My sense of time was warped as I waited for her to reply. After hitting the refresh button a ridiculous number of times, a new message appeared.
GreyMist: This Marcus guy is looking for you, and he means business. He showed up at my house. I’m pretty sure he’s the person who was impersonating you in-game. He says all he wants is to talk to you, and he gave me his phone number to pass on to you.
My worst nightmare had come true.
User4276: Give me the phone number.
GreyMist: I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to call him.
User4276: Just give me the number, Grey. I’ll give it to the police.
I had absolutely no problem lying to my best friend when her safety was at risk.
GreyMist: 555-210-4798. But seriously, don’t call him. This guy is creepy.
User4276: Don’t worry about me. I’m safe. I don’t want to tell you more than that because it could endanger you. I want you to stay safe. If you have someone out of town you can visit right now, do it. I don’t want to freak you out, but this guy is bad news. He shouldn’t be there long. He’s after me. So just get away for a little while, and I’ll let you know when it’s safe.
GreyMist: You’re really freaking me out. I don’t like this AT ALL.
User4276: I know, but I’ll message you as soon as I can, probably with this account.
GreyMist: I’ll check in regularly. My cousin lives a couple hours away. I’ll go visit her.
User4276: Good. Leave tonight. If something happens or you need anything, message me here.
GreyMist: Will do. Keep yourself safe.
User4276: You too.
The little green light below her avatar went gray when she logged off.
I sat back in my chair, my mind whirling and my stomach churning at the danger I’d placed my best friend in. There wasn’t even a question in my mind as to what I should do. I pulled my phone from my pocket and began to dial.
“What are you doing?” Alex asked. He snatched the phone from my hands before I even realized he was standing behind me.
“Marcus threatened my best friend today. He says all he wants to do is talk, and he gave her his number for me to call. I’m calling it.” I made a grab for the phone, but Alex had cat reflexes even in human form.
“Oh no, you’re not. He wants to do more than talk.”
“You don’t know that.” Sure, I assumed he wanted to do more than that too, but we didn’t know. “I’m not going to let him hurt my best friend. This is my mess, and I may not have asked for it but neither did she, and I’m not going to let her pay the price. She’s the only friend I had after my parents’ death, the only person I could talk to. I’m not going to let something happen to her for being my friend.”
“I can understand how you feel, and I admire you for it, but Marcus will not hesitate to kill you. I know you’re getting better with your magic, but this is a man who’s been practicing his entire life, the man who killed your mother, who many people say was the most powerful mage they’d ever met.”
“Well then this only has one ending, and we both know it. He’s going to kill me no matter what. I’d rather he not kill my best friend too. And even if I can escape him somehow, even if we get a portal to Elustria, I’m still not going to let him hurt her. I might not know what I’m doing with my life, but I do know that I’m not the type of person who’d let someone else be hurt because of me. If I can’t even say that about myself, then what’s the point of living?”
Alex’s eyes showed his weakening resolve. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get my phone from him unless he voluntarily gave it to me. The only weapons I had against him were words, and I saved my sharpest for last.
“Your father understood what it meant to die protecting someone. You came back to protect me. Let me protect my person. Your father wouldn’t have let an innocent person die, would he?” I searched his eyes for an answer, and made sure he knew from the way I leaned toward him that I wasn’t going to let him get away without answering.
A tense moment passed before Alex visibly deflated. “No, he wouldn’t. You’re right about that. I’ll give you back your phone but only if you talk to me first. We need a plan. You’re not going to call an assassin who wants to kill you and invite him here without some kind of plan. You don’t have to die. The only way you’re going to get out of this alive is if we work together. So let me help you.”
“Deal.” I admired that he gave me the phone as soon as I agreed instead of waiting for me to follow through.
“He’s going to want to meet you.”
“I know.”
“Where were you thinking? A public place would make it harder for him to do anything.”
“It also endangers the general public. He might not be willing to reveal magic, but if I’m threatened by him, my talisman might take over. Besides, if he’s a sorcerer as Casper thinks, he’ll be able to teleport me away. A public place doesn’t provide much safety. I also won’t feel comfortable defending myself in public.”
“We’ll go somewhere remote then, where you can use your magic.”
“When? I want to get it over with, but I should probably sleep tonight.” Sleeping was a pipe dream. Adrenaline must have been rushing through my veins, because I didn’t feel much fear at the prospect of death. No other outcome seemed likely, but the reality that I would soon be dead didn’t penetrate. No matter how much my mind knew it was true, my emotions didn’t react.
“Do you think there’s any way he can track where you are if you call him?”
“If he was a human with advanced tech skills, yes. But even for a human he’d have to be pretty smart to figure out how to do that since this is a new phone. I don’t think it’s a realistic possibility.”
“Let’s meet him tomorrow. That’ll give us tonight to rest and prepare.”
I dialed the number GreyMist had given me. The ringing was overshadowed by the pounding of my heart.
“Hello. This is Kat, I presume.”
“You’re right. Stay away from my friends.” I sounded much more badass than I felt.
