I shuddered as I thought of what was happening on the streets above.
And that hardened my resolve.
Before much longer, we reached a door. It was somehow impressive and yet not impressive at the same time. It wasn’t large – it was a standard door. It wasn’t made out of gold or anything. It really was just a standard door. And yet, the feel of it was unmistakable. It was as if it was a door through to Judgment Day.
As that thought settled on me, I shuddered, and it reminded me once more of my vision.
Again I could feel Hayden’s gaze on me, but again I could tell that he couldn’t afford to question if I was okay.
Barry took a step forward and rapped his knuckles on the door. He also tilted his head over to Hayden and arched an eyebrow. “You better be ready for this. Jeopardy doesn’t suffer fools. But fools sure do suffer around Jeopardy.” Barry seemed to take pleasure in saying that, but it was pleasure that he wiped away instantaneously as the door opened of its own accord. In fact, every warlock that had come with us suddenly straightened and all looked like they were soldiers on patrol.
I tried to steel my nerve, but it was goddamn hard.
A week ago when I’d walk through these very tunnels with Jason, he’d promised me that one day I would become a sorcerer too, that finders were peculiarly suited for becoming sorcerers, because they could find ways to increase their powers where other witches could not. Well, right now, I started to suspect I might be coming into my emotion-finding magic – or maybe my ability to read the emotional vibe of situations, because as that door opened, I swore I got the darkest sense I’d ever felt. It was almost like stumbling into Hell itself.
Maybe Hayden picked up on it subconsciously, too, because I watched him swallow, his cheeks paling. He still held the illusion ball in his hands, and his fingers stiffened around it.
The room was dark, but that didn’t stop Hayden and Barry from taking a step in.
One of the warlocks behind me growled, and I took it as an indication that I was meant to walk into the darkened room, too. I held my nerve. With everything I had. And more than anything, with the promise that Jason was just a step behind when I needed him.
We walked in. Torches didn’t dramatically light themselves across the walls. Instead, a single light turned on from above. There was a buzz and a click that indicated old electrics, and the light turned on and swung in an invisible breeze. I tilted my head up to stare at it.
At first, the light only lit up Barry, me, and Hayden, and then began to spread, almost as if the darkness was allowing it to illuminate more. With a full-bellied shudder, I finally saw Jeopardy. He didn’t look like a demon or anything. In many ways, he looked like an ordinary man – and that’s why it was so terrifying. Because the feeling I got from him was anything but ordinary. It was as if I was facing a devil.
From drawing parallels between the feel of this place and Hell, to thinking this bastard was a devil – I sure was using a lot of religious terminology to explain this experience. It was honestly the only thing that fit. The religions of the world had spent centuries explaining darkness, and right now I shuddered in its presence.
Jeopardy was seated in a chair. He was in his late fifties, had a bald patch on his head, had a gray beard flecked with one or two ginger hairs, and had an expression that was as cold as ice. He was seated in a metal chair. It kind of looked like a throne, but it was too utilitarian. It was like a cross between the seat of an emperor and the seat of a madman. I swore there were even loops in place around the armrests for chains to tie someone’s arms down.
Jeopardy’s expression didn’t change as he looked at me. His feel did. I felt his greed suddenly surge. There was now no denying that I was picking up something new. This wasn’t my opportunity magic working. I was figuring out the emotional charge of the situation, and the power of it was undeniable. While Jeopardy was clearly attempting to hide his expression from everyone else, he couldn’t hide his true desire for me. “It took you long enough,” he muttered to Hayden. “I was starting to question your loyalty. Good boy. Now, take a seat.” Jeopardy gestured to the side.
The light in the room suddenly spread, and the next thing I knew, two chairs appeared.
I walked over to sit in one, but Jeopardy took his hand off his face and shook his finger. “Not you – Barry and Hayden. Please take seats.”
Barry stiffened. “Sir—”
“Please take a seat,” Jeopardy repeated.
Barry swallowed and sat.
I could feel Barry’s fear. I could practically taste it as it tingled along my tongue.
I took a step back.
“Stay exactly where you are,” Jeopardy warned.
I turned to face him. “What are you doing?” I could feel this sense of danger pushing through him. It was one that told me he had an ace up his sleeve.
“I would ask you the same thing, but you’re not going to answer the truth, are you? So let me use my daughter on you.” With that, Jeopardy swiped his hand to the side.
I heard somebody walk out of the darkness. Their footfall was loud and clipped, suggesting they were wearing heels. As soon as they resolved through the darkness, I recognized her face.
“Isabella?” I asked.
I stopped.
The light was acting strangely in this room – only illuminating what it felt like. Or rather, only illuminating what Jeopardy wanted us to see.
I looked down at Isabella’s hands, and they were handcuffed. They were no handcuffs I’d ever seen the likes of, though. They had the strangest magical symbols marching across them.
Hayden obviously recognized them, because his eyes boggled and he tried to throw himself up, but that would be when snakelike chains erupted from the chair legs and wrapped around his ankles, marching up his body and locking him in place until he could barely move his head.
“Hayden!” Isabella screamed.
Her emotion was true. There was genuine fear in her heart.
