Page 60 of Shadow Seeking

Carson jumped up as we rushed in. He motioned for us to follow him.

I glanced at Dante and shrugged. We followed Carson to the breakroom, where he had set up his laptop and had pulled up a Talk2U chat room. It was a site on the Dark Web that allowed people to discuss things in private, which also had voice simulators to distort the voice, and used avatars instead of actual visuals. There was no way to hack through—security was justthatgood.

We sat down at the table, waiting.

“I’ll be back. My team is here,” Carson said, hitting the mute button. He looked over at us. “We’re facing some deep shit. One of my contacts who works with PortalWatch messaged me today. Something’s going on at several of the portals.”

Portals were stepping stones to other realms. They occurred in nature, but over the centuries, witches and sorcerers had learned how to recreate them through magic, and now therewere underground groups who could provide access to other worlds and dimensions for a price.

Most humans didn’t know about them, though they sometimes tripped over a natural portal. But I knew from Penn that some of the gods—Hecate included—set their priestesses to watch over them. And one of her deeper secrets that I and my team knew in case we ever needed access, was that Penn was a portal keeper. She kept it under wraps though, because it would be too easy for someone to kidnap her and force her to open the portal.

“I wish Penn was here,” I said.

“So do I,” Carson said. “Can you call her? I can stall my contact for a bit.” While he went back into the chat to ask for more time, I stepped away so that I couldn’t be heard through his headphones.

Penn answered on the first ring. “Yeah?”

“Can you come down to the office? We need you here.”

“Oh crap, something big go down?”

“Carson says so,” I said. “It has to do with the portals. If you could hurry…”

“On my way,” she said.

I returned to the table, looking at Carson.

“It’s good. He’ll wait for fifteen minutes. Do you think Penn can make it by then?”

I texted her.can you be here in fifteen minutes?

i think so. in the car.

“She’s on her way. Penn has a way of invoking Carla the Parking Goddess to her advantage.” I grinned.

Penn was always calling on Carla, the mythical parking goddess, to weave her way through gridlock, and to find a parking spot. She succeeded most of the time, to the point of where I absolutely believed that somewhere, some wise-cracking goddess wearing a pair of leopard print pants, a pinkcashmere form-fitting sweater, and stiletto ankle boots sat in a giant room, answering prayers as she manipulated traffic.

“She’s a wildcard,” Carson said. “Okay, do you want me to tell you what I know so far, or just wait for Penn?”

“Wait for Penn,” I said.

Ten minutes later, Penn texted me that she was at the door. How she managed that, I had no clue. Dante ran to let her in.

“What’s going on?” she asked, following him into the breakroom.

“We’re about to find out,” I said. “Don’t say anything. We don’t want his contact to know how many people are here. At least, not now.”

Carson logged back in. “So, my team’s assembled. I’m putting you on speaker. Go ahead.” Carson clicked on something and a low, mechanical voice echoed out of the speaker.

“Since we’ve worked together for a number of years, I thought you should know that I’ve noticed something dangerous going on with the portals. I’ve logged unusual activity with a portal in your area—it’s one set to the UnderRealms and that means Demonkin. The portal seldom gets used, but over the past month or so, it’s opened five times. I talked to the head of PortalWatch. It seems that the portal keeper for that vortex has vanished. We think she’s been secretly allowing some of the Demonkin to let them into your city. Since she vanished, we know something’s up.”

I motioned for Carson to mute again. “What the hell? Penn, do you know anything about this?”

“No,” she said, frowning. “Nobody’s told me anything. I haven’t done my weekly devotional yet, but I’ll ask Hecate tonight for insight.”

I gestured to Carson again. “Ask him what else they know.”

Carson unmuted and asked his contact. “What else do you know?”

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