Page 15 of City of the Lost
Azren slid the dagger I’d loaned him from its sheath and nodded. With K gripped firmly in one hand, I pulled the string. The ladder descended soundlessly. The old biddy had kept it in good nick, which was weird, because how often did she go up there?
Another thud, but softer this time.
Azren and I locked gazes in silent communication. Okay, there was definitely something up there. He gestured that he should go first.
Sweet, but this was my gig. I shook my head and then began to climb. The hatch wouldn’t budge at first, but a hearty shove had it cracking open. Dust billowed out, catching me on an inhale. My cough was a rough rasp. It had been a while since anyone had opened that door. Which begged the question, if something was hiding up here, then how had it got in? Via the roof, maybe? Was there a breach somewhere? Had there been an attic window? I should have checked for this shit before entering the building.
With another heave, the hatch door fell back, exposing nothing but darkness. A white string fell in my face. The light switch, no doubt. A tug, but no joy. Okay, we were going in blind. At least the space was boarded. Or so the old lady had said.
Darkness closed around me and the musty air tickled the back of my throat. My night vision kicked in and shapes and lumps became visible—boxes, trunks, old furniture, and knickknacks. The space was large and there was definitely moonlight coming in from somewhere—possibly a hole in the roof, maybe even the breach that the intruder had used to gain access?
Azren popped up behind me, his dagger catching the meager light and glinting dully. My scalp prickled. There was definitely something up here. Climbing up into the room, I moved slowly and silently across the dusty boards. The space wasn’t as cluttered as it could be, but there were plenty of places for the intruder to hide. The most obvious suspects would be one of the little people—a boggle or a hobgoblin. They were vagrant creatures who moved from place to place, never settling anywhere too long. Myth said that their ancestors had lived alongside humans at one time and acted as invisible aides around the home, but those creatures were gone, back to their world, leaving behind confused neph descendants struggling to deal with this strange attraction to homes that didn’t belong to them.
Let’s hope that was what we were dealing with. Azren moved off to the left, not too far but far enough to be able to scope out his side of the attic. Skin pricking in warning, I made a circuit. Behind a set of crates and an overturned, partially open suitcase was the breach—a rip in the roof, jagged and unnatural.
Something had torn its way in.
“There’s nothing here,” Azren said.
But we’d heard it. “I think it may have escaped through this hole. We should patch it up before we go, to stop it from getting back in.”
Azren came up behind me, the heat of his body strangely soothing in this eerily dark room. “What’s to stop it tearing another hole to get in?” His breath tickled the top of my head. He reached over my head to finger the jagged aperture. His arm brushed the back of my head, and the urge to lean back against him was a sudden, shocking ache in my bones. “That’s a lot of material to tear through,” he mused.
I stepped under his arm. “You’re right, it could come back. We need to catch whatever it is. We’ll need a trap.” I headed for the hatch. “I’ll go back to the—”
“Watch out!”
Something slammed into my back with enough force to whiplash my neck. My teeth bit into my tongue, and the coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. The board rose up to meet me, and I braced myself just in time, palms scraping wood. But my elbows gave way under the weight on my back, throwing me forward. A flash of silver, metal perhaps, and then the back of my head was in a vise-like grip.
“Azren!”
I caught a glimpse of him before the thud and crunch of metal meeting bone filled the air. The grip on my skull eased a fraction, and I twisted out of the thing’s grasp, bucking and attempting to roll from under the creature. Azren body-slammed my attacker, freeing me completely to get a proper look at the monster.
But this was no flesh-and-bone creature, it was obsidian and silver machinery, spiderlike in composition. It recovered quickly from Azren’s attack, leapt onto the ceiling, and scuttled away. Like fuck was it escaping. It was way too big to get through the hole. We barreled after it, reaching it just as it folded in on itself and slipped out the breach into the night.
Azren turned to look at me, hands on hips, his harsh face twisted in confusion. “What was that thing?”
My mouth hurt where I’d bit my tongue. “I hath no idea.”
* * *
“Yeah,thome kind of metal thing, right. I know. Crathy. Thank you. I apprethiate it.” I ended the call to Noir and pocketed my mobile.
Azren leaned against the wall that bordered the house, arms crossed. He looked totally at ease, but that was a facade. I’d spent enough time with him to know when he was on high alert, and right now, Azren was scoping out the area, his body ready to react at the slightest provocation.
I joined him by the wall and hopped up, taking a load off. Damn, I wasn’t sure what ached more, my feet or my mouth.
“How’s your tongue?” Azren asked.
I stuck it out at him, then winced. “Count your blesthings that thing didn’t attack you. You’d probably have bitten your tongue off entirely.”
His gaze was fixed on the deserted street. “Shedim tongues are hardy and extremely versatile.”
Okay, now that was taking my mind in totally inappropriate directions. Not to mention wondering how he kissed, but we’d been down that line of questioning and it had almost ended on a demonstration. “Good to know.”
He smirked. He knew exactly where my mind had gone.
“Howth’s your hand?”
