Free Magic on the Hunt by Devon Monk

well?”
    “Sedra would check on it. And Dane. I don’t know who Victor and Maeve have checking on it now.”
    We were headed west, not east, Zay making good time in the pre-rush hour traffic.
    “I think I know who Cody’s monster is,” I said.
    “Mmm.”
    “Stone.”
    “Probably.”
    “You don’t sound surprised.”
    “He made him.”
    “Stone?”
    “Yes. And the other statues out at the Gargoyle too. He was commissioned for them. Made a tidy sum that he gambled away.”
    I just shook my head and changed the subject. “What do you think about Nola?”
    “I like her.”
    “Ha, ha. I mean about her moving here?”
    “Makes sense for her and Stotts.”
    “You aren’t worried?”
    “Should I be?”
    “She’s my friend. And she doesn’t even use the simplest spells to defend herself.”
    “One,” he said, “she’s not a Hound or a magic user. Of course she wouldn’t use magic to defend herself. And two, that’s what we’re here for. To keep people like her safe.” He glanced over at me. “If she moves here, we’ll do everything we can to keep her out of the line of fire. We’re pretty good at it.”
    I knew he was trying to comfort me, but I hadn’t stayed out of the line of fire. Of course, I had a bad habit of throwing myself into dangerous situations, and Nola wasn’t like that. She was careful and smart. Maybe that would be enough to keep her safe.
    I watched the city roll past and made plans. I’d hire a Hound to keep an eye on her while she was in town. If she decided to move here, I’d take it from there.
    Zay took the exit to the Japanese Gardens. The road wound up and up, ivy-covered hillsides and fir trees reaching out to give it a deeply forested, almost wild look. Then we were at the Rose Garden that shared the land with the Japanese Garden. I caught a glimpse of the postcard view of the city spilling out below the gardens with Mount Hood rising white and blue in the distance.
    “Victor lives here?” I asked. “Where’s the well? Under the teahouse?”
    Zay shook his head. “After all you’ve been through, the idea that the well is under a teahouse seems outrageous?”
    “So it is?”
    “Not exactly.”
    Zay took a road that I didn’t notice until he cast a spell. The road twisted around the western edge of the grounds through dense forest and eventually led to what looked like a small parking garage. He cast another quick spell, and the garage door opened. He drove in, and the door and spell closed behind us.
    It was not a small parking garage; it was a large underground parking facility that could hold maybe fifty vehicles. Zay turned off the engine.
    “We’ll walk from here.”
    We got out of the car and strolled across the well-lit space, which reminded me a lot of the parking garage under my dad’s condo.
    “How far?” I asked.
    “It’s a hoof.” We were at a door. “But not too far now. You up for this?”
    “I’m good.”
    He cast another spell, then pressed his right thumb onto a scanner pad. The door opened. Beyond it stretched a long hallway.
    He wasn’t kidding it was a hoof. The hallway curved slightly but for the most part seemed pretty direct. We walked a block or three before reaching the closed door at the other end.
    Same thing here—spell, and this time left thumb on the scanner, opened the door. More hallway with a large glass-and-lead double door worked in an Asian motif in front of us, the hall running to the right and left before disappearing at corners.
    Zay walked to that door and opened it the old-fashioned way.
    “What, no more secret spy stuff?”
    He pushed the door open and held it there for me to walk through. “If anyone gets this far, an identification pad isn’t going to stop them.”
    The space was beautiful. Large enough it could probably seat a hundred people or so, and yet didn’t feel open or empty at all. The room seemed to be carved out of one enormous piece of mahogany and followed the Asian theme, with screens,