The Cursed Key

by Miranda Brock

  I glared up at him. “How could you possibly know whether I am lying or not?”

  Was it some kind of shifter instinct? Could he smell the lie on my tongue?

  Kael’s gaze narrowed slightly as he studied me. “When you lie, your nostrils flare out just a bit, as if pulling in extra oxygen will bring truth to your words.”

  “How did you notice something like that?” I stepped around him, and he kept pace with me. He must watch me more than I thought.

  The shifter laughed, an earthy, rich sound. It was something I was starting to enjoy. I wished he would laugh more often.

  “Reading people is my job.”

  Right. PITO agent. Not a special interest in me.

  I shifted my attention to a stone as I kicked it and watched it roll to the edge of the road.

  “So, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” he pressed.

  I rolled my eyes. Stubborn shifter. What was I supposed to say? Sorry, but I need to sacrifice innocents if we plan to stop the mage from wreaking havoc on Earth? The honorable agent would refuse. I would refuse, or at least, I wanted to refuse. The human in me fought against the idea of sacrificing lives, but that ancient, magic-wreathed being inside of me whispered that sometimes a heavy price must be paid.

  Sacrifices may stop the mage, but what would it cost me, in the end?

  Guilt over the witch sisters’ deaths sank into my bones. Lives were lost because I had found a key, but it still wasn’t the largest part of the truth, or the worries, gnawing on my mind.

  “It’s my fault they’re dead.”

  “Livvie.”

  My steps faltered at the nickname, and I brought my gaze to Kael’s earnest face. He frowned as he slowly brought a hand to my shoulder and squeezed. “It wasn’t your fault. They knew the risks of holding such information. The mage, or those working for him, would have gotten to them regardless.”

  I hated the pity on his face, but a small part of me also wished he would wrap those strong arms around me and hold me until the worry and guilt was squeezed right out of me.

  “There’s a bus,” I said, stepping away from his touch. What in the world was getting into me? That fae guy back in the Pinnacle club had been right: Kael Rivera was my type. But that didn’t mean I had time to entertain such thoughts.

  Kael broke his stare and waved his hands at the upcoming bus. It merely let out a squeaky honk as it rumbled by. So much for getting a ride back to town. I was muttering insults about the rudeness of people when Kael grabbed my hand and started yanking me down the road.

  “We have to hurry.”

  I knew getting to the mage was of utmost importance, but did we have to run the whole way back? Kael didn’t slow his pace when I complained.

  “Olivia, what do you think whoever is on that bus is going to find when they get to the bed and breakfast?”

  My eyes widened as Kael pulled me faster. Oh. He had a point, but the fact we were high-tailing it from the scene of the crime wasn’t great, either. The shifter had been so careful not to step in any of the blood as his jaguar checked out the house, which meant it couldn’t even be blamed on an animal.

  Had I been as careful?

  Kael kept a hold of my hand the entire way back, despite my protests and glares. True, he was faster than me, but he didn’t have to practically drag me the entire way.

  When the occasional car went past, we took to the fields and hid as best we could. Finally, the bus came back our way, going much faster than it had been on the way down. It was only a matter of time before the authorities got involved and our descriptions began to circulate.

  We made our way down the streets of Kinloch Hourn while doing our best to look inconspicuous. I tugged up the hood on my light jacket, thankful the sky was beginning to drizzle so my action did not seem out of place.

  “Which way to the mage?” Kael muttered as we leaned against a white-washed building.

  I pointed to our left. “That way. What’s in that direction?”

  He followed where I’d pointed and sighed. “Eventually, England. England is in that direction.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll have to try and make some calls. I’m not technically allowed to step foot in England.”

  “You’re not allowed in England? Why?”

  Kael gave me a crooked grin. “I had an unfortunate disagreement with a wolf shifter pack in London, once.”

  He had to be kidding.

  “Are you telling me there are werewolves in London?”

  He let out a short laugh. “Something like that.”

