Read The Angel Stone: A Novel for Free Online

muttered. “Figures!”
    The guard was so mesmerized by the game that he didn’t see Ralph creeping across the floor until he was practically under his feet. Ralph sat up and squeaked.
    “Oi!” The guard shouted, narrowly missing Ralph as he tipped forward in his chair and spilled his bag of Cheetos on the floor. Ralph dodged under his legs and ran a circle around the guard, who spun trying to keep up with him and then toppled dizzily over to one side. Soheila giggled at the sight, but I was too worried for Ralph’s safety to enjoy the spectacle. The trow might have been slow, but he was huge. One misstep and Ralph was mouse soup. But Ralph nimbly evaded the lumbering guard and took off across the floor away from us, with the guard in hot pursuit. We could hear his footsteps pounding toward the opposite side of the building.
    “Come on,” Frank said, clamping Soheila on the shoulder. “Let’s go.”
    A tremor passed through Soheila at Frank’s touch. She pretended to need something from her backpack while Frank took the lead. Glancing at her, I saw a flush of crimson in her cheeks. She looked up at me, her eyes wide, her pupils dilated. “Hurry!” she commanded, expelling a gust of air that nearly knocked me over. I wanted to comfort her, but I knew that the last thing she wanted right now was to be touched by a human, so I followed Frank through the dimly lit lobby of Main Hall, past bulletin boards where the magenta Alpha flyers glowed in the dark with a malevolent radioactive sheen. Soheila caught up with us on the stairs. At the top, Frank held us back with a restraining arm while he checked that the hall was clear, then motioned for us to follow, backs against the wall, to the dean’s office. When we reached it, Soheila stepped in front of Frank and held her hand over the doorknob.
    “It’s warded,” she said. “One touch and it will send an alarm signal to Duncan Laird.”
    “Then we won’t touch it,” I said. I raised both hands and focused my attention on the door. As a doorkeeper, I could dissolve wards. Ironically, it was Duncan Laird who had commenced my education in wards this past summer. Since then I’d been studying Wheelock’s
Spellcraft
and had learned how to open warded doors. The trick was to fit the opening spell between the wards, like a skeleton key slipping into a lock.
    “Adulterina clavis,”
I murmured, sending the words into the spaces between the intricate labyrinth of wards Duncan had erected. I felt the words still tethered to me, navigating around the wards. Something clicked … and the door swung open.
    “Brava, Callie!” Soheila whispered. “That was a very sophisticated spell.”
    “Yeah,” Frank agreed, entering the office. “What was it? It sounded like
adulterous key
.”
    “It’s a Latin expression for a skeleton key,” I said, beaming with pride.
    “Well, if you don’t get tenure, you’ve got a brilliant future as a cat burglar ahead of you.”
    Soheila tsked. “Of course Callie will get tenure—once we expel the nephilim, that is.”
    “We’ll all be out of a job if we don’t get rid of them,” Frank said, looking around at the array of diplomas that hung over Laird’s desk. “Sheesh, this guy’s got more degrees than a thermometer.”
    Soheila giggled. “That’s terrible, Frank.”
    “Yeah, but you laughed, didn’t you?”
    I was glad to see Frank and Soheila kidding around. I left them studying Duncan’s academic degrees and addressed myself to the filing cabinet where I had seen him put the foreign package. It was warded, as well, but far less elaborately than the door. I easily maneuvered an opening spell around the wards and opened the second drawer from the top. The package was stuck between two folders labeled in Greek letters.
    “What’s with all the Greek?” I asked as I pulled out the package.
    “It’s the preferred language of the nephilim,” Soheila replied, turning away from the framed diplomas to look at the