Grim got up from Silas’s lap to put his front feet on the dash and peer out the windshield. “We’re close enough to Fox Bluff; I vote we look up Miss Lori Hutchins. What Worthington calls hysterical nonsense we might call useful information.”
Silas resketched his demon-magic see find runes around the side window, but no hint of red tinged the passing countryside. “Worth a shot. She’ll probably also know who nearby has the power to summon a demon.”
“Unless it was her,” Kii pointed out.
“In which case, she’d hardly have called the council.”
“Maybe she wanted to lure Worthington into her grasp,” Jasper suggested.
Darien muttered, “She’s welcome to him.”
“Too much speculation, too few facts.” Silas pointed to a crossroads coming up. “Jasper, you have her address. Which way at the stop sign?”
Jasper’s map directions guided them to a small, neat bungalow painted robin’s-egg blue. The bumpy dirt drive ended in a graveled parking area flanked by willow trees, and Darien pulled in next to an ancient Ford pickup. They all waited for a moment but there was no movement from the house. Silas sketched a set of detection runes and sent them winging toward the windows and doors, then up to arc over the roof. Soft amber wards flared as he brushed against them, but nothing pinged his alarms. “Kii?”
The hawk shrugged her wings. “Not sensing much of anything. Sorcerer or demon, there’s not a lot of power in that house.”
Darien turned off the car. “What now?” He flashed Silas a grin. “Shall I go chat her up? Old ladies like me.”
Not going over there on your own, no way, no how. Silas tromped down his rush of protectiveness and said, “We don’t know her age. Young ladies like me.”
Darien reached across and patted his cheek, dodging Silas’s return swipe. “Just keep telling yourself that, man.”
Jasper said, “If you don’t think the three of us would overwhelm her, I admit to some curiosity about a demon popping out of thin air.”
Silas decided, “We’ll all get out, but you two hang back while I knock. Don’t want to frighten her.”
Grim stretched. “Pip and I will come to the door with you. Many women are fond of cats and dogs, and Pip couldn’t look threatening if he had a six-shooter strapped to his hip.”
“Thank you!” Pip paused, flapping his ears. “I think?”
“And I’ll run surveillance.” Kii hopped out of Jasper’s opening door and took off into the sky.
Silas led his motley team up the walkway and mounted the steps alone. He felt warmth at his elbow and looked down with his Othersight, spotting a fine gold tendril of power from Darien tagging along with him. In response to his inquiring glance, Darien shrugged. “Power you can pull on, if needed.”
“Ah. Not a bad thought.” He raised a hand to the front door and tapped gently, feeling the amber warding absorb and spark under the touch of his hand. The wards reacted to his unfamiliar power, thickening around the door even as it opened.
Standing safely behind the subtle wash of amber shielding, Lori Hutchins turned out to be young, tall, and thin, with auburn hair and watchful gray eyes. “Who are you?” She glanced over his shoulder and closed the door to a narrower gap. “All of you?”
“I’m Pip!” Darien’s familiar bounced, nails clicking on her porch. “And he’s Grim and they’re—”
“—sorcerers from out Councilrock way,” Silas finished, probing for any hint of balefire or brimstone. The shields blocked him, but weakly. He could sense nothing ominous behind them.
“Councilrock?”
“Worthington sent us, based on your report.” Silas resisted the urge to cross his fingers behind his back. It was close enough to true. “To talk to you about the demon.”
She pursed her lips. “I didn’t get the impression he believed me.”
“Perhaps not entirely. But your description was intriguing and, combined with a recent detection of demon activity in the area, seemed worth checking out. To me.”
“Ah.” A corner of her mouth quirked up. “So once you had something more than the— what was it?— fantasies of a young woman with too much imagination?”
“He’s—” An old chauvinist. “—set in his ways. He should’ve investigated on your word alone. But yes, we also had a warning of demon activity in the area this morning.”
She sobered. “That’s both reassuring and not.”
“No, it’s not.” He let that flat statement lie between them.
After a pause, she reached behind her, slid her arms into a thick coat, and stepped into a pair of boots. “You’ll understand if I don’t invite you in.”
“Yes, of course.” A sorcerer’s home was her castle and her last refuge, and there were three of them.
She sketched a run of runes his way, and then another set toward Darien and Jasper. Nothing threatening; he picked out see harm and figured she was checking them out. The featherlight spell slid around his shields and fell away, and she nodded. “I’m coming out. Back off the porch.”
Silas led Pip and Grim down to the walk, and Hutchins stepped through her door, bending the wards around her to enclose her front porch. Looking down at them, she said, “What do you want to know?”
“Why don’t you start with what you told Worthington, exactly. What happened, and why you called.”
“He didn’t tell you?” She laughed. “Probably wasn’t paying attention. All right. Early this morning, I was out feeding the chickens in my own yard. About the least magical activity you can imagine. And I felt… something. Like a thunderstorm on the horizon, you know, but magic, not weather. Power gathering, with an undertaste like ash and smoke and olives.”
“Olives?” Darien asked.
“Bitter. I hate olives.” She shrugged. “I slammed up my shields, ran for the house, just got inside my wards when it… appeared.”
“A demon? You’re sure? Where? How? What did it—” Silas flinched as Grim dug a claw into his shin.
“Let the lady tell us in her own way, O necromancer?” Grim’s ears flattened back, whiskers erect. “Tell us exactly what you saw, mistress.”
“It was right over there, under the dying elm. A dark hole opened up in the middle of the air, marble sized, then baseball, spreading fast, becoming a doorway.” If she was faking the rise in her breath and the pallor of her cheeks, she deserved an Oscar. “What came through was, well, I’ve never seen a demon before, but the thing seemed to billow out of smoke and flame, shapeless and black and red and yet… a creature. An entity. There were eyes…” Her voice trailed off.
“What did it do next?” Silas prompted. “Where did it go?”
“It came toward me, faster than I expected, and pushed against my house wards. Where my power held it back smelled of burning paint, something smoky, chemical, and nasty. Those red eyes looked at me, and I felt it… pressing. Scrabbling against my wards. It said something and I put my hands over my ears. Eventually, it went away, I think. I haven’t left the house.”