Page 20 (1/2)

Dominic, it’s Celia Can you hear me? If you can, think the word yes as hard as you can Scream it in your mind

Yes The sound was distant, like a bad connection on a cell phone But it was hi that the words I hear in someone’sDom’s mental voice was pissed I didn’t have to ask why

Yeah, yeah I know But you can’t have believed I’d stay at Eirl, could you? Anyway, Jan Mortensen was using the sa spell Bruno uses--remember the potted plant e first e less than five o The kid he ith is a teleporter She whisked ot his attention His voice strengthened in my mind Whisked you where exactly?

I wasn’t positive I should say, but soet us out of here safely We’re in one of the small auditoriu the assignments sent Ask someone in the Paranor with my ears rather thanwith one of the auditoriuht want to hurry I think Mortensen ainst the door’s trip bar, but it didn’t open The door was locked

Okalani whirabbed at ht be sixteen, but to me she was still just a kid, and she was a witness Maybe the only witness who could help us unravel what the hell was going on But if I left with her, Jan would just leave, disappear before Rizzoli and the others could get hi one of her arhtened brown eyes, I willed her to do what I said "Okalani, I need you to listen to o to your mother’s, have her hide you soot connections People are on the way here now I’ll work soet in touch with you But you have to go to your mom’s Now"

"Butin the lock Jan was a teaching assistant Of course he had a key Shit, shit, shit

"Go!" I whispered harshly, giving her a hard shove I felt the whiff of displaced air as Okalani vanished She’d been telling the truth about the shields

I took cover behind the lecturer’s podiu down, I drew the Glock from its ankle holster as the door opened and the rooht

Dom He’s here

We’re on our way

Weapon drawn, I peeked around the edge of the podiuesture he threw a ball of fire the size ofcoulfed in flae

He didn’t stop firing, either I kept rolling, right off the edge of the stage, knocking miscellaneous crap to the floor with me There was so et ive for one of those body binding charms

Another blast hit the stadiu paint, cloth, and hair My hair was singed, but I wasn’t hurt … yet On the other hand, I hadn’t been able to stop le shot

"FBI! Freeze!" Dom’s bass bellow came froe screae I didn’t know, and an explosion rocked the roo chairs, chunks of concrete, and twistedoutward in a deadly storht be early Latin I was going to need a Rosetta course for ancient es pretty soon The fire disappeared but I still took what cover I could on the floor between the nearest ts of seats and waited a e to land

When I felt it was safe enough to poke my head up I saw blood and destruction Doents were injured Bruno was curled in a fetal position near the wall,His counterspell hadn’t been without consequence

There was no sign of Jan Mortensen

15

If I hadn’t been friends with Rizzoli it would’ve been worse If Dom Rizzoli was more of an ass and less of a professional, it would’ve taken longer After all, there were injured agents, an injured civilian (Bruno had a cracked rib and needed so debris), aof considerable property dae

But it wasn’tup at the college I specifically hadn’t followed Rizzoli I wasn’t lying about that and he said he understood Sowas friendly and relatively short, particularly when compared to what had happened at the police station the previous day I was even able to clean up a little after the session so I didn’t look quite so much like the sole survivor in a disasterforis beautiful The floors are marble, the atriu talls, depicting scenes fro of the Bureau to the present The entrance doors and reception desk take up the third wall The fourth is unpolished black stone and nearly covered with two-inch brass plates with the naents who have died in the line of duty It’s a grim reminder of the price paid to keep the public safe

No new plates would be put on the wall because of this lad We’d been lucky I was lucky they’d arrived in tied a partial shield when the blast hit

That had been one hell of a spell It wasn’t the work of a student Not even a graduate student It was the kind of spell used by trained co like that without a tea to be wiped out for a week orJan They’d still have to contend with any traps he’d set for theic for a few days at least