Free Kissed by Eternity by Shéa MacLeod

me, the portal blinked out, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I glanced around to see who I'd tripped over. Haakon was sprawled on the floor, shaking his head.
    I snorted. "That's what you get for jumping in headfirst."
    Inigo struggled to hold back a laugh. "You all right?"
    "Fine. They'd just broken through when I stepped in. You should have seen the look on Kalen's face."
    "Kalen?" He lifted an eyebrow but otherwise seemed unperturbed.
    "Captain of the Queen's Guard. He and I have a bit of a rivalry going. He took me prisoner. I stole Darroch from under his nose." I shrugged. "You know how it is."
    He rolled his eyes. "Yeah." He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to mine, cupping my cheeks in his hands. "Glad you're okay."
    "Would you two get a room?" Haakon staggered to his feet. "We need to figure out what to do next."
    Oh, yeah. Alister. I looked around. We were back in Emory's Wiccan chamber, or whatever she called it. She was nowhere to be seen. Probably out front with customers or whatnot. "Let's find Emory. Maybe she can help."
    The three of us tromped through the storeroom into the main shop. Several pairs of wide eyes stared at us. What? Hadn't they ever seen a woman with a couple of hotties bristling with swords? Okay, probably not. One of the women, probably in her early seventies and sporting a hot pink perm, clutched at her pearls as she stared at Haakon. I seriously thought she was going to pass out. Or jump him. It could have gone either way.
    "Ladies," Haakon nodded gallantly to each in turn. I swear I heard someone let out a tiny squee. Guess they'd have quite a tale for their next Bunco night.
    Emory finished ringing up a sale and then marched over to us, her skirts swishing angrily. "Do you mind?" she hissed. "You're disturbing my customers."
    "Yeah, sorry about that," I whispered, "but I don't think it's in a bad way."
    Inigo was flirting outrageously with a woman about my mother's age, gushing over some kind of soap or other. The woman already had at least half a dozen bars in her basket and was adding more. Haakon stood stoically while most of the rest of the women gawked at him or busied themselves pretending not to gawk. Wow, those shopping baskets were filling with goodies.
    She glanced around. "Fine. Whatever. But you've got to get them out of here before people ask too many questions."
    "I will, but first I need your help. We couldn't find Alister. He wasn't there. It was all a trick."
    "Figures. Queen Bitch is brilliant at that."
    "Yeah, so I need to find out where he might go next. Could you scry for him?"
    "That didn't turn out so well the last time."
    She had a point. "I don't know what else to try."
    "Okay, okay. But later. Meet me at the house at nine-thirty tonight. Now get them out of here before I have a riot on my hands."

Chapter 10
    Emory's house looked even creepier at night than it did in broad daylight. Talk about a clichéd place for a witch to live. It was straight out of some '50s B movie.
    It was an old Victorian complete with curlicues along the porch railing and an actual turret. Unfortunately, it had seen better days. Even in the dark I could see the paint was peeling clean off the wood siding, and there were gaps where the porch boards had rotted. A couple of the windows had been boarded up, no doubt thanks to vandals mistaking the place as abandoned. The small front garden had probably once been quite beautiful, but the roses had turned to brambles and nearly overgrown the rusted wrought iron fence.
    Inside was little better. There were wide swaths of random colors painted on the walls of the foyer, and the stairs were missing the bannister. A bare bulb dangled from the ceiling, casting eerie shadows.
    "Sorry about the mess," Emory said, waving her hand airily around the entry. "I'm remodeling. Do you know how hard it is to pick out a paint color?"
    "Pretty hard I guess." If the rainbow of reds, blues, and taupe was anything to go by. The guys didn't say anything. Smart