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“No.Saying ‘see you soon’ to my cousins was hard enough.”Nausea pooled in her gut, and her skin had gone clammy.The cuffs—one with the amethysts and the other empty—clamped tight against her wrists.“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to go home.”
“You can do this.”
She took a deep breath.“Wecan do this.We’ll trap the killer and come back.I’ll finish the blood vows for Baba Yaga.She’ll close the goblin glass, and everything will go back to normal.”
“Right.Normal.”He made the word sound like blasphemy.
Thousands of hikers and tourists out to explore old movie sets had worn the park’s trail smooth.The full moon above and twinkling urban expanse sprawling below cast a gloomy glow and sinister shadows.She was on edge, her fear of home sending chills over the goose bumps that already pricked across her skin from the desert night air.
“You okay?”he asked.
“No.”
At least he didn’t push her for more.
The cave where Baba Yaga had said the goblin glass would be loomed in the distance.A steady thud-thud-thud came out of the darkness like an eerie heartbeat.The thumping echoed off the bluffs.Vori’s pulse kicked into a fast staccato to match the mystery cadence.
Perry looked around.“You hear that?”
For a moment, she was glad it hadn’t been in her head.Except if the sound was real, the threat might be too.“Yeah.”
“What if it’s the killer?”
“Baba Yaga opens the goblin glass at midnight—five minutes from now.She said the killer will join us there, not come through with us, and royal blood, remember?The killer doesn’t need to hitchhike with us.The glass will stay open on this side for hours.So why would she stake out the cave early?”
“I would.”
“Yeah, well, you’re obsessive.”Although she wished she’d brought a stun spell.It wouldn’t work in Kradnovtl, but it’d blast the heck out of someone here.
“Those are definitely footsteps.”
“Slow ones.”
“They sound fast to the person she might be coming to kill.”
“Human fast maybe, but not goblin speed.”
A woman rounded the bluff, a runner with reflective-striped gear out here long after the park had closed.One with hourglass curves and a familiar face.Human, not goblin.
“Petra?”Relief rushed through Vori, loosening the lock on her lungs that had come with fear.
“You know her?”Perry asked.
She kept her voice whisper soft.“She works at a sex dungeon less than a mile from here.”
“Does she now?”The curiosity that usually launched a thousand questions threaded through his tone.
“Vori?”Petra slowed her pace.“What are you doing out here?
“I could ask the same.”
“I’m glad to see you.”Petra’s pretty face flashed from a smile to a sneer in an instant.“Although you could find better company than a man famous for defending criminals who hurt kids.”
“You know me?”Perry’s voice sharpened into bladelike precision.
“Everyone knows what you’ve done from the headlines.Ditch the w—” Petra paused midsentence.“Ditch him and come play with me, Vori.”She laughed a lyrical ripple.“I’ll let you watch.”With that, she jogged away.
“Weird,” Perry said.
Vori almost agreed, but they still stood in the human realm.He hadn’t seen anything yet.“Just wait until we cross worlds.”
“Cool.”He sounded like he meant the opposite.“We get the stones, catch the killer, and go from there.But first, let’s get fake married.”
