Won’t, she said, as flames leapt from her blade to Jak’s leg. He yelped again, and raised a hand to batter her away, but I grabbed it.
“She won’t burn you,” I said. “Just stay still.”
“There are flames near my nuts,” he shouted, his expression one of horror. “You stay still —”
“Jak,” I cut in harshly. “Trust me.”
His gaze flashed to mine; then he gulped and stopped moving. Sweat beaded his forehead as Amaya’s flames wrapped almost lovingly around the two-foot snake of wiring stretching from just below his knee up to his groin. When the last of the snake was covered, her flames flared briefly, then disappeared. The snake was gone, and there was little evidence of its presence on Jak other than a few scorch marks on his jeans.
Magic bitter, Amaya commented. Hate made.
Lauren for sure, then. I still had to wonder why, though. It made little sense for anyone to want me dead, even if Lauren did want revenge for Lucian’s death. Unless, of course, both she and the other sorcerer – if indeed there was another sorcerer; we still weren’t entirely sure about that, despite the fact it had definitely been a male who’d snatched the first key from me – had decided they were happy enough having two of the three hell gates open. I guess, if nothing else, it would make accessing hell’s minions a whole lot easier for them.
Although the effort-to-reward ratio seemed way out of whack to me. But then, we were talking about a pair of dark sorcerers. Maybe they planned to hold the world for ransom or something equally insane.
I released Jak’s hand. “You okay?”
He took a deep breath, then nodded. “What the hell are we going to do about the wiring? Severing it doesn’t stop it, and there’s too much hanging down for us to do a proper search of the room without risk.”
“True.” I turned around. Amaya, are you able to burn a path between here and the bed?
She didn’t answer, but flames leapt from her blade, shooting forward, creating a six-foot-wide avenue between us and the bed. The remaining wiring shivered and snapped, as if in anger or frustration.
Another chill ran down my spine. There was no way in hell I was going to use the elevator to get out of this place.
With our path clear, we moved forward. The bed had borne the brunt of the explosion, and was little more than a blackened, twisted mass of frame, springs, and fabric remnants. If there had been something hidden within it, it was unlikely to have survived.
I checked the remnants anyway, and found precisely what I’d expected – nothing.
I bit back a frustrated curse and looked around the rest of the room. Where would Lucian have hidden something if not in the bed?
“If I’d wanted to secure something,” Jak commented, “I would have chosen the loo.”
I shot him a glance. “Why?”
He shrugged. “It’s the last place anyone thinks to look.”
It was certainly a place that would have appealed to Lucian’s warped sense of humor. I cleared more wiring snakes, then walked across to the remnants of the bathroom. Surprisingly, the glass wall had held up well, as had the toilet, which had been positioned behind it.
“Try the tank first,” Jak said. “It’s been plumbed in, so anywhere else would have caused an obstruction.”
I unscrewed the flush button, then lifted the lid off the tank. And there, attached to the plunger, was a small plastic-wrapped envelope.
“Bingo,” I said softly, and pulled it free. I handed Jak the lid, then unwrapped the envelope, slicing it open with a fingertip, then carefully unfolding the piece of paper inside.
It read “-37.76759373693766, 144.88306045532227.”
“Coordinates,” Jak said, looking over my shoulder. “Latitude and longitude, I’d guess.”
“If you’re right, then for what? is the next big question.” I flipped the bit of paper over, but there was nothing else written on it.
“Why don’t I Google it and find out?” He reached into his pocket and frowned. “What the hell…?”
He drew out his hand and held it out, palm up. A collection of broken bits of metal and plastic sat within it. The remains of his phone, I knew without asking. I closed my eyes and cursed again. In the rush to get out of the way of the blast, I’d totally forgotten anything metal not touching flesh would be shredded. Which meant not only his phone, but mine too and my keys.
“Sorry, that’s my fault.”
His gaze jumped to mine, and after a moment, he said, “That change thing?”