Page 65 of Asher

My face must still show my doubt, because David says, “I’ll go along and keep an eye on him.”

“Thank you,” I tell him over Alistair’s yelp that he’s perfectly capable of being professional, fuck us all very much.

“Okay, let’s get moving,” Gideon interrupts. “I want to get home to Sam at some stage this week.”

“Are we all going?” I ask hopefully. Now that CSG is taking over, I’m not sure if I’ll get to go back to the cave after this. Gideon and Alistair speak at the same time.

“No.”

“Sure!”

They look at each other, then glance at David.

“As long as you obey orders, it’s fine,” he says. “Have you ever traveled by portal before?”

I blink at him. “Teleport, you mean? Sometimes, with Asher.”

He shakes his head. “No, I mean by elf portal. Don’t worry, you’ll love it. It’s a lot better for non-demons than teleporting.”

“Excuse me?” Asher says, inexplicably offended that I might like some other form of travel better than teleporting, which still routinely makes me sick. I pat his arm.

“Let’s wait and see. But even if I like it better than teleporting, you’ll still be my favorite.”

He doesn’t seem all that mollified, although a minute later, after Caolan has looked at a few of the pictures we took in the cave and opened a glowing doorway right there in the middle of the kitchen, Asher’s jaw drops.

I study the portal thoughtfully, and when it’s my turn to go through—with Asher clinging to my hand—I brace myself. It’s needless. I feel nothing. It’s like stepping through a regular doorway, except the other side is miles away.

“Hey, guys?” I say casually to Alistair and Gideon as we wait for the others.

“Hmm?” Alistair asks, his attention already on the wall.

“If you knew elves could do this portal thing, why didn’t you mention it any of the times people were talking about how Hortplatz gets cut off in the winter?”

For a second, nobody reacts. Then Alistair, Gideon, and Asher all turn to stare at me.

“Just think,” I continue. “You hireoneelf and set up a public transport schedule of portals to Zurich or wherever. Portal opens at nine fifteen, a dozen people go through, and voilà. All done. No need for a demon to teleport back and forth to help multiple people.”

“I’m feeling distinctly underappreciated,” Asher mutters. Alistair looks like someone slapped him with a fish. I quite like it.

“Not all elves can make portals,” Gideon says finally. “Those who can are in high demand for government jobs.”

“All of them?”

He shrugs, and I make a mental note to talk to Caolan about this. Maybe there’s a semiretired elf out there somewhere who wants to make some extra cash by opening a portal a few times a week. They wouldn’t even have to live here, since they can just portal here when they need to.

Caolan steps through the portal, and it closes behind him. “Big fan of your work,” I tell him. “That was an amazing travel experience. Five stars.”

He grins. “I like you, Alistair’s cousin. Wanna be bros?”

Yeeeeahhh… he’s definitely spent too much time with Alistair. But it would be rude to refuse, right? “Sure. Come up next weekend for the snowman contest, and we’ll hang out.”

“A snowman contest?” He turns to David. “Did you hear that? They’re having a snowman contest! Can we come?”

“We’ll probably need to check on things by then anyway,” David murmurs absently, gaze skimming around the cave. “This is extraordinary. Where’s the entrance?”

Zac shows him, and Alistair sidles up beside me. “Why didn’t you tellmeabout the snowman contest?” he asks in an injured tone. I was the one who taught him that tone when he was a pup, so it has no effect on me.

“How were you going to get here?”

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