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I drove back to n, physical or arcane, that anything had been disturbed, but there was a visceral part of --had been in that house in the last day

Chapter 17

I du by the front door and immediately headed down to ed at htened now by the oddities of Tessa’s house and her possible estion that I replace the wards onsomeone to do it forthat

I carefully sketched out the next section of the diagraet the dail to render the entire thing useless, and I was fairly sure that I didn’t have the luxury of tiain if the first atteed the iteram The teacup, the comb, the scarf I also added the picture of the two of us dressed like Purple People The glop of blood, hair, and fingernails had dried into a nasty dark-brown crust around the inner circle, and I had to be very careful not to touch any of it in case a crucial aspect of it flaked away

Inhaling, I pulled potency, weaving it into the runes in a careful progression The power cawith the effort of feeding it into the diagra the diagraan to knot my throat as seconds ticked by Ito have to start over fro over wouldn’t do ave a sudden pop, which I felt h me, and I had to bend over and put my hands on my knees for a few seconds Okay, crisis averted I hope

Ifroue, I slept badly--worry aboutme repeatedly

I was also apparently still angsting pretty heavily overdreams that featured him I ith a headache a few minutes beforeas the sun speared annoying fingers of light through ht--a strange and stupid one at that--and the thought that we ht not still be friends left ht never be interested inat all

Right?

I was in no h shreds of pride that I didn’t want to waste a sick day on ing in self-pity Not that I wasn’t unspeakably tempted to do so as I huddled underinto one of those horribly needy people who cling far too hard to people who are nice to them I liked Ryan Quite a bit But how e of the arcane? I wanted very much to think that there was more to our friendship than that, but ns out of roaned and stuffed my head under the pillow It was true I did want there to be more "I am so pathetic," I mumbled into my pillow

On the other hand, ould he be so overly protective of --if he didn’t consider ood friend? And how ht had been fueled by a fair aht--at least partially? I’d certainly juh the reasons for that were far too layered for in to peel apart But, in my own defense, I hadn’t succumbed to his thrall, or whatever Ryan was afraid of I was still ht?

And for thatsuddenly defensive How the fuck do demons knoho you are?

I threw off the covers and practiced a few choice curse words This entire line of thought was a sure way to drive myself nuttier than I already was

It was barely six aht, I pulled on workout clothes, packed a gyyy account once a month, and I showed up about half as often as that But I felt a deep need to sweat some annoyance and frustration out, and this was a better option than cleaning ym was fairly crowded, and I realized belatedly that everyone else was also trying to squeeze a workout in before work I saw a nu my brain for names, I realized that they were familiar because I’d seen them recently, at Brian Roth’s funeral Elected officials, or people in the social scene No one I actually knew

I didn’t have ood thing since most of the equipment was occupied I finally settled for a workout that consisted of: Wander around until you see an open ly, at the end of twentyI put in another twenty ed, and made it in to work barely on time

I didn’t see Boudreaux or Pellini in their offices as I headed todown leads in the deaths of Carol and Brian More likely, they were conducting a thorough investigation of the breakfast menu at Lake o’ Butter Pancake House

I allowed myself to feel virtuous as I settled in at ave , and doubly pleased when I heard him inquire a few seconds later as to the whereabouts of everyone else

Now that I’d successfully established to the rank that I looked like I orking, it was tiive , but after three hours I had ed to type up subpoenas for the Sharps’ financials, so I could verify forElena Sharp had told me

Definitely action-movie material

The courthouse was only a block away froh thatto h of relief as the air-conditioned cli that in about a ave a nod to the officers working courthouse security, giving an extra s the metal-detector wand She was an aht as well have shaved her head, but on her it totally worked and eous badass We’d been in the sa one-two in the academic portion She was number one She’d have been a terrific road cop, in le mom and had told me that not only did she need the more normal hours of courthouse work, but she also couldn’t put herself in a position to leave her daughter without a ave h the security area "Hey, wo on?"

I lifted theside of investigations The paperwork"

She chuckled "Warrants?"

"Subpoenas"

"Woo The really fun stuff!" she said, as she peered at a piece of paper on the desk by the X-ray e today, but he’s not in"

"I’m not surprised The funeral was only the day before yesterday"

Latif grimaced "Yeah He’s been out since it happened That whole thing sucks Oh, here we go Judge Laurent is taking duty today"