Jeopardy chuckled. “Enough of the games, Isabella. You’re the one who led me to Hayden in the first place. You’re the one who promised he could find the Hidden Grimoires. And you’re the one who helped me to meticulously craft this plan.”
I felt Isabella recede. Her emotions became complicated, a mix of fear and anguish and guilt – but the guilt was by far trumped by the fear.
Hayden looked shocked. “What are you talking about, Isabella? It was my plan to bring your dad a set of Hidden Grimoires to bargain for your freedom.”
Isabella wouldn’t look at him.
“I sent Isabella to find you. She was always the most competent emotion reader in Madison City. She could tell what people were thinking with such exquisite control, she was almost an opportunity finder,” Jeopardy said as he looked at me directly.
I still hadn’t moved a muscle.
But that fact settled in.
Jeopardy was right – how much difference was there between an emotion reader and an opportunity finder? An emotion reader who was sufficiently skilled, after all, could find opportunities through people. Though Max could, presumably, find opportunities through situations as well, an emotion reader was still similar.
That fact….
Before it could have a chance to truly spread through me, Jeopardy pointed right at me. “Isabella, watch her. She’s got something planned. Monitor her emotions. And,” he spread his hands wide, “while you’re there, tell me if these gentlemen are telling the truth. It’s time for an interrogation.”
Isabella took a heavy breath. She was trapped. That was the only clear emotion I was getting from her. She was someone who had been backed into a corner.
Someone with no opportunity.
“Hayden, are you truly working for me? Do you have something to hide?” Jeopardy asked.
Hayden stilled. He looked up at Isabella, and tears shimmered in his eyes. “I’m working for you – I have nothing to hide.”
Isabella looked down at her feet. “He’s lying.�
��
… Of course she could tell that he was lying. Another fact struck me about emotion readers. Just like finders, they could technically find the truth. Or at least the truth behind what people were thinking. They were like a lie detector. You would need a competent liar with extreme emotional control to be able to fool them.
And I was neither. And Hayden? He was like an open book to his ex-girlfriend.
Jeopardy brought his hands out wide and shrugged. “I thought as much.” He brought a finger up and twisted it in a circle, and Hayden’s chains tightened around him.
Tears touched Isabella’s eyes, but she didn’t do anything. She didn’t throw herself forward and try to save her boyfriend; she just watched as he was tortured in front of her.
Barry still hadn’t moved. His eyes were wide with fear.
Jeopardy now turned his attention to Barry. “Where’s Smythe?”
“We don’t know. Hayden said there was an accident when they were trying to find the Hidden Grimoires.”
“Did you confirm what the accident was? Did you try to find Smythe?”
Barry paled. “That room had anti-magic fields—”
“Is he lying?” Jeopardy asked his daughter.
Isabella shook her head. “He was afraid. Afraid to go in and check.”
“Barry, you’ve been working with me for two years – but please understand that I only pick ex-army warlocks for a reason. Because they’re not scared of anything.”
With that, Jeopardy brought up his hand, twisted it in a wide circle, and watched with a completely nonplussed gaze as chains erupted from nowhere and wrapped around Barry.
The guy screamed, and as the chains pressed against him, a few splatters of blood splashed from his mouth.
“Stop it,” I shrieked. “You won’t get anything from killing this man.”
Jeopardy had apparently been happy to ignore me until now. Now? He slowly turned his attention to me.
I needed to get out of here, now. But I knew one thing. Jeopardy was too damn quick. He seemed to know what was going on. And I knew for a fact that if I shoved my hand in my pocket, by the time I managed to call for Jason with my magic, it would be too late, and Jeopardy would attack.
“Is she hiding something?” Jeopardy pointed at me.
Isabella looked at me.
I… could feel it now. I was certain I could feel it now. She was practicing her emotion reading. I swore I could almost sense some kind of searching beam pushing through me.
“Yes, she’s hiding something.”
Jeopardy chuckled. “I imagine you’re hiding everything, aren’t you, complete finder? Because you can find everything. Now, you’re going to tell me exactly what you’re hiding – or I’m going to kill both of these men. You seem to care about them. Don’t you like death? I can find more where they came from. Though the police force is putting up a little bit of resistance, I’ve captured quite a number of them. Would you like me to execute them in front of you?”
I paled.
I had to do it. I had to call—
Isabella took a strong step forward. “She’s planning something – she’s about to use her magic—”
Jeopardy brought his hands together. “Don’t,” he said simply. “You may have some way of getting out of here, but if you use it, I will execute everyone I have. And their heads will be in your hands.”
I blanched.
My hand was close to my pocket – all I needed to do was grab it. I could find the time, right?
Right?
“She’s getting desperate,” Isabella said, her voice becoming drone-like. It was as if she was slipping into a role she’d been playing her whole life. A roll where she found other people’s emotions, but couldn’t dare afford to have them for herself.
She made the mistake of glancing toward Hayden, and I felt it – her own desperation.
I… didn’t know what to do.
I’d been a fool in coming here. But the opportunity… it had seemed real.
I….
