Demon Hunter (The Collegium Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

trigger its powers. “Jim, are you there? You owe me travelling time.”
    “I pay my debts, Cyn. Send them on through.” The Australian drawl sounded clear despite the portal’s echo.
    Cynthia pinched two dabs of green light and tagged Fay and Yolanthe.
    Immediately, Yolanthe stepped over the green line and vanished.
    “As casual as a stroll in the park.” Cynthia nodded approval. “Clear to see her partner’s a porter.” She frowned at Fay. “Hurry it up.”
    “Thank you for use of your portal,” Fay said meticulously. It didn’t offer her nearly as much delay as she suddenly wanted. How had she forgotten how much she hated portal travel and the need to trust her safety to a stranger?
    Easily. Yolanthe’s offer of portal travel had given her the chance to escape the city and evade the Collegium’s trackers. That was worth the discomfort.
    “Thank Jim.” Cynthia flapped her hand in a shooing gesture. “Get on through.”
    Fay glanced down at the tag of green light on her arm, braced herself for the shock of immersion, and stepped into the portal.
    The basement vanished. Around her the darkness was lit by slowly swirling stars. There was no up or down. Her disorientation was complete. Only the green light still glowing on her arm reassured her that Cynthia could always find and retrieve her. She walked forward three more steps and the cheerful Australian voice said. “There you are.”
    Blue light zapped her, dislodging Cynthia’s green.
    Her fourth step took Fay out of the darkness and through another portal.
    The blue light faded, leaving a small square cellar softly lit by an unshaded, low watt light globe. The walls were honey-colored, rough-cut limestone, the floor white beach sand, and hundreds of sea shells spread in patterns over the floor and on niches in the walls. The hushing sound of the sea filled the crowded space like a lullaby.
    Fay wasn’t comforted. She shuddered and shook like a dog coming out of an unwanted cold bath.
    “Hell, Yolly. The kid’s not portal fit.” A short, broad man who could only be Jim, scowled at Yolanthe even as he grabbed Fay’s arm. He bristled like a grey-haired terrier. “Up the ladder with you.”
    The ceiling was barely higher than Fay’s head, yet the crude wooden ladder seemed dauntingly tall. Her legs were wobbly, but her hands grasped the ladder firmly. She knew from experience that she’d feel better away from the portal. “Promise me coffee and I’ll make it up the ladder.”
    “You can have a whole pot full,” Jim said.
    “If you fall, I’ll catch you,” Yolanthe added.
    Fay choked on a laugh.
    Jim put his head back and roared. “She’s double your size, darl.”
    “I’d manage.”
    The concern and determination in Yolanthe’s voice were unfamiliar to Fay. No one caught her when she fell. Life lessons of self-reliance sent her up the ladder faster than prudence dictated. She emerged into a tidy storage space and shuffled aside as Yolanthe and then Jim followed, carrying Fay’s bag. He closed and bolted the trap door and kicked a cotton mat over it.
    “Coffee.” Jim lead the way through a cement-floored laundry room with a double sink and large table beneath the louvered window.
    The kitchen was across a wide hallway. Fay blinked at the bright sunlight. She wasn’t up to calculating time differences, but the cuckoo clock above the sink read half past ten. She had lost half a day and it was morning again. For all the disorientation in the portal, the experience would have been no more than a minute, tagged as she’d been from porter to porter.
    “I’m sorry, Fay. I didn’t see you weren’t portal fit. Nor did Cynthia.” Yolanthe’s forehead wrinkled at the final thought. “Jim?”
    “Yeah.” He poured coffee into three mugs. “Cyn should have seen. I owe you an apology, Yolly. How’d you hide it, Faith?”
    She accepted the mug of coffee, refusing milk and sugar, and wrapped her fingers around the heat. “My weakness, my