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“I have no idea.”
“It looks like she’s…listening? To the magic barrier?” Gin sounded confused.
But she wasn’t wrong. The hum of the barrier, which up until now had been just background noise, filled my ears. I concentrated on the ebb and flow of the spell’s song. Because it was a song. Those weren’t random hisses and growls. The spell was singing to me. And I had to sing back.
“Open,” I whispered to the barrier.
It snarled.
“Let us pass,” I said, my voice low and lyrical.
It barked.
“Come on,” I sang to it. “I am a friend.”
It grunted.
“That’s right. A friend.”
The barrier let out a resigned sigh, then it went out.
I spun around, grinning at my three stunned companions. “See? I told you.” I dusted off my hands. “No problem at all.”
Alec glanced at Claudia. “Did she just sweet-talk that magic barrier into letting us inside?”
Claudia gaped at me. “That’s what it looked like to me.”
“But how? You can’t use Siren’s Song on nonliving beings. You can’t use the power of persuasion on a magic barrier.”
“Says who?” I countered.
“Every book and instructor I’ve ever had!” Alec spluttered.
“Well, they’re wrong.” I pointed to the building, which was very clearly no longer glowing. “As you just witnessed.”
“Whenever you’re around, Leda, the laws of magic seem to fly right out the window,” Claudia said with wide eyes.
Gin beamed at me, pride in her eyes. “That’s my sister.”
“We can make time for a group hug later.” I grabbed the door handle and pushed it down. “Let’s go.”
The control house’s interior was only marginally more interesting than the drab exterior, and that’s just because there were knobs and buttons all over the console—and a big monitor on the wall.
Gin immediately plugged her tablet into the system. “I’m not getting anything from the cameras here either. So it wasn’t the magic barrier that was blocking the signal. It’s something else.”
“Like what?” I asked her.
“I don’t know.” She nibbled on her lower lip. “I’m not getting any proper readings. If we want to figure out what we’re dealing with, we need to go down into the sewers.”
I sighed. “Of course we do.”
“Well, think about it this way, boss: you can’t get any stinkier than you already are,” Alec said helpfully as I opened the latch in the floor.
I was tempted to toss him inside. Instead, I played the part of the dignified angel and grabbed the ladder, climbing down into the sewers.
“You were wrong,” I told Alec once we were all standing inside the tunnel. “The smell is much worse.” I plugged my nose and started walking.
The smell down here was…indescribable. Seriously, describing it would have made me sick. As it was, I was already barely holding my lunch in. This was one time when I was most definitely not enjoying my magically-enhanced sense of smell.
