“Just don’t touch the bag. Okay?”
“Get your hands off me.” I scrambled away on my butt and he let me.
Alaric pushed to his knees, remaining between me and the paper bag.
I pointed at it, annoyed that my hand was shaking. “What is that?”
“I don’t know yet. But it’s— I think it’s magic.”
“‘Think?’” I stared at him. The rat was nowhere to be seen, and I didn’t want to know what Alaric had been doing with a giant rodent. This whole scene felt surreal. “What do you know about magic? Where’s the cabinet?”
“I have no idea. I only got here a few minutes ago.”
That was true enough. Unless he could make things disappear into thin air, he’d have had no chance to spirit the cabinet away. But someone had. I could feel the armoire moving into the distance now, a tug under my breastbone, pulling me off…that way. I turned slowly, feeling like the needle of a compass. “Someone stole it. They went over there.” I pointed. “Who? Why?”
“Over where?” Alaric peered at me from under lowered brows. “What do you mean?”
“I can feel it.” I pivoted a few more degrees, facing the way I needed to go.
Come. Help me.
“It needs me. That way.” I pushed to my feet, eager to follow.
Alaric caught my arm in a firm grip. “Where are you going? What needs you?”
“The cabinet.” Something seemed to be speaking through my lips. “No, the book.”
“Book!” Alaric’s fingers turned to iron on my forearm. “What do you know about a book?”
“The one in the cabinet. The big, dusty one.” Another yank at my core deep inside made me stagger and struggle to get free of his hold. “I have to go!”
Alaric released me but moved between me and the door. “You opened the cabinet and found a book? How?”
“It opened for me. I don’t know.” I tried to think back. The loss of the cabinet, of the book, was like a bee buzzing in my ear, distracting as hell. “The door with the sharp hinge. I cut my finger on it and it opened. Probably the hinge was damaged.”
The high voice said from over by the paper bag, “Blood price. Must’ve been part of the locking spell. Did you cut yourself once, young man, or three times?”
“Three times— fuck! You’re atalkingrat.” I stared at the big rodent who sat with its beady eyes fixed on me.
“Harry!” Alaric’s tone sounded shocked.
“He’s deep in this already,” the rat replied. “Got the smell of the blood magic on him, and the cabinet opened for him. Did you touch the book, Forrest? Read it?”
“I couldn’t read it. It wasn’t written in English. I looked at the pictures.” Alaric’s muffled curse at my words couldn’t distract me from the pull of that cabinet. “We need to go get it. Now!” I tried to dodge around Alaric, but he cut me off.
“Go where?”
“There!” I stamped my foot and pointed at the north wall. “The cabinet’s that way. Hurry.”
“Easy, Robin, we will.” He peered over my shoulder at the rat. “What’s the spell in the paper bag, Harry? It feels like a booby trap. We don’t want it to go off and burn down the store.”
That made me pull up short. “Damned fucking right we don’t. It could do that?”
The rat— Harry, I guess— gave the bag a good sniff without touching the brown paper, as Alaric watched intently. “Sleep spell, I think,” Harry said. “Touch the bag, move it, and poof, flat on the floor.”
“But not dead?” Alaric asked.
“Don’t think so. No smell of fire runes, anyhow, so we can come back and deal with it later. If Forrest really can sense the damned cabinet and we’ve any hope of catching up, we need to move.”
