Read Online Djinn Justice (The Collegium Book 2) by Jenny Schwartz - Free Book Online Page A

fluffy toys as tokens. On the other hand, Fay couldn’t see Steve willingly carrying a fluffy toy around with him. Cords were practical. Tied in a loop, a were could wear one no matter the form in which they entered the portal. A leopard didn’t have pockets.
    Fay resisted the temptation to touch Jim’s shell token in her pocket. No need to indicate to anyone its presence or her unsettled feeling. Fay looked across a quarter arc of the portal as a single set of footsteps pattered down the stone staircase.
    There was a casual, practiced rhythm to the steps. The person descending was accustomed to entering the dungeon.
    “Good afternoon.” The eager voice matched the jaunty figure that launched itself into the room. The man appeared to be in his sixties, which would make him an experienced porter. He had white hair tied back in a skinny ponytail, and wore jeans and a cotton shirt with a drawstring neckline and flapping sleeves. His feet were bare. He was part hippie, part just himself.
    “I am Faroud.” Faded blue eyes stared expectantly at Fay.
    “I’m Fay Olwen.”
    “I saw you enter the café with Steve.”
    A whole lot of weres had, but Faroud couldn’t be one of them. Oh, he might have been in the café and seen her with Steve, but being a porter required magic, which the were didn’t have. Ergo, Faroud wasn’t a were, and without were senses, he wouldn’t know she was Steve’s mate—unless gossip told him so.
    Judging by the avidity with which Faroud studied her, gossip had exploded like a firestorm.
    Fay decided to ignore it. Neither confirm nor deny. “I need to travel to New York.”
    “ Now , Faroud,” Mrs. Jekyll prompted.
    The porter flashed Mrs. Jekyll a sly grin, a look that lingered and took in the older woman’s disapproval and simmering rage.
    It seemed Mrs. Jekyll had also guessed the extent of the gossip. Her spine was rigid, her lips pinched in a thin line. The light reflecting off the portal gave a gray shade to her complexion. Gossip could turn on a person. Mrs. Jekyll had ruled here by virtue of her husband’s position. The weres couldn’t know yet that Steve was being tested—Uncle’s bubble of silence within the Court had seen to that—but there would still be speculation and debate as to changing fortunes and opportunities, given that the heir to the Suzerainty had brought a non-were mate to the fort.
    “I’ll contact Paul O’Halloran.” Faroud extended his arm, touching the air above the shimmering circle.
    “No, not Paul,” Fay said hurriedly. That was what happened when she let herself speculate when she should be focused.
    Paul O’Halloran was the Collegium’s recognized porter. It was rare for two portals to exist so closely as they did in New York—or so Fay believed—but she might as well use the fact. Announcing her arrival via Paul removed the very slight advantage she’d have if she caught the Collegium unprepared. “Cynthia knows me.”
    “Oh?” Faroud’s white eyebrows rose in interrogation.
    Fay hadn’t learned all the secrets of the non-Collegium-registered porters’ network. It was enough that she knew it existed, and had limited access to it, thanks to her stepfather.
    For Faroud, her knowledge of it visibly gave her an added layer of mystery. He stared at her as he contacted Cynthia.
    Behind him, Mrs. Jekyll hovered. Standing in her high heels on the stone floor couldn’t be comfortable, yet she stayed. She could have crashed Steve and Mr. Jekyll’s conversation. Did she worry what Fay or Faroud might say in her absence?
    The porter sat on the ground, nearer Fay than Mrs. Jekyll, his gaze sliding between them, while his fingers moved nimbly, weaving green thread into a cord.
    Fay shut down the temptation to speculate, either about the situation at the fort, the rogue mage or what she might encounter at the Collegium. She centered her attention on the magic inside her and its readiness for action.
    They waited in silence for Cynthia’s