Curse the Dawn Read Free Page A

“And if you don’t like it, you could always, oh, I don’t know, leave ?”
    “I’m not going anywhere!”
    Agnes didn’t respond. I looked around the column to see her cautiously approaching what had been the door. Burning shards framed the opening in fire, and streamers of noxious fumes were swirling slowly outward. It looked like a portal to hell, but she nonetheless squatted to one side, peering into the darkness within.
    “Who is the Guild?” I whispered, joining her despite my better judgment.
    “An order of mages who play around with very dangerous spells. Unfortunately for us, once in a while they don’t manage to blow themselves up.”
    “And that’s a problem because . . . ?”
    “Because they’re time travelers.”
    She started forward, and I grabbed her arm. “Wait. You’re going in there?”
    “That’s the job.”
    “The job sucks!”
    “You’re telling me.” She threw off my hand and slipped echo across the threshold, her stocking-clad feet silent on the old stones.
    “Agnes!” I hissed it after her, but there was no response. I stared into the dark for half a second, cursing softly, and then followed.
    I’d closed the lantern’s little door, but it must have gotten dented in the fall, and the sides didn’t meet all the way. Thin beams of sepia light leaked out, gilding the stones around us and turning our shadows into hulking monsters. I stared into the darkness crowding the rest of the room and tried not to think about sharpshooters and easy targets.
    When the attack came, the only warning was a flicker of red in the gloom. Agnes aimed for it, but before she could pull the trigger, a bloody snake of lightning flashed across the room and struck her shoulder. She spun around and collapsed against me with a choked cry.
    I dropped the lantern and grabbed her and my gun. But I only managed to get a couple of shots off before her fingers closed over my wrist. “Not in here.”
    I didn’t argue since I didn’t have anything to use as a target anyway. I dragged her out of the puddle of light into the shadow of a nearby support column. She peered around the side, but unless her eyesight was a hell of a lot better than mine, she didn’t see anything. I listened, but there was no sound except her ragged breathing.
    “Maybe I hit him,” I whispered.
    “I’m not that lucky.”
    Her voice sounded strained, and something gleamed wetly on the shoulder of her dress. “You’re hurt.”
    “My own damn fault.” She peeled violet-printed chiffon away from a nasty-looking burn. “I loaned my ward to my heir for a training exercise right before she eloped with some loser. Naturally, she didn’t bother to give it back first.”
    I bit my lip and didn’t reply. The ward in question was a pentagram-shaped tattoo the size of a saucer that currently sat between my shoulder blades. It didn’t guard against human weapons, but was pretty amazing when fending off magical assaults. My mother, who had been Agnes’ heir before wisely running for the hills, had passed it on to me. But somehow I didn’t think this was a great time to bring that up.
    “Do you usually wear high heels to chase armed men around?” I asked instead.
    She wiggled the toes of her now bare foot, making the ladder in one silk stocking creep up a little higher. “I was called away in the middle of a dinner party.”
    “You could have brought a bodyguard with you.”
    “Yes, that’s all this fiasco needs! Another mage. Probably go off half cocked and blow up the whole complex, saving the Guild the trouble!”
    “And maybe saving your life!”
    She leaned her head wearily back against the column. “I can do that for myself.”
    I crossed my arms but said nothing. Her breathing was still heavy and her color wasn’t good, but I was in no position to give a lecture. She wasn’t the only one who had left a partner behind.
    Pritkin hated my trips through time for the same reason I did—the conviction that, sooner or later, I