Unveiled (Etudes in C# Book 2)

by Jamie Wyman

  “Her phone number?”

  “Yeah.” Flynn nodded. “Karma said she hopes you’ll call her sometime and play at remote-controlling full-size tow trucks.”

  “Hell yeah,” I cheered. “As long as she shows me that trick where she runs up a vertical wall.”

  Flynn sagged, palms against the bar. “I should’ve shown you myself. I should’ve shown you so much more, Cat.”

  “Why didn’t you?” I wasn’t angry, but I was full of questions. “You’ve always known who I worked for. The things I know. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  He dragged a hand through his spiked hair and scoffed. “I didn’t say anything because I knew who you worked for. I’ve been under the radar for a long time, Cat. Avoided the politics, like Marius said. Just by being your friend, someone might think I’m in allegiance with one faction or another. Blink the wrong way at someone and you make an enemy. I don’t want to be a part of that. I’ve laid low for so long…”

  “Is that why you didn’t just unleash and lay waste at the church?”

  He grinned wryly. “You almost outed me there. When you were unraveling Grey’s construct?”

  I thought of him shouting at me to break the connection. “And here I thought you just wanted me to let go of the golem.”

  “The veil was working then, and none of us realized it. You were forging a connection.”

  “But that still doesn’t explain everything. You could’ve ended that fight right away. Same with the one in the wrecker lot. Hell, you probably could’ve stopped them from taking Karma in the first place. At any time you could’ve unleashed a world of power, but you didn’t. You pulled your punches. Said there were things you couldn’t do. Why?”

  He shook his head, his face drawn and weary. “I’m old, Cat. I didn’t just spring up with the first computers. I’ve been around since before the wheel. Ever since there was a spark of an idea to make that wheel. That’s what I come from and what I control: thought. The technology and energies that are spawned of it. If Karma’s specialty is the body and yours the soul, then mine is the mind.

  “There are others that know such a being exists. Very few people have put two and two together that ‘Flynn the technomage’ is that same being. I’ve tried hard to keep it that way. Shit, if I’d just dropped those mages without blinking, you would’ve known something was up. That’s beyond human skill. I had to keep up the act.”

  “I did notice odd things,” I mentioned. “At the police station…you pulling up every camera and giving me a damn mental map of the place? I knew you were keeping something under wraps.”

  “Now that Loki knows,” he continued, “I’m sure my life will get more interesting.”

  I sipped my drink. “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “I’m not.”

  “You’re not?”

  “No. It was bound to happen sooner or later and if it was helping you?” He lifted a shoulder lazily. “Well worth it, I’d say.”

  I blushed and stared into my Pepsi. Nate’s voice taunted me from memory: It’s a very personal connection between believer and deity. It goes both ways, you know? It would take me eons to go back through every conversation with Flynn, every interaction to see how his godhood had colored our entire relationship. I decided I didn’t need to do that. It was enough that he existed, that he was my friend. There was a single splinter in my mind, though. A question that needed to be asked.

  “Do things change now?” I asked. “Between us, I mean.”

  His eyes didn’t leave mine. “Do you want them to?”

  “No.”

  “Then they won’t.” Flynn’s easy smile filled my heart with gooey warmth.

  “That sounds like a plan. Oh! I almost forgot. I wanted to give you something.”

  I laid Polly’s jacket on the bar. Flynn backed up and crossed his arms. For a long time he stared at it. Finally, he asked, “What do you expect me to do with that?”

  “Keep it safe. Put it down in one of the lockers or some secret stash.” He started to protest, but I cut him off. “Look, I can’t keep it. Loki knows about it. Someone else is bound to know I have it. It’s bad juju, and I’d rather know that if people go snooping around for it they won’t get it. There’s no safer place for it than with you, Flynn.”

  I’d gone over it a million times in my head. The mages that survived the fracas at the foundry were alive and well, and Loki had been watching long enough to see the veil’s power in action. It would only be a temptation in the hands of a Trickster. He probably had all sorts of plots spinning in his mind about what he would do if given the chance to use Polyhymnia’s relic. I had to ditch it and keep it out of Loki’s reach.