  A siren wailing in the distance broke the light mood.

  “Time to go find our mage,” he said.

  We crept out of the town as the sirens grew louder at our back.

  “So, what did you do to earn the dislike of the wolf shifters?”

  “You help me find that mage, and I may be inclined to tell you.”

  Shifter dirt. Was that my reward for getting the mage? Seemed I deserved a little more for my efforts. Maybe that’s all I got for unearthing the key in the first place.

  Kael was trekking determinedly down the road. “The sooner we get to the mage, the better.”

  I wasn’t so eager. As we made our way down the road, all I could think about was binding the mage, and if I would be able to be strong and horrible enough to make the sacrifices necessary to do the job.

  Chapter 22

  Kael scowled again at his shirt with the words “I Love Scotland” scrawled across the front in bold letters as he waited on the phone. I pushed up the sleeves of my own shirt I had acquired at a souvenir shop somewhere in the middle of the country. It had a picture of the Scottish flag with something written in Gaelic beneath it that probably said something like “I’m An Idiot” or “Tourists Suck.”

  After fleeing the area of Kinloch Hourn, we traveled through Scotland under the guise of adventurous tourists. We stayed away from more populated areas and stuck to the narrow, winding side-roads, hitchhiking when we could. We slept in small bed and breakfasts, in the open country, and once with an elderly woman who said Kael reminded her of an estranged ex-husband of hers from thirty years back. That was an entertaining night; Kael had been more than happy to leave.

  Despite the off-the-beaten-path route we took, we reached the border of Scotland and England in good time. I had enjoyed myself for the most part, regardless of the fact we were fleeing a murder scene. Kael had spent a great deal of time using a phone whenever he had the opportunity since both our cell phones had been lost in the campsite fire. He was working on getting the clearance he needed to get into England.

  Judging by the red tint and pinched eyebrows on his face, the latest phone call didn’t seem to be going well.

  I shifted in my seat at a corner booth in the small pub. It was early afternoon and not very busy. Most patrons probably arrived at the close of the workday to relax with friends before heading home. I sighed and turned my attention to the window. There was a man on the sidewalk attempting to walk his dog, and I smiled. For every inch the man pulled the dog forward, the dog put on his brakes and tugged back another three.

  My smile faded. Lately, I’d felt like that leash.

  It had been like I was being pulled apart the entire journey to the border. One part of me was being urged toward the mage. It was as if the key tightened the tether to the mage with every step we took, and my magic hummed eagerly with every mile.

  The other part of me, the human part of me that wasn’t tainted with magic and a harsh past, balked at the idea of sacrificing innocents.

  Where would I get them, anyway? The people in my vision, or memory, I supposed, had been willing participants. They had walked up freely to kneel down before my blade and add their blood to the cracked stones at my feet.

  Between my stress and Kael’s frustration, things had been tense.

  Kael finally hung up the phone and slid into the booth across from me. He was grumbling under his breath as he took a bite of the thick sandw
ich that had been waiting for him.

  “Why can’t we just sneak into England?” I kept my voice down, despite the small number of patrons. I dropped my tone to a whisper. “We’re already laying low in case we’re suspected murderers. What’s the difference?”

  “I have to follow the law.” He set down his sandwich. “Shifters like me are held to a higher standard.”

  I leaned back in my seat and propped my feet on the bench at Kael’s side of the booth. “Shifters like you?”

  “Wolf shifters, and other types of shifters that usually live in groups, belong to a pack and are therefore pack-bound. They have no choice but to follow the laws of their packs. They are universally believed to be more trustworthy. Jaguar shifters are solitary, and there’s an unfortunate misconception that we do things only for our own means.”

  I frowned. “That’s hardly fair.”

  Kael shrugged a shoulder. “That’s just how it is. Shifters like myself have a difficult time getting into places like PITO. Even bear shifters, like Stella. And she isn’t even a field agent. She works at the front desk.”

