“It’s nice to be appreciated.” I opened the door to the upper room and skirted the inert platform towards the bank of machinery.
“I appreciate you,” he said from behind my shoulder. His words brought a shiver to my skin, but a moment later, a tell-tale glint caught my eye.
I crouched down. Sure enough, a handful of blank cantrips lay beneath the machine’s hunk of ruined metal. I gingerly turned one over with my foot, but no mark covered the back. Not the Family’s…
Miles picked up one of the cantrips. “Not sure we’ll find any kind of transporter which’ll work without a node, to tell you the truth.”
“That’s not what I’m looking for,” I said. “These aren’t the Family’s. I thought for a moment we might be near their house, but there’s nothing out there. Hell of a weird place to build a citadel.”
I picked up another cantrip, then it hit me that I should probably take my own advice and leave them alone in case they turned out to be laced with the virus. I gave the machine another scan instead, eyeing a cantrip-shaped slot in the side. “What’s that?”
Miles’s expression darkened. “That’s how the transporter works. A portable transporter cantrip was inside the machine itself. All you need is a battery. Like those sprites.”
“Living batteries.” I tasted bile at the back of my throat. “Wait, could you put a different cantrip in there and use it the same way?”
“I’d wager that’s exactly what it’s intended for,” Miles said. “As for why they picked somewhere so remote, this is probably why.”
“It didn’t used to be.” The town had once been intact, and the sight of it stirred a sense of familiarity within me despite my best efforts. “The transporter is out for the count. I can run, but I’d have to carry you if I wanted to get us both out of there at once.”
He raised a brow. “You, carry me?”
“Why not?” I said. “I’m stronger than I look.”
“Uh-huh.” He gave a knowing smile. “Want to demonstrate?”
“You asked for it.” I grabbed him around the middle and lifted him into the air. Unfortunately, I hadn’t accounted for the wires underfoot, and when I tripped against the machine’s side, I overbalanced and crash-landed on top of him. The breath fled my lungs as he looked up into my eyes, my knees on either side of his waist.
“Gotcha,” he said softly. “Now I have you where I want you.”
A voice in the back of my head told me to get up and stop screwing around. Flirting was one thing, but heavy contact was a no-go in my line of work. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d let anyone get that close. What was I doing?
His fingers caught my wrist, tugged gently. “Hey. Let me into your thoughts.”
My thoughts were a whirling dervish, flitting past like hummingbirds. In the end, all I said was, “Are you sure my weird elf powers don’t freak you out?”
“Are you kidding me?” His fingers teased my wrist, and warmth pooled inside me. “I’ve seen weirder.”
“So complimentary.” Ah, fuck it. I leaned over and kissed him on the mouth. He lifted his head in response, his lips soft on mine, his hands releasing my wrists and cupping my head to pull me onto him.
Footsteps hammered on the stairs. I jerked back and hit my knee hard on the floor. A series of curses escaped me. “Owww.”
Behind us, the door slammed against the wall. Shelley walked in and gave us both a look of utter disgust. “I swear, if you two start boning next, I’m leaving you in here.”
Miles grinned. “That wouldn’t be comfortable, would it?”
“Gotta love that apocalyptic decor.” I pushed to my feet, wincing. “Ouch. Yeah. Bad choice of make-out spot.”
“Not the worst.” His words were a murmur in my ear as we walked to the door.
Shelley shook her head at us when we caught her up at the foot of the stairs. “I can see something over there that might be a node. Find anything in the tower?”
“Just a few abandoned cantrips,” I told her. “Nothing useful.”
Shelley pushed open the door. Darkness shrouded the ruins as the sun’s rays withdrew beyond the horizon. It’d been a hell of a long day, and it seemed we’d have a longer night ahead if we didn’t find civilisation soon. All kinds of beasts came out at night, and while vampires wouldn’t be seen dead in a place like this—relatively speaking—phantoms and revenants would have no shortage of hiding places.
I absently rubbed my sore knee, fighting the sinking feeling in my chest as I looked at the ruined city. Glass crunched underfoot, and shadows stretched spidery fingers towards us.
Ryan strode back into view. “Finished slacking off?”
“We weren’t slacking off,” I protested. “We figured out the machinery in there can be used as a battery to power up any cantrip, not just transporters.”
“Looks like you were more interested in finding alternative uses for the floor,” Shelley said.
“Seriously, though,” Miles said, “the sprites have gone, but something linked up the citadel with the others, didn’t it? I’m not sure the sprites were the only battery source.”
“Does that mean there are power sources… living ones… in every citadel?” said Shelley.
“I didn’t see any cages in Elysium, did you?” I reminded them both.
“Liv implied that this was the place where they brought the liches back to life,” Ryan said. “They hooked up a cantrip to the machine and used it to turn a lich into a living mage again. I reckon they needed a stronger power source to pull that off.”
My throat went dry. “You’re joking.”
“I probably should have asked her to confirm it before she took off,” said Ryan. “I’m starting to think she and the Death King ran into trouble.”
“Nah, they ditched us,” said Miles. “They ran off, and we should do the same before we get eaten.”
“I agree,” said Shelley. “Pity we can’t apply