  More than anything, though, I needed Flynn to protect the veil from me. When I’d seen Flynn unmasked, we’d been connected in a way more intimate, more intoxicating, than sex. Since the foundry, when my mind spun pictures of sweaty-toothed demons and snarling mages, the memory of Flynn’s radiance around me was the only balm that could coax me to sleep. The peace of his presence. The connection with that piece of the Universe that resonated with me.

  And the delicious power I’d tapped into! The infinite well of energy…I wanted more of it. I craved it.

  No.

  Such lust and zeal for power led to dangerous thoughts. I’d seen my god once, and I’d have to be content with that. I’d cling to it like a good dream and keep it under my pillow for when the nightmares came.

  Flynn reached out to the bar and scooped up the jacket. “Fine,” he muttered. He tried to sound angry, belligerent, but I knew better. His mouth hooked up at one side, and his eyes twinkled with the promise of mayhem. “Don’t say I never did anything for you,” he quipped.

  I smiled. “I wouldn’t think of it.”

  Flynn bundled the jacket against his chest and leaned back against the shelves full of booze. “What about you, Cat? How are you really doing?”

  It wouldn’t do well to lie to him. He’d just call me on it. “Eh. Not sleeping so well. Tired. But then I’ve been working with Loki’s personal trainer.”

  “How’s that going?”

  “Peachy,” I sneered. “There’s a Valkyrie kicking my ass three times a week now.”

  His eyes widened. “Seriously?”

  “Yup. She’s determined to turn me into a shield maiden of Asgard. Between my sessions with her and the cool shit you’re going to teach me, I’ll probably be kicking your ass next week.”

  “You can try all you want, but it’s not going to happen.”

  “You say that now, but when you’ve got my techno stompy boots up your ass you won’t be grinning.”

  Flynn waved me off. “Whatever. Now tell me how you’re really doing. There’s one thing you’ve avoided mentioning.”

  “What?”

  He met my stare and grew serious. “Marius,” he said.

  Heat flashed through me from bones to skin. That one word, full of unasked and unanswered questions, pulsed with emotions I couldn’t quantify or release.

  When we’d left the foundry, there had been no trace of Marius. The iron golems had lain lifeless in the parking lot. All that remained of our stolen car was an oil spot. Marius escaped, free and easy.

  I ground my teeth thinking about the slick bastard. My eyes stung. I clamped my jaw shut even tighter and tried to will the tears back into their ducts, tried to shut his voice out of my head.

  Oh, Catherine. You really do give a damn, don’t you?

  Stupid me. Goddamn stupid me for caring.

  For all of the nightmares I’d had of Karma on a slab, of Nate’s rage and his face melting, of Muriel’s silent scream, the ones that woke me up in a cold sweat featured Marius’s face. His lips on my hand. Intimacies that couldn’t be. Sometimes I replayed that night at the foundry over in my dreams. Even there, in a place where reality could bend to my whim, Marius had made the same choice and had left me to die.

  I choked on rage and sadness, grieving for something I’d never had to begin with.<
br />
  All because of one little word.

  Marius.

  When I spoke, my voice was a harsh snarl. “Don’t talk to me about him.”

  “I owe you an apology, Cat. I should’ve listened to you. He didn’t kill Polly.”

  “Who cares? In the end, he still turned coat and ran to save his own ass. I should’ve let Nate unleash on him for all the good the fucker did later.”

  “You don’t mean that.”

  “Yes I do, Flynn.”

  “I thought you lov—” I cut him off with a dagger stare. He spoke again, softly. “You care about him.”

  “So? Me caring about someone doesn’t seem to be enough to stop them from betraying me. I should’ve learned that with Dahlia.”

  “Want me to beat him up?” Flynn said playfully.

  My laugh came out as a snotty bubble, thanks to the stupid crying. “No. If I ever see him again, I’ll kick his ass myself. I’m serious. I’ll turn him into goat cheese and serve him on pizza.”

  Flynn smirked. “With your techno stompy boots?”

  “Fuck yeah.”

  Settling back into my skin, I changed the subject. I was grateful that he let me do so. Same as always. We talked about minor things like weather and traffic. That new show on the Strip. Idle gossip.

  Right about the time Flynn cranked up the LED lights under the bar, I shoved off the stool.

  “You’re not hanging out tonight?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “No. I’m gonna go home. Snuggle Linux.”

  “Drink some chai?”

  “Probably,” I smiled.

  “Drive safe, okay?”