“I have no desire to hurt your friends. I have no desire to hurt you. I want to talk; that is all. You are in possession of something that I don’t think you quite understand, something that I need.”
“If all you want to do is talk, then talk. No one’s stopping you.”
“The kind of conversation I want to have needs to happen in person.” He obviously thought the word “conversation” meant something different than most people.
“If I agree to meet you, do you promise to stop harassing my friends?”
“Of course.”
Asking the question was stupid. What kind of response did I expect? The word of an assassin meant nothing.
“I’ll meet you tomorrow. I’ll text you the location in the morning, and we can meet at eleven.”
“Can you tell me what state you’re in?”
“Not until morning.”
“Very well. I’ll see you then. And I hope it goes without saying that notifying the authorities or speaking to anyone else about this meeting would be ill-advised.”
“I understand.”
The line went dead, and I would soon join it.
Chapter 27
“Remember, you have to maintain your element of surprise,” I told Alex. “Don’t stay too close. I’m pretty sure I can hold him off or at least distract him.”
“I know. I’ll let you handle yourself. At the same time you’re attacking him, I’ll leap on him from behind. He may be a sorcerer, but I’m pretty sure even sorcerers need their heads attached to their bodies.”
My stomach churned at the mention of what Alex would have to do, what I would have to see. In trying times, though, it was amazing what I was willing to stomach. “It’s five ’til eleven. You should get in position.”
Alex nodded and shifted. He ran to a spot we’d found earlier where he could crouch unseen behind some bushes. We didn’t have any realistic hope
of winning a fight, and the element of surprise gave us the only edge we would have. Perhaps talking was really all Marcus wanted to do. Perhaps this was a giant misunderstanding. I had to hold on to any sliver of hope I could.
At exactly eleven o’clock, a man appeared on the horizon, walking toward me. My skin crawled when I saw him, and I knew this was the man who killed my mother. Long black hair was pulled up into a sloppy bun. Blue eyes focused on me with alarming intensity. He wore jeans and a green polo that looked brand new. In my mind, I’d expected something closer to the clothing Casper wore.
“Kat, how nice to finally meet you,” he said when he stopped five feet in front of me.
“I can’t say I feel the same.”
“Put your mind at ease. I am a wand-wielder, and as you can see, my wand is tucked safely away. I only wish to talk.”
The absence of a wand didn’t ease my mind. Casper had said Marcus was a sorcerer. I wouldn’t let him trick me into a false sense of security. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t take the word of a murderer.”
“Yes, that is the most sensible place to start, isn’t it? The unfortunate truth is that things did not have to go that way with your mother. Regrettably, we could not come to an agreement. I’m hoping you will be more reasonable. All I need is that necklace, and I’ll be on my way.”
“I may not know much, but I know this talisman is mine. It holds my magic and was bequeathed to me by my mother. You have no right to ask for it.”
“So I see a mage has been educating you. I had wondered where you got the cloaker device you’re using.”
I cursed myself for being such an idiot. He had no reason to believe that I’d been in contact with any mages. All he knew was that a panther shifter was protecting me. Knowledge is power, and I’d just given him a great deal. This was exactly why Casper had kicked me out: so I wouldn’t expose him and his operation. The best I could hope for now was that I didn’t reveal more than Marcus might have guessed.
“You know a shifter delivered the talisman to me. He also brought me a cloaker and taught me everything I know.”
“Ah, you mean the panther who’s hiding behind me?”
Alex sprang from his spot, but it was too late. In one swift motion, Marcus drew a wand and made short work of Alex, placing him under a binding spell. Then he held his arms out as if in surrender. “I don’t wish to hurt you, Kat. I merely wish to talk.”
I shot a torrent of ice arrows from my hands, but they didn’t even faze Marcus. With a flick of his wand, a protective shield appeared in front of him. I’d been counting on his distraction to hide the moment I disappeared. Too committed to the plan to change course now, I performed the concealment spell and ran to my left. Unless he had keen eyes, he wouldn’t be able to see me.
“Come now, Kat. That’s not going to solve anything. All I want is the talisman. Just give it to me, and I’ll leave you alone. I’ll even unbind this shifter boy for you. You’ve already proved quite willing to be agreeable when your friends are in jeopardy.”
I hadn’t anticipated Alex being a weakness, but it might have been better if he’d left me to do this on my own. I cast more ice arrows, my mind unable to recall another spell. Even coming at him from a completely different angle, Marcus easily blocked them.
“That’s all right, Kat, I can do this all day. I’m not so sure your friend will enjoy it.” A twist of his wrist and Alex let out a scream, a horrifying sound in his cat form.
“Stop!” I disengaged the concealment spell and revealed myself to him. “Leave him alone.”
“All I need is to remove that talisman from you. This doesn’t have to end the same way it did with your mother. Just let me—” He reached out his hand and the talisman reacted. A force of white light catapulted Marcus six feet in the air. He landed on the ground with a thud. The spell binding Alex broke, and he pounced on top of Marcus. Alex swiped with one of his great claws, carving deep grooves into Marcus’s face.
