Unbound Read Online Free PDF Page A

grab my keys.”
    “You’ll want to grab your checkbook, too.” Nidhi didn’tmove from her chair. “The Smiths aren’t cheap, and I doubt your insurance covers this. I made you an appointment for tomorrow afternoon.”
    I was already in the doorway. “Tomorrow? But—”
    “If we left now, it would be close to eleven when we arrived,” Nidhi said. “I’m sure you’d happily pay extra for a late-night session, but they have concert tickets tonight. Carl is taking Euphemia to see Big Daddy Kane in Green Bay. They’ll be exhausted, and Carl tells me his wife’s song gets rather
intense
after two hours of live rap.”
    I wondered briefly if Euphemia and Nicola had ever done a duet. Nicola was a bard with a preference for jazz-based magic. I had once seen her knock a man unconscious with a single bar of music sung over a cell phone.
    “Is it dangerous?” Lena asked.
    Nidhi hesitated. “It shouldn’t be. Usually, Carl does the intake. He meets with Euphemia afterward, and she tailors a recording for him to use in follow-up sessions. But given the nature of Isaac’s mind, the magical and psychological barriers he’s dealing with, we both agreed this needed to be a ‘live’ session with Euphemia present.”
    I slid the door closed and turned around, resting my back against the glass. “You’re saying you don’t know what will happen?”
    “Lena and I will be there to keep an eye on things.”
    My boss wouldn’t be happy about me calling in sick again. I’d used up most of my leave time over the past month. Jennifer had pulled me aside on Friday to discuss my less than stellar job performance. I should check the schedule to see if anyone was available to cover. Alex might be willing to pick up the extra hours. He was trying to save up for a new electric guitar. “I’ll see you both tomorrow. What time do we leave?”
    Lena and Nidhi looked at one another, and I saw pages of unspoken discussion pass silently between them. “I thought I’d stay here tonight,” said Lena.
    “But you normally stay with Nidhi on Sundays.” I hesitated,double-checking my mental calendar. This wouldn’t be the first time I had lost track of the date.
    “Not tonight.” Lena gestured at the pizza box. “I’m not going to let half a deep-dish sausage and pepperoni go to waste.”
    I should have been happy. Instead, I found myself resenting that they believed I needed a babysitter. Guilt immediately followed resentment. They were only trying to help.
    It might be better for all of us if they left me alone. Given Lena’s nature, what was my recent mood doing to her? How much had I dragged her down with me? It was one more reason she should go with Nidhi tonight, to get away from my negativity. It wasn’t like I was going to drive to Marinette to track Euphemia down myself, showing up on her doorstep at midnight to demand she dig the answers out of my brain.
    Probably.
    I rubbed my eyes. Maybe Nidhi was right about the Zoloft.

    The laptop baked my thighs as I sat on the couch, searching the Internet while
Star Trek
reruns played in the background. Online, librarian circles were buzzing with speculation about the attack on the National Library of China. I found plenty of theories, but not a single photograph of the attackers.
    A gorgon, a giant, and a teenage girl. No mention was made of the girl’s appearance, but who else could it have been?
    On another day, I would have been fascinated by the prospect of a living gorgon, a creature thought to exist only in myth. I would have loved to see an MRI scan of her head. I had always been curious about how the serpentine hair might work. Each snake presumably had a brain of its own. Did they have independent thought, or was it more of a hive mind? And did the snakes eat? If so, what happened to their meals? Either their intestinal system needed to link into the gorgon’s, or else the gorgon would need some truly potent shampoo.
    I switched Internet windows and pulled up a list