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I hadn’t read the story but wasn’t surprised to learn the details released by the mayor’s office had been vague. That would be much easier for the public to swallow thanantique magical fence fails; demon loose in city.
“It’s related,” I said. “Who told you the protections existed?”
His smile was thin. “You know what I’m going to say. My clients.”
“What services do you provide to your clients?”
“Confidential ones.”
“Were any of your clients in Chicago when the protections were put into place?” I was asking questions quickly, trying to keep him off balance. Theo had taught me that one.
“Not that I’m aware of.”
Time to test our very uncomfortable theory. “How long have you known Rose Doerman?”
He blinked. “Who’s Rose Doerman?”
The bafflement on his face looked genuine and might have been the first honest response he’d given since I walked through the door.
“A person of interest,” I said. “Do you know any demons?”
“I don’t cavort with demons.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He crunched into his breadstick. “Maybe I should have beaten you senseless.”
Second honest thing, I thought, and remembered that he often chose violence. “You could try again,” I said, and smiled—with fangs. “But it didn’t work out so well for you the first time. I don’t think you’d fare any better the second.”
Black grunted, crossed his arms, slouched in his seat. I just watched him, one bite of breadstick at a time. He watched me back, gaze as narrowed and petulant as his posture. And I knew better than to trust a Sup whose moods changed so quickly, and for whom “petulant” seemed to be the default.
“I don’t cavort with demons,” he said again.
“Do you know any demon sigils? Have books of demon sigils?” Unlikely but worth the ask.
“No. My clients contacted me,” he added after a moment, “because they felt a pull on the ley lines.”
Ley lines were the lines of power that ran across the world. Three ran across Chicago, making it unusually magically active, as any Sup could tell you. And fairies, especially, as they’d tried to harness the added power of the two spots in the city where the ley lines crossed each other—including beneath Chicago’s Grant Park.
“What about them?” I asked.
“The protections would have to be constantly powered in order to stay in alert mode—watching for the demon, I mean. And they’ve been in alert mode for more than century. The ley linesare the only magical power source consistent and powerful enough for that.”
And a source the Guardians didn’t think would run out or change too much in the interim. At least until the fairies started messing with things...
“So they’re probably powering the defense system. And your clients felt more power being drawn from the ley lines the night South Gate was triggered?”
He nodded. “The ley lines hold enormous power. Yes, they’re strong enough to power a defense system, as you called it. But that also means they could be used with weapons.”
“Especially if there’s a built-in link to the ley lines,” I finished. “Something that’s already been built to tap into it. And a demon might be just the type of creature interested in using the ley lines for its own purposes.”
He nodded.
“Well, that’s terrifying.” Appetite gone, I put down the rest of my breadstick.
A concussiveboomsuddenly shook the house and everything in it, and light poured through the open windows. His drink was abandoned as we ran through the house and outside... and stared at the pillar of light that had burst into the sky a few blocks west, apparently from something on the ground.
“What the hell?” Jonathan murmured. Surprised, he sent his own shower of magic into the air.
