Page 61 of A Skirl of Sorcery
I eyed him; I didn’t know where he was going with this, but it was certainly an interesting analogy.
He smiled slowly. ‘We don’t bother with a striptease, Kit. We offer him full-frontal from the beginning.’
‘Uh…’ I scratched my head.
‘We break in,’ he suggested. ‘We trip the ward, make a noise and a mess. Do you think Tobias Hollow’s first instinct will be to call the authorities?’
Suddenly my expression mirrored his. ‘No. He has an image to present to the world and he doesn’t want to appear weak. He won’t want the likes of the MET officers rummaging through hisprivate papers. Hollow is supposed to be a man who can defend his own interests – that’s why he scatters wolfsbane around his property. It’s why his office is in this building with that tiny sign. He likes to take care of matters himself and he doesn’t want to attract attention.’
Thane nodded at the door. ‘Shall I?’
I stepped back. ‘Be my guest.’
And with that, Thane used brute force to smash his way in. He was right: sometimes it was prudent to use tweezers and sometimes a sledgehammer was more appropriate.
With the full moon only just over and strong echoes of Thane’s werewolf still lingering beneath the surface of his skin, it only took three shoulder shoves and two well-placed kicks to warp the door enough to force it open.
Panting slightly, he moved to the side as it swung open. I gazed at the gap. The shiver of magic from the barrier ward in place was raising goosebumps on my arms. This was going to hurt.
When I stretched forward and passed the tip of my index finger across the threshold, pain flashed through me and there was a faint smell of burning. I considered the situation for a moment or two. The ward wasn’t that strong; plus Tanavantia had told me that Tobias Hollow wasn’t a witch or a druid so there wouldn’t be any lasting injury. I didn’t want to over-think the problem.
I drew in a breath then leapt through the doorway and inside the building.
As soon I was in, I stumbled and fell forward onto the marble flooring. Bloody hell. That had hurt.
‘You alright, Kit?’ Thane called, not sounding overly concerned since I was clearly still conscious and breathing.
I raised my hand to indicate that I was okay, then scrambled to my feet, turned around and examined the damage.Despite the swanky building, Tobias Hollow was something of a cheapskate. Breaking the ward had hurt but only fleetingly because it had been designed for show rather than keeping out undesirables. As soon as I’d crossed it, the ward had snapped. Thane could pass through the door without any ill effects.
When I beckoned him forward, he sauntered through the doorway and kicked the bottom of the door to make it obvious to anyone with eyes that it had been broken into. ‘Thanks for taking care of the ward,’ he said.
‘Thanks for taking care of the door,’ I returned. We grinned at each other like we were Bonnie and Clyde; much more of this behaviour and I’d start to embarrass myself.
‘What do you think?’ Thane asked. ‘This way?’ He pointed towards a set of double doors.
I shrugged. ‘Let’s find out.’
Thane opened the doors to reveal a fairly large office. There was a welcoming feel to the space and I noted a small vase of fresh flowers; this was probably where Tobias Hollow’s PA worked. It wasn’t impersonal enough for a man whose bottom line was pure profit without any regard for his fellows.
Thane apparently agreed. He looked around the room then immediately strode towards the next set of doors.
The second room met my expectations. The air contained the lingering scent of strong, expensive aftershave – the sort that the wearer wanted you to recognise as a named brand. There was a bank of leather-bound books on the shelves at the far side of the room, none of which appeared to have been opened much less read from cover to cover. In the centre of the room was a large oak desk that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Oval Office. This had to be the right place.
Thane sat down in the leather chair behind the desk and started opening drawers, although from the expression on his face there was nothing useful in any of them. I circled the roomseveral times to establish that there were no more magical wards or booby traps, then I took up position by the side of the door.
We didn’t have to wait long. Less than ten minutes after Thane and I had entered Tobias Hollow’s inner sanctum, a sharp, feminine cry sounded from outside followed swiftly by footsteps.Twosets of footsteps. I crossed my fingers that one set belonged to Hollow.
A young woman with delicate elfin features and a tight skirt that restricted her movements came in and stared in horror at Thane, who was still seated in Tobias Hollow’s chair. His feet were propped up on the desk and there was a lazy grin on his handsome face.
‘Who are you?’ she burst out, her voice trembling.
Thane didn’t speak or get up; he waited until a well-dressed man in a sharp suit barrelled in past her and yelled. ‘I’ve called the MET!’
Thane continued to smile. ‘Tobias Hollow, I presume?’
Although Hollow exuded magical power, it wasn’t immediately apparent what sort it was – and I didn’t like that. With his broad shoulders and large frame, he could have been mistaken for a troll but he didn’t have their facial bone structure. Without knowing what he was capable of, I would struggle to predict his actions but I realised that I was looking forward to this confrontation.
Intimidation, brow-beating victims and leaving my targets alive were not what I was used to; when I’d worked for EEL, I’d rarely even spoken to them. It would be interesting to see if I could find it in myself to bring this affair to a satisfactory conclusion without killing Tobias Hollow.