  An absurd image of a grizzly bear sitting behind a desk and typing at a computer popped into my head. Kael turned his attention back to his sandwich, and I pushed the secretary bear, Stella, out of my mind to study the shifter across from me.

  Kael was an honorable man. There was no doubt about that. He didn’t want to follow the rules just because it was his job. He wanted to follow the rules to prove that he was as capable and trustworthy as the rest of them.

  What would he do when he learned the cost of stopping the mage? Would he argue, try to stop me, or would he be the first to volunteer to fall?

  The latter made me shudder.

  “Cold?” Kael asked.

  “A bit.” I pushed the sleeves back down my arms for emphasis.

  Kael narrowed his eyes, and I knew he had caught me in another lie.

  The phone rang up near the bar, and the bartender quickly answered. “John Mason?”

  Kael stood. “Here,” he said in response to the alias he had given.

  He took the call while I sipped my drink. After a couple of minutes, he ran a hand through his hair and nodded, but a muscle jumped in his cheek.

  When Kael returned to the table, his tone was sharp. “Let’s go.”

  He barely gave me time to gather my things before I had to chase after him.

  I stepped up beside him as he started past the buildings and toward a bus stop. “Well, what’s the verdict?”

  “I got the clearance. We’re allowed in, provided we go with an escort.” Kael shook his head. “I don’t like the idea, but we have no choice.”

  We boarded the next bus and took a short ride to a small town in England. I had difficulty sitting still in my seat as the bus slowed to a stop. I was uneasy about meeting another shifter. What would this shifter do when he learned what it would take? Would he be pack-bound to protect the lives of innocent people, and in doing so try to stop me?

  We had barely stepped foot off the bus when a man approached. Kael took a half-step in front of me, and I tried to decipher if it was because the man was dangerous. He certainly didn’t appear to be. If anything, he looked incredibly ordinary. Nice jeans and a buttoned shirt. Short-cropped, neatly combed hair. There was absolutely nothing about him that said “wolf shifter.”

  The man gave the shifter beside me a short nod. “Kael.”

  “Tobias.” Kael barely inclined his head. If he clenched his teeth any harder, they might break.

  Obviously, the pair knew each other and were far from friends.

  The wolf shifter turned his attention to me, and whatever ill will he felt toward Kael fell quickly from his face.

  He gave me a bright smile as he stepped forward. “And who might this be?”

  I flicked my gaze to Kael, uncertain if I was supposed to give my real name.

  “This is Olivia.”

  I put out my hand. “A pleasure to meet you.”

  “The pleasure is all mine.” Tobias ignored my hand and went straight in for a quick hug. He smelled like pine needles and mountain air. It was an odd contradiction to Kael’s citrus-and-rain scent. Did it have something to do with the type of shifter they were? I’d have to look into it more, but at that moment, I needed to put my shifter-sniffing aside.

  Kael let out a subtle growl.

  The English shifter straightened and spared Kael only a brief glance before returning his grin to me. “You’ll want to be careful with this one. He has a bad habit of taking what isn’t his.”

  My eyes swept between the two men glaring daggers at each other. Whatever their troubles were, they had girl problem written all over it.

  I had no desire whatsoever to join in on the new shifter’s side of things. In the short time we had been together, Kael had quickly become a friend; I would remain loyal to him.

  I grinned at Tobias. “Well, I’m in good company, then. I also have an unfortunate habit of taking things that aren’t mine.”

  Kael barked a laugh, and Tobias was obviously backtracking on who exactly I may be.

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  It wasn’t difficult for me to figure out. That sensation between myself and the key was stronger than ever. I pointed in a southwest direction, and Tobias nodded.

  “This way,” he said, waving for us to follow him. “I’m parked over here.”

  Kael and I trailed him to a sleek, black car, one of those deals that looked like a luxury vehicle on the outside but probably had the soul of a race car. Kael hardly wavered a few inches from me; he kept his hard stare locked on Tobias. Even his shoulders were stiff, and his hands clenched in and out of fists.

