Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“Walter carved wards into the walls,” he said. Kierse craned her neck and saw markings on the wall that she’d have easily missed under normal circumstances.
“So, they’re pretty powerful.”
He nodded. “Carved is always a more permanent marking. With what he’s using to hold up all these wards all over the city, I’d imagine he has to carve them or else he couldn’t sustain them all.”
“Or he’s more powerful than you give him credit for.”
Graves shot her a look. “Doubtful.”
“Always so sure of yourself.”
He smirked. “For good reason.” He pointed to the machine she’d seen before. “The computer is what controls the wards.”
She furrowed her brows. She understood technology enough to break it when she needed to. But she didn’t understand how to build it, let alone what kind of power Walter would need to channel his magic into an electrical device. She couldn’t even ward her wooden box. “How does it control the wards?”
“I have no idea,” he begrudgingly admitted, his jaw set. “Walter designed the computer system as well. He had to have a way for people to enter the underworld while his wards were up and still keep people like me out.”
“He hates you so much that he warded it so you couldn’t get inside?”
“That’s one way to look at it,” Graves said dryly.
“What’s the other way? You threw him out and abandoned him in the middle of his training,” she told him. “It’s not surprising he’d want to keep you out.”
“Yes, well, I always assumed it was because I was powerful.”
She laughed. “That probably doesn’t help.”
“Anyway, at first, Walter left open a few key points to funnel people in. They were frisked. People didn’t like it. They complained.”
“Customer service at its finest,” she muttered.
“His solution was the machine. People are screened, pay a fine, and are given an access card. They just have to swipe it, and it works with the wards to let them pass. Like a MetroCard.”
“No one complained about that?”
“They like the exclusivity.”
“Of course they do. Do I need to steal a card?” she asked, watching the growing crowd.
He held up a card. “That was the final business I was working on the day of the museum. I had one made for you.”
She snatched it out of his hand triumphantly. “This will get me through?”
“My contact told me that it would make the system recognize you, but he couldn’t do anything about the wards. That only Walter could code them properly. Each person has their own card, but ultimately, it’s the warding that let them pass.”
“So we can trick the machine but not the magic,” she mused.
“Correct. And the reason I need a wardbreaker is because the wards are carved and written specifically to keep me out.”
“You really messed it up with Walter,” she said.
Graves crossed his arms and said nothing. He couldn’t even deny it.
She watched the checkpoint for a few minutes as monsters scanned cards and were let through. Did the wards deactivate every time the card was swiped and approved? Or did the particular monster just get to pass through them with the card as their means of protection? Either way would probably be a simple function if he ran it like code. She knew how to break code but not create it. A programmer who also had magical powers could probably do it with ease.
“Wren?” Graves asked.
She blinked and met his gaze. “I was analyzing the situation. I need to get closer to look at the machine and test the wards. Do you think the card brings the wards down momentarily or just lets the person pass through them?”
He relaxed slightly as her expertise took over. As if he trusted that she knew what she was doing.
“The latter,” he assured her. “Bringing wards up and down that are carved like that is nearly impossible, especially with how much he’s sustaining. The machine is the work-around to let people go through them.”
“But he doesn’t know about me.”
“He does not.”
Her smile was dangerous as she scanned the crowd. “Got it. Where is everyone coming from?”
There were two bulky goblins carrying M16s. A woman swaying on her feet in a slip of a dress with a vampire in a gown from the nineteenth century who held her by the back of her neck. A couple clinging to each other that everyone else gave a wide berth. She shuddered a little when she recognized them as a succubus and incubus. Even most monsters didn’t like the sexual predators, who almost always worked in pairs. Finally, a group of douchebag-looking bros all laughing and cajoling. They were the type that had more money than sense.
She didn’t know what perverted appetites they had that brought them down here when they could have their fun above ground. There were no other human women waiting in line. None but the vampire’s female companion.