Waylaid Read Online Free PDF Page A

good.”
    Rachel didn’t sit down, turning in a slow circle with her head up and eyes vacant. Her focus was distant, as if seeing the mall as the derelict Packard factory it had started as. “There’s a line here,” she said, fingers spread wide at her side. “But it’s dead. Like the ones in Arizona.”
    Peri perked up. “Where?” she asked.
    “We’re standing in it,” Rachel said, hands fisting. “It’s right here!”
    She’d meant where in Arizona, but Peri glanced at the passing people, their attention drawn by Rachel’s rising panic. “Maybe you can turn it on?” she suggested, and Rachel’s focus sharpened on her.
    “Yeah. Right,” Rachel said sourly. “The entire demon collective couldn’t turn on their lines, and you think I can turn on Detroit’s?” She took a slow breath, and Peri watched as her panic was pushed out by a shaky determination. It was something Peri had practice with, but her growing feeling of kinship vanished when the woman sat down on the floor amid the empty tables, Jack’s overcoat falling open to show her sequined clubbing dress and black tights.
    “Maybe I can reach Al,” Rachel muttered, eyes fluttering shut.
    “Your partner?” Peri asked, still getting the vibe that the woman was a professional, but professional what?
    Rachel’s eyes cracked open as she snorted. “No. He’s the best frenemy I’ve got. Hang on. This is either going to work or it won’t. I’ll know which in like three seconds.”
    Again Rachel’s eyes shut. Uncomfortable, Peri toyed with the idea of turning her chair to watch her or pretending indifference. People were noticing Rachel, and if she didn’t get up off the floor soon, mall security would send a drone to harass them into moving. “Mall meditation,” Peri said to one curious onlooker. “She’s visualizing she has the money for the shoes she wants.”
    But then Rachel gasped, and Peri’s attention jerked back to her. Rachel’s eyes were open but unseeing, and a curious feeling of time displacement pulled through Peri. She wasn’t drafting, as time was moving as it was supposed to, but the same sensation of dislocated reality suffused her, making her breathless.
    “Al!” Rachel exclaimed to the empty space before her, and a passing man lingered, snapping a nicotine cap between his teeth, curious as Rachel leaned forward and stared intently at nothing. “Detroit,” Rachel said, voice hushed. “But not our Detroit, or the ever-after’s. There are no Inderlanders. Even in hiding. Al, the lines are dead. There’s not enough energy in them for me to get back.”
    The feeling of wrongness grew stronger in Peri, but she couldn’t move, fixated by the look of anguish on Rachel’s face. “Line jump?” Rachel said, her expression shifting to a bitter anger. “With earth magic? I’m going to need something to power it, and the lines are dead. Aren’t you listening? I can’t even light a candle.” She took a ragged breath. “How would I know if there are any mystics? Detecting minute particles of creation energy is not my forte.”
    Peri smiled as more people came to a halt, watching them from the far side of the open area. “Practicing for a play,” Peri explained, but it was clear they weren’t buying it as phones came out to take video. Shit, this is going online.
    “No, I can’t,” Rachel said as Peri dropped her head and tried to hide her face. “The line is just a skeleton.” She hesitated, then blurted, “Jenks? Maybe. He could at least tell me if there are mystics.”
    This is getting better and better , Peri thought as she stood, wanting to stop this. One of the managers of a nearby store was at the entrance to his shop, a phone to his ear as he called them in, probably. Mall security was tight and unforgiving, especially at night.
    Rachel was holding out her hands as if in supplication, and, embarrassed, Peri reached for her shoulder, fully intending to yank Rachel to her feet and out of here. A quick