“Pretty neat looking office you’ve got here,” I said, the dimensions of the room giving my voice a little echo, “How many rainforests did you kill to get all that mahogany?”
Asmodius didn’t speak. There was only the sound of the fire, the smell of charred wood, and the slow-but-noticeable thud of my heart against my chest. I spotted a bar off to the side covered in unmarked crystal decanters filled with amber liquid of different shades. My lips started to feel a little dry, my throat too. A drink would’ve been perfect right now.
“Not that I don’t enjoy staring at your back,” I said, “But I’m in the middle of planning a heist. Your heist.”
Asmodius’ chest rose and fell, a sign he’d just taken a deep breath. He turned his head to the side and glanced at me with only half of his face. “Do you always speak this much?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I have this thing with silence. It drives me up the wall.”
“In that, we are opposites. I enjoy the silence, the moments I get with my own thoughts. I also enjoy it when my subordinates speak only when spoken to.”
I narrowed my eyes, but decided to shut up.
Asmodius turned around fully, now. He finished his drink, walked over to the bar, and set the glass down on a silver tray. “I want you to give me a report on your progress.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “That’s all? I would’ve thought Axel was your go-to guy for that.”
“Axel?”
“That’s why he’s on the team, right? To keep an eye on the operation?”
“Axel is there to keep an eye on you. The operation itself is your purview. As such, I want to hear any updates directly from you.”
I watched him from where I stood, eyed him up and down. “Right… well, the whole team is assembled, now. We have a plan. We’ll need a couple of days to perform a couple of experiments, but so far it looks like the plan is solid enough.”
“Enough?”
“There are a few things that need straightening out, but they’re being seen to right now.”
Cassidy wasn’t sure if her smuggled spells would work inside the ballroom’s anti-magic field, so she and Karim were running tests to make sure they’d work. RJ was busy gathering intelligence on what kind of security the Magister would have at the event.
He poured himself another drink, only two fingers. He then poured another measure into another crystal glass. With both glasses in hand, he walked over to me and offered one. I took it, if a little cautiously.
“It’s not poison,” he said. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
“I guess you also need me to work for you, so…”
I swirled the drink in my hand and took a swig. The alcohol warmed my throat as it went down, that same warmth quickly spreading into my chest and stomach. I didn’t often drink in the middle of the afternoon, but hey, when the boss offers you a drink, you take it.
“That was good,” I said, “Aged bourbon?”
“Very much so. From my private brewery.”
“You own a brewery?”
“From the moment I took my first drink, it was always my dream to make my own. Now I do.”
I nodded. “Well, a mighty congratulations to you.” I handed the glass over, and he set it down at the bar again.
“Tell me about your team,” he said. “I want to know why they’re important to the success of this operation.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“I’m asking you, so yes.”
Do this quickly. Don’t tell him more than you have to. “Well… Danvers is gonna make sure our magic works the night of the heist, Karim is going to oversee operations from a control room, and RJ is going to be our way out once we have the contents of the vault.”
“Would it not be easier to transport the vault itself?”
“I’d thought about that, but number one, none of us have that kind of magic at our disposal. And number two, even if we did, that would attract the attention of just about everyone at the party. The point here is to make as little noise as possible so no one knows anything is missing for as long as possible. The longer it takes for someone to find out the vault has been hit, the higher the chance we’ll get away with it without being identified.”
Asmodius smiled, and when he smiled, I saw Axel in his face. He had the same eyes, the same dimples, only his father looked more like a hungry shark when he smiled. I could almost see the many, many rows of sharp teeth behind those lips.
“This is why I hired a professional,” he said, “I am a man of subtlety, but patience is something I don’t tend to have a lot of. If it were up to me, I would have everyone in that room murdered and claim the vault as my own.”
Aren’t you the charmer? “That’s not a very practical approach when you consider how many high-powered mages there are gonna be in attendance. I mean, not even you believe you’d be able to kill them all.”
“Oh?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “I think you’ll find I’m a lot more capable than you know. I also think you’ll find I know a lot more than you perhaps want me to.”
“I’m not following.”
“I was told of the little deal you made with the Necromancer… I believe you offered him a pick from the vault’s contents once the job was done, in exchange for his services.”
I swallowed hard, but I tried not to let him see it. “Did I?” I asked, turning my head to the side, “I don’t remember…”
“You did,” he said, downing his drink. “I don’t appreciate you giving away things that don’t belong to you.”
“It was the only way to get him on the team.”
“No, it wasn’t; it was the laziest way. A way that will upset the balance of the deal we struck.”
I swallowed again. My lips were getting dryer by the second, and now my heart was fully racing inside of my chest. “Look, you’re about to be in possession of Eliphas’ treasures, a vault with so much stuff in it, you won’t even notice one thing is missing.”
He set the glass down at the bar. “But I have already noticed. Unfortunately, I am a man of my word. If you promised him an item from the vault, then I cannot go back on that. A deal struck, is a deal struck. However, you modified the terms of our agreement. Now I’ll have to change them to suit the new parameters you have set.”
