise from the group.

“Until we’re down, I’m in charge,” says Erin. “Once we’re in the lab, I’ll hand things off to Kelpie and Lilianne, as our resident almost-alchemists, but until then, you listen to me, and you treat my orders like your own idea. Understand?”

Again, murmurs of assent. Even Lilianne joins in, too afraid of Erin’s fierce glare to stay silent.

“Then we go. Be careful, be quick, and don’t get dead.”

“Some motivational speech, huh?” asks Smita, seeming to appear at Lilianne’s elbow. Lily manages not to jump, but only barely, and the two of them wind up at the rear of the group as everyone starts moving down the alley, following Erin’s lead.

“I’ve heard worse,” says Lilianne.

“That’s terrifying.”

Lilianne starts to laugh, then thinks better of it and clamps down. Smita bumps her shoulder with her own.

“Hey. This works better if we look natural,” she says. “So laugh. Relax. We just need to get out of the open and this all goes much faster.”

Erin is leading them into the apartment complex Lilianne noticed before; it’s one of those open-air designs that only really seem to exist in places like California, where the weather never goes beyond a certain severity. The apartment doors face a central courtyard, shielded by small awnings but otherwise fully exposed to the elements. Some of the tenants have barbeque grills outside their doors, crammed in alongside window-mounted air-conditioning units.

It’s the middle of the day, and the central courtyard is entirely deserted, although Lilianne can’t stop herself from glancing at the open curtains of the windows they pass, waiting for someone who actually lives here to jump out and start chiding them for trespassing. Erin leads them unhesitatingly across the green central area to an apartment door sandwiched between a stairwell and a door marked LAUNDRY.

She tests the knob and, finding it locked, hisses between her teeth as she lets go and steps back, turning to Roger. “You’re up,” she informs him.

He steps forward, eyeing the doorknob sternly as he reaches for it. “I can see that you’re a little stuck, but that’s all it is,” he says. “I know you’re not locked against me. That would be unbelievably rude.”