Page 63 of Asher

Whoa. “Wouldn’t we have sensed any wards?” I ask. I haven’t spent that much time around sorcerers, but I did hire some good ones to put up wards at my apartment and office in Zurich. Since I’m not always there, it seemed like a sensible precaution. I always feel the gentle tingle of those wards when I walk through them.

“It depends on what the wards are supposed to do,” Alistair says. “Sometimes they need to be hidden.”

Garrett glances up at me with wide eyes. Suddenly the precautions Zac made us take don’t seem like they were enough.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN

Garrett

Partof me is hoping that Alistair’s trying to get back at me for saying he’s just another hellhound, but the rest of me knows he’s not. Not yet, anyway. I’m sure his revenge is in my future.

“Okay,” I say, trying to sound breezy and not like being the one to open the crate might have been the dumbest fucking decision of my life. I slide my hand down Asher’s arm and take his hand. “So step one is to have someone check for wards and booby-traps, step two is to scan through the door to what’s behind it. Then what?”

“Depends what we see behind the door,” Gideon says. “If it’s an empty room, nothing. If there’s stuff there, we’ll try to get the door open. My preference would be to blast it, because decoding that stupid puzzle will take forever.”

“No!” I gasp, echoed by Alistair and Micah.

“No way,” Micah adds. “That puzzle is one of a kind, and it’s a masterpiece. You can’t blast it.”

“Do you know anyone who can solve it?” his cousin growls back.

“I do,” Alistair sings.

“You do?” I blink at him. “Really?”

“Of course really! I wouldn’t make up a thing like that.” He’s back to using his “I’m hurt and offended” voice. “I can send him the pictures right now and get an opinion, if you like.”

“Do it,” Gideon orders before I can reply. “I’ll call David and get him out here to check for wards.” He glances across the table at Asher. “Does Grandmother know what’s going on? Or Jesse?”

Silence. I stare at the tabletop and try to be invisible.

“Maybe before we call in anyone else, you better let the village council know.”

“Now that we’ve advised the proper authorities, isn’t that your job?” Zac asks hopefully.

Gideon laughs. “Nice try.”

Well… fuck.

* * *

“Walk us through this again,”Jesse says an hour later. Asher called him and said we needed an emergency session of the village council, and to his credit, he got everyone together fast. I’m not sure how I was elected to go along with Zac and Asher, though.

“Yes.” Damaris’s tone is low and dangerous. “By all means, let’s clarify.”

Zac’s eye twitches, but my glorious husband looks unfazed by his grandmother’s ire.

“When we located Isaac last night, the cave he was in wasn’t empty,” Asher begins.

“We understand that part,” Damaris interrupts. “Why wasn’t that reported to the council immediately?” And by “the council,” she means her.

“There were other priorities.” Asher stands his ground. “We were all cold, tired, and hungry. We’d been out searching for nearly two hours in the snow and wind.”

“Of course,” Jesse soothes. “Your personal well-being took precedence. But, uh… this morning, when you decided to go back to the cave and collected quite a bit of equipment to do so…” He gestures to the wall-mounted TV where Zac’s photos are on display. “Why didn’t you advise the council then?”

“It was very early still,” Zac says. “And we weren’t sure whether it was even worth disturbing the council over. My plan was to have a look in the crates, see what was there, and then come back and report.”

You don’t need to be a vampire judge to know that’s a lie, but despite some skeptical looks, nobody calls him on it.

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