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"Be careful," I told hiray nizes me," he said "Hopefully this will prevent an attack"

"Okay I’ll close the portal behind us If you need us to open it, call, okay?" Arcphones used ley lines for a wireless signal, so contacting us shouldn’t be an issue

"I will, Justin"

The rest of us stepped back through the portal to thethe arch, I walked upstairs after the others My el babies Even though the leywor had vouched for s be different the next ti?

So much made so little sense True, I’d only known leywor sense, when they’d chased our s our expedition to apprehend Vadaemos I wondered if Yolo could communicate with the leywor carpet down into Queens Gate that night The bustling city looked like London froe clock tower rose fros used for official Arcane Council rabbed dinner at the Copper Swan, a popular Chinese restaurant

"I think Shelton is right," Elyssa said as we discussed his plan to question an arch operator about the control room beneath El Dorado "You obviously can’t tell the operator this is about El Dorado unless he still believes your Darkwater story"

"If the arch operators don’t help, what then?" I asked

Elyssa shrugged "Kidnap one? Torture him for inforhed "I’, babe" She put a hand atop anization is based? Maybe we could break into their headquarters and find more useful inforood idea," I said

"Probably because a woht of it," she said

I snorted "I think we should start with the operators Infiltrating Darkwater sounds risky" I narroweda conversation I’d once had with Bella "Although…back in the day, Bella and Stacey used to be cat burglars Maybe they could help with so on that scale"

Elyssa’s violet eyes widened "They were thieves?"

I nodded "Bella toldto co her lips

"Now you’re scaring ain," I said with a smirk

After dinner, ent back to theShelton

"You clearly don’t have a life," he said, as she placed a long word I’d never seen before across the board "What do you do, read dictionaries all day? Is that even a word?"

"Of course," the petite Arcane said with a bright smile

"What the hell does it ue

Shelton’s gruhter

"We’ve been discussing plans," I told theave us a suspicious look "As in plans for new bedroo that’ll make me wish I didn’t know you?"

I took a seat at the table "We figured grilling one of the arch operatorsDarkwater is a good backup plan in case the operators don’t have answers" I chewed on my inner lip "We need to kno to operate the Alabaster Arch so we find out where the Grand Nexus is We need to kno to turn on the lights We need inforain with Lornicus so he’ll help me rescue Mom"

Shelton’s forehead wrinkled into an incredulous look "Just so happens I knohere Darkwater is located," he said

My eyebrows pinched "You do? How?"

He shrugged "When ere pretending to work for Darkwater, I did a little extra research I don’t like i about I also wondered what kind of people the Conroys were hiring"

"Tell usa seat next to Bella

"Jarrod Sager originally owned the company when it was known as Arcane Enterprises," he said, speaking of his adoptive father, the forlesworth Shelton flinched, but soldiered on "He hired the his own company for a public contract was an obvious conflict of interest Cyphanis Rax, his pri up the dirt and called hier’s political career was over, but then I caught the Pinkerton Gang, and dear old dad took the credit for it"

"You caught the Pinkertons?" Elyssa said, an amazed look on her face "They remained at the top of the Te "I was getting pretty good at the bounty hunting biz"