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It made my hair stand out, the way its black sheen wasn’t as dark as the leather, that it was instead an almost charcoal tone. The smart man had put me in a pair of boots rather than heels, and I had a feeling it was because he knew damn well there might end up being running involved.
If I died because I tripped wearing heels he’d picked out, well, I’d have had to haunt him for years. Every time he wanted to masturbate, I’d remind him about how his grandmother looked naked to ruin it.
“You’re sure the others will be able to meet us?”
Grant nodded. “I made sure they all had the marks for transport. As soon as we get to the right place, I’ll activate the spell, and they’ll portal right to us.” He offered me a chiding look. “I’d have preferred to do the same with you, but you don’t portal well.”
“Too bad. Now you have back-up.” And the more I heard about the guild, the more his tension had increased, the more grateful I was to be there. He was tough, but I didn’t want him facing who knew what alone. “And I finally get to see the guild.”
Grant gave me a less than enthused look, as if he could think of no worse way to spend his time. “This isn’t a field trip, Ava.”
I waved him off. “We’ve been tohell, Grant. I don’t think a building full of mages is a big risk.”
He snorted softly. “Trust me—hell was a cakewalk compared to the guild. It isn’t just a building with some mages—it’s a building full of all the most dangerous secrets and the only people on earth who know them. Not to mention, the majority of those people would love to get a hold of you.”
“Me?” I frowned. “What do they want me for?”
“Because if there is one truth to the guild, it’s that power is always in high demand. Power is gained from things no one else has or knows, and that’s exactly what you are, Ava. You’re something that hasn’t ever been. Trust me, there have been more than a few mages who have considered trying to grab you, to experiment on you, to figure out if you could be useful.”
I swallowed down the anxiety at that thought, at the idea that I had even more enemies than I knew of, that people were wanting toexperimenton me.
Sure, like any normal girl, I’d had alien abduction fantasies now and then, but I had a feeling that if what Grant implied happened, it would be far less sexy than my mind had conjured up. “Well,” I said, trying for false bravado, “too bad they don’t realize just how not-useful I really am.”
He gave me a look that said we both knew it wasn’t true, but in true Grant style, he played along. “Right. If only they saw the time you tried to climb that boulder in hell, when you slipped in the mud.”
I let out a soft laugh as I recalled that, when I’d been trying to keep up with the big boys on our endless hiking and had ended up on my ass in a puddle of something that for sure wasn’t water.
He leaned in closer, his laugher drifting away. “I’m serious, though, Ava. You need to be careful. Keep your eyes open and don’t trustanyone. Let’s go.”
The building we’d parked across from appeared like any old office building—square, depressing and beige.
“I have to admit, my expectations were a lot higher,” I said.
Grant shut the door to the car as we exited. “You should know better than to trust what something looks like by now.”
Which was fair. Hadn’t Troy taught me that? He looked as normal as could be, if a little stuffy, and he turned into a werewolf—maybe looks weren’t that useful.
“Couldn’t you still make it look a little more impressive?”
“Why? People want to look closely at things that are special. No one wants to get any closer to a place like this.”
I wrinkled my nose when I approached the front. “Does it smell of fish?”
Grant nodded.
“Why fish? Why not something worse?”
“Because if something smells like rot, people are going to wonder why. Smelling just a bit of fish makes people assume it’s nothing dangerous, but unpleasant enough they’ll stay away.”
At the door, Grant waved his hand across the intercom, and a blue glow started like some strange security system before the door opened.
“So if you can’t do that nifty open-the-door thing, does the door just stay closed?”
Grant held his hand out for me to go before him. “Of course not. The door opens, but it goes into the regular building.”
“Then where does it go this way?” I stepped through the entry way, and it was as if the air was stolen from my lungs, an electrical charge running over me. I stumbled, and strong hands caught me before I faceplanted.
Grant stood in front of me somehow, when I was positive that he’d been behind me moments before. He had my chin between his fingers and his other hand on my side, his green eyes locked on mine. “You really don’t deal with portal travel well, do you?”
