Page 44 of Shadow Dreaming

I glanced at the street sign. “We’re almost there. I’m going to pull around back to see if there’s a back entrance. Can you text Dante and Orik and tell them my plan?”

“Consider it done.” A few seconds later, Dante texted back. “Dante will follow your lead. They’re right behind us.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay, here we are.” It was a shopping center, with several buildings on one massive lot, and I turned into the alley behind the first, which was Bellissimo Piatto. Just like I thought there would be, a door offered a back entrance for the staff. Next to the entrance was a large dumpster. I drove down the alley to where it opened out to the far side of the parking lot. Instead of parking near the restaurant, I parked in front of a thrift store—Karen’s Closet. It was open, but there didn’t seem to be many customers yet, and I parked as far to the side as I could so we wouldn’t be seen by the restaurant staff, if any came in early.

It was nine-thirty, and the restaurant didn’t open until one PM, so hopefully, there wouldn’t be anybody there yet. Dante parked next to me, and we moved around back, into the alley, before clustering together to discuss our next move.

“I say we break in, find her, and get her out before we deal with Jiles. And I think we should talk to the Queen. Since Jiles is part of the Crystal Court, we probably should turn him in and let them take care of it,” I said. “I don’t like them, but they need to know.”

“I agree on that. What if he’s with Penn?” Dante asked.

“Then we do whatever we need to in order to free her. It’s as simple as that,” I said. I wouldn’t hesitate to take out someone hurting my friend.

We hustled down the alley, stopping in front of the restaurant door. I tried to press my ear against it, to see if I could hear any noise, but nothing stood out.

“Do you think they have a security system?” I asked.

Carson examined the door. “I don’t think so. This is a pretty nice part of town, too. One of the lowest crime rates in the city.”

“I’m taking the chance,” I said as I examined the lock.

It wasn’t all that difficult—I could pick it without a problem. I’d learned how to pick locks while living on the street. There had been times where I had no place to stay, so I’d break into a small, out of the way shop, sleep, then wake before morning and be off again before anybody ever got there.

I pulled out my picklocks and went to work, while the others covered me. It didn’t take much to spring the lock, and as I cautiously opened the door, I listened for any alarm, but none came. Letting out a deep breath, I stepped into the back storage room and waved the others in.

“Shut the door,” I said, keeping my voice low.

There were no signs that anybody else was here, and so we began scouting around.

“Look for the basement door,” I said, passing by a stack of sauté pans. The kitchen was impressively clean and the lingering smells of food from the day before weren’t overwhelming. They must have an impressive air circulation system.

“Here!” Dante said.

We hurried over to his side. He was standing in front of a door with a sign on it. The sign had a picture of a staircase, with the words watch your step below.

“This has to be it,” I said. I motioned for them to let me open the door, and when I did, I stopped short. The stairs went down, as usual, but the feel of magic was strong. Or rather, it was strong at the doorstep. As I stepped through, onto the staircase, everything dissipated, as though every shred of magic had been gobbled up.

“An anti-magic zone,” I said. I wished we’d brought Duran with us now, but Orik might be able to help. “Orik, come here. Can you sense the shift in energy?”

The six-eight priest stepped through the door, onto the stairs with me. If the door was two inches shorter, he would have bumped his head. Frowning, he turned around and ran his hands around the doorframe.

“Yes, there’s an anti-magic spell cast down here and it starts at the door. They probably cast it to fill the basement.” He shook his head. “Kyann, it takes a powerful witch to set up a spell this strong. Usually, anti-magic spells cover a small area. Or a person in particular—either so they can’t cast magic, or so magic can’t be cast on them. A small but important difference to focus on when casting the spell.”

I let out a long sigh. “Then the more we can evade Jiles and let the Crystal Court take over, the better.”

“Would Hecate want you to leave it up to them?” Dante asked. “She seemed pretty determined that we take care of these guys.”

“Yeah, but…well, we’ll deal with that after we free Penn.” I headed down the stairs, pencil thin flashlight casting a narrow beam. When I was halfway down, the lights came on by themselves. I jumped, nearly falling forward down the steps but Orik tapped me on the shoulder and pointed back to Dante, who had flipped the light switch at the top. After he steadied me, Orik drew a short sword and I drew a dagger, and we hurried the rest of the way down the stairs, ready to meet whatever might be lurking around the corner.

The basement seemed divided into several spaces. A wall cordoned off the far end of the basement—probably two-thirds of it—with another door in it. Where we were, the furnace blasted out a steady stream of warm air. Next to the furnace stood a washer and dryer—for table linens and dishtowels, most likely. And next to them—a folding table with a stack of linens, all neatly ironed and pressed.

“All right, here we go” I headed toward the door. As I reached the door, I steeled myself for whatever might be on the other side. Cautiously, I opened it and peeked in.

The room was obviously a storage room. Right off the bat, I caught sight of a giant walk-in freezer. Near the freezer, were a stack of cases of Italian wine, and next to the wine cases, sat Penn, tied to a chair. She looked to be asleep, her chest rising and falling evenly.

“Found her!” I turned to Orik. “Get Dante. Tell Carson to stay up top, on the look out for others while we untie her.”

Orik headed back up the steps while I rushed to Penn’s side. I couldn’t see any traps, so I knelt down beside her and gently shook her by the shoulders.

---