“What new parameters?”
“When you accepted this mission, you did so freely.”
“Hardly. You were about to cut my hand off.”
“Which is worse than what will happen to you if the Magistrate catches you, or if you fail in your mission. Our deal was, I forgive our debt if you can successfully deliver to me Eliphas’ treasures. It would appear to me like you’ll be—by default—not complying with those terms, as I will be one treasure short. Lucky for you, I have a solution.”
I didn’t like where this was going. My heart was beating so fast, I almost couldn’t hear what he was saying. I tried to keep my eyes on him, but they’d float over to the bar, to all those heavy, glass bottles, any of which would make for a fantastic thrown object. Or the fire poker sitting idly by the fireplace. One thought, and I could send it shooting into the side of Asmodius’ brain.
Yeah, and then what, Izzy? Then I’ll have killed one of New York’s most powerful mages. Even if I made it out of the mansion, they’d never stop hunting me. I’d never be safe, no matter where I was. And that was assuming Asmodius didn’t catch the fire-poker in mid-air and beat me with it.
Dammit. There were too many variables. I couldn’t attack him.
“What’s the solution?” I asked.
“Like I said, I’m a man of my word. When I brought you on I promised to forgive your debt. I’m still willing to forgive your debt, however, I must now add a caveat to the verbal contract we agreed upon.”
“Which is?”
“If you fail to bring Eliphas’ treasures to me and somehow escape and survive, no matter where you are, I will hunt you down and I will kill you.”
My bloo
d ran cold, but I kept my cool. “Oh, that’s all?”
He shook his head, his eyes suddenly turning cold and sinister. “If your friends also manage to escape and survive, I will hunt them down and kill them also. Wherever they are, wherever they run, wherever they’re hiding, I will personally drain the blood from their bodies and watch the light go out of their eyes. And I will remind them all that this was your fault; that you brought them into this.”
All of my blood flushed out of my face, making me suddenly far paler than I normally was. “Isn’t that a little extreme?”
“Did you think they would all be able to go back home after this was over and live happy, normal lives?”
“Honestly… yes. They’ve done nothing wrong. They haven’t stolen from you; I have. If anyone should be on the chopping block, it’s me.”
“And you are. I’m simply informing you that, as of right now, they are also.” His stare lingered for a moment longer, and I found myself uncomfortable in front of it. Like I was being analyzed. No, like I was being dissected alive. “Dismissed,” he said, “And don’t fail, Kandi.”
I scowled at him. I hated when he called me that. That wasn’t my name, and he had no right to use it like a weapon. Turning around on the spot, I marched over to his door again, seriously contemplating filling the room with fire and lightning and just seeing what happens. But I didn’t. My life wasn’t the only life on the line anymore.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“You son of a bitch,” I growled, “You told him?”
I’d blind-sided Axel as he went to enter his room. One of his bodyguards went to turn his gun on me, but my blood was running hot. I flicked my wrist at him and fired a stunning spell straight into his chest.
He went down hard. Luckily his finger hadn’t been sitting around the trigger, otherwise there would’ve been a bunch of bullet-holes in the walls and ceiling. A second bodyguard raced up behind the first and raised his gun, but Axel put his hand up.
“Stop!” he yelled. The guard didn’t fire, but he kept the business end of that gun trained on me. That was fine. I was ready to bring the full might of the Tempest on him if he decided to go against his boss’ orders. “What are you talking about?” Axel asked.
“Your dad,” I said, “You told him about Karim, didn’t you? Why?”
“No, I didn’t. Wait, have you spoken to my father?”
“Oh, yeah, we had an awesome chat just a few hours ago where he threatened to kill my entire team for no good reason. I suppose you don’t know anything about that either, though, do you?”
My heart was pounding, and I was seeing red. That guard was gonna get it if he tried to be a hero. There was no way any of his bullets would touch me if he started shooting, but they’d find their way back to him. I tried to assure him as much with a cold, hard stare.
“Alright, everyone needs to calm down,” Axel said. He turned to look at his bodyguard. “Stand down, and get him out of here.”
“I can’t do that,” the guard said, “I’m under orders to neutralize her if she poses a threat to you or this house.”
“And I’m overriding those orders, or don’t you think I have just as much authority as my father does?”
The guard glanced at him, then looked over at me, and with that he’d said enough. No. Axel clearly didn’t have as much authority as his father did around here. I could see his jaw clenching as the realization came to him. His eyes narrowed, his nostrils flared, and without a moment’s hesitation, he pressed his fingers against the guard’s neck.
The guard’s eyes rolled up, his mouth sagged, and a little drool slipped past his lips. “Take him back to the barracks,” Axel said, “And the next time I give you an order, you follow it.”