  I waved and ambled to the door, but his voice stopped me from going farther. “You sure you want to leave this with me?”

  I looked to see him folding the jacket over his arms. So much trouble for something so average looking. “Yeah. Why?”

  “You realize I could use this, right?”

  I smirked and shook my head. “You won’t.”

  “How do you know?”

  “You’ll do the right thing,” I said. I walked out into the Vegas night and tossed a parting word over my shoulder. “I have faith in you.”

  Same as always.

  Acknowledgments

  I know it’s cliché at this point, but no book is a solo project (at least no book of mine). But this one is particularly special. As you probably know, this is a sequel to Wild Card (Entangled Edge, 2013). When it became clear that Unveiled wouldn’t take the same route as its older sibling, I took to Kickstarter. So many of you were keen to have more adventures with Cat, Marius, and Flynn that we exceeded our goal! This book is here because these characters are loved.

  As always, I must thank my indomitable editor, Danielle Poiesz, and my cover artist, Nathalia Suellen, for her gorgeous work. My Attack Fish (beta readers) for their hard efforts reading the early drafts of this story. Lejon Johnson, for his amazing talent of bouncing ideas around when the going got rough. My friends at the Hearth for their unending support. Emma Lysyk for all the chai and the time at the Tech Shop. And, never least, my husband Sean and our daughter for their constant support even when I’m a grumpy, horrible excuse for a human being.

  Here, friends, are the names of the intrepid backers of the Unveiled Kickstarter. I cannot begin to thank you enough for believing in this book and helping make it real. I hope I’ve exceeded your expectations:

  Jane, Beth Wodzinski, Pim & Carin Clabbers, Andreas Gustafsson, Ignacio Sato, Veronica Stephan, Djibril, Josh Crowe, Stephen Blackmoore, Marius, D D, Jessica Siano, Lorri Angus, Dave Turner, Sabre Tyln, Eric Fiallos, Mike R. Underwood, Suzanne Youngblood, Tori Somers, Jeremy McCliment, Tracy Canfield, Bob Mungovan, Carmen Pacheco, Kaitlyn and Ethan Kincaid, Leigh Flynn, Justin Evans, Jonni Greenburg, Chris Terhaar, Crystal Lloyd, Rene Sears, Joleen White, Andrea Milar, Alane Levinsohn, Michelle Welch, Kristin Sandoval, Sandra Roberts, Dana Starler, Zoe Mora, Jesse Cox, Betty Campbell, Dan Kobolt, Loki Laufeyson, Alisa Russell, Alyssa Marie Bethancourt, Alison M. Diem, Amy E., Krista Long and Chris Seggerman, Cathy Corman, Cyrano Jones, Cheryl Doebler, John Groseclose, Zach Reddy, Anne Putman, Mel Dean, Pam Greenway, Alma Heinrichs, Paul Krueger, Michelle R. Lyon, Brady K. Barnett, Vicky Nelson, Elizabeth Davis, Richie and Amanda Weaver, Kayne Newell, Sara Rebennack, Michael Woods, Chris Hartwig, Christine Jackson, Emma Lysyk, Jennie Goloboy, Heather Bragg, Joan Yoder, Kanila Tripp, Sabrina Poulsen, Judy Little, Allison Pang, Marisa Feathers, Melissa Crandall, Susan Houchin, Jason Boudon, Jessica Thompson, Brian Abernethy, Barb Downs, Sara Nelson, Tim Stapleton, Gunnar Hogberg, Aaron Brenneman, Tits McGee, Amie Diechert, Jarred, Steven Cowles, Hina Ansari, Susan Jessen, Catherine Sharp (UK Edition), Ambrosia Rose, Rebecca Moe, Andrew Terranova, Susana LaLuz-Hawkins, The Leach Family, Jamie Rapose, Karen (Aleveria) Lindsay, Cat Magic, Tracy Richardson, Eric McCollum, Linda Wyman, P. Dickinson Wofford, Jennifer “Jenna” McCormick, Shithead LaRoo…or Pam Keown, Tex Thompson, Teresa Sarah Lynn, Jasmin Haviland, Govneh, Inge Atkinson, Jim Wyman, Millie Slattery, Melissa McCollum, and Jim Barrows.

  Thank you all.

  Wanna go again?

  Also by Jamie Wyman

  Wild Card (Book 1 of Etudes in C#)