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Theo caught on to my line of questions and where I was going with them. “Did anyone ever ask you about it? I mean, people asked about your job, right? Just in casual conversation, and you told them—what—that you worked on a machine?”
“Well, kind of. Folks I game with have known me forever.” He blushed a little. “But I didn’t give them any details. I make a little extra money streaming my games on the side. Some just assume that’s my real job.”
“Anyone ever follow you here? Or have you seen anyone suspicious hanging around?”
“No,” he said with a laugh, but his expression sobered. “You think someone caught on, or maybe she had someone follow me or become friends to find out where the Cornerstone was? But how would she find me in the first place?”
“Just eliminating possibilities.” I looked at Hugo. “What’s the machine’s range?”
“What?”
“I think she’s asking how close the demon has to be for the machine to trigger,” Petra said, and I nodded.
“Oh, well, I don’t know.” Hugo ran a hand over his hair. “Anywhere within its perimeter, I guess.”
“Which is?” Petra asked.
He winced. “I don’t know that, either. I’m sorry. I’ve never seen it work before. I just know it was supposed to target the demon if she got close.”
I didn’t detect any magic in his lack of knowledge. If Petra was right, and some kind of memory spell affected Patience’s ability to remember or talk about the wards, it hadn’t affected him. Maybe because he hadn’t been alive at the time.
“Run us through how the machine works,” Theo said. “Laypeople’s terms.”
He blushed. “It was...” He cleared his throat as if embarrassed. “It was explained to me in a song when I was little, to help me remember. They didn’t want to write it down.”
“Could you give us the lyrics?” Petra said.
Hugo cleared his throat and stared up at the shed’s metal ceiling, a flush riding high on his cheeks.“Ley line to Cornerstone; keep the magic calm. Cornerstone to feed the ward; keep the city safe. Machine to light the city; make the demon seen. Plasma flash to bring her low; eliminate the scourge.”
Theo blinked. “Went a little dark at the end there.”
“That last line’s a little harsh,” Hugo agreed. “When I was a kid, I thought ‘scourge’ meant ‘dirt’ or something.”
“Demons are harsh,” I said. “And the song nailed it. The light from the machine turned her kind of green.”
Hugo’s gaze snapped back to mine, curiosity now replacing the embarrassment. “Green?”
“It put a weird cast on her skin. Made it clear she was different.”
“To make the demon seen,” he said again. “Maybe to help the plasma flash—the lightning—identify her.”
“Here’s the problem, Hugo,” Theo began, “which you might have guessed. The demon is powerful. She is a literal agent of chaos. Snaps her fingers, and very bad things happen.”
Hugo looked distraught.
“The machine worked really well,” I reminded him. “Thesystem kept her out for more than a hundred years. Unfortunately, she’s just stronger than the wards. She might have gotten stronger while she waited. And there’s something in Chicago she wants very badly.”
“The Cornerstones,” Petra guessed.
I nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
“How does she know they exist?” Hugo asked.
“That, I don’t know,” I said. “But she’s had a long time to look for them, to puzzle out the possibility.”
“What happens if she gets to the Cornerstones?” Theo asked.
“That would be bad,” Hugo said. “First thing is she could manipulate the wards.” He scratched absently at his arm. “She could turn them off—like unplugging a toaster.”