Marcus screamed, and then Alex was flying in the air. Marcus held him suspended a few feet off the ground.
“Don’t you worry, Kat. You’ll see me again soon. You’ve given me the information I need. I won’t fail next time.” He disappeared, using the same concealment spell I had. I saw his movement and tried to catch him as he ran away, but he had to be using some sort of enchantment to increase his speed. I threw everything I had at him: a whirlwind, a hailstorm, an energy burst whose damage I hadn’t been able to accurately measure yet. None of my spells hit their mark. When I lost sight of Marcus, Alex fell to the ground, the spell broken. He shifted into his human form and came to my side.
“What do you think he meant when he said I gave him what he needed?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing. But I believe him when he says he’ll return. We need to get out of here.”
I nodded and let Alex lead me to the car. “How long until he returns, do you think?”
“I’m guessing not long. He won’t want to risk us getting too far away or losing us through a portal to Elustria.”
I floored it on the way back to the freeway, a giant cloud of dust trailing the car down the dirt road. Every few seconds I glanced in the rear-view mirror, convinced I could see Marcus in pursuit. I’d survived my first encounter with an assassin. I didn’t know how long my big beginner’s luck would last.
Chapter 28
Back at the hotel, my laptop took forever to load The Codex, or maybe it was just nerves making it feel that way.
“What are you doing? Pack it up. We’re leaving.” Alex already had the shopping bag packed with my clothes and toiletries in his hand.
I’d had time to think on the drive back, and nothing had changed. I couldn’t run now for the same reason I couldn’t run before: other people’s lives were at risk. All I could do was come up with a better plan for the next time I met Marcus.
“I’m not running. I’m coming up with a game plan.”
“Are you crazy? He could’ve killed you.”
“You’re right, but he didn’t. He had a wand, so he’s not a sorcerer assassin like Casper thought. He says he wants the talisman, and I believe him. Why would he want me dead? The only reason is so he can remove the talisman from me.”
“Do you think you can figure out how to get it off before he comes back?” Alex’s skepticism made his question sound patronizing.
“No.” In some ways that would make things easier, but I wasn’t sure it would ultimately be better. If I’d learned anything during all this time, it was that the magic in my talisman was extraordinarily powerful. It didn’t belong in the hands of a murderer. “I’d give it to him if I thought it would stop the violence, but he wants it for its power. Maybe that’s why my mother gave it to me, to protect it, to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. I couldn’t abuse its power if I wanted to, but a man like that? One who terrorizes my friends? There’s no telling what he’d do with it.”
“So what exactly is your plan?”
“There has to be a way to beat him. There’s always a way. I just haven’t figured it out yet. You can either help me or you can stand there staring at me.”
Alex put the bag down and pulled the other chair around the table to sit next to me. He looked over my shoulder at the computer screen.
“Tell me how I can help.”
The attraction I felt for Alex in that moment was the strongest it had ever been. But it wasn’t the raw attraction that had been between us at the Armory. This was the overwhelming bond that could only be forged under the immense pressure we found ourselves under. We were partners in that moment, in every sense of the word. While I knew it would be better for me to die than GreyMist, who was an innocent in all of this, I had an overwhelming urge to live. A sense filled me that things were getting better, that if I could just crest this mountain peak, I’d have the entire world at my feet and someone standing next to me to enjoy it all.
After hours of deliberation, we settled on a rotation of spells and a genera
l strategy, then headed to the desert to practice. This time we would use Alex’s senses to alert me to Marcus’s presence when he eventually found us. Until then, I’d be practicing.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Alex asked when we got out of the car. “I can find us a portal to Elustria.”
“Yes, I’m sure. He knows where GreyMist lives. I’m not going to leave her in danger.”
“Then we can bring her.”
“I can’t ask her to give up her life to be a second-class citizen in a foreign world. It’s not fair.” Grey would probably jump at the chance to go to a magical, alternate dimension, but the reality wouldn’t live up to the dream. A human didn’t belong in a world of magic. And I wouldn’t put my best friend in the position of deciding her future under duress.
“Please, I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Alex placed a hand on my shoulder, and his gaze pleaded with me to reconsider.
“Then let me practice. We don’t know how much time we have until he finds us.”
“Fine. When he gets here, I’ll growl. That’s your signal to stop practicing and get ready. Don’t worry about me. He won’t kill me, not when he can use me as leverage.”
Before I could say anything, he shifted and ran off to start his patrol. I tried not to think about the fact that I may have just seen him for the last time. A sentimental goodbye would have only cut into my practice time.
Spell after spell flowed through me. The talisman responded to my commands as if we’d worked together my entire life. The amber stone probably felt the threat, and it performed well under pressure. Earlier, I’d been unwilling to use fire because of all the dry brush around, but Alex and I had decided that a brush fire, even one that got out of control, would be better than Marcus getting his hands on my talisman. Anyone who was willing to kill for power shouldn’t be entrusted with any.
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