“Nope,” June said, and inched backward until she ran into Peter’s shoes. “I’m out.”
“Let me take a gander?” He nested his chin over her shoulder and peered down into the circle of gaping darkness. “Ah, well. I can’t imagine why you’d want a hole that leads into the dark abyss hidden in your office, but now you know why they went to so much effort to conceal it behind a secret door.”
“Inside a locked cupboard.”
“And under magic seal,” he finished, and she could hear the grin in his voice.
“Maybe we should have left well enough alone,” she muttered, and leaned down to tug at the heavy wheel, the painted steel still looking almost new. Her efforts were futile, only making her wobble with fatigue as she straightened.
“Maybe if they hadn’t made such a bags of it,” he mused with an absentminded steadying hand. “Though if you didn’t want the answer…”
She blew out a breath, strands of hair tickling her face as they moved. “I know, I know. Don’t ask the question. I’d rather know there’s a gaping, malevolent portal to hell in my office before a demon pops out.”
“Malevolent. Hmm.” He tugged her gently backward with a hand on one hip.
She didn’t need the encouragement. “I was joking.”
“Were you?” He leaned down to close the hatch and spin the mundane wheel shut.
June didn’t answer, just wrapped her arms around her middle with a shiver. “I’m not up for resealing that properly. Too tired and too hungry to concentrate. It’s making me shaky.”
She glanced longingly at the empty coffee cup precariously balanced on the overstuffed bookshelf that concealed the passage to her real office, closet that it was. “And too uncaffeinated.”
“The metal blocks it for now,” Peter said, his Irish lilt soft. “You can feel the difference, can’t you? Whatever’s down there is more at a distance now.”
Her shiver turned into a full-body shudder of dread. “An eternal darkness of roiling anger.” She backed away again, making a gesture of aversion. “Righteous rage. I’ve never felt the like.”
“Worse,” he said slowly. “I suspect…I think it’s lonely.”
***
