Part 4 (1/2)

”Cleaning the splattered remains of a history essay off your bedroom walls.”

”Right.” A lapse in concentration and the Riel Rebellion had spilled out of her closet. It had taken her the entire weekend to clean up the mess, and most of it had turned out to be nonrecyclable. ”I think I've seen enough. Let's go.”

The purely physical lock on the door took only a trickle of power to open.

Sam radiated disapproval as he slipped through into the store. ”Breaking and entering.”

”Technically, only entering.” Locking the door behind them, Diana tried not to sneeze at the overpowering odor of gardenia coming off the display of candles immediately to her left. A quick glance showed that the gardenia had easily overpowered vanilla, cinnamon, bayberry, lilac, belladonna, monkshood, pholiotina, and yohimbe. Unless the Colonial Candle Company was branching out into herbal hallucinogens, at least half the display had clearly been brought over from the Otherside.

Not just the bracelet, then.

Rubbing her nose, she moved cautiously into the store, skirting a locked gla.s.s cabinet filled with crystal b.a.l.l.s, and ending up nearly treading on Sam's tail as, hissing, he backed away horn.. . . Diana bent over to take a closer look and had no better idea what animal the pile of stuffed creatures was supposed to represent. In spite of neon fur, they looked remarkably lifelike, given a loose enough definition of both life and like.

”I was just startled,” Sam muttered, vigorously was.h.i.+ng a front paw.

”If I was closer to the ground, they'd have startled me, too.”

”I wasn't afraid.”

”I know.” She stroked down the raised hair along his back as she straightened. ”I think we can safely say the hole's not out here. Let's check out the storeroom.”

”It's not back there either.”

Not Sam. Not unless Sam's voice had deepened, aged, and moved up near the ceiling.

Diana dropped down behind a rack of resin frogs dressed in historical military uniforms and began to gather power.

”Think about it for a minute, Keeper; if I wasn't on your side, I'd have already sounded the alarm. Why don't you drop the fireworks and come over here so we can talk.”

He, whoever he was, -had a point. Diana stood, slowly, and looked around. The shadows made it difficult to tell for certain, but she'd have been willing to bet actual cash money that she and Sam were alone in the store. ”Where are you?”

”Up in the corner.”

The only thing she could see in the corner was the convex circle of a security mirror. Just as she was realizing the reflection seemed a little off, a familiar pair of blue-on-blue eyes appeared. ”You've got to be kidding me. They're using a magic mirror for security?”

”Ain't life a b.i.t.c.h,” the mirror agreed. ”Got pulled out of a well-deserved retirement, quiet hall, nice view out an oriel window, and got stuffed up here by Gaston the Wondertroll.”

”So there's a real troll?”

”Large as life, and twice as ugly. Actually, larger than life if we're reflecting accurately.”

”Great.”

”I wouldn't worry about him, kid; he's just the front man.” Faint blue frown lines. ”Front troll. Those actually running this segue are keeping their heads tucked well down until it's too late for your lot to stop it.”

Good thing she'd touched that bracelet, then. The energy discharged had been enough to crack the s.h.i.+elding and send the Summons. No touching, no Summons, no chance to stop the . . . ”Wait a minute. Did you say, segue?”

”I did.”