Ancient Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress #1)(45)

“That guy and his minions blasted through the glass door,” Nix said. “There was a flash of light when it happened. It blinded me, but I’d seen how many there were right before it happened.”

“They were trying to incapacitate you and not even have to fight,” I said.

“Probably. Little did they know,” Nix said. “I used my charm and called Del.”

“I had enough power that I could come,” Del said.

“Thank magic,” I said.

Del could transport from anywhere in the world in a second, but she had to have enough power stored up to do so. Her power regenerated weirdly, but it wasn’t a matter of practice like mine was. If I used my magic, I became so exhausted I couldn’t do much for a while. I just wanted to sleep. She was physically fine after using her magic—she just didn’t have any more juice for a while. It was one of the reasons she couldn’t often make transport charms. It was also one of the reasons that we didn’t call her home unless we really needed her.

“Shit! That reminds me,” I said. “Check the demons’ pockets for transport charms. They sometimes have them.” Raiding demon corpses was one of my favorite tricks of the trade.

Wincing at the pain in my back, I crawled over to the demon that Nix had felled and searched his pockets. Nothing. I turned back to my friends.

“Mine already disappeared,” Claire said.

“No charms in this guy’s pockets,” Aidan said.

“Damn. Worth a shot, anyway.” I sat back down by Del. I tried not to shift my back too much. “So you made it here.”

“Yeah,” Del said. “Claire and Connor were already here.”

“We heard the blast that took out the door,” Connor said.

Guilt tugged at me. “Thanks for coming, guys. You didn’t have to.”

“Sure we did,” Claire said. “You’re our friends.”

“Yeah, but our business is dangerous. Connor, at least, chose a profession that wasn’t deadly. We shouldn’t drag you into our mess.”

Connor shrugged. “No problem. And my sis here gets antsy if she doesn’t kill something every week, so this was good exercise for her.”

“True,” Claire said. “But what did that guy take?”

“A box. I couldn’t make it out though.” I gingerly climbed to my feet. As I made my way to the counter, I remembered the Chalice of Youth that Nix had stashed under there. The original.

When I looked down at the empty shelf, it was gone. Damn. I glanced at the back shelf. The replica was gone too. He must have grabbed it right before he disappeared.

What the hell?

“Thanks for your help, guys,” I said to Connor and Claire. I didn’t want to drag them farther into this. “You’ve got to be beat. Why don’t you get cleaned up, and we’ll meet you over at your place. No need to hang around this dump with us.”

“We’ll help you clean up,” Connor said.

I looked around, my heart breaking at the devastation inside our shop. Half the shelves and possibly as much inventory were smashed. “I think we’re going to save that for another day.”

“Yeah,” Nix said. “I don’t think I can face that right now.”

“Same,” Del said.

“All right,” Claire said. “We’ll head over to P & P and get cleaned up. Come on by for food later.”

“Thanks.” I smiled at my friends as they limped out.

I glanced at Aidan. I wanted to ask him to leave so that I could speak freely with Nix and Del, but he’d never do it. Not until we’d at least discussed some of what had happened here.

“Who was that guy?” Nix asked.

“The guy from the temple in Norway,” Aidan said. “He’s got the scroll.”

“What kind of Magica was he, Del?” I asked.

“I don’t know. He threw a lot at me. Fire—he’s got at least one elemental gift. But he was also hitting my mind with horrible memories. So he’s got some telepathy too.”

“So a mystery mage wants the scroll and the Chalice of Youth,” I said. “But he grabbed the original too.”

“Do you think he realized?” Del asked.

“I guess so, but I don’t know how.” I turned to Aidan. “Do you have any idea why that guy would want the Chalice of Youth and the scroll?”

“No. They’re unrelated, as far as I know.”

“Damn. I don’t get it. We need to go find him.”

“You need to heal, first,” he said.

“I will. But could you go get us some plywood or something to cover up the door?”

Aidan looked at me suspiciously, like he knew I was trying to get him out of here for a minute.

“Please? I can’t leave until the shop is at least closed up. We need something to put over the door. And we need to hire someone to enchant it.” I wished I could put security enchantments on things, but I couldn’t. Then I remembered what Aidan did for a living. “You’re the perfect guy for it. Don’t you have someone on your payroll who can come over and enchant it?”

He gave me one long look that said he wasn’t going to let this go. “Yeah, I’ll make a call. Then we’ll deal with your back.”