Read Online Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 (9780698175952) by Benedict Jacka - Free Book Online

in.
    There were three of them, two men and a woman, quick and quiet, their heads turning as they checked the corners. All three were masked and wore dark clothes, but even with the masks I recognised the hulking shape of the nearest. It was Cinder. He looked straight at the corner in which I was hiding, but his eyes swept past without seeing. “Empty.”
    “Find some more,” snarled the second man. It was Khazad. Apparently going after me hadn’t been the only item on his todo list for tonight. He was limping and smelt of rotting vegetables. Maybe he’d hit the Dumpster on his way down. “I’m not done.”
    “Enough,” the woman said sharply, and the sound of her voice made me forget all about Khazad. The clothes hid her shape and all I could see was a pair of blue eyes, but even a glance at them made me go still. I couldn’t place her voice, but somehow I felt as though I’d met her before. “Cinder, do your tests.”
    Cinder made a gesture and dark red lights sprang up around the room, small red flames smouldering in midair. In the red glow, he studied the statue, turning his back to me. “How long we got?”
    “They’ll still be getting out of bed,” Khazad said, his voice simmering with anger. “They get in our way, too bad for them.”
    “We aren’t here for you to play,” the woman said. She checked a watch. “Two minutes. Cinder?”
    The woman’s voice was sending chills through me.Something about it kept nagging at my memory, but I couldn’t quite match it. If I could just see her face…but in the red light, all I could make out were her eyes as she stood with arms folded, staring at the statue. She was average height and moved with a smooth grace.
    “Trying,” Cinder muttered. He was holding up his hands, weaving glowing red threads around the statue. I could recognise it as a divining spell of some kind, but a crude one. He wasn’t going to learn anything useful. Cinder must have realised it the same time I did, because he lowered his hands and let the light die. “Need a diviner.”
    Khazad looked at Cinder angrily. “You say something?”
    Cinder returned Khazad’s gaze. “Said you’d bring Verus. Said you didn’t need any help.”
    Khazad showed his teeth in a snarl. I could feel the hate radiating off him, and I made a mental note to make sure I stayed out of Khazad’s way for a while. I was getting the impression he wasn’t the forgive-and-forget type.
    “Cinder,” the woman said again, and Cinder looked away from Khazad, breaking the standoff. I couldn’t help but grin.
Hey, don’t sell yourselves short, guys. You did manage to bring along a diviner, you just can’t see him
. Destroying the barrier had triggered an alarm, and Council reinforcements were on the way. I already knew that Khazad’s guess had been accurate. The reinforcements were going to be too late to do me any good.
    But the three Dark mages didn’t know that. The woman took a final glance at her watch and shook her head. “We’re out of time.”
    Reluctantly, Cinder held out his left hand. The woman handed him something the size of a tennis ball, covered in a dark cloth. Cinder turned to the statue and hesitated.
    Khazad gave an ugly laugh. “Losing your nerve?”
    “Shut up, Khazad.” The woman’s voice had a snap of authority to it. Khazad fell silent midlaugh and glowered. The woman’s eyes swept past him and suddenly locked on the corner in which I was hiding.
    I caught my breath. Blue eyes stared into mine. In thedim light, I knew that I would be only a shadow in the corner. But if she came forward even a little…I closed my fingers around the glass marble in my pocket.
    “Fine,” Cinder growled. The woman dragged her eyes away to look at him, and I let out my breath silently. “Let’s do this.”
    Cinder stepped forward towards the statue, unwrapping the whateveritwas. His back was to me, and I wanted to find out what he was holding in his hands, but self-preservation made me look into