Page 62 of The Devil Went Down to Laughlin
No wonder she and Delia were best friends.
“Do you work for the hotel?” Pru asked, her tone pointed, and the furrows in Aaron’s brow deepened.
“Um…no.”
“Then what does it matter to you whether we look inside that room or not?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets, expression now mildly panicked. Although Caleb still wasn’t sure exactly how these things worked, it sure seemed to him that the spell had some lingering hooks in the guy. Maybe not enough to completely erase his free will, but sufficient to make him second-guess anything that went against the original instructions he’d been given.
“Um….”
Pru cocked an eyebrow, and that seemed to be enough to make Aaron Sanchez fold.
“I guess it doesn’t matter,” he told her, and even stepped partially out of the way so he was no longer blocking the door handle. “But I’m pretty sure it’s locked.”
Since Ty had already shown that door locks were no big deal, Caleb wasn’t too bothered by that weak caveat. “It’s fine,” he said. “We can take care of it. Right, Ty?”
“Not a problem,” the half angel responded. He moved closer to the door and touched a finger to the handle. Even from where he stood, Caleb could hear an audible click.
His heartbeat sped up just the slightest bit. He could tell himself until he was blue in the face that his worry over Delia was the same concern he would have shown toward anyone in his circle if they’d disappeared unexpectedly — all right, his “circle” consisted of Delia, Ty, and Prudence and no one else, but still — and yet he knew his concern was deepened by the realization that he wanted Delia to be much more than merely his friend.
Even if he wasn’t sure whether he’d ever have the guts to tell her that.
The door opened out into the corridor where they all stood, and the space inside appeared utterly black — much darker than a simple windowless room probably should have. A chill inched its way down his back.
Something about the chamber felt utterly wrong, much worse than the odd, pulsing energy of the Colorado River.
“Another spell,” Ty said briefly. “One that put this place outside time and our plane of existence.”
“If it’s not on our plane, then why can we see it?”
“Because it protrudes into our existence enough that we can still detect something of its shape and form.”
That explanation made about as much sense as the organic chemistry class Caleb had struggled through his senior year of college. Anyway, he wasn’t here to discuss the physics of the situation.
“Delia?” he called out.
“She can’t hear you,” Ty said. “The whole reason she was placed in here was to keep her out of our reach. However, I’ll do what I can to disrupt the enchantment.”
He raised his hands, and a white glow enveloped them, slowly moving outward until it surrounded his entire body. Pru’s mouth dropped open slightly — she might have seen him use his powers here and there, but nothing as obvious as this — but Ty wasn’t paying any attention to his audience.
With the white glow still surrounding him, the half angel took a step into the room, then paused, as if he was taking a read on the spell and doing his best to think of the most efficient way to neutralize it.
Caleb wasn’t sure exactly what happened next, but the white light expanded outward abruptly, making it look as if a supernova had gone off in the space. Out of reflex, he lifted a hand to shield his eyes, while Pru did the same.
Aaron, on the other hand, continued to look into the room as if nothing strange had happened.
When Caleb lowered his hand, he could tell everything had changed. While it was still dark in there, it appeared to be an ordinary darkness, one where he could pick out the occasional detail, thanks to the light filtering in from the corridor outside.
And when Ty touched the light switch next to the door, everything was thrown into sharp relief — a daybed with a padded head and footboard, a small table.
A pair of women’s sandals lined up neatly next to the table, with a brown leather purse sitting next to them.
“She’s not here,” Pru said, her face taut with worry and disappointment.
Caleb could relate. He was so sure they’d find Delia trapped inside the room.
But….
