Summoning the Night (Arcadia Bell #2)(72)

The column of magical fire might not have been real, but the heat it emitted sure felt believable. It toasted my skin with a preternatural warmth as we neared the barricade a few feet behind the float. No way we’d be able to get any closer. We fought the crowd just to stay in place and not be rolled along with the tide of people who were following police instruction to abandon the area. I spotted an empty sidewalk bench, the back of which advertised a demon-friendly restaurant near Tambuku.

“Up there!” I shouted to Lon.

We scrambled to the bench and stood on the seat to survey things from a better vantage point. Most of the crowd had thinned on the opposite side of the road, where the sidewalk was narrow. But on our side, where all the vendors were stationed and an empty parking lot made room for hundreds, it was still chaotic. Heads and halos bobbed in a sea of people moving in all directions as police and parade security did their best to herd them while also directing the nearby floats to move aside and make way for a fire truck that wailed in the distance.

I pulled Lon’s face down and spoke in his ear. “Watch near the float—the magician will have to stop the spell or risk the firefighters discovering that they can’t put out the fire!”

Together we scanned the float, looking for anyone out of the ordinary. But when I spotted something odd, it was a thing, not a person.

A hidden side door on the flaming cottage was cracked open several inches. Probably just access to a small stow area for extra candy, or jackets and purses. However, a glob of hazy white light was bobbing through the crack. The door shut by itself, then the ball of light moved a few feet, hovered, and stopped.

My pulse increased. All magick has a visual signature, a nebulous glow very similar to Earthbound halos.

The ball of light that hovered in the air outside the small cottage door looked to be the right level if it were, say, being emitted by a charged talisman. One that was hanging around someone’s neck—especially if that someone was a magician using some kind of invisibility spell.

“Mother of Sorrows,” I muttered.

“What?” Lon shouted in my ear.

I pointed. “That light. It’s moving.”

He watched it move with growing awareness. “Let’s follow it.”

“Hold on.” Last time we’d gone up against him—if that was, indeed, Frater Merrin standing on the edge of the float—he’d bowled us both over with his weird little Heka weapon.

In my peripheral vision I saw the approaching fire truck, slowly picking its way around the stalled floats ahead. I was still tracking the ball of light floating around the corner of the cottage. The magician was on the move, probably to get a look at the fire truck. He was going to wait until they turned hoses on it to break the spell, so it would appear like they did it. I’d bet my life on it.

“Can you charge one of your wards to cover us?” Lon asked.

“What?”

He tapped my arm. “Invisible Man.”

And I wondered where Jupe got his love of horror movies? “My Ignore spell would be better in this crowd.”

“Do it.”

We jumped off the bench and settled ourselves in the shadow of a low brick wall, giving people room to walk by us on the sidewalk.

While I pushed up my coat sleeve, Lon whipped out his pocket knife. One quick flick on my fingertip and I had blood to charge the Ignore seal. I gripped Lon’s arm and fired up the spell to cover both of us.

The stomach-cramping nausea made me think I’d been successful, but the fact that we could now push our way through the crowd without people noticing our elbows in their ribs proved it. Though my tattooed invisibility sigil granted me greater visual cover, the Ignore spell forced people to disregard sight, touch, and sound. Unless you punched someone in the face or shouted at the top of your lungs, most folks wouldn’t give you a second look.

We made it to the edge of the float and stood a few feet from the bouncing ball of light. The way it moved up close, I had no doubt now that it was a talisman. With all the hustle and bustle around, it could easily be dismissed as a trick of light to any Earthbounds who might spot it, but I wasn’t fooled.

The firefighters jumped off their truck and barked out commands to one another. Before long, they were readying a hose. As the deluge of water hit the cottage roof, the ball of light dipped and the circle of Heka surrounding the fire fizzled. The fire receded, then went out completely like a candle being snuffed.

I knew it!

The ball of light dropped down off the float. We followed it, beelining through the dwindling crowd on the opposite side of the street. Two blocks down a side street, we trailed it into  Vietnamese Soup Restaurant. Fragrant lemongrass, garlic, and unctuous pork hung heavy in the air as we trotted past mostly empty tables, and one lone person ordering takeout. The ball of light floated into a narrow corridor past the counter.

We stole down the hallway just in time to see the men’s restroom door opening and the ball of light entering one of two tangerine Formica stalls, then the door closing behind it. The rasp of a lock sliding shut echoed around the tiled room. Our mystery magician wanted privacy.

A low grunt floated from the locked stall. Lon motioned to me. He wanted the Ignore spell removed. Before I could comply, the air shuddered with power. He was transmutating.

My chugging heartbeat increased its pace as Lon’s halo flamed up. I dropped the Ignore spell and nearly collapsed with exhaustion.