I could feel Axel’s magic as it entered this world. It was like a hum, a kind of vibration that bounced against your chest. Blinking repeatedly and rubbing his eyes like he’d just woken up from a deep sleep, the as-of-yet healthy guard picked his friend up and carried him down the stairs without a fuss, leaving Axel and me alone outside of his bedroom door. It was brave of him to let himself be near me, considering the state I was in. I was ready to wage war on him, his father, and this entire place—it would be an easier, quicker death than dying as a criminal at the hands of the Magistrate.
“You just used magic on your own guard,” I said.
“They work for me,” Axel said, his jaw still tightly clenched. “They do what I tell them to do.”
I nodded. “Looks like it…”
He opened the door to his room and gestured for me to go through. “How about we go inside and talk?” he asked, “I was going to go looking for you, anyway.”
“Looking for me?”
Axel nodded at his room. Frowning, I walked toward the door and stepped inside. If nothing else, I was curious to see how he lived, where he slept. I wasn’t disappointed. Axel lived like a prince. His room was huge, easily twice the size of the one I was in.
He slept in a huge bed with gorgeous, black, silken sheets that looked like they’d cost more than three months’ rent—in Manhattan. An inert fireplace sat in the back of the room, also black, and sleek, and modern looking; the kind that probably turned on with a remote control instead of with actual logs and kindling. I couldn’t find a TV in the room, which probably said a lot about how much time he spent here, but I did notice a copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein on his nightstand.
Then there was the closet. It was the kind of closet every woman wanted. The kind you could walk into, the kind that would be filled with expensive clothes, shoes, and jewelry. As I caught a glimpse of the suits lined up on the rack, I realized there was no real reason as to why every man wouldn’t want a closet like that one, either.
I also wondered how much the contents of that room were worth.
“If this isn’t flaunting one’s wealth,” I said, “I don’t know what is.”
“You’ve never seen a tastefully decorated room before?” he asked.
“No, I have. Believe it or not, I’m no stranger to luxury. But I’m not in here to gawk at your collection of books, or to be impressed by how comfortable your bed looks.” I rounded on him as he shut the door. “If you didn’t tell your father about the deal I’d offered Karim, then who did?”
Axel cocked an eyebrow. “I’ll give you two guesses.”
Dammit. “The crows…”
“You might not always see them, but they’re always around.”
I scanned the room, paranoid now that I’d find them perched along the top of the fireplace. That was stupid, obviously. Why would they be in here? “Alright, fine,” I said, “Say I believe you…”
“You should, because I’m telling you the truth.”
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t immediately take you at your word, given the circumstances.”
He nodded. “I understand why you would have thought I’d had something to do with that. My job is to watch you, but I’m not a snitch.”
I angled my head to the side, my blue hair falling across one shoulder. “So, you’re telling me if your father asked you a direct question, you’d lie to protect me?”
He hesitated to answer. “No… but he hadn’t asked me, and I wasn’t going to volunteer it… which probably means I’m also in some shit.”
I scoffed. “Doubt it. You’re the golden boy. You’re fine.”
“You clearly don’t know my father anywhere near as well as you think you do.”
“He’s a controlling, egotistical, narcissistic, authoritarian who probably drinks a little too much and likes to use people like they’re tools. I think I got it.”
Axel’s eyes bore into me like drills. They were heavy with things he couldn’t say, words he didn’t want to utter, and I could feel the weight of them somehow.
“Sorry I rounded on you like that,” I said, keeping my voice low.
He shook his head. “It was a pretty fair assumption to make,” he said. “Given the way things are…”
I nodde
d, not letting my eyes stray from his. “You said you were gonna go looking for me?”
“I was… I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Bad news, obviously.”
Axel sighed and paced around his room. “It’s about the Magister. You said you need to get close to him, to taste his essence or something before you can unlock his ward. Did I get that right?”
“That’s right… most mages aren’t powerful enough to create wards I can’t crack just by being near them. But the really clever mages always keep a final piece of the combination locked within themselves.”
“Therein lies the problem. The Magister has this thing about being… touched.”
“Touched?”
“He doesn’t shake the hands of people he meets, won’t even get within a few feet of them. The last time he was seen at an intimate event like this one, he had a group of people keeping everyone out of his personal space. It’ll probably be the same at the Halloween ball.”
I placed a hand on my hip and whipped my hair from one shoulder to the other. “Feels like this is probably something you should’ve mentioned by now… how am I gonna get close to him if he’s a personal space freak?”
Axel grinned. “That’s where the good news comes in. I know how you can get close to him.”
“Oh good… for a moment there I thought this plan was totally screwed.”
“There is one place where Eliphas will let his guard down… turns out our Magister has a thing for strippers.”
I arched both my eyebrows at him. “You’re kidding…”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not. Every other day, he’s down at a private strip club throwing hundred-dollar bills at any dancer enthusiastic enough to grind around on his lap for a couple of songs.”
I shook my head, angry heat rising into my chest. “Did your father put you up to this? Is this just another way for him to make things more difficult for me?”
Axel frowned. “I haven’t spoken to my father about this… I wasn’t going to speak to him about this at all.”
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