  What was his deal?

  Tobias opened the front door for me, and I slid into the passenger seat while Kael shuffled into the back, an arrangement that he was less than thrilled about if I was reading his steady scowl correctly.

  Fortunately, the ride into the countryside wasn’t awkward. Tobias kept up a constant stream of pleasant conversation about my former travels and how I was liking England. Every time I peeked at Kael, he was leaning forward in his seat with his gaze pinned on Tobias.

  We were only about twenty minutes out of the small town when Tobias took a right up a narrow lane.

  “I live down here. Just need to make a quick stop and grab some supplies.” Tobias stopped in front of a small house with neat hedges and a light blue door. “Need to go to the bathroom before we go on?”

  I started to open my mouth, but then Kael’s hand snaked between my seat and door. His fingers squeezed my arm.

  I gave Tobias a smile. “No, thanks.”

  “You certain? We may still have a long way to go.”

  I nodded, and he unbuckled.

  “I’ll only be a moment,” he said.

  Tobias hurried up his short walkway. As soon as the door shut behind him, Kael was squeezing himself in between the front seats. He plopped down in the driver’s seat, threw the car in drive, and quickly pulled away.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” I glanced back at Tobias’s quickly shrinking house behind us.

  “He smelled like Nutmeg,” Kael growled.

  “What? Nutmeg? Maybe the guy likes to bake. That’s no reason to steal his car, Kael.”

  He looked at me like I was crazy. “Not the spice. The cat.”

  It took me a moment to catch up. Aileen’s cat, Nutmeg.

  My mouth dropped open. “You mean Tobias was there?”

  Kael’s gaze shifted to mine. “He smelled like their blood, too. As soon as we got in this car, I could smell it.” He rubbed his nose as if he could dislodge the scent. “He’s working for the mage.”

  I glanced behind us, half-expecting a pack of angry wolves to be chasing us. “What about your job? You were supposed to stay with an escort? Are they going to believe you?”

  The shifter’s knuckles went white as he tightened his grip on the wheel and pushed harder on the gas. “So
metimes we have to do something for the greater good, no matter what it may cost in the end.”

  The pair of us fell silent as the green and brown hills swept by. Kael’s words resonated with me more than he knew.

  The greater good, no matter the cost.

  I bit my lip and hoped Kael wouldn’t try to talk to me anytime soon. I knew what I had to do.

  A sacrifice.

  My hand curled around the key of chiseled bone. I wasn’t evil. I didn’t want to be evil. But if I could stop the mage, I’d give up the part of me that flinched at the terrible past in my veins. I would be the monster, if I must, and figure out how to live with the consequences later.

  The key gave a hard pull, and I lifted my head.

  “We’re close.”

  Chapter 23

  Tobias had horrid taste in music and great taste in sweets. I abandoned the pre-set stations and poked at the radio button until I found something that wouldn’t grate on me. Then I popped a piece of toffee into my mouth and studied the map I’d found in the glovebox.

  Kael’s grand theft auto had taken us into a large green blob on the map that was the Yorkshire Dales National Park. I didn’t need a map to tell me where the mage was—I could sense that on my own—but knowing where we were would definitely be helpful when we had to get back out.

  I peeked at the side mirror for what must have been the fiftieth time. Surprisingly, there was no one behind us. I thought for sure Tobias would have quickly engaged in hot pursuit. Not that I really wanted a fast-speed chase down the narrow roads of England.

  “Do you think he will still come after us?” I asked.

  Kael only had one hand on the steering wheel and was leaning back against his seat, though I was certain we were going well over the speed limit. I really hoped he had well-tuned reaction time. “I’m sure he isn’t far behind.”

  I glanced behind us again. “I haven’t seen anything.”

  “Trust me, he’s doing everything he can to catch up. He may not care if we get to the mage, but I guarantee he won’t want PITO or his pack to find out he’s gone rogue.”