I shifted a hand toward my phone. Just at the last moment, I swore I felt a hand on my shoulder. It wasn’t there. I swore it wasn’t even from this time. It felt exactly like the warm press of fingers I’d experienced in the vision from the past.
It told me to wait. The opportunity was not upon me yet.
But could I trust those fingers? Could I trust my destiny?
Isabella ticked her head to the side. “She’s becoming confused. She’s manipulable now,” she said point-blank.
Hayden was staring at Isabella with such a contorted, confused, and broken expression. The expression of someone who had sacrificed so much to keep someone safe and had now lost everything including that person.
Jeopardy chuckled. “Good. I imagine you’re tired considering the runaround you were given, but perhaps you can show your skills for me. I need you to find the evidence,” he said without explaining what he was talking about.
It was clearly a test. I could pretend not to know, or I could go with it.
I teetered, not knowing what to do, and I swore I felt that hand on my shoulder, pushing me forward. So I looked at Jeopardy, my expression as hard as I could make it. “You’re talking about the evidence you’ve left in the police department. The reason you attacked them,” I said quietly.
Jeopardy got a sharp look in his eyes – the first time he hadn’t looked controlled during the conversation. And even though I’d only just learned emotion-reading magic, I could tell he was suddenly filled with greed. He sat further forward in his chair. “What am I after exactly?”
I opened my mouth to tell him what I thought I knew. He was after communication spells. That was what Hayden had told me.
I darted my gaze over to Hayden, then to Isabella, then back to Jeopardy.
“Time’s ticking. I need to see your full skills now. I don’t have any connection to Barry, and I don't honestly care if he dies, but would you like to hear him screaming to death?” Jeopardy asked as he twisted his finger around in a circle.
The chains holding Barry in place started to contract, and he screamed again. But while at first it was powerful, soon it became crushed.
I’d never heard anything so horrible.
My backed chilled with fear, and sweat laced my brow. “Stop it—”
“Only you can stop it. What am I after in the police department?”
“I don’t know.”
“You mean you don’t know how to save Barry? Very well.” He twisted his finger in the smallest circle.
Barry stopped screaming. Barry stopped breathing.
I shook on the spot. I’d never been more trapped than I was now.
There was no way out – no way out.
I had to….
“You don’t have plants in the police department just because you use them to protect the Cruze Gang – you’ve been looking for something, haven’t you?” I asked. It was a guess – an educated guess. I wasn’t using my magic.
Jeopardy he smiled. Maybe he thought I was using my magic, because he paused, his finger becoming stiff in the air as Barry’s chains no longer contracted. “Give me more. What am I actually after?”
The easiest thing to say was information. But Jeopardy would want to know what information. And easiest thing in the world would be to say he was after information that would give him power.
I paused, and I frowned. There was a question I hadn’t bothered to ask – one that seemed extremely pertinent to this case in the first place.
Jason worked for Internal Affairs. Internal Affairs were meant to police the police department. So why was he after the Hidden Grimoires? Fair enough, there was a prophecy behind him, and technically he was meant to use them to save the world.
But what did that have to do with Internal Affairs?
“I’m waiting,” Jeopardy said.
“You’re after the other Hidden Grimoires,” I forced myself to say, realizing I didn’t have any time left.
Jeopardy snorted
softly. “That was a guess. A good guess – but insufficiently detailed.”
“Why would Internal Affairs be holding these hidden sets, anyway?” I voiced that question out loud. It was a stupid thing to do, but once the words were out, they were out.
“Precisely. Why would they be after the most powerful spell books in the world?”
“Because they have a plan?” It was another guess.
Jeopardy looked right at me. “You’re absolutely right – they have a plan. And I need you to find out what it is.”
I stared back at him, my eyes wide. “I don’t know. I don’t think I can find out without more information on Internal Affairs.”
“Is she lying?” Jeopardy turned to Isabella.
Isabella looked right at me. “No,” she is not lying.
“So the complete finder has limitations, after all. I’m sure with a steady dose of D 20 we can work through those. Speaking of which—” He shoved a hand into his pocket and brought out a gold-plated pillbox.
I jerked back.
He brought up a finger. “I told you not to move. I can see you, and Isabella can keep track of your emotions. But I see you’re quite scared of this.” He brought up the pillbox and shook it around. “Have you encountered D 20 before? I’m sure with a finder, its… effects are unpredictable. But I’m a man of science, so I’ll find a way to make it work. I need to know what Internal Affairs are planning. They’ve been hoarding four known sets of Hidden Grimoires, and through Hayden, I just stopped them from getting a fifth. Now,” Jeopardy pressed forward on his chair, “what are they planning?”
I took a step back, despite the fact he’d told me to stay still.
He stood. He rattled the pillbox around. “We can do this the hard way, or we can do it the easy way.”
“You just need to tell me more information. You don’t need to drug me—”
“But drugging you will make you compliant. It will also show you who’s in control. Isabella, does she understand who’s in control yet?”
Isabella looked to the side. I could sense emotion sweeping through her now.
She wanted to escape. She would do anything to escape. But she couldn’t see a way free anymore. Her world had been narrowed down by her father’s control.
Forgotten Destiny Book Three Page 15