Page 120 of Kiss of Magic

“Nush’aldaam?”

“I can see you two are intellects to be reckoned with. No pulling the wool over your eyes, is there?”

“Are you going to tell us why you’re here or am I going to kick your skinny butt out of the window?” growled Blake.

“You’d have to catch me first,” smirked the sprite. Nevertheless, he took a step back. “It’s a message from the Emperor. Hang on.”

He rifled through his bag, bringing out improbably large packages that couldn’t possibly fit, before settling on a cream scroll tied with red ribbon. He undid it and cleared his throat pompously.

“To Dani Archambeau of the Angelus Coven, Demon Destroyer and former witch. You are hereby summoned to an audience with His Royal Majesty Emperor Kamran bin Mazhab at the Nurhan Gate. The details are contained within this scroll.”

He held it out. Dani stared at it.

“The Emperor wants to meet with me?”

“And they say humans are slow.” The sprite rolled his eyes. “That’s what it says, doesn’t it? Here, take it. I have other deliveries to make.”

Dani took the scroll with shaking hands. The sprite made for the door, then paused.

“So this is the human world, is it? Never been here before. Smells a bit, doesn’t it?”

And he was off.

Blake took the scroll out of Dani’s unresisting hands.

“What’s the Nurhan Gate?”

“A doorway to Nush’aldaam. On this side, it opens up in Norway.”

There was another, much closer one, Dani knew. The Gate in Central Park, which is where she guessed the sprite had come from. It led to Palissandra but since a treaty had been signed between the Emperor and the Vetali, it was now used by both sides for diplomatic travel.

It was undetectable to humans, but Dani had gone to look at it once. Even though she no longer had magic, she was able to see the towering pillars that marked the threshold between the mortal and immortal realms.

Not that she’d considered crossing it. Partly because stepping into Vetali territory could be dangerous without an express invitation. But mainly… she bit her lip. Mainly because she couldn’t bear the possibility that once people knew who she was, they’d look at her with disgust.

The witch who’d run. The witch who’d let people die.

Is that why the Emperor wanted to see her? To punish her for not acting sooner?

Blake studied her face.

“If you don’t want to go, Blue, we can just ignore it.”

It was tempting. But she was done being a coward. She straightened her shoulders.

“No. I think it’s time to face the music.”

Fifty Nine

Blake looked down at Dani, her nose red from the Arctic wind. They were standing on the porch of a little log cabin which squatted in a Norwegian forest. A fire was burning merrily in an old oil drum and next to it, a little old lady sat in a rocking chair warming her hands.

She was wearing a garish woolly bobble-hat and brewing what she claimed was coffee but which was thick with the smell of whisky. Blake was trying his best to ignore her. She was weird.

She had done something to Dani’s arm earlier. Applied what she called an ‘entry permit’. Dani had winced while it was being done but whatever it was, it hadn’t left a mark. Blake assumed it was magic.

“Are you sure about this, princess?” he asked. She nodded.

“I have to go. It’s the Emperor.”

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